The 50 States: Minnesota

Minnesota. I consider you my home. I love you a lot. You beam beauty, exude soul, and freeze me to the bone in just the right way. Despite my every effort to escape you, I still continue to live near by. Listen to The Hold Steady and try to seperate Craig from Minnesota. Even though he relocated to NYC -- his songs are still all about his visits to the twin cities and I think that everyone out there can feel that connection to home. These songs represent my connection to home.

Of course, readers that know me might be scratching their heads. See, I actually live in Wisconsin. Well.... geographically, yes.... but my heart belongs to Minnesota. And I could hit the state with a rock thrown from my front-porch.

Minnesota, besides my endless adoration you have also supplied this great country with such things as The Mall of America, Masking and Scotch Tapes, wheaties, bisquick, HMOs, the bundt pan, Aveda, Green Giant, oldest continuously running theater, largest dinner theater, the worlds largest pelican statue, the countrys largest urban sculpture garden, the largest regional playhouse in the country, the skyway system, more golfers per capita than anywhere else, the Metrodome (only facility to ever hold a super bowl, world series, and NCAA final four), more shoreline than California, Florida, and Hawaii combined, first heart transplant and first bone marrow transplant in the US, lutefisk, the Mayo clinic, worlds largest ball of twine, the stapler, the first climate controlled mall, water skiing, worlds first childrens library, the automatic toaster, Rollerblades, armored cars, Tonka Trucks, Hormel Chili, SPAM, super computers, Milky Way, Snickers, and 3 Musketeers candy bars, more boats per capita than anywhere else, Greyhound Bus Lines, the snowmobile, rice cakes, Bob Dylan, F Scott Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Garrison Keillor, Jessica Lange, Sinclaire Lewis, John Madden, Roger Maris, Eugene McCarthy, Walter Mondale, Jane Russell, Winona Ryder, Charles Shultz, Kevin Sorbo, and who could forget Jesse Ventura and Prince.

• The Capstan Shafts - St. Paul
• Happy Apple - Montgomery Wards is Down for the Count
• Lifter Puller - I Like the Lights
• Atmosphere - 7th Street Entry
• Lateduster - Minnesota Plates
• Tom Waits - Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis
• Slim Dunlap - Hate This Town
• The Dandy Warhols - Minnesoter
• The Replacements - Hangin Downtown
• The Dictators - Minnesota Strip
• Matt Pond PA - St. Paul
• Soul Asylum - Homesick
• Kid Dakota - 10,000 Lakes
• The Trashmen - Surfin' Bird
• Five Minute Ride - Don't Look Back to Minnesota
• Bill Janovitz - Minneapolis
• Conflict - From St Paul to Seattle
• Gypsy - Travelin' Minnesota Blues
• Husker Du - Find Me
• Mason Jennings - Duluth
• The Mountain Goats - Minnesota
• The Replacements - Here Comes a Regular
• Tom Waits - 9th and Hennepin
• The Suburbs - Drinking
• Pinetop Seven - A Friend to the Minnesota Strangler
• Weird Al Yankovic - Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota
• Lucinda Williams - Minneapolis
• The Clientele - St Paul's Beneath a Sinking Sky
• Converge - Minnesota
• The Replacements - Raised in the City
• Atmosphere - Liquor Lyles Cool July
• Yo La Tengo and Jad Fair - Minnesota Man Claims Monkey Bowled Perfect Game
• Atmosphere - Always Coming Back Home to You
• Slug - I Wish Those Cats @ Fobia Would Give Me Some Free Sneakers
• Prince - Uptown
• Atmosphere - Say Shhh
• Prince - Money Don't Matter Tonight
• Andre Nickatina - Bakin' Soda in Minnesota
• Atmosphere - Nothing But Sunshine
• Bob Dylan - Dinks Song
• Bob Dylan - I Was Young When I Left Home
• The Cows - Bum in the Alley
• David Munyon - Coffee in Duluth
• Dilinger Four - Twin Cities Sinners, United
• The Doobie Brothers - Slippery St. Paul
• Elf - First Avenue
• Eyedea and Abilities - Paradise
• Husker Du - The Biggest Lie
• The Jayhawks - 6 Pack on the Dashboard
• John Prine - Sab Visits the Twin Cities Alone
• Kind of Like Spitting - We Got as Far as Minnesota
• Low - Snowstorm
• Luke Zimmerman - Duluth
• Prince - Sometimes it snows in April
• Rattle Battle - Meltdown in Minnesota
• That Dog - Minneapolis
• The Big Wu - Minnesota Moon
• The Jayhawks - Come to the River
• Thousandaire - Lake Apathy, Minnesota
• Soul Asylum - Sometime to Return
• The Hold Steady - Stevie Nix