Minneapolis is famously known as the city of lakes, and while that may be true, we are also a city of bridges. I cross the Mississippi River four times each working day, and it is something I always enjoy doing...something that makes this place feel like home. My favorite bridge has become the Franklin because … Continue reading City of Bridges
Author: crowcityblog
Sign of the Times
Some genius has scrawled “FUCK THIS MAILBOX” real big in marker on a blue box in front of the Northrop Auditorium. Now I guess this is supposed to be funny, but I will admit it angers me. They’ve got electronic eyes all over the place like a science fiction movie, but I can’t imagine … Continue reading Sign of the Times
Positively Fourth Street Revisited
Back in 1959 there was this improbable Jewish kid from Hibbing who rolled into town on a Greyhound bus. He flopped for a short while with a cousin at a University Avenue frat house before trading his electric guitar for a double-O Martin and renting a room above Gray’s drugstore. From Chronicles Volume I: … Continue reading Positively Fourth Street Revisited
Bulls on Parade
As I’m driving to work, I listen to MPR’s Carrie Miller interview people about taking guns away from police and having social workers intervene in domestic abuse situations. I have to say I’m dubious because I’m staring at a melted traffic light. We don’t seem to be getting much for the millions of dollars … Continue reading Bulls on Parade
Sons of Anarchy
I hardly recognize my city . . . because this isn’t my city. We have a lot of guests and I think we’ll all be very happy to see them leave. Many are well-meaning, supplying aid and food donations. Some are here to protest and mourn. While others came here to destroy or to agitate. … Continue reading Sons of Anarchy
Minnesota Burning–Part 2
There’s always peace and graffiti down by the river. I did a bit of fishing this morning to refresh my mind from all the terrible events. I wrote first, so I didn’t get out to the water in time for any kind of bite. But I got in some great fly casting and took some … Continue reading Minnesota Burning–Part 2
Minnesota Burning–Part 1
Back in March, when I learned about the pandemic's potential severity, I could not sleep. Something was coming. Something I could not control or understand. I panicked. That morning, I instructed my wife to shop. I told her to stock up on canned goods. I explained that no one was going to risk their … Continue reading Minnesota Burning–Part 1
Sons of Liberty
They finally gave us washable cloth masks at work. When I brought one home, my wife commented that it looked like a young girl’s panties. That thought had definitely not occurred to me. Soft, small, white and, yes, cottony. That is, after Emily said it, what they looked like. I couldn’t get … Continue reading Sons of Liberty
Redcoats
The value of a human life is not diminished because there are seven and a half billion of us. Can you remember that scene in Schindler’s List when the little girl in the red coat ambles through the black-and-white rubble of a devastated city? She is that anonymous statistic bestowed with color, that rare … Continue reading Redcoats
After the Plague
There were boyhood summers on the Dakota plains, when my mother would douse me with DEET and insist, to my acrimonious protest, that I wear long sleeves even if the temperature was a sultry 87. Sometimes, if the mosquitoes were swarming over the porch in the evening, she would forbid me from venturing outside … Continue reading After the Plague
