Terrance Griep
“His Kind Of World” – Fashion Guru Grant Whittaker Celebrates 20 Years of Making a Scene
I sit in the lobby of a North Loop hotel. The space’s high ceiling suggests its original purpose: over a century before, the structure housed giant, mechanical manure spreaders, threshers, and harvesters. As the times changed, the space changed, eventually graduating to storing horse carriages, newfangled Rambler touring cars, and (presumably very tall cases of)…
“Sweet Yule and Sour Tide” – This Year, Twin Cities Residents Can Spread Holiday Cheer by Getting Baked
The act of giving, whether it’s the giving of a gift for the Holidays or the giving of a gift for any other reason, is as simple as it is profound. Giving is the singular expression of a singular emotion that is itself just-as-simple as it is just-as-profound. When done right, such gift-giving usually produces…
Red Running For Their Lives – The Aliveness Project Puts HIV Stigma Under There
Each of us has them: the secret parts of ourselves which might be, if they stopped being secret, judged or condemned or shunned by society writ large—the greasy things, the goofy things, the guilty things, the dark quirks and the even-darker quirks we hide from the cold ignorance of the outside world by keeping them…
“The Closet and The Cafeteria”: Quorum Allows Our Community To Come Out by Speaking Up
Jimmy, son of James and Mary, rises, clears his throat. He’s back for the first time since beginning his freshman year in the big city college, back for Thanksgiving dinner, and the kid is sweaty. Most of the gathered figure his glisten-inducing unease is caused by the pressure of being promoted from the kids’ card…
“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…
