Twin Cities - Closing Thoughts

Entering my final day in the Twin Cities.... typing this entry at the Minni/St. Paul Int. Airport.

I opted to get here extra early so that I could enjoy a sit down lunch and wrap up some work on the laptop before I zone out for the weekend.

I can't believe how much fun I had in the Twin Cities. I really haven't had a chance to sit down and pen my thoughts on the city... so now seems like a good time as any.

My observations... The city of St. Paul and the city of Minneapolis are freakishly green, hip and healthy for the Midwest. The cities feel close knit in that the roads are narrow and a person can get around by foot or bike with ease. The city (in my opinion) would benefit from a mass-transit system like a railway/subway. I took a number of major/minor streets to go form one town to another with ease... a first time visitor needs to pay very close attention to St. Names tho'. Roads change names when you cross the Mississippi and streets have N/S/W/E identifications on them that will baffle the shit out of you.

Both cities subscribe to having their blocks ascend in numbers from the Mississippi -- out. Which is fine... you can sorta figure out where the hell your at by determining if you're ascending or descending by street numbers.

I found myself wanting to pull over a number of times but found it hard to find parking. A number of the streets still had large blocks of ice thawing so the narrow road ways were narrower and parking slots don't make it easy for those driving SUV's that aren't accustomed to driving SUV's.

Things to Do in the Twin Cities when you're not up for Looking for Records

So it may seem like I only took in record stores on my visit... I have a few more record store reviews to log in so quit your bitching.

I also had a chance to take in a number of the local sights. I have some friends who moved here by way of Detroit and they took me out one night to become more aquatinted with a part of town affectionately known as "uptown". I spent some time in this area on Thursday afternoon/evening... I didn't bust out my camera to take photos of everything I found interesting. I can tell you however that I would totally have a cab drop me off on Henniepin (sp?) and I'd walk up and down the fucking blvd. until I get shin splints.

I walked by countless bars, shops, book stores, green grocery stores, restaurants, design studios, coffee shops, pizza parlors, record stores and theaters I could spend hours at.

If you're into Coffee. Minneapolis is going to be a treat for you. There's indie/commercial coffee shops everywhere and its rare to every walk/drive by a shop at anytime and not see the place filled to the gills.

If you're into theater - Minneapolis has an obscene amount of theaters. I took two major roads and I drove by 8 visible marquees/performance spaces. I can only imagine how many are in both cities combined. If time permitted I would have really liked to have seen a performance.

If you're into music - this is a big passion of mine so I've been doing reviews of shops I've been to this week. I've really only scraped the surface... I saw a few record stores I didn't get to stop in because of my limited time in the "city". While I didn't go into a store that completely made me swoon I found myself content with having an obscene amount of store options. Anyone living in the Twin Cities should be really happy about having the amount of stores that dedicate themselves to music. Especially when record stores are closing everywhere throughout the states.

If you're into Art - I didn't get a chance to really visit the Walker museum, but its one of the most important contemporary art museums of the country. The building structure is amazing and I would have gone in but time never really permitted after I discovered where and what it was.

If you're in Bars and Eats - I didn't frequent that many bars but the ones I stopped into were really cool. I drove by a number of bars that have amazing praises. One of which is the Nye's Polonaise Room. My friend Harlo told me that the bar was voted by Esquire as the coolest bar in the US. I tried my best to squeeze in a visit Thursday evening - but I forgot quarters to pay for parking and the place was fucking crawling with cops. The twin cities (specifically the downtown) go out of their way to remind you that there is no free parking -ever or anywhere. A person could make a fortune if they installed coin machines next to ATM's.

I walked by a number of people offering to give them a dollar for one fucking quarter and people sorta shrugged and walked away without really helping me.

In their defense - I'm as big as Grape Ape so picture a shaved yeti asking to break a dollar in a parking lot.

If there's one thing I really regret... its not going into the Nye's Polonaise Room.... the place had free parking behind it but I couldn't fit the Murano into the tight spot.

Anyhoo... the twin cities rocks vicious wang. I look very forward to coming back one day.

for the last time this week,
.twin city rollie.