Today’s Complaints: Snowplow Names, Yacht Club Lineup, Legal Marijuana Now Party

Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily midday digest of what local media outlets and Twitter-ers are gabbing about.

Something Smells Funny About the Legal Weed Party

You’d think that the legalization of marijuana in Minnesota would pose some serious existential questions to an entity called the Legal Marijuana Now Party, but apparently the party lingers on, much like the stench of ditchweed long after the bowl is cashed. And now it turns out LMN has placed a Colorado woman on our 2024 primary ballot who doesn’t want to run, and not just for any old office either. As the Strib’s Briana Bierschbach puts it in a pitch-perfect lede: “Krystal Gabel said she was surprised at 5 a.m. on a recent Friday by a Google alert saying she was a candidate for president of the United States.”

Gabel says she didn’t consent to run. The party says they misunderstood her comments in a Facebook group but will withdraw her name. The Secretary of State’s office says it’s too late for that. You may remember that in 2020 the LMN party made headlines when Adam Weeks, the party’s nominee for the Second Congressional District, died in September, and a friend later produced a voicemail in which Weeks said the GOP had recruited him as a spoiler candidate. I certainly remember it.

More Like the Minnesota Yawn Club

As Jay discussed in this feature from last May, the Twin Cities, which once had a fairly lively music festival scene, now barely offers any such summer fests at all. So word that a new festival would be coming to St. Paul's Harriet Island in July was exciting, even if that C3 Presents-organized festival was inexplicably called the Minnesota Yacht Club. Such was the advance buzz that the Strib even ran a full piece online yesterday where multiple staffers speculated on who might be booked for the inaugural fest. Turns out they correctly guessed three performers: headliners Alanis Morissette and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and local boys Hippo Campus. 

As you can see if you look up top, the two-day lineup is very much “one for the ladies and one for the fellas,” with TV game show host Gwen Stefani joining Alanis on Friday, July 19, while Saturday, July 20, belongs to the Ye Olde Chili Peppers, who played to many empty seats at U.S. Bank Stadium in their last visit to town. It's not a terrible selection of performers, and there are plenty of great local acts (Gully Boys, Durry, Soul Asylum, and, of course, Hippo Campus) as well as one New York band with Minnesotans in it (the Hold Steady). But the festival, like a yacht itself, is not cheap*: GA tix are $135 per day or $215 for both, and various VIP packages run up on $800. Overall, we have to agree with this take from Strib music writer Chris Riemenschneider’s daughter Louisa.

The New Snow Plow Names Are Mostly Bad

If you’d asked me yesterday, “What do Beyoncé, Barbie, Taylor Swift, Dolly Parton, The Sandlot, National Lampoon’s Vacation, and The Fast and Furious all have in common?” I’d have immediately answered, “None of them have any damn connection to the state of Minnesota at all.” As of today, though, they have another thing in common: MnDOT has named snowplows in reference to each of them. Jay has already sounded off on this topic in his definitive ranking of the nominees, so I'll just add that the top vote-getter among the non-locally-angled picks was “Taylor Drift” (the Deep State's work is never done), and the most dubious is “Barbie’s Dream Plow”—if teens aren’t already snickering over that one there is truly no hope for America. Waipahinte, the Dakota word for “snowplow,” is the only name we’ll sign off on here without reservations. Oh, and if you’re one of those people who’s like, “Racket only ever complains about stupid shit!” well, even Maple Grove-based radio personality and food writer Jason DeRusha thinks these names suck!

Did This Guy Record Your Band’s Gig?

If you were in a Minnesota band in the last quarter of the 20th century, there’s a good chance that J.Free asked you if he could record your show. And here’s the good news: He still has all those cassettes. Free, a writer, club employee, and all around scenester in town from the ’70s through the ’90s estimates that he recorded thousands of bands over the years. He now lives in Portland, Orgeon, and he’s looking to clear house. While Free says that nonprofit Minnesota music archive DEMO has offered to house the cassettes, he wants to reach out first to the bands to see if they want copies of their shows, either physical or digital. Check the list and see if your old band is on there. 

*Correction: A previous version of this article misstated ticket prices.