Terrance Griep
“Get To The Point” – On Network TV, Minneapolis Firefighter Akeela Al-Hameed Proves She’s As Tough As Nails
>Chu-chunk!< That distinctive sound marks the distinctive end of distinctive work performed by a distinctive worker: the roughneck whose calloused hands are sheltered by rawhide stained with dinosaur bones; the poor schlub whose squinting eyes are aided by plastic goggles scarred with a dozen near-misses; or the builder whose sweat-drenched skull is abetted by a four-pound…
“Our Town”: Local Gay World Series Softball Players Get Ahead by Thinking Small
The differences between the sports of softball and baseball revolve mostly around size: the size of the ball, the size of the bat, the size of the field, even the size of the game itself…but the biggest size-oriented discrepancy between softball and baseball is how their respective championships are decided. One of these will manifest…
Tilt and Whirl – For KSTP-TV Meteorologist Matt Serwe and His Husband Derek Pacula, Love Is a Grand Grind
It started out as a whirlwind, and, like any whirlwind, it wasn’t meant to last. Matt Serwe was swept up by this whirlwind, which, under other circumstances, might have damaged his credibility as a meteorologist at KSTP-TV…but this whirlwind had nothing to do with the atmospheric wobbles generated by rising heat and descending cold. No,…
“Breaking Barriers” – Red River Rainbow Seniors Secure The Future By Recording the Past
Physical barriers are often plainly obvious, and, just-as-often, physical barriers can only be defeated with physical force—a stout shoulder, a battering ram, or even a stick of dynamite. Some barriers, however, are more subtle and can only be defeated with subtle force. Accepting this challenge is a group that boosts not one, but two overlooked…
“Finnish Lines” – Ski Hill Cabins and Saunas Rewrites Vacationing with Steam
There is no single English word for It, but there are English words for It. It starts inside a structure that looks something like a cabin, but smaller—more…specific somehow—composed wholly of flat, polished wood. It looks as if the classiest park bench in the world grew a floor, four walls, and a ceiling. In the center of…
Big Time Goodtime – The Gay Softball World Series Proves That The Best Way To Get Is To Give
They were the first Major League Baseball franchise to record three million paying attendees in one season. They were the North Star State’s first Major League Baseball franchise before that, of course…and, this August, the Minnesota Twins will add another vibrant first to their pioneering history: they will become the first Major League Baseball team…
Put Me Out, Coach – The Saint Paul Saints Celebrate Pride Night
There was the night when, making up for Midway Stadium’s lack of Jumbotron, mimes were brought onto the dugout to reenact key plays, an idea that lasted all of one night, washed away in a barrage—nay, a greasy tsunami!–of fan-thrown hot dogs. Of course, more recently, there was the night at CHS Field when fans,…
Bear Necessities – Sale of the eagleBOLTbar Brings Things Full Circle
Last summer, ownership got to be a bit much for Edward Hopkins, who had, 25 years earlier, turned a small inheritance into a Downtown Minneapolis East neighborhood institution. For “health and retirement reasons,” Mister Hopkins had decided it was time to sell the eagleBOLTbar. In the 1990s, if you had been a Twin Cities bear—that…
Mainstream Dream – The Gay 90s Thinks Entertainment Is A Drag
To Meghan Trainor, it’s all about that bass. To Puff Daddy, it’s all about the Benjamins…but to the Gay 90s Nightclub, it’s all about clothes…and it always has been, more or less. To the Gay 90s main stage, then: The music surges, provided by a handful of thick shadows, laying down a rhythm borrowed from…
Twin Cities Twin – Minnesota’s MLB Franchise Takes Pride in its Home
In 1961, when Major League Baseball’s Washington Senators made the move from the District of Columbia to the Land of 10,000 Lakes, the population of their new home looked as it had looked for decades: (mostly) bachelor and not-so-bachelor farmers who grew and delivered wheat to the mills where it was ground into flour as white…
