Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of what local media outlets and Twitter-ers are gabbing about.
Oh, Betty...
When we last heard from Betty Danger's, the northeast Minneapolis "country club on crack" had been listed for $4.2 million by its owner, restaurateur Leslie Bock. Today, the once-bustling Northeast nightlife hub debuted yet another name/format: Secret Headquarters, a "private day club" that'll run through August 20. What does that mean? It means $49 per head for unlimited putt-putt, Ferris wheel, and select beer/wine/coffee/tea during the hours of... 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays. Upgraded beverages will be available for purchase. "It's honestly impressive that each iteration of this place is exponentially stupider than the last," reads a top-voted Reddit comment on the news of Secret Headquarters.
This isn't the first thematic pivot during the nine-year run of Betty Danger's. In 2021, it emerged from the pandemic lockdown with an Orwellian rebrand. "Viruses and virus policies and panic pornography caused [Betty] a bit of a meltdown," once read the website for the freshly coined Betty Danger's Animal Farm. An accompanying "manifesto" expounded on the concept, while the on-the-ground aesthetics remained largely intact. In 2020, Betty Danger's secured $313,567 in forgiven PPP cash intended to save 13 jobs; the following round, in '21, the business collected $560,870 intended for 259 jobs. Those figures, combined with the head-scratchingly ideological ex-concept, elicit frequent eyerolls in the Service Industry MSP Facebook page.
Updates in the Warsame Ward 10 Saga
OK, so Saturday's brawl at the DFL nominating convention in Minneapolis was big enough that Nasri Warsame, whose supporters have been accused of instigating the violence, gave a press conference yesterday. At the press conference, the aspiring Ward 10 City Council nominee spoke for about three minutes, answering no questions and making no apologies, as the Strib's Dave Orrick reports. His campaign manager Abshir Omar, whose name you might remember because he was recently involved in the Feeding Our Future scandal, then took the mic to allege that Council Member Jeremiah Ellison assaulted him at the convention. There is no video or evidence to support this; Ellison has denied it. This whole thing is only getting stupider and more convoluted, and the press conference was a boondoggle. But yes: The story is still making Minneapolis look silly in the national and international press.
Rep. Walter Hudson: “Target is like a Walker Art Center”
How many times have you run into Target to stock up on toilet paper, garbage bags, and athletic socks and thought, "Wait a minute? Am I in a modern art museum?" Of course you haven’t, but that’s the latest pearl-clutching hyperbole from State Rep. Walter Hudson (R-Albertville). It all started when some dude likened a trip to Target to “walking through a museum of mental derangement,” presumably because he saw a rainbow on something inside the store. Hudson heartily agreed:
It is jarring, for sure. You shouldn't *notice* displays. It should blend into the ambience. But, you're right, Target is like a Walker Art Center now.
— Walter Hudson (@WalterHudson) May 17, 2023
Many were quick to point out the displays are literally there to be noticed. But also, has this guy been to the Walker? Their Skyline Mini Golf, British commercial screenings, and lawn poetry nights are hardly the stuff of a mental-health crisis. Hudson—who is pro-gun, pro-prison, and anti-abortion, in case you’re wondering—is a man of many false equivalences; late last year he compared doctors who are pro-vaccine to plantation-era slavers. Sounds like a man who lives in the real world!
Listen to Jay Talk About Dead Music Festivals on 'CCO
Our weekly feature story, "What Killed the Twin Cities Music Festivals?," has been a big hit with readers. Thank you for reading! Earlier this morning its author, Racket co-owner Jay Boller, was invited to chat about it on WCCO's Adam & Jordana radio program. Savvy listeners will detect two fuck ups: Boller rambled while beginning to answer one question, forcing him to ask host Adam Carter to restate the Q; and, at another point, Boller said "geographic liability" when he meant to say "geographic license." Please forgive him, and please give the 12-minute segment a listen right here.
