Greetings, Twin Citians and Happy Monday!

I’m Doniree, your newest friend here.

*hand shake*  Nice to meet you!

A quick introduction, and then I’ll just dive right in and get to the good stuff.

By day, I’m a 20-something media buyer here in the Twin Cities. I’m a St. Paul resident for the next two weeks, and will then be moving to the SW Minneapolis side of town.
By night, I’m a shameless local tourist with a love of (ok, obsession for) all things pop-cult, local, edible, imbibe-able, and musical.

A quick snapshot of my favorite local goodies:
DJ - Mary Lucia (89.3 The Current)
Bar - The Herkimer
Sports Team - The Twins
Band - more recent favorite is tied between Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles and White Light Riot; my all-time favorite local band is The Replacements
Drink - The Herkimer’s Vienna, The Local’s Big Ginger, or The Red Dragon’s Wondrous Punch
Burger - The Juicy Lucy (and since they all claim to have the best, or the original, I’m on the hunt to determine who’s right!)

Ok, you get the idea.  So you wanna be friends?  Great!  Because I need your advice.

Like I said, I’m moving from St. Paul to Minneapolis and I need to start making a list of places to check out once I get settled in the new place, which sits on the north side of Highway 62 between Penn and Xerxes.

For the last 1+ years, I’ve been right on the border of the Merriam-Park and Lexington-Hamline neighborhoods in St. Paul, about a block south of the Pizza Luce on Selby just west of Lexington. I have LOVED living in this area for the last year. Why? Because of how much greatness is within walking, biking or a quick driving distance in the neighborhood.

Just last weekend, I walked to the Uptowner Cafe at Grand and Lexington. For under $15, my friend and I had a giant breakfast and got to sit up at the bar and watch the cook in action. This is a cozy, wait-in-line-and-snag-a-table-when-you-see-one kind of place, and I love it.  (Breakfast/brunch is also my favorite meal, so I’m a bit partial to a good diner.)

I’m also a short drive down to the Groveland Tap on St. Clair. The service is neighborhood-friendly, and the apps were deep fried perfection.

Sweeney’s, The Muddy Pig, and both taverns (Tavern on Grand and Tav on the Ave) are other local brewpubs of awesomeness, and are all places I will miss being within two miles of.

However, moving across town to SW Minneapolis will be a new adventure and I’m looking forward to scoping out places over there. The problem is, I’m not as familiar with Minneapolis as I am with St. Paul and need help figuring out where to go and what to try.

This is what’s on my list so far, but comments and suggestions are welcome!

Here’s the short version of to-do list:

• 50th and France - in general, I plan to just take over that area and hit every coffee shop and wine bar there. Topping my list are: Beajos and Breadsmith (reviews are welcome!)

• Urbanspoon.com tells me to check out Cave Vin.

• I’ve heard rave reviews about Cafe Maude, and am dying to check it out!

What else shouldn’t I miss? Where should I shop? Where’s the best coffee?

By now you’ve all heard about the Twins season coming to a painful end, but did you know the Eagles were in town last night?

Jon Bream of the Strib gives his baseball analogy filled review Eagles’ lifeless delivery a downer and subtitles it “The Eagles played a concert that could serve as a requiem for the Twins’ season”

Well his writing didn’t give the Strib readership the Peaceful Easy Feeling they were searching.

One commenter asks “Which concert are you talking about?” and states “I think Mr Bream needs to stick to Brittney & Ms Lohan. The concert I was at was awsome to say the least.” and then the readership confusion sets in as another reader says “What the? Jon, I don’t understand this story one bit. If you felt down about the Twins why take this type of story about the Eagles and poison it with random ramblings. I feel sorry for anyone that reads this crap.”

Suprisingly, aside from some disagreements with the review it’s been pretty civil for the Strib comment section.

Another commenter notes “Okay, I’m headed over to the sports section to see what they thought of the Eagles concert.”

One reader even pens a requiem for music critics.

Note to Strib: Eliminate paid critic and benefit from reader opinions.

The Eagles might very well lack the passion they had 30+ years ago…but look in the mirror, Jon Bream. Your writing is no less contrived and pretentious. Most readers would rather hear what actual Eagle fans have to say about their experience at the show. That’s what’s great about this forum, it renders you (Mr. Bream) obsolete. You’re just one opinion among many (no more qualifies or important than any other person in attendance at that concert. So, why the Strib feels the need to pay you, while there are so many readers and actual fans that can offer the same if not greater value in commentary for free is beyond me.

Ouch.

I guess the lesson here is that if you don’t like the Eagles, you can get out of the cab and walk.

For the record, I liked the review.

Read the Strib comments

In case you don’t follow baseball, our Minnesota Twins lost the season-ending tie-breaker against the new New York Yankees, the Chicago White Sox, with a score of 1-0. This is a profound disappointment, especially considering A) how close this game was, and B) they only needed to beat the Kansas City Royals, who had a .463 record on the season, two of three times. Two of three! .463! Alas, our miracle 2008 team could not pull it out.

But, on the bright side, they were never supposed to in the first place. Right?

So, who do you like for the World Series?

I’ve got nothing new to add to this conversation, but… really? Target Field? Which connects to the existing Target Center with the new Target Plaza? Seriously?!

I like Target as much as the next buppie. I don’t find this offensive in any way. I don’t even dislike it. It’s just boring as fuck. Calling it “savvy” is generous. Smart. Reasonable. Predictable. Feel-Good. All of those. But let’s not get too crazy.

One could argue plunking down again for naming rights constitutes a solid commitment to the community in which the Target Corporation is HQed. I’m still wondering on the status of their proposed move from downtown Minneapolis to a new Brooklyn Park corporate campus.

The best part is, after all the hubbub over the possible Land O’ Lakes Field naming based solely on domain ownership, someone else who’s not Target or the Twins already owns TargetField.com. Heh!

Remember when I live-blogged filling out the RNC volunteer application, and it took me 40 minutes and was a sincerely backwards process?

Well, I’m getting all of these e-mails about when I’m supposed to volunteer, discount tickets to Twins games as a thank you and such, but I can’t remember which dates I told them I was available. That’s a bit of a problem now that the RNC is looming, and I’m not going to be in town like I thought I would be.

So I’m trying to access my profile on https://jobs.quickhire.com/scripts/msp2008.exe and can’t get in. I don’t remember my password, and they never e-mailed it to me when I registered.

And get this — to be sent the password, I need to give them my e-mail, zip code, date of birth, secret question and secret answer. Of the 6 available secret questions, I can’t remember which one. There isn’t a process for “Forgot secret question,” and no e-mail address

So listen up, RNC. I tried to give you notice, but your stupid fear-mongering password system is just as backwards as your application process. Maybe next time, k?

In case you didn’t hear:

Justin Morneau won! But, of course, even though the Minnesota guy won, someone else did better.

And three of our Twins will be at the All-Star Game tonight. Hooray!

The Lyndale Neighborhood Association is having a Beer Bust fundraiser for its Bike Cops program next weekend (Saturday, July 19) at Champions Sports Bar and Grill.

Support the Lyndale Neighborhood Association Bike Cop Program. This program builds community and safety in the Lyndale Neighborhood. Come and meet your Bike Cops! We will serve unlimited beer from 2:00 to 4:00 pm for $10.

Beer Bust! $10 tickets can be picked up at the LNA office, 3537 Nicollet Ave S. or at the event. For more information, contact Mike and Shirley Montrose at 612- 822-2372.

MPLS Mirror tells the story of the Bike Cops program.

The neighborhood decided to change the community’s attitude towards the police by financing an innovative program, utilizing ‘bike cops’. In some ways, ‘bike cops’ isn’t innovative because instead of trying something that’s never been done before, it’s something that was done for years by ‘beat cops’ and abandoned in favor of patrol cars. The neighbors believed that the downside to patrol cars was the distancing of police from the citizens, especially youth that they pledged to protect and serve. The other downside was the distancing from the criminal element. Residents believed that police patrols, speeding past criminals going about their day-to-day criminal pursuits, distanced them from what was going on in the ‘house next door’.

LNA decided to earmark funds to pay off-duty officers to patrol the streets to bring them closer to both groups.

I’d be curious to hear how they measure their success. Clearly the program has a lot of support from residents and businesses.

One more thing…

I stumbled across all of these in the last couple days and thought I’d share.

Ride Boldly! is a blog focusing on “bikes, bicycling, and road safety.” It’s good info in general but I what I really like about it is it specifically addresses MN bike statutes, general biking issues with a local spin (e.g., Bicycle Facilities Issues, Plan Now for Winter Cycling), and infrastructure issues as they apply to biking.

West Bank Boogie is a book by Cyn Collins that “celebrates 40 years of Minneapolis Minnesota’s West Bank music scene with profiles of more than 20 legendary musicians who influenced the soul of American music.” It’s a really cool website for a book (”for a book” is meant to be descriptive, not a qualifier). Great info about the book (it started as a series of articles in the Seward Profile), where to get it, and the profiled artists. Don’t let the fact that the foreword and also the first listed endorsement come from Garrison Keillor put you off.

Friends of the Riverfront is “a group of concerned citizens and park users… working to conserve, protect, and enhance the resources of the Central Mississippi Riverfront Regional Park.” It sounds like a noble and worthy mission, though they currently appear to be entirely focused on fighting against the proposed De La Salle football stadium on Nicollet Island and I kind of wonder if that’s why they came into being in the first place. So if you want to know more about that hot topic (without the crazy Phyllis Kahn stories), check it out.

Sports stadiums are a hot issue in this state. Me and my wife have an argument over them once in awhile especially when taxpayer money is involved. I will have to admit, I am a sports fan, but not a super sports fan. I am just as happy to sit at home and watch sports on TV, the stadium experience can be expensive and crowded.

I found this article on the web that stadiums don’t benefit local economies. I also saw this quote “Public subsidies of professional sports stadiums provide no tangible public good” in the article.

I think this is a bit shortsighted, even though I hate the fact that public money is going to Companies that have millions and billions of dollars. The government gives subsidies to big companies all the time and not just sports teams.

Our quality of life in the Twin Cities looks better because of places like the Walker, The Guthrie, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts and many of the other museums and theaters. I think the fact that we have more then 4 professional sports teams also enhances our cities and the state experience. This is a very well rounded state. We have all the cultural things and add the sports on top of that it’s a big plus.

You might not be able to quantify it, just by local merchants takes or which athletes live and spend in Minnesota. How about bigger companies who stay or decide to move here because of it. How about people who move here for jobs, or just move here because of our State being more visible.

With all this taxpayer money flowing into an endless quest for quality of life, I just wish they could make it more affordable for the taxpayers. A play at the Guthrie runs close to $40 per ticket which for a family of four can add up to well over $100, and tickets to a Vikings game would be over $200.

The bad part isn’t that we pay for all of this out of taxes, the bad part is we ending up paying twice.

And don’t you forget it.

Minnesota Monitor has an item on proposed corporate sponsorship for our parks.

Minneapolis taxpayers could soon be greeted at their city parks by banners advertising a national home improvement chain that has no stores in the city proper. Lowe’s says it’s willing to donate $90,000 in goods and services to six parks. The string attached: Lowe’s wants to hang 8-foot by 2-foot banners proclaiming “This area brought to you in part by Lowe’s” in outdoor locations such as Loring Park as well as smaller signs near donated equipment reading: “These products and more are available at Lowe’s.”

Say wha? No, WTFF?!

Like it’s not bad enough that there are parks called “Gold Medal Park” to begin with (scandal-ridden as it is) (not that it’s not a nice space).

I’d readily take my $30/year from the Twins Stadium and add them to my tax dollars that already go towards city and regional parks. Yes, I will gladly pay extra to keep your corporate sponsorship off our parks.

Funny how with a stadium, you’re glad that there is corporate sponsorship so that’s less out of your pocket to pay for a stadium you probably didn’t want to pay for in the first place.

There’s another argument in here somewhere about corporate interests in government affairs and privatization.

I guess the said thing is that we can’t find enough money in the budget to adequately fund the parks in the first place. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if Lowe’s made the offer anyway.

(Isn’t there already a water park in North Minneapolis somewhere with a corporate sponsorship? Or Cedar-Riverside? Or did someone blog it? I can’t remember now where I saw this.)