A mainstay on the downtown scene for several years, in the Way Back Machine that goes way back to invoke this reference, was Darcy, who had a celebrity lookalike who sports the same rich auburn hair of the same wavy length, and is just a bit older and also made her mark, long before her passing on just prior to 60.
That celeb is none other than Tawny Kitaen, of the fame brought by primping on the hood of a classic car in a Whitesnake video — talked about at length by various weekend friends who like I are quasi-music critics. They were strangely unaware of the metal side to singer David Coverdale, who as most people do not know was there from the Old School start of that heavy scene, and his then girlfriend Kitaen, as she was better known at that point to frame what they had, as being a good song vs. best song for the band. The crux that defines how the three of us think differently of Whitesnake was the song “Still Of The Night.” Kitaen, again as a purring kitten, also was the only saving grace in a strangely popular movie, with that notorious nude come-on to Tom Hanks in Bachelor Party, being perhaps the only man on the planet who could turn her down, in ways that also played out a bit in Forrest Gump.
A very quick internet search of her resume, as such, showed that Tawny could be even a bit more tawdry, but at the same time artsy? Think B-side movies along the lines of Perils of Gwendoline.
But that is nothing like my favorite Tawny/Darcy moment, even though they are of the same height and indeed stature among us three critics, who had only started frequenting Hudson music at the time.
We were at Pudge’s, when it was indeed Pudge’s, me and mine in the front bar, and Darcy and a few friends way in back playing that nasty game of Truth Or Dare. One of them selected dare, and Darcy seized the moment, knowing that the recipient was bi-sexual. “Joe Winter is over there, and he’s married, but I want you to French kiss him.” The request was made to me and followed through on, maybe with even a bit of eagerness I have to say, with her intro of advice before proceeding summed up as, just flow with it. Only then did I hear the back story.
But back to Tawny. She and family members lived for many years on the other end of Cherry Circle North, so she was a shirt-tail neighbor. “There lives a girl just up the block and … she would turn all the boys heads.”
More such noteworthy passings on have occurred recently, some with a connection to HudsonWiNightlife, and some not so much so, although as you all know, I will try to make it so. More on those in future post(s), as I will let the dead rest only after they are no longer warm in the grave, and the ashes of their bodies weather, to quote another one of the just-pre-Coverdale metal bands. But until then … keep posted for such posts. One also will be the pre-Death Masks as they were, soon made into fashion, and now are no longer, at least in most cases, as I will detail the history of what we have been wearing on our faces to arrive at our eventual now removal.

Right around the time taverns in Hudson and following suit, North Hudson, curtailed their hours to a midnight closing, (now expired), Pierce County and the City of New Richmond without fanfare lifted their 25 percent capacity rules, allowing a full bar.
Furthermore in late April, as a possible paradox, St. County officially chimed in for perhaps the first and most meaningful time by enacting their own 25 percent rule, and then Minnesota took the ball right away in May with their own decree, for the first time in ages allowing full capacity at all the places people congregate. And there were times when that age thing and the IDs that could hold sway between the two states and was the main thing at issue, remember then? But the short version is that all bars in western Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota and beyond are now back full throttle as far as when they have to close. Furthermore, very few of the places in St. Croix County ever get above the 25-percent limit anyway, except on a very busy night on a weekend, when social distancing should have covered that base anyway. Whatever the case, the capacity rule is typically being followed just as little as the face mask decree.
At the height of these closings and reopenings, people had the option of bolting past Hudson and continuing to head dead eastward to places that often have their own specialties in music and beyond, bars in Roberts, Hammond, Baldwin/Woodville, and angling a bit northernly, Boardman/Burkhardt, or
River Falls, straddling the line to be in both counties, is its own animal, so in practice their reopening did not roll out uniformally.Virtually all the bars are on the Pierce County side. Also at play within all these matters is the circumstance that state, county and local rules may be at odds as far as which takes precedence. Ask my buddy who is almost living (and not only After Midnight) and dying for his beloved karaoke, and taking center stage is the offering of what can include open mic, which is a completely different animal, at Ziggy’s in Hudson on Tuesdays, coming and going with what is closing time for hours, and masks and distancing. And Ziggy’s has (frequently?) retooled its before-full-band players and times/days performing for almost all other nights, as they can be a one-man act that also entails Country Boy and Piano Man. But all openness seemed to focus on the idea that people from the Minneapolis area would close down the joints in their backyard, then come over here. Why the difference, in part, between Badger and Gopher, and I have to say its TLC: multiple Tavern League Considerations that make for political power almost as much as stimulus check debates, (conveyed over many a Miller and Milwaukee’s Old and Best?) A side note to the where and when of offerings, like their snack sides: Ziggy’s has places in Hudson and Stillwater.
How do we see this bi-state, or Tri-State, battle play out in real terms, especially if you are a guy, and his ride. Getting The Doors egged, allegedly more than a dozen of the orbs, while along the St. Croix in Lakefront Park? Much more a vandals paradise then on the Minnesota side, depite the I must say needed efforts at extra patrolling by local cop shops, who are veering toward and looming more toward that end of city and village — and town? — affairs, and also the affluent enclaves? Much more commentary on this soon on this site, (and I will try to follow through on this promise “more-on” past rate of success than at some previous junctures, most notably on the opening day and going forward MLB stuff prompted by local sports bar airings, to build up what another buddy of mine calls the domestic “moron-athon.”
But now back to basics.

Hut how the new rules are playing out, from town to town:
— On the Sunday before the midnight no-serve curfew was lifted, the crowd at Dick’s Bar had more Twin Citians than regulars, but the gap was closing. There was a Cities guy chatting-up Andrea, Emma was dancing up a storm with Karis, as in the wings were two men who slimply never dance, Tom and Dan, and in the aisle next to them Garret and Alice held court. A couple who had worked at Dick’s stopped in for the first time in six years, making one thinking what for weeks had been a very uptempo crowd was a draw.This was aid to have picked up the pace once more from the prevsious Sunday. That’s about it. A longtime bouncer said he was happy not needing to scan the crowd to intervene before there might be a fight.
— In River Falls, the Nutty Squirrel hosted the first of its killer, yearlong karaoke contests, that was thrown together faster than a Slayer song when the word got out. It had Cinco De Mayo nailed with its drink specials. Just up the block, most noticably, the BX Mexican place was still late-night lights out.
— A newbie came into Starr’s Bar in North Hudson in early May, around what had been their closing time several days earlier, bought a round for at least half those in the horseshoe, then in short order walked out again. The opposite end that offers various games had been seeing sparse numbers of players, on days when midnight was the final whistle. The bars appeared to be making their best hay when there were fewer patrons, but they were big spenders. Another effect going back a full year, was that when there have been bands, their venues have not wanted to advertise the fact, as they are in a Catch 22 of not really wanting to push attendence higher. But the actual-out-the-door closing push has been less urgent when the rule is dictated by their management, not the government. The same could be likely in some bergs eastward where there is no local police department, since the county sheriff’s deputies can’t be everywhere.
— Bars in west-central Pierce County have greeted the latest change back to full capacity with a new presence of bands, and the way was led by some venues celebrating their anniversaries. However, many servers were not fully aware of the reversion and how it was effecting their holding of special events, and if agents of government had made an official noticfiation to the venues. But many New Richmond sources say they will be charging ahead more quickly and fully with music.
— Across the river at Sgt. Peppers in Oakdale, karaoke will be back on during Thursday nights, but moving into position slowly, even though they again have the option of staying open to 1 a,m. More typically, is a shutdown of the bar as early as 11 p.m., depending on their often diminished customer volume. It’s a popular place for some Hudsonites, as the traffic goes both ways, as do many servers when they commute to work.
And new from Saturday Night Almost Live: Dick’s was again Strangers In A Strange Land, Hudson Tap was quite full early and included All The Young Dudes in the back pool area before traffic as their usual quickly thinned out, and Ziggy’s showed the most diversity I have seen for this area and not just Black people but a group of Asian women that’s something atypical for Hudson. I see that as a good thing, as we broaden to others than the usual Caucasian white folk. But there was heightened security at the door that at Dick’s even included a search for weapons with a wand.
But then on Sunday night, things as far as the crowd that was gathering hedged toward a sense of normalcy, if you can use that term to reference a bar.

A Hudson author and others have predicted that the next world war will be fought over availability of water, likely, and the remainder of this yarn is on what could be so true even this day.
They say you have 30 days to cancel virtually any agreement, and this is May Day, a full month after April Fools, so …
Remember the origin of all this, when Foxconn said they would build a mega-facility in Wisconsin and provided mega-employment?
Why, and they are not telling you, is the real reason the deal fell through? They went elsewhere. And the Man From Mars brokered the plan.
Any work force there might have been died of thirst as Mars long ago evaporated the last of its drinking water (due to using it all for steam production?)
That’s why, with no potable water either for workers and the high-end customers who can afford the space travel fare to the planet — for most of us this would take cashing in 1,000 stimulus checks — there could be no for flushing except for the upper brass, but they live in Flushing anyway, the whole deal crapped out so to speak. Another political-industry measure that could again be seen as here someday, and even though this is May Day, you can’t blame the communists! Even though we are talking about the Red Planet.
And Some Would Say What Is Lost Can Never Be Saved … You won’t like this if you are one of the priviliged few who can”do business” by hopping your paid-for yacht with a cute captain across Lake St. Croix down to Lake City. (And lets face it, for what’s most current as far as elections go, School Board members just don’t have the clout to get much arranged outside of a bricks and mortar schoolhouse). But so, you must be a Democrat to like this next “prudent” idea: Building infastructure lines for free Hudson public transportation (at least for some) and hey that even gets out the vote, and who champions that turnout bends along party lines. Want to use that stance to win an election — as conservatives rule in these parts, but proponents would gain fewer personal perks? At least some that don’t necessarily include the limos that often take around young people from the Cities, not just politicos? And as far as those flyers who said not to be a no-show at the ballot box and drive there in political packs in seating of up to four, social distancing aside, consider that all you’ve got is an expensive taxi. Ride Share anyone?
The election found at least a couple of candidates — much less than the number of Irish siblings in a typical family prior to the Kennedys, politicos who reportedly did their very all to up the ante of that number through all variety of “avenues,” if you know what I mean — and the two gave it the good old Irish look. That was on the heels of that Holiday of Holidays, among other holidays such as Green Day as in Earth Day, that all Irish (are required?) to celebrate, and thusly have U2 crying in their Guinness. And the Irish love their other Irish, but we are talking about one man who could have come right out of Saturday Night Live, with very red locks not dreadlocks. Another’s wavy/curly hair was also not long, but with a green and somewhat grey tint all around, making for lilt — of Talking Heads? –among the voting faithful.

The local, if I can call it that, news remains the same, even though there is yet another acquisition of the Hudson-Star-Observer, as much ballyhooyed in their latest round of weekly lead stories — and maybe even placed above the fold ahead of the once ethically forbidden ads at times taking up space.
The latest buyout will undoubtedly bring more of the same, just packaged differently under the guise of a “hyper-local” news focus that claims to go after, in part, the burgeoning Hudson street scene. This could be seen as a comparison I’ll make, to the classic metal album, back in the days before CDs, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son — and do the new powers that be and their alleged nightlife focus even know what I’m talking about? In the beginning there was the Star-Observer, which begat Western Wisconsin Publishing, which begat Rivertown News, which begat Red Wing Publishing Company, which begat Forum Publishing, which now begat O’Rourke Media Group, and then begat Moonchild Intergalactic News (again are they clueless about the music metaphor I just made up? And they think they have the chops to report on entertainment?)
Christ where does it end? It’s like the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel being bought out by Gannett as part of the deal to possess a randomly estimated 62 percent of the dailies In The State And Beyond, so free content for all practical purposes can be spread around.
<<News break: This added take on the political and journalism world and how it is viewed, the decisions, decisions these days, as seen through the eyes of the National Guard and the choices I assume they have to make — go northeast or northwest from Hudson to serve the massive need, you can’t do both. As Dire Straits sang: “Two men say they’re Jesus. One of them must be wrong. There’s a protest singer, he’s singing a protest song.” So, more on “hope” if you reference the Notes on the Beat department, and the last and I hope final political silliness, on a person to person level, under Uncatagorized.>>
Corporate Journalism is, again, alive and well here. And the reporters and even associate editors will tell you, on the QT, they hate what it has become.
Case in point: The hallmark of their what is old is now new again twist is a lengthy series on water quality as it is effected by, basically, corporate farming. (Is this the stained pot calling the same kettle black?) Good journalism, I’m sure, but there is nary a farm to be found in the Hudson area, so why is this on the front page of Star-Observer? Back to the future, as has been complained about at length by so many readers, for example, that the latest hiccup in hoidy-toidy Woodbury politics is of no interest to someone in even more hoidy toidy Hudson, and indeed that says something. Yet this is all we are fed here because, as you already know, it it getting by on the cheap, regurgitating something “regional” for free because it came from an affiliate. And they are everywhere!
I know all this because I used to be a big part of the public face at the Star-Observer, being the guy with the great big camera at all the local festivals, when the alleged main photographer always bailed and I would cover for her — but then after 16 years I got downsized. But people still associated me with the local rag, and I don’t know how many times a quiet evening out was very compromised by somebody bitching to me about why it is has fallen from grace and is not nearly what it used to be, and Joe can you do something about the scenario?
So it I’m sure will be, again, more of the same. You know it, and I know it, and they know it. The corporate game is to hope readers will not so distressed and distraught about the lack of true local news that they actually cancel their subscription. It is garbage in and garbage out, and apathy wins. Really want to get your game back on? HudsonWiNightlife will fix your sorry corporate butt for a small consultant fee, say the less than $16 an hour I made after 16 years on the job.
And this is not sour grapes, rather giving the public something they want, and that is a great read. Everyone likes to see the powers that be get taken to task. Its not personal, just business. And all you corporate hacks can surely understand that one.
Oh, this just in. This city of Hudson issued there annual water quality report, more postage and paper to all the souls that are within their jurisdiction, saying everything in Mayberry is just fine. But there was that local little old lady who found a grimy red drip out of her faucet, so maybe reporting that as far as the above criticized series does indeed make it local.
With that last bit of satire, lets see if the new Star-Observer can keep up with, in specialized content, HudsonWiNightlife. I will say, they are much better at being on top of new business stories that include nightclubs than I — since my website is more like a magazine than a breaking news, newspaper as far as timeliness — as then they can send one of their cutie pie young ad reps to wink at the owner and thus seal the final deal to extract advertisement dollars. And they did indeed be the first to point out that one of the latest dead men in the northern parts of Minneapolis was once a Hudson resident. Kudos to them for finally localizing it! Just don’t expect it on any kind of regular basis.
It takes all kinds in the publishing world; even they have their niche. It takes a village? Maybe that will help, between all of the various publishing outlets, to bring baby back the cool nightlife scene that was Hudson.

(Editors note: This is a more extended followup to a question I posed based on the Nextdoor village site, based on a commentator’s comparison of Stairway to Heaven lyrics, to the violence and looting in the Twin Cities following shootings of Black men by police officers. Quora also had a hint that such meaning would be valued).
The particular verse he cited of the Led Zeppelin song reads: If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow don’t be alarmed now. It’s just a spring clean for the May Queen.” I asked if anyone knew the religious reference being made in the last phrase, and gave the hint that its origins predate Christianity. So here goes.
The verse refers to a pagan religious practice to honor the earth with each coming of spring, and with it renewal. Like so many of their traditions, Christians co-oped the celebration and formed it around Mother Mary, and much less so Mother Earth. Use of the term hedgerow is apt because of the direct connotation to invoke nature. This is a time of the season for not “bustle” and confusion, but cleansing and the spiritual orderliness that comes from “the piper calling us to reason.”
<<The rest of the story>>
A buddy of mine who knows his music, in part because of an Asperger’s streak, and indeed may soon report on such in these pages, was unsure about the meaning until being told the May Queen ending reference. Then it came clear. I seem to recall that he was fingering a rosary at the time. Far from the reply by another commentator on Nextdoor, who simply murmured, “what??????”
Super-friendly super-singer Robert Plant, in some of the many in-concert recordings, introduces the already lengthy anthem — which has several versions of minutes-long guitar solos that are craftsman-like and border on the heavenly — by saying “this is a song of hope,” echoing the themes that could be parallels to today’s violence. “And a new day will dawn, for those who stand long, and the forests (again one of the many nature references), will echo with laughter.” Then the commentary, inserted between verses because of its importance, “laughter, do you do you remember laughter?”
There are other rock songs that deal with both Christianity and Paganism simultaneously. One of the more recent, featuring a lamentation to go to meet God in the mansion he has prepared without a long wait in this earthly realm, is by Audioslave: “In your house I long to be. Room by room patiently … I will pray to the gods and the angels, like a Pagan, to anyone who will take me to heaven.” The super-group’s singer, the late Chris Cornell, was using this as a side project to get out his religious feelings, which built on and really were not much different than those with his main band, the decades old Soundgarden, which featured grunge and beyond.
Even more noteworthy of this religious tandem is the song The Wicker Man by Iron Maiden, with a good half-dozen such extended spirituality-based metaphors, many right from the Bible but it doesn’t stop there, but it is far too complex and multifaceted to be addressed now. And also Rainbow in Man on the Silver Mountain, and Judas Priest in Exciter, refer to a cleansing by fire that leads to growth, by an unnamed deity.
So I will close with the speak-for-itself words of none other that The Ozz Man, in his post-Black Sabbath and Randy guitar great period of 40-some years ago, and long before it was mainstream and popular by Christians to refer to God as Mother, unless in some seminaries, but the feminine side of God the Father and even Jesus since has been proclaimed to include things such as nurturing of the land and its stewardship. So here without further ado is Revelation (Mother Earth): “Mother please forgive them, for they know not what they do, looking back in history’s books we see its nothing new, please let my mother live. Heaven is for heroes and hell is full of fools, stupidity, no will to live by breaking God’s own rules, please let my mother live. Father, of all Creation, it seems we’re all doing wrong, taking seems to be breaking and it won’t take too long. Children of the future, watching empires fall, free from the final judging the destruction of all …” In the second half of the ballad turned metal,  Steal Away, The Night, Ozzy gives his answer on how to obtain salvation.

Much more such analysis coming over time, on this and other related fronts. Joe.

The Chauvin verdict of guilty is in, and the fallout into Hudson and its bar sector continues and grows, putting another snag on what a server at Hudson Tap termed, a hearty welcome to bringing back the regulars from town. And the recent edict of an official 25-percent-capacity rule in St. Croix County venues sealed the deal further.
Now we are back to not 12:30 limitations in the village of North Hudson, as they were not letting people in after that, but now front and center midnight. Dick’s Bar in the downtown has upted the ante, also shutting down bar service — food appears to be another game — come the witching hour. As a server said over the phone, “it just got too crazy.”
Prior to that, people driving through said it was hopping until indeed D-Day. But a different twist: A nephew working in the south end of the Twin Cities said that he was basically out hours because his clothing store shut down, not just closing early, at the height of all this mess.

<<News break: More of the same as an update that keeps on growing and growing, as well as the antitheses, for being good neighbors, the years-running and killer, if I can say that, garage sale on Cherry Circle North. If you can’t find it here you don’t need it, down to the White Elephant. See the Uncategorized department of this web page, which is also the official social media sponsor — OK were getting way too big a head now.>>

People these days seem to go one of two ways, being very understanding of unusual situations or the other end and judgmental and even scamming, as my mom has told me over and over, so watch out. To wit: A beautiful young Black woman was driving through the albeit-crowded County Market parking lot, and I was a Rolling Stones — not Brown Sugar mind you — throw away from the raft of cars by me that were parked on the side, I was not in the way at all. Still, she rolled down the window to halfmast and thanked me for moving out of the way, when I was not in the way to start with. And I have said on these pages, the virus situation will not be cured by government programs, although they definitely have their place, rather in the trenches, neighbor to neighbor, friend to friend. People these days seem to go one of two ways, being very understanding of unusual situations or the other end and judgmental and even scamming, as my mom has told me over and over, so watch out. This can bring out the best in people, but not always. To wit: A beautiful young Black woman was driving through the albeit-crowded County Market parking lot, and I was a Rolling Stones — not Brown Sugar mind you — throw away from the raft of cars by me that were parked on the side, I was not in the way at all. Still, she rolled down the window to halfmast and thanked me for moving out of the way, when I was not in the way to start with. And I have said on these pages, the virus situation will not be cured by government programs, although they definitely have their place, rather in the trenches, neighbor to neighbor, friend to friend.

A Black man and his White lady friend came into Green Mill at the height of the uprisings across the river and into the Cities. I and the staff had never seen them there before, and this is perhaps the first Black person ever that has been prominent in the place. This is only poignant because I and only one other person, an older guy doing just appetizers rather then Bloodies, were the only ones in the bar, underscoring the idea that this was unusual. They also were middle aged, not the young punks who have taken over he downtown scene. And there might be more to that analogy. as they were Classic Rock Fan Age, rather than rap: Both were wearing Harley attire, with their hats and sweatshirts, in a realm that is more typical of white male bikers, even though this timing was earlier than happy hour.
But but back to my beloved Kwik Trip, all the way further into lily white Hudson by being set up in the northern village. They had two people in line with dark skin that was even more noticeable because of their attire that virtually cried I’m Not From Hudson, from their long black trench coat and really cool rounded hat, and not the baseball variety. Again all deep black, and making a nice style statement not seen here often…

Another set of curfew circumstances, from another shooting of someone at a traffic stop, and more and more the impact of such incidents in the metro are spilling with their broad tentacles across the border not just between the two big twin cities, but also between the two states.
The city of Champlin in northern Hennepin County has extended its curfew through the entire weekend, so you know where those potential weekend warriors are likely to go. Head East. Not the Warehouse District.
One would expect that in areas of the metro opposite the city where the shooting took place, there would be a transfer of the main party scene. Just ask my friend Amanda, who used to bartend at Wild Bill’s in Woodbury. That would be especially true early-week at that bar and others like it eastward into Wisconsin, with removal in spots of the often-held option of the Minnesota Wild games at the XCel Energy Center and its spat of nearby sports bar, with people then moving eastward if the contest is ended in regulation with a low-goal score.

<<News break: We’re keeping score at the venues in the village and their reaction. OK, only one North Hudson venue, being used in almost real time to tell the tale of two states. See the Uncatagorized department>>

But part of the effect of such rules and curfew constraints is having freedom to move about restricted, even in cities without the official limitations, especially as press releases cite that members of the public should note a heightened police presence near areas where rioting might occur. There is just a general chilling effect that spills over into other jurisdictions concerning how police deal with travel to routine activities such as going to your favorite club, so that heightened police presence is likely not limited to Brooklyn Park and Center — although this reality is not advertised much by officials in various cities, towns and villages. As was famously rapped, No Sleep Till Brooklyn.
These things to a lesser but also noticeable degree in a place like Hudson, both then and especially now. Lets examine this:
If you are driving in the downtown late at night and are pulled over for, say, having a headlight out, the first question invariably will be, “where are you coming from tonight?” Apparently its a sin, if not a crime, to drive through through that stretch of town around midnight. Once my wife who works as a minister had some fun, accurately, to that question and dropped this bomb, “I was at church.”
“Have you had anything to drink tonight?”
“Communion wine.”
He said to make sure and signal when going through the intersection that held not another car in sight.
Whether it is legitimate for an officer to ask such a leading question is a gray area. (It should be noted that coming to and from religious events is almost always considered an exemption from the no driving rule in curfews).
Once in mid-winter I was driving home after an ice storm and the windows had that troublesome sheen, although I could still see my way down a barren Second Street. The cop said he could not let me go further until the ice was completely removed, but no ticket or warning. He did not ask me if I’d had anything to drink. I had consumed two whiskey sours on ice during the course of the evening. These days there is simply no way the situation would be resolved that easily. I was having trouble with the scraping and walked back to the squad car to explain why I was lingering. Again, in the Twin Cities these days that could be a fatal question.
One of the exemptions is for “credentialed” members of the media. A freelancer like me might be sent home, if not arrested. Is a blog like HudsonWiNightlife an actual publication? Again, gray area. It might depend on if the cop knows you.
When I was downsized from the Hudson Star-Observer as a staffer, the editor and I agreed that I could still submit photos, usually of a fire or auto accident, that would get me a Benjamin or a bit more if used. Once I was downtown and saw that the stoplights were not functioning — a matter that for a while seemed to be happening far too often — and I took a photo of an officer directing traffic right in the middle of the midnight intersection. He yelled over to me to ask what I was doing at the moment I held the camera to my eye. After I responded, he told me to wrap it up and be on my way. I think I can safely say that if I were to do the same thing in Minneapolis in 2021, I might be shot.
Most people I talked to now, although not all, in and around Hudson noticed more cops out and about midweek in places that would normally not be as high a priority. To wit: A badged orange-and-yellow-Stryper who was apparently checking out a parked car on the main drag and a squad car from out of state travelling, also on the main drag, between Hudson and North Hudson. A key: The early rioting spilled over into Minneapolis, so there is a certain need to spread greater enforcement to a broader area.
Thus, there are vague, catch-all buzzwords such as “unlawful assembly” charges, and we are not talking about moshing at a Danzig concert. You get the point.
So hopefully, all this can be put behind us and all we have left to deal with involving interstate travel (regionally) to see your favorite band are those pesky and jurisdiction-hopping and thus varying mask requirements.

In late fall, I saw a woman raking with not one hand clapping, so to speak, but two of these wicker things going at once. As she put aside one of these two rakes while beside a garbage bin, not a wicker basket, for only that purpose, she added that the Farmers Almanac had predicted that this winter would be one of the most trying, in multiple ways such as snow, than any in recent times. And now the cold has arisen and reclaimed its spot as the season to be reckoned with.
Jump forward to this slowly (in most ways) oncoming spring, and there was the neighbor who stepped rather eagerly forward to chat, and said in his immediate recall was the past Easter, in addition to the 2021 version where people were forging out for in-person worship, that was not very hot but did feature four inches of snow, and he streamed a service on his computer, and a message (from above?) came to him out of the blue: Jesus will wash away what the weather brings, toward salvation, virus or no virus, religion or naught. And this season, the temps again hit 80 like in a Sunday long ago, only two days later.
And rakes again? A neighbor of mine, not hers, had two of them — or were they shovels as I forget from being in the moment — and between them was filtered a springlike message cloth. The evening before, the local man cave/garage was going again in absentyism via a well-worked outdoor patio, with some people leaving shortly after about Two Minutes to Midnight and the rest lingering like the Angels In The Tomb (sorry to get so religious with that reference to another cave). And the very next day, the tell-tale scooter was out and parked sideways in front of the garage door, another harbinger of spring, even moreso then All The Small Trees at a roadside park just to the north that always seems to be a deeper green on days the virus was closer to being curbed. And at the nearby Bible Baptist parsonage, the eggs late hanging from tree branches were along the last lines of two dozen.
And with that, oddly, the local church lady’s family had leftover only a dangling green participle in a token birch tree, where Easter messages always abounded, maybe a backhanded ode to the virus? After citrus salad of the upcoming summer, I’m guessing, the clan was out shoveling dirt around the token remaining tree to keep moving forward with their rejuvenation project Way Out Front, where there had not been more bushes since almost the Bush presidency. Still had thought they looked cool. Making me look really bad in a Keep Up With The Jones style.
Across the cul de sac, the mound of snow created by village plows was long gone, like the mountains that Led Zeppelin says were washed away. In there place were makeshift forays of touch football and batting practice, as the guy who was a switchhitter struck out from the right side but nailed a could-be-a-double with a shot just to the left of second base, when doubling up as a lefty.
The weather again went sour, in this case very cold, for the Unfrost Your Nuts motorcycle rally, and in this case I think that testosterone was diminished to highway-to-the-danger-zone type proportions, as these parts were exposed to really frigid leather, despite the presence of much lace. So what’s a biker to do? Hit the Kwik Trip for snacks, between revving engines to well above speed limit again in what testosterone was left, and in keeping with recent court decrees at state, few of them were with masks. An exception from a few days before was an Easterish biker chick so covered in black label leather that all skin, even around her face, was covered to the point that it became hard to see if she was Caucasian. Not as if this bit of content matters.

The mountain of snow across the way from the house is long gone, as are in very recent times the other remnants of winter maintenance. The orange sticks in the stone that showed where next to a sidewalk you would find something like a fire hydrant have been removed even before the latest dusting of snow, and rose up a full three feet just in case the Farmer’s Almanac was right. Even that might not have been enough, as more height was needed and the manufacturing of said two feet more were outsourced to a place where they know snow — Siberia! But this offer was withdrawn as it might give the Russians another foothold in elections that are still more than three years away. OK, I made all that up. With these are gone from the scene the gnarly looking pink-orange piles of pothole fill you’d see here and there on paths to and from the  bars. Did actually, somebody party a bit too much?

What About Bob for the Board of Education? Or Rob? As in Bob B, or Rob B? And a few other intro letters in combo as Joe is milking a joke again. With a few exceptions aided by the pandemic, prompting use of both buzz words and one like “metrics,” they and their stances might seem one and the same, as it could be seen as all about either Bob, as their signs were out all over yards and ditches early-on. Others soon followed with their takes, first other School Board candidates, then some village and city trustee candidates, then hopefuls for state superintendent of public instruction and lastly, a couple more trustees in waiting.
As seemed to be dictated by how close proximity the signs were placed, there were some with web site names you could log onto that literally bordered on 100 characters. That’s much more than three classrooms worth of sniffly kids to reach.
And then there was that wind (of change?) on consecutive days that not only blew some signs down, especially on The Morning After, and after that, but also wrapped them around each other if all on the same pike. And with the laws that now dictate how long you can keep a sign up, many were still up and running well into Wednesday, and one in the tiny front of That Little Old House On Monroe Street remained in place even well after that. And furthermore, and further into the week, you could still see those gaggle of signs on the corner by that old store name called Freedom (of speach?), half hawking hopefuls and half specific-niche businesses, (lobbying potential?) Half had soon blown down as the wind had shifted, so to speak.
But on days before, there were men from Mars, women from Venus — and candidates of both genders on Pluto! That’s where a coalition who were, jointly, advertising their merits on that new cable channel. One who I will not name was a downtown-friendly person to a degree, if you get my drift, at least back in the day. Before election day
And this latest election day was showing promise to Be Big On The Turnout, riding on the coattails of a presidential campaign that set a new lack of boundaries, from here to the Boundary Waters and beyond, so the observing pole sitters, and I’m were there were a few, were in a position to get a form of “exercise” that found them getting more squat.

The way things are going with the bar scene, as people again get out and about from all over — although there was not much a different pattern than over the winter months — one could wonder what delighful or decadent Easter dresses would hold sway: Sporty, stocky, stylish, short, sleek, slender, sexy, slim, small sizes, skimpy, all could be part of sorting it all out, but more the end then the beginning of considerations.
Outside the Village Liquor store, there is a drop-off box for Easter Seals donations of clothing and shoes, but on my walks I have not seen anyone actually drop something in. If you have a closet full of such stuff — and while your dress size might change with weight loss, but not your shoe size — today may be your last to fit the bill for this holiday cycle. But I’m sure there will be a call for more of this soon …
At play is a man I had not seen before on my walks, who said that last Easter, when streaming any Easter services was the only option (no word yet on what happened this time around), and there were four (to quote him), inches of snow on that Holy Day, which might be topped off only by the (unholy or not so and more of that later) Halloween blizzard of 30 inches in days of yore, this time with even an early Easter there were temps that hit 80 degrees. Invoke Easter Monday, to be clear, as that is when we got to that level of warmth. The Man said, that when streaming a bit more than a year ago, and got the Easter thing solved for him, God came to him in an instant and conveyed, again, this message, Jesus through (Blood Sweat and Tears) indicated that he would melt all that snow-(Blind?) with his (Sacred to again quote Black Sabbath) heart
And this is Easter Monday, and my wife who knows all this stuff like no one else, said that its a biggie in church circles. So my neighbor, whose wife has worked in the church, said about that Day Like Any Other Day, (to quote one of Foreigner’s first hits), actually falls into a theological “50 day” rule after the grave. The Man said, with a look on his face that showed he knows, added that the schools were even out on this day, both public and private, virus or no virus. And when is the Man Cave to hit the can’t-find-music-anywhere-else void? Actually it was the previous day, all along.
On clothing two days earlier, there were a couple of little girls out walking with their moms and/or puppies (early Easter present?) and sporting their princess dresses (also maybe an Easter present?)
They trekked past various houses that had indeed been decked out with eggs and the like since mid-March or before. One had five bunnies on a stick (the best substitute in the near future for the State Fair), and even more eggs both by the house and up-front by the mailbox. Another sported three great big eggs, Easter Triduum, that were multi-colored beyond the norm and couldn’t have been from an actual chicken, and to complete the package displayed pastel chalk renderings on the driveway near the street, and then a gap, and closer to the doors more along the Easter theme. The overall pattern was much like that by a family at the other end of the circle, where a police-line of sorts was erected even in the vicinity of last April garage sale days, to cordone off the front-of-the-house third of the driveway at the expense of the other two-thirds. Cherry Circle will again batten down the hatches in the third full week of this month, to get it all going again.
Down near Lake Mallelieu was a small house with a whole yard of All These Small Things, and up a ways were several colored balloons adding to that same theme. Between was a neighbor’s house full of devout Catholics who did not have up their bountiful Easter messages, just more chalk steering in an orderly direction, but no banners, save the white lights left-over from Christmas on a few bushes in front of their front window.
Who would be open on Easter when, In The Neighborhood, via there signs? Village Inn said they would open for their killer breakfast option at 7 a.m. then carry on until 5 with food (pizza only in many cases). After that, the only game left was the bar, which would remain open until 10 p.m. That does one or two better than Kozy Korner across the way, which was open for food until 2 p.m. and drink until 4 p.m.
And then back a week to St. Patrick’s Day:
Again, Village Liquor had a sign that had the Irish greeting Slainte Bhaithe, with a heart showing behind the words, and the other side expressed well wishes on that day to a Sir Charles of sorts. They were closed the following Monday, that even after the holiday weekend, as was Kozy Korner for a time for inventory, as they must have had the tills working overtime to collect cash. And of the cars by Village Liquor, in a check that was made late afternoon, all but one or two of the half-dozen were from going-green Minnesota, (one car left as I was still at curbside). And back to that sign, as always seems to be the case with that business, one side shed light on what the other conveyed, (are you traveling north or south?), in this case R U Thirsty? Which I think, and HudsonWiNightlife kinda sorta is the only one to link these things together, is far different than U R Thirsty. Is the punctuation at the end, a period or a question mark. You get it.
Last on signage, Jeff Loven was not at the much-proclaimed (again church word) if even I am the only one proclaiming it to this degree, gig on Sunday nights, but one earlier prior to Easter at the Village Inn. Alas, and I did a double take but am pretty sure I’ve got this right, his name was spelled Lovan, with the wrong vowel, for a while. But they showed Loven some loving and got it right a few hours later. You know what a vowel is, even if tripsy. I trust U do.