Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Black Sabbath Was Way Too Much for St. Paul
Black Sabbath played the St. Paul Civic Center in 1972 as part of the Masters of Reality Tour, and as far as Minnesota Star reviewer Charles Quimby was concerned, they went over like a lead zeppelin. (Yes, there actually was a time before Jon Bream.) “They have raised boredom to an unprecedented decibel level,” Quimby declared haughtily.
The city of St. Paul wasn’t thrilled about the concert either, though for more practical reasons. Perhaps possessed by Satan and His unholy sacraments (drugs) or just in the mood to do some dumb teen shit, unruly Sabbath fans broke windows at the St. Paul venue. As a result of the rock-inspired mayhem, a representative from the Civic Center Authority threatened to end all "rock" shows at the Civic Center “unless something can be done to ensure the safety of persons and property.”
But you can’t stop the rock. While bookings at the Civic Center dwindled for the rest of ’72 (guess the city fathers weren’t too worried about rowdy Leon Russell fans), they ramped up again in 1973 with a full slate of shows including the Grateful Dead, Grand Funk Railroad, and Led Zeppelin.
RIP Ozzy. Please accept this humble local angle in honor of your memory.
Everyone’s Being Totally Normal About the Omar Fateh Endorsement
You may have heard that state Sen. Omar Fateh, who secured the DFL nomination for mayor of Minneapolis this weekend, is a Muslim and a socialist. Or maybe you’ve heard that Fateh is a MUSLIM! and a SOCIALIST! The 35-year-old lawmaker certainly brings out the all caps in people.
Sadly, a paywall prevents me from reading the story that Jewish Insider headlines “Minneapolis Jews sound an early alarm on Democratic Party endorsement of DSA lawmaker.” But I must begrudgingly admire how the New York Post poxes both houses with the headline “Minneapolis mayor who oversaw BLM riots loses Dem backing to Somali-American socialist.” Alpha News could never. (Still not giving them a link though.)
That sort of race- and red-baiting is sadly to be expected. For some real concern-trolling, though, we need to turn to one of the judicious voices platformed by our paper of record, Andy Brehm. After spending several paragraphs decrying Islamophobia (the bar is so low for “reasonable Republicans”), Brehm's latest column (is it just me or is the Strib like 90% opinion columns now?) argues that a vote for Fateh is a vote for Trump.
Brehm should know—he voted for Trump—but what's his reasoning here? Well, Fateh’s wholly disastrous policies will give Trump the excuse to criticize Democrat-run cities that Mayor Jacob Frey’s highly successful policies have not. I’d expect nothing less for a guy who lives two-and-a-half hours away in Crosslake and has donated to… Jacob Frey. Hm, I never went to J-school myself, but isn't there a journalism rule where they’re supposed to tell us that kind of stuff?
Who Will Fill the Angie Craig-Sized Hole in the Hearts of MN’s CD2?
As Rep. Angie Craig (DFL-Bitcoin) eyes the seat that retiring Sen. Tina Smith will vacate, plenty of cash-raising hopefuls are starting to campaign for her seat in Minnesota’s Second Congressional District. Among DFLers, the chief competitors are Matt Little, a former state senator as well as a former mayor of Lakeville, and state Sen. Matt Klein (DFL-Mendota Heights) a major champion of sports betting.
Meanwhile, two Republicans are looking to flip the seat. Tyler Kistner, who challenged Craig in her past two elections, is stepping back into the ring. Vying against him for the nomination is state Sen. Eric Pratt (R-Prior Lake), who has been blasted as insufficiently Trumpist. “Eric Pratt represents the same tired, weak-kneed Republicanism that voters across this country have already rejected,” Kistner froths, while conspiracy aficionado Laura Loomer (sorry) lambastes Pratt’s “long history of anti-Trump comments and pro-illegal alien policy positions.” I guess this is just how it’s gonna be from now on.
Wanna Be Food for Plants?
Among the many new Minnesota laws that went into effect on July 1 was one legalizing "terramation." That's a fancy work for human composting, and it follows a pretty neat process. "The body is placed in a vessel alongside organic material: straw, alfalfa and sawdust," the St. Cloud Times explains. "As oxygen flows through the vessel, it stimulates microbes in the body that rapidly transform it into soil in about a month." The bones aren't quite as cooperative, so they need to be ground down; then you cool the remains in a container for about a month and—ta-da!—you've got about 1 to 1.5 cubic yards of soil. Minnesota joins Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington in legalizing the process.
