Minneapolis, Minnesnota, and stuff like dat

General stuffGeneral resources and links for Mpls, MN. Chinese & Taiwanese Chinese, Taiwanese, etc. resources in the Twin Cities Queer resourcesGLBT, gender, etc. FandomGamers and Science Fiction geeks, yay! Media Papers, radio, etc.

I lived in Taiwan for just short of eight years. Before that, I was in Iowa for three years, and Ohio for four years before that. But through it all, I considered Minneapolis, Minnesota to be my home town.

In 2000, I took a trip to Minneapolis to visit after four long years in Taiwan. It opened my eyes a lot to what I had been missing. I already had a strong sense of what Muplis was, but my feelings were strongly reinforced by going back. Minneapolis has air you can breathe, and would even be happy to; beautiful parks and lakes; a good amount of parking; several fun things to do, at least if you have money, and even a good number of things that are fun to do if you don't have money; museums and crap like dat galore; and of course it's located in a state which not only guarantees the rights of gay, lesbian and bisexual people, but also guarantees the rights of transgender people. There are problems -- "Minnesota nice", a kind of shallow tolerance of difference without real sympathy; some erosion of those protections of GLBT rights in recent years; occasionally insane politics; and of course winters that are generally miserable. But all in all, it's really a pretty cool place to live.

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General stuff

This is just, well, general things about Minnesota or Muplis.

• The main page of Minneapolis itself. This is the city government's page, with links to governmenty things.

• Is there currently a snow emergency in Minneapolis?

• The main page of the Minnesota tourism folks, called Explore Minnesota.

• The North Star page, the main page of the Minnesota government.

• There are apparently many free clinics in the Twin Cities. I've had good luck with St. Mary's Health Clinics.

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Asian resources

It's kind of surprising how many people in Muplis are from Asian countries, or of Asian ancestry. At least, it's surprising if your impression of the Twin Cities is all lutefisk and white people. There are actually some pretty interesting resources for Asian folks in the Cities.

• United Noodles is probably the single best Asian food store in the Cities. They don't have Weiwei A instant noodles (aka "ramen"), so that's a strike against them, but they seem to have everything else. A lot of Chinese folks in the Twin Cities do their shopping here. There are a lot of other places around, but they either don't have websites, or I can't recommend them as highly, or both.

• There are no fewer than three Chinese language schools for kids in the Cities. Minghua Chinese School is one, and the Chinese American Association of Minnesota has another. The recent addition is Yinghua Academy.

• There are also several Chinese cultural centers in the Twin Cities. The Minnesota China Service Center is one; the aforementioned Chinese American Association of Minnesota is another; the US - China Peoples Friendship Association appears to be a kind of PAC or networking organization, without community service.

• There are also Taiwan-specific resources around, such as the Taiwanese Student Association at the U of M and the Taiwanese Association of America -- Minnesota Chapter.

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Queer and Gender stuff

Note that a lot of general transgender stuff is on my Gender page. This here's just da stuff dat's directly related to Minneapolis, the Twin Cities, Minnesota or the Midwest. Also note that I have primarily included things of relevance to transgender people here; I don't have the resources to track other GLBTQI information.

• One of the biggest GLBT political organizations in Minnesota is OutFront. They're very inclusive and do lots of good political work. They also have all kinds of resources on their site, such as information on how transsexuals in Minnesota can change their drivers' licenses, how to change a birth certificate and how to legally change your name, as well as a depressing little bit about state insurance coverage for SRS.

• A good local magazine is Lavender. They have lots of stuff about local goings-on in the Twin Cities, mostly bar-hopping and whatnot, but a lot of other good stuff. Their focus is by far mostly on the G, a little L, a tiny bit B and a tiny bit T. Not really representative, but still a good source to have.

  There was another good paper in the Cities called Focus Point, but they went out of business. Too bad -- they were much less a lifestyle magazine than Lavender and much more an actual newspaper. And their coverage of TG issues was far, far better, even to the point that it actually existed. Well, maybe some day...

• There seem to be a moderate number of local support groups for trans people of various sorts. One of the biggest seems to be the City of Lakes Crossgender Community. They're primarily for crossdressers, not for transsexuals; take that for whatever it's worth.

• The Minnesota Transgender Health Coalition has lots of great and useful information, including listings for trans-friendly healthcare providers, and puts on a Health Fair in the spring where people can get access to lots of great information and resources.

• There are other transgender-related groups and activities in the Twin Cities, such as Trans Voices, who gather for voice training and singing; the Trans Youth Support Network, by and for young trans people; Reclaim, providing accessible mental health support for GLBT youth; the trans shot clinic; and more. Write to me if you'd like help finding something more specific in the Twin Cities.

• The Brass Rail, Hotel Amsterdam and Saloon have their own site, which doesn't actually say much, called Gay Minneapolis.

• A good site to start looking for queer academics in Minnesota is the U of M's GLBT Programs Office. The U of M also has a dedicated Transgender Commission, who do good work for transgender and genderqueer folks in the broader U of M community.

• Another site that has links to good academic resources is at the University of Illinois at Chicago's Midwest Kaleidoscope.

• The Minnesota Pride committee have their own website, which is naturally about the march in June.

• Oh, I suppose I shouldn't forget the Program in Human Sexuality, which is located in Minneapolis. Their relationship with Twin Cities transgender people is somewhat tricky. They try pretty hard to be community-focused and to not just be gatekeepers, and the PHS really is one of the best centers in the world for people who want hormones, counseling, surgery letters, etc. But they can't help but have at least a taint of gatekeeping, and they're pretty expensive.

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Fandom, gamersville, etc.

Minnesota is a great place to live if you're into SF, gaming and other such geekish things. Minneapolis is actually one of the birthplaces of RPG's. M.A.R. Barker, designer of Tekumel, lived here, and Dave Arneson did, too. Several famous SF authors live here or have lived here: Steven Brust, Emma Bull, Neil Gaiman (I think), other folks who I also haven't read anything by.

More importantly, Minnesota has a flourishing fandom/gaming/anime/general geekery community. For a relatively small area (about a million people in the Metro, specifically) it has a very high concentration of cool geeky people. In fact, if Twin Cities fandom has a drawback, it's that it's so big you can't really participate in, or even know about, all of it.

Note also that I have other SF and gaming-specific links on my SF and RPG page, many of them strongly related to Minnesota. And if you're looking for players, please see the section of my pages specifically devoted to that.

• A good place to start is Minn-StF, the Minnesota Science Fiction Society. MnStf's big annual convention is Minicon, the first SF con I ever went to. It's still a great con with lots of cool programming (*ahem*), chatting, gaming, friendly people and other such good things.

  Minicon used to be huge. Several thousand people, every year. As some people have put it, "It was basically like running a WorldCon every year." For whatever reason -- there are many versions, and I was not there, so I don't have good access to What Really Happened -- the big Minicons split. Some people continued on with a smaller, leaner Minicon, the one that exists today.

• Other people wanted to keep it the same size and started a different con, Convergence. It now regularly has 2000+ people (update, 2014: last year's Convergence has nearly 7000 people!) and shows no signs of slowing down. It's a very fun con, with a different vibe than Minicon. I like them both for different things.

  Unfortunately, the split was not very amicable. A lot of people got hurt, and MISFITS and Mnstf are only now, a decade later, starting to bury the various hatchets. Hopefully the future will have good things for both groups.

• The Minicon split also resulted in a couple other cons. MarsCon is primarily a media convention, with a very heavy contingent of parties. Like a smaller version of Convergence, really. It also has a very strong track of music programming, including fannish rock & rap.

• Another major local SF con is Diversicon. It's quite small -- rarely more than 125 people -- but it has very cool programming (with a slight feel of academic-level seriousness) and a very comfy feel.

• The Twin Cities are lucky to have a dedicated gaming convention, Con of the North. It's smallish, with about 500 people per year, but the variety of games is huge: D&D, indie RPGs, more Cthulhu than you can shake a stick at, everything by Fantasy Flight Games (CotN is their hometown con, basically), collectible card games, modern LAN gaming, retro LAN gaming, board games, card games, Euro games, minis wargaming and pretty much every other kind of gaming there is. It's a great, friendly little con, and well worth going to.

• There are other cons, too. To name a few, there's the Mnstf fallcon, which has changed names many times (for 2006, it was Convivial; in 2013, it was MethodCon); the Minnesota Gamer's Convention, which seems to be just getting off its feet; Anime Detour, the main local dedicated manga & anime con (actually the biggest convention in the area, usually having about 500 more people than Convergence); Fallcon, which seems to be the main local comic convention. There are several other general, horror, anime, comic and related fannish conventions I can't track.

• The Twin Cities are blessed to have some of the best FLGSs in the world. In most cities, any one of these would be good. In the Twin Cities, I literally can't keep track of them all. One example: I recently discovered one with outdoor seating not more than a few miles from my home! But here are some of the standouts:

• Before I went to college, I spent far, far too many hours at Phoenix Games and its earlier incarnation, the Little Tin Soldier (or the "Tin", as I came to call it). Too many hours, and also not nearly enough. Contrary to popular belief, they did not go out of business, they just moved to Minnetonka and turned their focus to selling online. The Source is probably a better store overall, but Phoenix still has a special place in my heart.

• When Phoenix moved online and out of town, a former employee opened Tower Games at 4807 Nicollet Ave. South in Minneapolis. It's heavily geared towards Warhammer players and minis wargaming in general.

• And, at 711 W. Lake Street in Muplis, not too far from where Phoenix had stood, there's now Chaos Games. Although their website strongly resembles that of Universe Games (see below), they're not owned by the same folks. Chaos Games has D&D, boardgames, M:tG, piles and piles of Warhammer stuff and even some RPGs that aren't D&D. Cool.

• Universe Games, in Richfield, has apparently gone out of business. As of February 2009, their website is still up, but the store itself is vacant. They were (are?) mostly focused on Magic: the Gathering and Euro boardgames, but they dabble in lots of other things, too.

• Monster Den is mostly for the M:tG set, though they have occasional D&D there. The space is great -- lots of nice tables, comfy chairs, vending machines, etc. There is also a sister store, Dreamers, located in St. Louis Park. It's also focused on M:tG, and has only a scant selection of RPGs, but it has some very nice gaming space, comics, lots of boardgames and a good selection of Gamescience dice.

• Village Games, in the far northern metro, is a friendly little shop with a good selection and a great gaming space.

• I think I could make a pretty strong argument that The Source is the best FLGS in the universe. They have pretty much every gaming thing you could possibly ever want, all in stock, including tons of RPGs, miniatures, boardgames, dice, indie games, old games and many other things that are otherwise usually only available online; they have a great selection of comics; they have a huge selection of manga; they have some very cool DVDs; they even have great open gaming space. If you're a gamer, SF fan or pretty much anything related, you pretty much have to go.

• There are also some excellent dedicated SF&F stores in the Cities:

• A favorite SF bookstore in Muplis is DreamHaven. They have an excellent selection of new and used SF&F, rare books, comics, collectibles, etc. etc. They also have one of the best selections of Phil Foglio stuff anywhere, including many back copies of D'arc Tangent.

• Uncle Hugo's is on a par with Dreamhaven. and a huge selection of used and new SF. Things can be a little hard to find -- there are many, many different piles and shelves -- but there really is an immense amount there. They even have a small but appreciable selection of gaming books. In fact, their selection of GURPS stuff is better than most FLGSs. That they rate primarily as an SF&F store rather than an FLGS shows how lucky this town is.

• And that all just scratches the surface. There are tons of other fannish goings-on around the Twin Cities, including writers' groups, parties, readings, gaming groups, clubs, meet-ups, etc. etc. If you're looking for a particular aspect of Twin Cities fandom, or would just like pointers for a good fannish gathering coming up, drop me a line!

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Media

These are various sources of general info in or about Minnesota -- radio stations, newspapers, etc.

• The standard newspaper in Muplis is the Strib (also known by some as the Star-Tribune).

• The main local weekly newspaper (Village Voice-style, in other words) is City Pages.

• One of my favorite radio stations in Muplis is KFAI, which has lots of good programs, including an evening of Queer stuff on Sunday nights (local time, of course).

• The U of M's (University of Minnesota, that is) station, run by students, is called Radio K.

• It's a bit too much for the soccer-mom crowd for my tastes, but Minnesota Public Radio is still far better than anything I can get here in Taiwan.

• It's not strictly Minnesota, but Michael Feldman's Whad'Ya Know radio show is a very funny bit of cool Midwesternism, and it's worth checking out.

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