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If a picture can say 1,000 words, here's a whole lot of talkin'. Enjoy and we'll see you in 2010 at Citypages.com/Slideshow.

Timothy Norris

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20. Coachella 2009: Half-Dressed People & Scenes from the Desert

Easily in the top three festivals in the country, Coachella 2009 did what it does best: Bring together the hipper-than-thou music lovers for three days of peaceful and desert-hot good times.

Stacy Schwartz

19. Art shots: F*ck You I Love Me unites jaded art kids on Valentine's

Not everyone was caked up with their lov-ah on Valentine's Day in Minneapolis in 2009. The Clapperclaw warehouse/gallery in downtown Minneapolis housed some jaded fun featuring DJ Loveless Aphrodite, Battle Royale, and Koo Koo Kanga.

​18. Oh, snap: Lobbyists comment anonymously on Minnesota legislators 

Bradley Campbell's dish piece on Minnesota legislators through the eyes of local lobbyists made quite the splash last spring.  Lobbyists on Rep. Paul Thissen (left): "A real rock star. Any political wannabe would be smart to hitch his train. If he were governor, we'd be much better off." You hear that, T-Paw?

Patrick Strait

17. Sex World: The Photo Tour

This one marked the beginning of our twisted relationship with sex blogger Patrick Strait, who we sent to Sex World for his first assignment to find out what it's like to work there as the guy that cleans up the booths. While he was there, he snapped some photos and that ended up being the most popular part of the package. We kind of thought many of ya'll were regular visitors, but go figure.

Contributed

16. Bodies exhibit makes controversial debut at MOA

Paris banned the exhibit because they said it disrespectfully displayed human corpses for profit. Ticket sales -- and our traffic on this slideshow -- says you think otherwise. 

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Tags:

end of the decade, slideshows

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After the family of a teenager claimed that Minneapolis park police broke the kid's arm, the park board took the unusual step of issuing a statement to say that some of the lawsuit is just plain made up.

In court documents, the family claims that last May, the boy got into a confrontation at Creekview Park, where he was attending an after school program. Police were called, handcuffed the boy, and twisted his arm, breaking it, according toWCCO.

Here's exactly what the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board had to say about that story:

On December 24, 2009 the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board was served with a lawsuit related to an incident involving an encounter between a juvenile and Park Police. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board does not typically comment on pending litigation; however, the Park Board believes there are many inaccuracies contained in the complaint and media coverage. The juvenile was not placed in handcuffs and proper police procedures were followed at the time of the incident. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board is confident that facts presented during litigation will demonstrate that the actions taken by the Park Police Officers were appropriate and within prescribed policies and procedures.

Sounds like it will be an interesting trial. Sadly, the family has faced police before; in 2004, the boy's older brother, 15-year-old Courtney Williams, was killed by a police bullet in the course of a chase.

In celebration of the recent Vikings debacle, we present Minnesota's 5 biggest choke artists -- people who had success at hand but blew it for no good reason, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

​Rudy Boschwitz
In 1990, Republican Rudy Boschwitz had already served 12 years in the U.S. Senate, winning each of his two terms by 17-percent margins. The incumbent was a prohibitive favorite to nail down a third term, especially when his DFL opponent turned out to be a political neophyte, a little-known college professor named Paul Wellstone. But Boschwitz's seemingly invincible lead began to melt in the face of a masterful grassroots campaign by Wellstone, who mobilized college students and the politically disenfranchised and created pointedly funny, quirky campaign ads that boosted his profile with voters. Despite outspending Wellstone 7 to 1, Boschwitz lost the election by a mere 2 percent of the votes.

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​Was Scott McDonough "intoxicated to the point of an alcoholic blackout" the night he used a BB gun to pull three gas station heists last summer, and deserving of some leniency, as his lawyer told District Judge Teresa Warner on Tuesday during the St. Paul man's sentencing?

Or, should he punished harshly because his victims were terrified by a "threat of death and were afraid for their lives while they worked at these businesses," as Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Juan Hoyos insisted in the Pioneer Press account of the sentencing.

Sounds like Warner was won over by the sob story. She gave McDonogh 20 years' probation, and the threat of 12 years behind bars if he screwed up the terms, which included staying clean and sober. And he's still going to prison for a year for one of the three robberies, which took place in Dakota County.

Photo via Marine Corps News

Marine Corps body bearers march from a funeral

​U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Levi Angell, of Cloquet, was killed in the line of duty in 2004 while serving in Anbar Province, Iraq. Before deployment, he had designated his mother as the sole beneficiary of his military life insurance policy and a related federal death benefit. When he died, a $500,000 payout was on the table.

Here's the thing: Angell's parents were divorced in 2008 after 27 years of marriage, and his 67-year-old father, who has no money in the bank and lives off Social Security, just found out that he won't be getting the $150,000 of those benefits that he was previously awarded by the Carlton County District Court. On Tuesday, the Minnesota Court of Appeals overturned the lower court's ruling:

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​We're less than two days away from 2010, and Minneapolis appears poised to record its lowest number of homicides in 26 years. Not only that, but the 19 killings in 2009 represent a 50 percent drop over the previous year's number.

Those are figures that Mayor R.T. Rybak was happy to trumpet via Twitter on Wednesday morning, linking back to a big reaction piece in the Star Tribune: "Thank you to community, MPD officers and Chief Dolan for your work cutting homicides to lowest number in 26 years."

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​The only really new thing to come out of Tim Pawlenty's Fox News appearance on Tuesday was show host Bill Hemmer's weird ending comment that Minnesota seemed to be just another campaign stop for our I'm-not-running-for-president-yet governor. Fox News " would follow your travels OK whether it's Minneapolis or New Hampshire, Ohio or Washington DC," he said. We're sure he didn't mean it that way. Aren't we?

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​The Associated Press is reporting that a man from Somalia tried to board a flight last month with the same bomb-making materials associated with the Nigerian terrorist.

The story doesn't make clear if the so-far unnamed man was just delivering the chemicals and powders rather than acting as a potential suicide bomber, and what city in the U.S. might ultimately have been targeted.

But this only adds fuel to my belief suspicion that Minneapolis-bound flights may be getting additional airline security due to its Somali population.

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With the advent of brass monkey weather (look it up, people), we thought we'd show you some real primates and their buddies frolicking in the snow at the Minnesota Zoo. Oh fer cute!