Midwest

[Amaro]

Haha I'm coming back...looking forward to so many things.

Cali was/is good...but there's plenty of bad in the mix, and in my case I only have a tiny bit of rooting here.

I'm done experimenting...Midwesterner at heart.

Can't. Get. Home. Soon. Enough.

[allegro]

It's weird how you don't notice you're a Midwesterner until you move away, eh? :-)

[Amaro]

Eh! :'>

Yes, absolutely... I've moved around all my life, but now I feel that more than ever. I actually came to know this about a year ago, but shit suddenly happened...plans diverted...now planets are truly aligning. My best friend/girlfriend comes back with me, willingly! (lol)

Best I've felt in a long, long time.

And I quote ...I WANNA FUCK SOMETHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[allegro]

[Amaro]

LoL Thanks for that. I'm sure I'd have run into that song at some point (I am Glee viewer), and also smiled...

I'll make sure I play that here soon for my girlfriend to hear.

[Goldfoot]

Pop, flatlanders, townies, cow tippin', Better Made, Faygo, and things (roads, cities, etc.) named after stupid French words that sound nothing like how they look.

Yay Midwest!

[allegro]

You mean, like, "Gratiot?"*

hahahaha


*"GRA (as in "grass") shit"

[Goldfoot]

and Shoenherr and Groesbeck and Hamtramck.

But at least us Midwesterners actually know that Kalamazoo is a real place.

[allegro]

MACKINAC! ("MACK-in-gnaw")

Tahquamenon Falls! ("tuh-QUA-meh-nun")

Pasties! ("PASS-tees")

and Shoenherr and Groesbeck and Hamtramck\

"SHANE-er"
"GROSS-beck"
"HamTRAMick"

:-)


Ill-ih-NOY (No S pronounced)
DES PLAINES (yes, you pronounce the S's with that one)

[allegro]

Fuck the Midwest, right now I wish I lived in the Yukon. This heat sucks.

[Big Fat Matt]

"Cadieux" Cad-JOO
"Sault St. Marie" SOO saint marie

most of these dumb spellings seem to be in Michigan.

Also, roadtrips to Hell are fun also.

[Goldfoot]

Yes, Michigan has a lot of them. And damnit, yes, fuck this heat. Hopefully it rains tonight and cools the fuck off.

[allegro]

"Cadieux" Cad-JOO
"Sault St. Marie" SOO saint marie

most of these dumb spellings seem to be in Michigan.

Also, roadtrips to Hell are fun also.

They're not dumb spellings; they're FRENCH WORDS!

Passing through Climax Michigan is fun.

I am WAY overdue for a Cedar Pointe trip.

[chris]

[Mantra]

"Minneapolis is so ugly. Parking lots like scars. Most buildings are narrow, drab, dirty, flimsy, irregular in relationship to one another — a set of bad teeth." - Sinclair Lewis

[Amaro]

With this super derecho happening yesterday, I can't wait to experience the shock of weather again...it's gonna be tough. Particularly because I've been involved in a couple of tornado scares in the past. I look forward to change, but I'm a paranoid type at the same time.

The weather in Cali SPOILS you. Plain and simple.

[onthewall2983]

The Ft. Wayne area (Northeast Indiana) was heavily affected by STRONG winds (up to 90 MPH) and thunderstorms on Friday, and the power was out to a lot of homes and residences here through the weekend. I just got back to my apartment, though I think the electricity has been on a few days already.

The thing I hate about the weather the most here is that winters and summers, more often than not give you the absolute extremes people can imagine about both seasons. That's certainly been true of the summers, but the winters have been very warm as of late. Especially this year, as we only got maybe a foot of snow for a few days in January as far as accumulation goes. Leap Day was gorgeous, and it reached up to 90 on St. Patrick's Day. As nice as all that has been, in the back of my mind I had a feeling the summer was going to be a real bitch to go through. Now, I'm hoping for a long, cold winter.

[THE JOHNNY ROOK]

I am a midwesterner.

From South Dakota, the land of sunshine and palm trees! Spent a lot of summers in Nebraska but currently I live in Minneapolis. That's what's wup!

This heat can go die in a fire though! It is brutal now. Need snow asap.

[Mantra]

wow, lotsa minneapolis cats in here.

we all agree this place totally blows, right? just want to make sure we're all on the same page about that.

[Amaro]

The Ft. Wayne area (Northeast Indiana) was heavily affected by STRONG winds (up to 90 MPH) and thunderstorms on Friday, and the power was out to a lot of homes and residences here through the weekend. I just got back to my apartment, though I think the electricity has been on a few days already.

I heard that from a friend of mine who lives in Fort Wayne. Sounded rough.

I saw some shots of eastern Ohio and it looked like at least F1 tornado damage.

//

Originally from Minnesota!!

[THE JOHNNY ROOK]

wow, lotsa minneapolis cats in here.

we all agree this place totally blows, right? just want to make sure we're all on the same page about that.

...I am a cat...

I still consider myself from South Dakota but have lived in Minneapolis for 7 years. How many people on ETS are in Minneapolis? And why do you say it blows? Lol

[Mantra]

Oh god, where do I even begin

It's seriously the most mediocre, uninteresting city I've ever been to. Like...what happens here? NOTHING happens here. People just walk around and stare into the void until they die. That's it.

In the winter, it feels like I'm living in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Just block after block of grey snow sludge and ugly buildings.

Uptown is supposed to be some kind of community of interesting artistic/creative young types, but I find it sort of depressing.

Don't even get me started on the fucking mall.

I fucking hate the hiphop scene here. Like Atmosphere and Brother Ali and all that shit. I mean, sure they seem like nice dudes, but really, I just don't care for their music at all. Whenever someone tries to talk me into liking their music, it reminds me of when my aunt tried to convince me that soy burgers were just as good as real burgers. She was like "Isn't it amazing? In fact, I actually think they're better than real burgers!" And you could just see trying to talk herself into this. That's how I feel with this horrible hiphop scene we've got here. People are like "Dude, have you heard Doomtree? SO GOOD, huh? Isn't it so much better than that mainstream shit like Jay Z? I like it cuz it doesn't have all that misogyny and homophobia, and yet the beats and rhymes are every bit as good!" And I just feel like...no. No it is not better. All these boring backpacker rappers, sure I guess their heart is in the right place, but they just don't hold a candle to the real stuff. It's a pleasant, politically correct, non-controversial substitute that people talk themselves into liking because they feel like it's the right thing to do.

So there's that.

Then there's the fucking University of Minnesota which seems hellbent on turning their institution into the Walmart of education as fast as possible.

Then there's our embarrassing football team who have been pissing and moaning about wanting a new stadium and throwing little tantrums and threatening to leave the state if they don't get their way. And of course they finally got what they wanted. All the fucking money that's gonna go for that, as if there's no pressing economic concerns right now.

I remember one time I got stuck on the light rail during a game day. Surrounded by all these purple shitheads, drunk and yelling and just making life horrible to experience.

It's also an incredibly segregated place. Ride the bus around, and the races will be totally mixed at first, but then you get to certain stops and ALL the black people get off together, or ALL the Latinos, and so on.

The suburbs around here...my god...they're the worst. Try going to Bloomington someday. It's an antiseptic hell-hole of a place, filled with nothing but depressing strip malls and soulless office parks. It's a place completely devoid of culture or hope, where dreams go to die.

I feel horrified by all the people who love nothing more than hockey games and taking the boat on the lake and gosh, isn't Garrison Kellor SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO funny? You betcha. Let's go snowmobiling!



However...That said, I am a person who is full of bitterness and hate, so maybe other people just don't see it the same way I do.

[Amaro]

^ Liking from the lols.

[chris]

I just posted that video because a lot of the lyrics are complimentary to the Midwest in general. I wasn’t trying to say anything about Minneapolis being so great specifically, but clearly I touched a nerve. Pretty much everything you bitched about could be applied to the entire United States: sports teams demanding stadiums, segregation, generic suburbs, etc. I have no idea what you’re talking about with the UMN since your comment was all sarcasm and zero explanation. As far as pop culture goes, I think it’s more a matter of pride that it exists at all as opposed to declaring its supremacy over the coasts. I think if you spent a little more time in some of the shittier parts of the country, or maybe got out on a lake you might appreciate it here a bit more. Want to borrow a jet ski or snowmobile? I’ve got extras.

[onthewall2983]

I heard that from a friend of mine who lives in Fort Wayne. Sounded rough.

I saw some shots of eastern Ohio and it looked like at least F1 tornado damage.

//

Originally from Minnesota!!

Actually my dad said a tornado would have caused less damage than what happened Friday. They tend to move in a straight line that is more predictable. This was just out and out WIND, all over the place.

Worse than all that is it was unbearably hot to boot. The storms and rain cooled the city off for the rest of the day, but it got right back up in the 90's the next day and has not relented since.

[THE JOHNNY ROOK]

However...That said, I am a person who is full of bitterness and hate, so maybe other people just don't see it the same way I do.

Quoted for truth!

[Amaro]

Actually my dad said a tornado would have caused less damage than what happened Friday. They tend to move in a straight line that is more predictable. This was just out and out WIND, all over the place.

Worse than all that is it was unbearably hot to boot. The storms and rain cooled the city off for the rest of the day, but it got right back up in the 90's the next day and has not relented since.

No doubt, a super derecho is gonna have its way with a lot of grounds compared to most tornados that form. I'd rather have the derecho though... But considering debris can be a swift killer, both would be equally dangerous to be caught in outside of any secure structure.

I don't remember what hot humidity feels like... Tell me, please.

[Mantra]

I just posted that video because a lot of the lyrics are complimentary to the Midwest in general. I wasn’t trying to say anything about Minneapolis being so great specifically, but clearly I touched a nerve. Pretty much everything you bitched about could be applied to the entire United States: sports teams demanding stadiums, segregation, generic suburbs, etc. I have no idea what you’re talking about with the UMN since your comment was all sarcasm and zero explanation. As far as pop culture goes, I think it’s more a matter of pride that it exists at all as opposed to declaring its supremacy over the coasts. I think if you spent a little more time in some of the shittier parts of the country, or maybe got out on a lake you might appreciate it here a bit more. Want to borrow a jet ski or snowmobile? I’ve got extras.

It's all good dude, I was just joking around.

Or rather...I really do believe some of those things, just not with that level of intensity.

[onthewall2983]

I don't remember what hot humidity feels like... Tell me, please.

In my case, expensive. I hate running up my electric bills.

[allegro]

In my case, expensive. I hate running up my electric bills.

No fucking electricity here at my mom's house for two fucking days. Stifling, muggy, 100 degrees while we're packing her belongings to move to Chicago.

FUCK YOU, DTE. FUCK YOU.