When: Thursday, 10/9, 5pm
Where: Sweeney’s Saloon
Who: Special guests Chuck Olsen (on behalf of TheUptake.org) and WCCO’s Esme Murphy
Who Else: Anyone within reach of the word “bloginar”

A “bloginar” is an evening of live, in-person, information and conversation between bloggers of all kinds.

Kinda short notice, I know. But what else were you gonna do on Thursday? All y’all east siders better be there. I’ll be honest, I might not have made it all the way over there from Eden Prairie just for this event, but since I coincidentally have another thing in Saint Paul later on Thursday anyway, I’ll be there for the first 90 minutes or so. Come say hi!

The last event’s format went something like: mingling, Q&A, prizes, CBS local ad network pitch. I imagine this one will be similar (but if there are no prizes, don’t blame me). Complete details here. Chuck will talk about how to get involved as a citizen journalist, Esme will talk about blogging and covering politics online, and there will be a short SEO workshop. Mingling from 5-6pm, programmed discussion from 6-7pm. Make sure you RSVP.

Also see @wccobloginar on Twitter for details. The info is there, even if you’re not a Twitter user. If you are a Twitter user and have questions for Chuck and/or Esme that you’d like to submit, use the hashtag #bloginar.

Put on by Huge Theater and staged at the Brave New Workshop, Creature Feature is “a fully improvised live comedic monster movie. Suggestions are taken from the audience, and a live monster movie unfolds right before your eyes, chock full of colorful characters, high drama, monster movie atmosphere, and hilarity!”

This year you actually get two shows. The second is Survivors of the Undead Plague, “the improvised zombie plague.”

Runs Thursdays in October so you have five chances to check it out.

Tickets available from the BNW.

Congressman Keith Ellison will be having a forum on Voting Rights with a particular focus on Voter Re-Enfranchisement (i.e., ex-felons). Keith will be speaking about legislation as well as to hear from people on the ground what their concerns are as far as voting. Also, there will be 4 or 5 people on the panel to tell their story or discuss research they’ve done or programs that they are working on that pertain to voting re-enfranchisement.

Congressman Keith Ellison Presents a Voting Rights Forum

Learn about current legislation that affects your right to vote and discuss how to take action.

Joining Congressman Ellison will be a panel of dedicated individuals that are working hard to make democracy more accessible.

Monday, October 6th
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Powderhorn Park
3400 15th Ave S
Minneapolis, MN 55407

Voting Rights Legislation Congressman Ellison has introduced:

H.R. 2457: To amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to require states to permit individuals to register to vote in an election for Federal Office on the date of the election.

H.R. 4026: To prohibit election officials from requiring a photo ID as a condition for voting in a Federal election.

About that legislation…

This year’s McNally Smith River Rocks Festival was a success on all levels. It had it all; great music, awesome weather, beautiful atmosphere, two stages of entertainment, and an outdoor festival sound quality that I’ve only heard in a few outdoor venues around the country. The Gorge Amphitheatre comes to mind.

Although, on the surface this was a musical festival just like any other, upon closer examination it was an exploration of diversity and culture wrapped up in Minnesotan influences: from the “Nordic stock” that Mike Doughty claimed as his heritage as he flirted with the crowd, to the Puerto Rican infuesed grooves on history and life by Maria Isza, and the intelligent composition of the Heiruspecs.

Sure, this festival also had historical dream concerts put on by The Roots and Semisonic.

When I spoke with college co-founder Jack McNally, who was more  Richard Branson meets Ty Webb than stuffy college founder, I began to realize this show really was a tribute to the students. He spoke of their hard work, dedication, and help putting it all together. He spoke of their diversity, from the metal bands,to the classical ensembles, to the classical ensembles that may play Led Zepplin sets, and he spoke of their promising Hip Hop community and being one of the few colleges in the world that offers a music degree in Hip Hop. And while I did give Jack plenty of opportunity to expound on the college and it’s unique and ever growing influence with music, he continued to speak about the students.

Jack, I like you, hook up some Twitter.

So after several great shows, interviews with fans and musicians, and that little extra something something that comes with all outdoors festivals; I came to the conclusion that River Rocks is probably the best Minnesota outdoors music festival and I got an idea of just how much the students contributed to the whole show; from help with the infrastructure,to band selection, and giving performances. Lock, stock, and two smoking barrels of action packed stage performance.

I get the feeling River Rocks is getting better every year and with the reasonable prices I have a hard time imagining why anyone would miss out. I only hope that next year I can make it to all the shows.

Read the reviews, interviews, and see some pics: The Roots, Mike Dougty, Maria Isa, Semisonic,and Heiruspecs.

Read more

Watching the last few days of unrest in the Twin Cities surrounding the Republican National Convention unfold, a few things have made themselves evident to me in a way that I’d heard of and thought a little about but never personally witnessed before.

1. Law enforcement may be hurting more than they are helping.
2. Our local independent media’s coverage has been a good complement to the traditional media’s coverage.
3. Volunteer opportunities abound.

Read more

I have a present for you: it’s a blog post that isn’t about the RNC!

This last weekend, I was invited to attend an event called Solutions Volume 3. The idea was to have a bunch of Twin Cities-based speakers give six-minute-forty-second talks on what they are doing to make the world better. “Great,” I thought, “Hippie Fest 2008.” But I was given free cover and was promised beer, so I couldn’t just skip it. And yes, it kind of was Hippie Fest 2008. But not in the way I thought it would be.

First of all, the event was, according to the email I received:

going to use the space at Intermedia Arts like nobody else ever has. The main program will take place in the Intermedia Arts parking lot, where we will seat about 350. Overflow seating for 120 will be provided in the theater where we will be streaming live video of the event outdoors. This will also be streamed into the lobby/ cafe area for those who’d like to enjoy the event in a less formal setting. The whole facility will be abuzz during the event, providing space for roughly 500 people to experience the event in a multitude of different ways.

At first I rolled my eyes at this, but then I realized the potential: the event is taking place outside so people can enjoy the weather (which was absolutely perfect), but there is also space inside set aside for discussing the ideas (or anything else, really) at the same time as the talks are going on without bothering your fellow audience members. That is a really clever idea.

And I was really looking forward to taking advantage of that (especially as an observer), because I was not only interested in the presentations, but in the reaction of the audience. Unfortunately, this is what awaited me in both indoor spaces for the entire program:

This was a huge bummer. It also glaringly points out that nowhere near 500 people showed up. But it should be pointed out that this is the first year they’ve done it with this setup, so that can be forgiven. Besides, they reached just about 300, enough to fill up the outdoor seating. It did not ruin the event at all!

There were lots of cool things outside. My favorite was a special phone number you could send a text message to and have your text message projected onto the side of a building. Not surprisingly, people used it to voice their political beliefs:

But the award for Most Hilarious Text on the Wall goes to whoever texted “a/s/l”. Classic!

I’m not sure if it was intended to be this way or not, but once they got the text setup working, it was only going for about five minutes. Honestly, I would have had WAY more fun at this event had it just been a text on the wall event.

Ok, so there were speakers as well. Here is a list of projects and organizations presented at this event:

Each speaker was supposed to talk for six minutes and forty seconds. Supposed to. This was the case for the first person only. I’m a big fan of keeping people’s speeches to a minimum length. I think if you’re giving an overview of what you’re doing, five minutes is enough. 6:40 is a generous allowance. But, of course, many speakers blew right past their time allotment, and not with charismatic bluster. Basically, for all the good ideas there was not one ounce of charisma.

Public speaking aside, my favorite was Finnegan’s Irish Amber, which, if you don’t know, is a for-profit beer company that gives 100% of its profits to charity. They also make really tasty beer.

You may be asking yourself, “100% of their profits to charity? Why not just be a nonprofit?” Well, apparently the IRS won’t let you have a non-profit beer company. I think it has something to do with there being so much profit in beer that it would be un-American not to take a slice of that sweet money pie.

My overall reaction to all the speakers’ ideas is a positive one. I’m left scratching my head, however. These are all excellent private sector solutions to public problems, but conventional political thought says hippies (and most of these people did exude “Look at me, I’m liberal!”) are all about Big Government and Government as Solution. But no, these are all people subverting the system, rolling up their sleeves and getting things done on their own with no help from The Man. It was quite heartening.

There was a reception afterwards, which I was unable to stick around for (I’m a popular fellow, after all). Next year I think I’ll keep my schedule open to accommodate that.

[PS: All the photos came from here.]

I made it back to the liberal stronghold that is Minneapolis, although it took me longer than normal. Definitely longer than it took me to get to St. Paul this morning. Granted, when I boarded the 94 eastbound bus, it was during rush hour, and coming home, I stopped at Innuendo for Happy Hour first. The 7:46 schedule 94 bus never came, so I caught the 16 instead, at 8pm. It got me to Minneapolis at about 8:45. I probably should’ve waited for the 94 at 8:16, but I figured I’d still get home around the same time.

My overall impression of the day, though, was…meh. In a phrase that would’ve made Yogi Berra happy, “if you didn’t know it was happening, you wouldn’t know it was happening.” Now, that’s not to say that there weren’t events, that there weren’t rallies, that there wasn’t stuff that was newsworthy. What I mean is, if you didn’t live in the restricted area, if you didn’t work near the zone, all you would see is a lot of people, and a lot of cops. In other words, it would look like you were living or working in a city. Now, for St. Paul, that’s a bit of a change. In fact, I’d say that St. Paul seemed a lot more like Minneapolis today, in terms of general activity.

There was lots of conversation. As you walked through the skyway, or rode the bus, you’d hear people say things like, “Did you see that guy with the bullhorn?” or “Man, there were loads of cops in riot gear at the park!” But unless you went looking for it, or by misfortune, lived or worked in the specific areas, it didn’t really affect you.

And there were lots of cops, both in St. Paul and in Minneapolis. At every street corner, there is a police presence. I don’t know that I necessarily felt safer. I mean, no one is going to mug me with a cop right there, but if someone did mug me, I don’t know that the cop would’ve done anything. If I had a placard denouncing the government, I think the cops would’ve done something. Not necessarily violently, but there would’ve been a reaction. I just didn’t feel like they were there to police “normal crime”. You could probably blow a stoplight without too much worry of getting a ticket, unless your car was decorated to protest something.

Jason DeRusha asks if this weekend’s citizen journalist effort is adding any value. He specifically mentions MnIndy and The Uptake. Good — and civil! — discussion in the comments.

Related to Jason’s question, MnIndy and The Uptake both have longer-form pieces up today addressing yesterday’s events. (Note that most of yesterday’s coverage was live, on-the-spot type stuff.) David Brauer’s got them all in today’s RNC-themed Daily Glean. Follow all of his links.

Glenn Greenwald has a long and oft-updated piece at Salon, focusing largely, but not entirely, on the arrest of Amy Goodman from Democracy Now!. And he has this to say on the Saint Paul PD’s press conference:

Interestingly, all of the standard journalists asked very police-sympathetic questions (”how much property damage was done? were all the criminals part of this same RNC Welcoming Group? How many police officers were injured (answer: none)), while all of the independent journalists — such as those from the superb, intrepid site, The Uptake — asked challenging and skeptical (i.e., real) questions.

The greater Twin Cities metro area had quite a few cities that made CNN’s top 100 best small cities to live in this year. Plymouth, Eagan, Eden Prairie, Apple Valley, Lakeville, Burnsville, Blaine and Maple Grove all
made the list.

Here’s the full link.

Okay, so I’ve only been in MN for 5 years and can’t remember driving through Plymouth. What’s so great about it?

Your favorite extra-N US Congresswoman and mine, Michelle Bachmann, has been doing a lot of talking about energy in the past few months. “Two dollar gasoline!” she shrieks, “Babies as cheap food!” Yes, Mrs. Bachmannn, very good. Too bad it’s all total bunk. And even if it wasn’t, too bad you’re aiming in the opposite direction from the rest of the world. Gasoline? Seriously? Welcome to 1900, Mrs. Bachmannnn.

But, even besides returning to the womb of gasoline, she’s started pushing for nuclear energy. Nuclear energy! Honestly.

True, nuclear power produces no harmful emissions (only steam), it does produce mountains of what is known as “nuclear waste.” This waste is not like C02 emissions, where it’s plausible to excuse humans of generations past by saying “How were they to know?” No, it is very much known how dangerous nuclear waste is. Disagree? Ok! Let’s put the nuclear waste in your back yard.

So, when Michelle Bachmannnnn asks us to support nuclear energy in Minnesota (even though a nuclear plant hasn’t been built in the US since the 70s), you can imagine I’d be a little skeptical. MnIndy has my back, yo:

While pro-nuke evangelists like Bachmann preach that nuclear power can stand on its own without subsidies, they conveniently fail to mention the Price-Anderson Act, which limits the U.S. nuclear industry’s liability in the event of an accident to a total of about $10.5 billion. After that, the taxpayers pick up the tab—and that could conservatively run into the hundreds of billions of dollars.

Estimates of the value of the Price-Anderson subsidy to the industry vary widely, from $237 million to $3.5 billion annually. However, it’s clear that the subsidy insulates the industry from much of its risk and unfairly distorts nuclear power’s competitiveness in the energy marketplace.

I am not going to get into the hundreds of billions of reasons why I am uncomfortable with nuclear power. But I’m also not going to sit here and complain like a commonplace hippie without suggesting something better. Something better we can do here in Minnesota.

Geothermal? Not only can we do it, they’re already doing it in Iowa. At my cousin’s middle school, in fact. Iowa! The backwards, backwater-bumpkin of the Mid West. Ethanol? Well, ok. Corn is a horrible energy-sucker when it comes to making ethanol (and we have a huge ethanol corn growers lobby). But there are all sorts of grasses we can grow that will produce way more energy right here in Minnesota. Feel free to add your own source to the list. There are many more.

But wait! Don’t we live in Minnesota? Aren’t we supposed to be one of the most innovative states in the country, and therefore in the world? Our governor has been a spectacular leader on the alternative energy front (and I’m not too concerned about digging about to figure out why–who cares!). I think his established leadership on the subject could produce discoveries and innovations that would render nuclear waste obsolete. No: not only could it, it should.

What do you think?