For any #MNastodon #Minnesota #Music fans looking for a fun night out, my band is playing the Parkway Theater in Minneapolis on 9/29 with #AmericanIdol alum Preston Gunderson. It's gonna be a great show: two artists for the price of a movie ticket! Would love to meet some Fedi peeps there!

https://theparkwaytheater.com/all-events/preston-gunderson-jbell-lazy-susan

For those interested in monitoring community COVID-19 levels in Minnesota, this dashboard shows both weekly COVID-19 hospitalizations and virus/liter wastewater from more than 35 treatment plants in Minnesota.

https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/a8d269bd670a421e9fd45f967f23f13c

#CovidIsNotOver #COVID19 #COVID #WastewaterMonitoring #WastewaterSurveillance #MNastodon #Minnesota

Pickle pizza and cookie buckets: #Minnesota State Fair food, ranked #MNastodon

https://wapo.st/3YZp4tY

I am delighted that vegan is becoming more common and easier to find.

Although I'm not a fan of fake meats. (I declared that I was a vegetarian at the age of eight because I could not stand the taste or texture of meat, so trying to replicate meat is not a goal I have, but I recognize it is for others).

Vegan Corn Dogs at Daryl's Dog House at the Minnesota State Fair on the south side of Carnes Ave between Nelson and Underwood St.

#MnStateFair #MinnesotaStateFair #MNastodon #Minnesota #vegan

Having a blast volunteering at the Minnesota Renewable Energy Society booth in the State Fair. So if you want to learn anything and everything about renewable power, stop on by!

Eco Experience building, inside by the doors!

#MNStateFair #MNastodon #RenewableEnergy #Renewables #Solar #Wind #EnergyStorage

I love cut flower arrangements, although my cats do not allow me to enjoy them in my own home, so visiting the Flower Room at the Minnesota State Fair is a special treat.

Minnesota State Fair, Agriculture Horticulture Building, Flower Room, Minnesota State Florist Association, Professional Designer of the Year Competition entry

#MnStateFair #MinnesotaStateFair #MNastodon #Minnesota #flowers

The Republicans are calling for a special session to “resolve” issues about new restrictions on restraint techniques used by School Resource Officers.

People say the law is vague. I just read the portion in question. It doesn’t allow prone restraints. It doesn’t allow them to impair a pupil’s breathing.

We may have a special session so that police can choke students.

https://www.scribd.com/document/668342464/121A-58#

#MNastodon #politics #Minnesota #Police #SRO #Restraints

Wikipedia says, "Butter carving was an ancient craft in Tibet, Babylon, Roman Britain and elsewhere."

#ButterSculptures #PrincessKayOfTheMilkyWay #MnStateFair #MinnesotaStateFair #MNastodon

Strangely, this was the only photo that I took at the Minnesota State Fair. I guess that means I was having far too much fun to bother with my phone.

For those not familiar with this strange tradition, butter sculptures of Princess Kay of the Milky Way and her court are carved from 90-pound blocks of Grade A butter, in a walk-in, glass-walled refrigerator. (Each takes her sculpture home.)

#MnStateFair #MinnesotaStateFair #MNastodon #Minnesota #ButterSculptures #PrincessKayOfTheMilkyWay

Delightfully obsessive deep dive into Minneapolis metro municipal building history when a local gets obsessed with why the seemingly useless pedestrian bridge which spans I-494 from Bloomington to Richfield was ever built in the first place. #MNastodon

https://tylervigen.com/the-mystery-of-the-bloomfield-bridge

'some of the finest leaders to ever don the MPD patch’ may not be a ringing endorsement.

Some of MPD’s newly appointed leaders have stains on their lengthy records
@mnreformer
https://minnesotareformer.com/2023/08/29/some-of-mpds-newly-appointed-leaders-have-stains-on-their-lengthy-records/
#MNastodon

Minnesota’s Festival of Nations, the Midwest’s oldest and longest running multicultural festival (since 1932), ends after nearly 90 years. (The 2020, 2021, and 2022 festivals were cancelled due to COVID-19.)

Thread/1 of 4

#MNastodon #Minnesota #TwinCitiesMN #TwinCities #FestivalOfNationsMN ##FestivalOfNations

https://festivalofnations.com/cancelation-announcement/

My mom sent me an email with this as the subject line:
"heat index of 117--damn"

And no text in the body.

(#MNastodon, hope it cools down)

From Sahan Journal

Survival of wild rice threatened by climate change, increased rainfall in northern Minnesota

https://sahanjournal.com/climate-environment/wild-rice-northern-minnesota-manoomin-ojibwe-climate-change
#MNastodon Local #Journalism #ClimateChange

I think this is a sleeping bumblebee. From the same sunflower patch as the butterfly, but on a slightly chilly morning rather than a warm afternoon.

#sunflower #bumblebee #photography #insects #flowers #nature #MNastodon #Minnesota #summer

I met two of these guys over the years. Don Olson was a fixture on the left in the Twin Cities for decades. He distributed left wing books and magazines to local book stores and always remained and activist himself. The other one I met was a bus driver. He spotted my anarchist t-shirt and asked about it. He said that he was “one of the original Twin Cities anarchists” and talked about the Minnesota 8.
It’s good to see some of them are still around.

https://southsidepride.com/2023/08/01/minnesota-eight-reunion/

#AntiWar #MNastodon

The ReVisión exhibit mixes Indigenous, colonial, and/or contemporary expressions organized by theme. It's at MIA for another 4 weeks. Strongly recommended.
#MNastodon
https://new.artsmia.org/exhibition/revision-art-in-the-americas

How do you “rebuild” something you never had in the first place? Anyone know?

https://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-police-create-implementation-unit-host-meetings-to-begin-sweeping-reform-effort/600298057/

#Minneapolis #Police #MNastodon

Passed by this little beauty this morning.

There's a bonus yellow and black stinging insect coming in for a landing from the left.

#sunflower #butterfly #photography #insects #flowers #nature #MNastodon #Minnesota #summer

Banned Books exhibition at Traffic Zone Gallery, #Minneapolis, #Minnesota #MNastodon