Minneapolis, MN
Stuck in Minneapolis for spring break? Try this on for fun
Mall of America
What: If my 9-year-old were in charge of our family’s spring break trips, we’d never stray far from home. Ask her “Florida or Mall of America?” and a staycation at the goldang MOA wins her vote every time.
Offerings: The surprisingly difficult Amazing Mirror Maze (Level 3, North Garden, $9.95 a ticket) had all four of us clutching hands to make it through. Other faves: the revolving sushi at Kura Sushi (Level 3, North Garden) and cheese fries at Shake Shack (Level 3, North Garden $4.89).
Fun for: Tots, tweens and teens.
Flipflop factor: While there’s no beachy vibe, you can pick up a pair of cushy sandals at the Crocs store (Level 1, North Garden), get pedicures (L.A. Nails, Level 3, West Market) and go to Margaritaville (Level 3, East Broadway).
New additions: The trippy infinity rooms at the new Wink World, the brainchild of Blue Man Group co-founder Chris Wink (Level 3, North Garden, $20 for 13+, $15 for kids. On Tuesdays, kids are free with a paying adult) and Fly with Appa at Nickelodeon Universe.
An add-on: If you want to add an indoor pool to the mix, you can go all out and stay at the connected Radisson Blu (spring break packages that include MOA attraction tickets start around $370 for a family of four).
Photo op: Get Slimed at Nickelodeon Universe ($45 for one, $55 for two, ages 8 and up, tix.mallofamerica.com/get-slimed).
Signature drink: Uni Uni bubble tea (Level 1, East Broadway).
ERICA PEARSON
Can Can Wonderland
What: Alumni of the Soap Factory’s Haunted Basement and the Walker’s artist-designed mini-golf transformed an old can factory into an indie, indoor amusement park.
Offerings: A massive collection of arcade games from various eras, some more than 100 years old. (Unlimited play for $11-$14 admission.) There’s also an artist-designed mini-golf course (an extra $13-$15) and live entertainment, from music performances to burlesque to a robot-themed fashion show. There’s been “Tappy-Hour” dance instruction and, on the first Thursday of the month, participatory “drumeoke” (like what it sounds). Overstimulation is your only real risk.
Fun for: Anyone old enough to work a joystick.
Flipflop factor: The closest you’ll get to channeling a beach in Mexico is the unexpectedly delicious Elote Brussels Sprouts, which are fried and served street-corn style with an addictive dressing.
Best bit: Relieve your childhood at the arcade, scoring home runs on a baseball-themed 1960s pinball machine or destroying cities in the classic 1980s video game “Rampage.” I had fun introducing my kids to the joy of electronic competitions, especially the one that involves shooting hoops, whacking crocodiles and driving motorcycles. My fave was the Japanese racehorse simulator, which had us standing up in our saddles! My 6-year-old maxed out on Can Can after a couple of hours, but the 8-year-old could have stayed there for days.
An add-on: Mini-golf tee times are reserved on arrival, so come early if you want to avoid a long wait.
Photo op: You trying to defeat the animatronic arm wrestler. (Good luck! We couldn’t budge it.)
Signature drink: The Fruity Unicorn is a blend of vanilla ice cream and Fruity Pebbles that’s topped with edible glitter and a tuft of pink cotton candy that looks like a Troll doll’s hair.
755 N. Prior Av., Suite #4, St. Paul, cancanwonderland.com
RACHEL HUTTON
Watershed
What: A communal bathhouse and spa in Minneapolis with a hot soaking pool, steam room, sauna and cold plunge pools and tanks.
Offerings: The basic $54 experience gets you up to three hours, where you can cycle through the hot bath, sauna and cold plunge as many times as you like, or just chill out in a lounge chair.
Fun for: Adults of all ages. You have to be at least 18. Not recommended for people who are pregnant or have cardiovascular issues.
Flipflop factor: You have to wear a swimsuit. They provide towels and flipflops. But you may have to leave your beach novel behind. It’s a little too wet for that and the lighting is set at candlelight level.
Best bit: The opposite of a loud, boozy hotel hot tub, Watershed prohibits public displays of affection while soaking and asks that customers leave their phones in the lockers and keep their voices low. (Staff members will hit a gong if the noise level creeps up.) Plan on a phone-free couple of hours to contemplate the tonal soundtrack and the serene images projected on the walls while you’re soaking and sweating.
An add-on: There’s a menu of spa experiences you can add to your bathing, including salt scrubs, facials, massages and cupping.
Photo op: Because you have to leave your phone in the locker, it’s a no-selfie space.
Signature drink: Water. You probably will want to rehydrate after all that schvitzing. There’s also some dried fruit you can nibble on in the lounge area.
514 SE. 2nd St., Mpls, watershedspa.com.
RICHARD CHIN
Smash Park
What: A suburban restaurant/bar, sports and entertainment hub. If Punch Bowl Social or the Burrow added pickleball, you’d end up with a Smash Park.
Offerings: Reserve a pickleball court for $25 to $40 an hour, depending on day and time. (Courts fill up fast, but you can book them up to two weeks in advance.) You can also sign up for ax-throwing (14+), karaoke in a private “sing suite” (21+ except Sundays), darts (21+) and duckpin bowling.
Fun for: Pickleballers, of course, but dinking is far from necessary. I saw birthday gatherings, families with kids, large groups, and young and middle-aged people alike who were seeking activities with their Saturday night libations. An abundance of TVs makes it a fine place to watch sports, as well.
Flipflop factor: It’s not hard to find an island vibe if you want one. Skip the urge to order the “pickleballs” (fried cream cheese balls loaded with pickles and bacon bits) and try the tasty bang bang shrimp appetizer ($15) or the Caribbean shrimp bowl ($16), which comes with coconut-infused quinoa.
Best bit: If you’re here mostly for pickleball and a bite to eat with friends, consider dining in the pickleball hall while you wait for your court. There’s good energy, but it’s not as noisy. If you’re on a budget, free activities include cornhole, giant Connect 4 and foosball, as well as all-ages bingo on Sundays from 10 a.m.-noon. (Sundays are best for families, since some of the age restrictions do not apply.) Sign up for the rewards program and you’ll get a $15 game card for the arcade.
An add-on: New to pickleball? No problem. Paddles and balls are available to rent.
Photo op: If the Instagram-able rooftop patio is open by the time your spring break commences, you’re in luck. Just know it’s 21 and over on most days.
Signature drink: The Sociabowls are tropical-themed cocktails that arrive in fishbowl-like, 46-ounce mugs. Ask for a few straws and share with friends.
1721 W. County Road C, Roseville. https://smashpark.com/location/roseville/
LAURA YUEN
April 21, 2016.
Ten years later, that day still doesn’t seem real to me.
I was sitting in the newsroom of The Montclair Times in the early afternoon when word came that Prince had died.
I was incredulous. One of my musical heroes was gone. No way.
I was skeptical because I am a reporter. But also because it was Prince — a superstar so secretive and controlling of his music and public image that you could imagine he would have to give his permission to let the world know of his demise.
As the day passed, videos showed grieving fans standing outside his home and music studio complex, Paisley Park, not far from his beloved Minneapolis. That’s when the reality dawned on me.
Prince Rogers Nelson had gone 2 the afterworld at only 57 years old.
He was gone so young — he had so much more music in him to record, release and perform in public for an adoring audience. He died alone after collapsing in an elevator at his complex.
Those things made me sad.
But I was also annoyed at myself. For not being a better aficionado of his music — by never seeing him in person and not collecting every piece of music he ever recorded.
After a few days of listening to the radio and online to “Purple Rain” and “1999” being played ad nauseam, I also heard lesser-known cuts like the heartbreakingly melancholic and sadly appropriate “Sometimes It Snows In April.”
When I heard the depressing reports that he died due to an accidental fentanyl overdose, I resolved to pay proper tribute to The Purple One.
I would go to Minnesota on a Prince Pilgrimage.
‘Nothing Compares 2 U’
April to June 2016.
I said I would go to Minneapolis, to Prince’s home ground, to pay my respects to him. I didn’t think I would go through with booking a ticket on United Airlines from Newark for the weekend before his birthday.
I had used up most of my vacation days and had one to spare, but not another to stay through Prince’s actual born day. Just my luck.
At least I was fulfilling a commitment to an artist I adore.
I wouldn’t say I was a fanatic for his Royal Badness (one of the many nicknames he carried in his lifetime). But he’s one of the few musicians who really moved me.
I heard his music growing up in the 1980s in Jersey City as a matter of course when the radio dial was set on R&B or pop music stations like KISS-FM and Z-100.
When Prince’s sixth studio album, “Purple Rain,” was released in the summer of 1984, it was a revolution that pushed the rising star into the stratosphere.
I couldn’t go anywhere without hearing the screeching guitar and chanting of Prince that provided the intro to “When Doves Cry,” or the rhythmic strumming of the guitar and the clashing electric drums that start off the album’s title song.
However, it was watching “Purple Rain,” the movie, that put me on the Prince Express. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t act to the satisfaction of critics or that the plot seemed corny. I was just absolutely enthralled by him and his band, The Revolution, tearing through numbers that were a mélange of funk, rock and new wave, while in a musical rivalry with another badass, Morris Day, and his group.
My 13-year-old self also developed a crush on the leading lady, Apollonia Kotero, for her sultry voice and because she stripped nude to purify herself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka. It blew my mind then (and still blows my mind now).
Prince would remain in the background of my music listening as the years passed.
If it wasn’t his voice, it was the voice of others singing his songs, because he was as adept a songwriter as he was a performer. “I Feel for You” (Chaka Khan), “Manic Monday” (The Bangles) and “Nothing Compares 2 U” (Sinéad O’Connor) are some of the major hits that came from his pen.
The first vinyl album I ever got, in my teens was “Around the World in a Day,” his 1985 anti-commercial and purposely obscured follow-up to “Purple Rain.”
In college and afterward, whenever I had a few bucks in my pocket, I bought various albums on CD: “Diamonds and Pearls,” “The Black Album,” “The Gold Experience” and “Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic,” and “Lovesexy” on cassette. I paid for a ticket to watch what may be Spike Lee’s worst movie, “Girl 6,” in part to hear Prince’s music.
But it wasn’t just Prince’s virtuoso musicianship that made me a believer. It was also his personality, confounding and infuriating at the same time, that intrigued me.
I chatted with NYU classmates about how he slept no more than two hours a day because he worked so hard in the studio, playing all the instruments and producing every track. Yet he looked like he hadn’t aged a minute.
You would hear stories of him boosting artists that he admired by having them play on his albums and in concert. Then you would hear stories of his unkindness and controlling nature toward his bandmates and others in his inner circle.
He was a man who attained a level of stardom that demanded he bask in the spotlight at all times. Then there was the man who operated in secrecy and would alternate between the public, large-scale appearances and his surprise late-night concerts at small venues.
He was a true Gemini.
In the late spring of 2016, I was taking in all of who Prince was, as he was no longer among us mere mortals, while preparing to pay homage to him.
‘MPLS’ and ‘Uptown’
June 3 to 5, 2016.
“Rock ‘n’ Roll Is Alive! (And It Lives in Minneapolis)”
Prince’s 1993 song popped into my head as the United Airlines plane landed at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport around 10:30 p.m. on June 3.
In the morning, my Prince Pilgrimage was underway as I took a bus near my hotel toward downtown Minneapolis.
While on the bus, I could see out my window why he spent nearly his entire life in or near this city, and created songs like “MPLS” and “Uptown” that presented his hometown to the world.
The widest boulevards I have ever seen outside of Paris. The streets where you saw yards with no fences and many trees. The heat normally expected in late spring was tempered by the Minnesota coolness.
I had an itinerary of the stops I needed to make on a sunny Saturday.
First Avenue and 7th Street Entry was a Greyhound bus depot converted into two music venues starting in the early 1970s. On the wall outside, a giant painted gold star etched with the name PRINCE. Only fitting, as the “Purple Rain” movie was filmed inside First Avenue.
539 North Newton Ave. in the northern part of Minneapolis is where a teenage Mr. Nelson lived with his dad for a short time until he was thrown out.
When I stopped by to view the three-bedroom house, an African American couple was chatting up a man standing outside the house. After they were done, it was my turn to engage Maurice Phillips, Prince’s former bodyguard, who married his boss’ sister Tyka.
I went into reporter mode to get the inside scoop from him on my favorite recording artist.
What was Prince like? “He’s just a normal kind of guy like us. He put on his pants the same kind of way.”
Are there other thoughts about Prince you want to share? “No. But I know Prince is looking down. I got to get done with this yard work.”
Later, I made my way to the Parkway Theater in South Minneapolis for what I thought was the best way to mourn the man: “This Thing Called Life — The Prince Tribute.”
Julius Collins, on lead vocals, was backed by members of Prince’s 1990’s band, the New Power Generation, along with other singers and instrumentalists. They regaled attendees with renditions of Prince songs while photos and videos of him played on a screen behind them.
Collins’ voice boomed as he sang, “Good times were rolling/She started dancing in the streets,” (“Uptown”), “Do I believe in God?/Do I believe in me? — Controversy” (“Controversy”), and “Police ain’t got no gun/You don’t have to run” (“DMSR”).
It was the perfect end to day one of the pilgrimage. I got back to my hotel in the late evening to have a meal and prepare for day two.
I should have skipped the takeout from the nearby fast-casual joint, because the resulting heartburn had me down for the count — and nixed plans to visit the last stop on the pilgrimage: Paisley Park.
Yet I had a Plan B for the following day, so I wouldn’t let Prince down.
At 2000 Fourth Avenue South in Minneapolis is Electric Fetus, the iconic record store where Prince reportedly made his last public appearance and last music purchases five days before he died.
On my shopping list was his shopping list:
- Stevie Wonder, “Talking Book.”
- Chambers Brothers, “The Time Has Come.”
- Joni Mitchell, “Hejira.”
- The Swan Silvertones, “Inspirational Gospel Classics.”
- Missing Persons, “The Best Of Missing Persons.”
- Santana, “Santana IV.”
I got only three of those CDs, as the others were (unsurprisingly) sold out. I couldn’t have regrets, because, in a weird way, it was the closest to being there when he was there, the closest I would ever get to meeting him.
His famous opening line to “Let’s Go Crazy” also came to mind: “Dearly beloved. We are gathered here today to get through this thing called ‘life.’”
RIP Prince (June 7, 1958-April 21, 2016).
Ricardo Kaulessar covers race, immigration, and culture for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: kaulessar@northjersey.com
Twitter/X: @ricardokaul
Minneapolis, MN
Man convicted of murdering Mariah Samuels set for sentencing Monday after skipping previous court date
A Minneapolis man convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend is set to learn his fate Monday after he skipped his original sentencing date on Friday.
A jury found 51-year-old David Wright guilty of first-degree premeditated murder, first- and second-degree murder and illegal possession of a firearm last week. The premeditation conviction automatically triggers a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Wright was scheduled to be sentenced Friday afternoon, but did not show up to court. The judge asked Wright’s attorney if he was ill or refusing to show up, but the attorney declined to answer on grounds of attorney-client privilege.
Monday’s sentencing is scheduled for 2:30 p.m.
Wright killed 34-year-old Mariah Samuels in September outside her home in the Willard-Hay neighborhood of Minneapolis, minutes after she posted about his abuse on social media. Family members said Samuels had broken up with him after a few months of dating. She had a restraining order against him.
Samuels’ sister Simone Hunter called Wright “a dangerous person” who “should never see the light of day again” after his conviction.
Friends and family say Wright acted out throughout the trial, including missing previous court dates and removing himself from the stand.
Both Samuels’ family and Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty criticized the court for not doing more to ensure Wright showed up at the sentencing.
“This is why people think they can murder people in front of their dad’s house and get away with it. There’s no repercussions for these things, they don’t care about these women who are dying on a daily basis. And the least that they could have done is demanded that he come over here in shackles like the monster that he is,” Hunter said Friday. “I’m astounded.”
Samuels’ family has also accused the Minneapolis Police Department of not doing enough to keep her safe. Chief Brian O’Hara last year ordered her case to be reviewed and officers to be retrained on domestic violence.
For anonymous, confidential help, people can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or 1-800-787-3224.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – A 21-year-old man was killed after a motorcycle crash early Friday morning in Minneapolis, according to the Minnesota State Patrol.
Fatal motorcycle crash
The backstory:
The State Patrol responded to the crash at about 1:20 a.m. on April 17 on northbound I-35W at Johnson Street in Minneapolis.
Authorities say a man operating a Suzuki motorcycle was heading northbound on I-35W when it made contact with the left side median guard rail before it continued to head north. It traveled for about another quarter mile before coming to rest on the right side guard rail.
Authorities located the motorcycle’s operator on the left side shoulder. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Crash under investigation
Crash victim ID’d:
The State Patrol identified the motorcyclist as 21-year-old Andrew James Neuberger of Minneapolis. According to a GoFundMe set up for the family, Neuberger is the oldest of seven children.
What led up to the crash remains under investigation.
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