Bdb won the Commenter Of the Week for the first time by putting together, and then revising (twice), the ideal Minnesota Music Festival. Now he takes center stage. Bdb?

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I am Commenter of the Week! Awesome! It was for my post on a dream lineup for Minnesota Music Festival. It would be an awesome festival if I say so myself. This great state has produced a lot of great music. I believe this festival could happen someday. Not as annual event, but as a one-time celebration of great Minnesota Music.

So what to write about? The Pohlad brothers adding huge additions to their brand new houses on Lake Calhoun and Lake of the Isles instead of the Twins pursuing good free agents or making trades that might bring in someone costly — and they have the new stadium! Nah. Brad Childress, salivating heartily over bringing in Brett Favre to save his job. As a long time Vikings fan, it will be strange to see Brett in purple. Nah. David Kahn making some decent moves that appear to actually be a plan, and has me more excited about the Wolves than I have been in years. Nah. The comments section of any slightly political article on the StarTrib having extremists on both sides going off the deep end and reading like a sure sign of the apocalypse. Nah.

Then I got to thinking about things that bring us together as a people. Sports! Everyone loves cheering — or sometimes jeering their favorite team. Music! A music festival is a great party, and live music can be transcendent and uplifting if the right band is playing. Blogs! Similar interests sharing the topic of the day.

As I write this, 40 years ago, the spirit of exploration was alive and well in this great country. It is the 40th anniversary or the Apollo 11 landing on the moon. The History Channel showed a half hour special on the live coverage of the Apollo 11 moon landing, complete with the original footage and Walter Cronkite (RIP). Watching that footage was truly amazing. I had forgotten how this seemed impossible, and how the whole world was brought together by this stunning achievement. Nearly the entire planet was watching. Many in large gatherings all around the world.

There were naysayers then, and I suspect there still will be. Yet, in these moments of exploration and inspiration, where we struggle and achieve what once seemed impossible, not only brings us together, but dare I say makes us a better people. Happy 40th! Rock on blogosphere!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 at 12:23 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.