Minnesota Stories

Quicktime MN Stories is on holiday break until January 2008. The site has been serving up fresh Minnesota-themed videos nearly every weekday since July, 2005. This is video #541. Check out the other 540 and comment if you have any favorites. Thanks to everyone who contributes, comments, and otherwise makes this pioneering community videoblog a great success. Meanwhile, visit the many fine Minnesota videoblogs in the sidebar and find me over at The UpTake and my my personal blog.

Quicktime CHUCK SEZ: MN Stories is going off the air until further notice. Is it because of the writer's strike? Has the talent thrown a hissyfit, have the investors pulled out? Naww... I've just got too many projects going on. Rather than see the site in a state of slow steady decline, it's time to stop for the near future. The site has been serving up fresh Minnesota-themed videos nearly every weekday since July, 2005. This is video #541. Check out the other 540 and comment if you have any favorites. Thanks to everyone who contributed, commented, and otherwise made this pioneering community videoblog a great success. I hope to see you again here next year, maybe reborn and rejiggered. If you're an arts or media organization interested in adopting Minnesota Stories, please contact me. Until then, visit the many fine Minnesota videoblogs in the sidebar and find me over at The UpTake and my my personal blog.

Quicktime "The entire city is a free speech zone." So says St. Paul mayor Chris Coleman in this Huffington Post article by MInnesota-based writer Peter Smith, with video from The UpTake.

Quicktime The "Food vs. Fuel" debate hits close to home for Corn Guy when he's forced into a confrontation with Taco Lady. But Corn Guy is willing to do just about anything to set the record straight, including - well, you'll see. Disclaimer: Corn Guy is a paid spokescreature, given life to battle the many myths surrounding ethanol.

Quicktime Sex is more fun when you share! That's the motto of Midwest Teen Sex Show, produced right here in the Minnesota area (which includes Wisconsin, and is nowhere near the "swimsuit area.") Warning: This particular video about Syphilis, recommended by our friend Honey Bunny, is scarier than most Halloween cable movies. Hats off - and shirts off, too!

Quicktime Go outside at night and listen closely. You'll notice it especially in the fall before the freeze... tiny sounds, crickly-cracks, secret life bristling in the ground. That be the sound of earthworms coming alive, otherwise known as nightcrawlers if you're a fishin' grandpa. And it drives our cat Jasmine nuts. The very ground is teasing her... over here! No, over here! Our entire yard becomes a Confuse-a-Cat. MUSIC: Under Feather, Runaway Train (Presumably no relation to the Soul Asylum song.) This video first appeared on MInnesota Stories in September, 2005.

Quicktime A Mad Scientist makes makes a political monster with 1 part comedian, 1 part author and 1 part Minnesotan. The result is Al Frankenstein...Feared on the campaign trail. A new classic vid from Steve Barone of MinnieIndie.

Quicktime The revolution will not be televised, but it will be uploaded. One by one the barriers to creating your own mass media have been coming down. First blogs let anyone publish their own newspaper, then podcasts let anyone publish their own radio show, now online videos let anyone put out a TV show…if you have the equipment and technical know how. Cameras and editing software have become less expensive and easier to operate. But creating and distributing your own video news story can still be a complicated and frustrating proposition. The UpTake is stepping in to get rid of that last barrier. This weekend The UpTake has scheduled its first video citizen journalism class. It’s free and open to the public (registration is required ahead of time through Wellstone Action). The class will cover the impact video citizen journalism has had and can have, cover story telling techniques and some of the nuts and bolts of shooting and editing video. Video produced by Mike McIntee.

Quicktime Citizens! Lay down your ePods and cyberPhones for a moment, and take up the cause of citizen journalism. The health of our democracy is on our hands, and we must pick up our cameras and find the truth(s) out there ourselves. That's what The Uptake is all about - but we need your help. Why? We want to train and equip a legion of citizen journalists to cover events happening in our communities, all leading up to the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention. Please come down to our fun[d]raiser at the 331 Club on Saturday, Oct. 20, from 3 - 6 PM. You'll get a couple of free beers, good company, citizen videos, and maybe even your own press pass. There's never been a more vital time for us to "be the media." DONATE ONLINE HERE if you're not local or unable to attend. Thank you so much. ALSO: Come on down to Solutions Twin Cities on Friday night. It promises to be a night of mind-expanding possibilities. I'll be making a very strange 7-minute presentation about citizen journalism, with some audience interaction. Don't miss it.

Windows Media From Michael Bischoff: Malcolm Gladwell, the author of The Tipping Point and Blink, comments on the future of crime and justice in Minnesota. These are excerpts from Gladwell's speech in Minneapolis on 10.9.07. The full speech is available here. The report that he commented on is available at: crimeandjustice.org.

Quicktime Gnome on the run! Aaron's lawn gnome, that is. Here he is stumbling upon a magical town full of gnomes in Minnesota: I continued walking West today and stumbled upon a town called Dawson. What happened after that isn't all that clear to me. I just know that I don't remember the last time I was so excited. It must have been such an overwhelming experience that my brain doesn't know how to categorize what I went through today. Simply put, I met a town full of gnomes! Read more about this crazy tale on Aaron's blog.

Quicktime Paulino Brener was at the Oct. 12 pillow fight in Minneapolis, outside the Walker Art Center. Were you there? Looks like it was tons-o-fun! Except, not as heavy as that sounds.

Quicktime Believe it! Tay Zonday at First Avenue Mainroom, 10/5/2007, opening for Girl Talk. Courtesy of Twin Cities Live. Watch the original here if you're feeling nostalgic.

Quicktime What happens before the brains are eaten? Here's Courtney, zombifying before the Third Annual Zombie Pub Crawl last weekend. MNspeak link to more zombie photos.

Windows Media It's that time of year, when fingers fall off in your martini and Bloody Mary is having another bloody mary. That's right friends, it's the Third Annual Zombie Pub Crawl. Watch the sweet trailer here by Chuck Terhark. And now, on to this epic video from Jesse Roesler and Jeremy Wilker. Minneapolis' biggest and bloodiest pub crawl, the Zombie Pub Crawl met the Pirate Pub Crawl last fall for a showdown worthy of rememberance. Join the Pirates or Zombies this Saturday, October 6 for Pirates Vs Zombies 2. For more info visit www.piratepubcrawl.com. For more short films, visit www.deliciousfilmworks.com.

Quicktime An extremely short film, precisely described by the title. Talk about bizarre foods.

Quicktime The Uptake was on the scene of Friday's Critical Mass bike ride in Minneapolis. The ride was a huge success – both in number (The Strib says 600) and the lack of arrests or confrontation. The only confrontation we know of is documented here: "The Mercedes Incident." This video represents a proud accomplishment for The Uptake's networked journalism. We used footage from four cameras here, and we have at least two other folks with their own video. Eventually we'll learn how to be networked for real, whether it's through Twitter, wireless headsets, or other methods we haven't thought of. It's an exciting time to be a citizen journalist, and to be creating original stories like this one.

Quicktime This is a fond kickball classic from last summer, newly relevant because Gary the kickball umpire has apparently been dismissed by the park board.

Quicktime CHUCK SAYS: This is a ridiculous, laptop-recorded video from the Northeast Minneapolis parade this summer. Lorika and I provide off-color commentary. Watch for the part where I'm inexplicably compelled to yell the following at Al Franken: "Al, laptop! Laptop photo!"

Quicktime The most Burning Man-like experience you can have in downtown Minneapolis. You'll find these fine folks at the Mill City Farmer's Market, ending in a few weeks, so don't miss the incredible didgeridoo brain melt!

Quicktime Eda Cherry just got back from seeing The Gob Squad performing Super Night Shot at The Walker Art Center. It was so good, she had to make a crazy little video - surely, her highest recommendation. You have two more chances to see the performance, on Friday and Saturday night.

Quicktime Who is this “Corn Guy”? Why is he fighting with Taco Lady (aka Cristina)? Is he our friend, or just some weird dude? Stay tuned to CornGuy.tv to find out.

Quicktime Exclusive citizen journalist story from The Uptake: Peace marchers visited Senator Norm Coleman at his home in St. Paul last weekend. They found him in the alley in the back of his house (photo) and convinced him to chat with the peace supporters in his front yard for about 20 minutes. Sen. Coleman tried to convince the protesters that he's listening to Minnesotans about the Iraq War, rather than President Bush. They were rightfully skeptical. Notably, Sen. Coleman said "We shouldn't be in the middle of a civil war" in Iraq, though his Senate votes don't reflect that statement.

Quicktime Produced by Emily Goldberg fot Twin Cities Public Television, Budapest to Berlin: On Tour wth the SPCO follows the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra through their 2007 European tour. Air Monday night at 8pm pn TPT-2.

Quicktime From Mike Mcintee at The Uptake: Nearly 6 weeks after the tragic collapse of the I-35W bridge, Minnesota's government still hasn't done anything about its crumbling infrastructure. This morning the Minnesota Legislature finished up a short special session Governor Tim Pawlenty had called to deal with flooding in southern Minnesota. Governor Pawlenty made the legislature promise they would NOT deal with the transportation and bridge problems in the special session. Why the delay? Governor Pawlenty who in the days after the bridge collapse said he would consider raising the gas tax to fund bridges changed his mind once the national TV cameras left. Now to please his "no new taxes" supporters the Governor wants to delay the issue until next year. In this video from just before the legislature adjourns, MN legislator Phyllis Kahn, whose district includes the bridge, talks about the frustration of not solving the problem.

Quicktime In case you don't know, Steve Barone is like the sweetest dude evar. He's in this genius thing called The Hawaii Show, and was shredmaster in Lifter Puller, and like The Hold Steady probably wouldn't even exist without him, right? Also, he's the mashed potato wrestling champion of the world. Anyway, he has this crazy new local music/whatevs show called Minnie Indie. The latest show has a wicked Uptown bar fight, but I thought we should check out the show that started it all - #1, cuz that's Steve Barone's soul number.

Quicktime From David Howell: In honor of those that lost their lives and lost their loved ones on September 11th, 2001…60 SECONDS OF LIGHT: A September 11th video memorial

Quicktime Did you make it to The Eco Experience at the MN State Fair? If so, you probably saw "The Path to Cleaner Air" exhibit from the American Lung Association of Minnesota. Here, I talk with ALAMN's Bob Moffit about the clean air benefits of biofuels, namely E85 (ethanol) and biodeisel. I also talk to a soybean farmer and a race car driver who runs on E85. There's a lot of distorted information about ethanol out there. This MNspeak thread hits most of the big ones. Ethanol has its problems, but it is a less polluting fuel, made from renewable resources by American farmers.Minnesota has more E85 stations than anywhere in the country, which means we've got an alternative energy distribution system in place for when even better solutions (switchgrass, etc.) come along.SHARE THIS VIDEO ON YOUTUBERELATED LINKS: Clean Air Choice U.S. Dept of Energy - Ethanol: Separating Fact from Fiction (PDF) Disclosure: This is part of a series of videos produced for the American Lung Association of Minnesota.

Quicktime It must be Transportation Week here on Minnesota Stories. So far we've had bikes and cars. Today, it's planes. Courtney, aka Miss Eda Cherry, says: Airport construction begins at the Minneapolis - St. Paul Int'l airport for runway repairs. As a result, air traffic has been rerouted. Expected daily arrivals over S. Minneapolis according to twincities dot com: 375 And if you haven't seen it, watch Courtney try to eat the spoonbridge cherry.

Quicktime The Minnesota State Fair has a building full of baby animals called "Miracle of Birth." Well, they should call it "Miracle of Porn" instead. Please, don't let your children catch you watching this. Have a good weekend.