I have to admit, up front here, that I find these sorts of columns seriously boring and annoying when I run into them online myself, so I can personally understand if you just decide to skip today's column altogether.

Last week, I attended the Netroots Nation blogfest in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Below are my disjointed ramblings about the experience of attending the conference. I'm not even going to try to "cover" the conference as straight news, since pretty much all of it is available online as video (of both the keynote speeches as well as the breakout sessions). If you're interested in "what happened" or "what was said" then I'd advise just watching the videos on your own.

OK, with caveats firmly in place, let's get on with it. I've divided these musings up into three categories. The first section covers the city of Minneapolis itself, the second deals with the Netroots Nation experience, and the last segment contains my thoughts on some of the more notable participants.

[Actually, after writing the whole column, I am going to split this into two columns. Today, we present musings on the city and the conference. Thursday, we'll return to the subject, and you can read what I have to say about the people on stage at Netroots Nation.]

Minneapolis

Yes, they've fixed the I-35W bridge that fell down. And, yes, the cabbies are tired of answering that question.

Upon our arrival in the twin cities, after checking into our downtown hotel, we immediately headed for the most-well-known tourist landmark in the city: the dinky little Mary Tyler Moore statue. Mary Tyler Moore, you will remember, had her own eponymous television show, back in the day. It was set in Minneapolis. The iconic credits and theme song at the beginning of the show end with her throwing her hat up in the air in a downtown crosswalk. To the delight of M.T.M. fans everywhere, the city allowed a statue of this historic television moment -- but the statue itself isn't all that impressive, since it is a wee bit on the smallish side.

The statue can be found along Minneapolis' downtown pedestrian district, the Nicollet Mall. Also found along this stretch was free live music every night, extremely helpful and polite information officers (basically walking tourist reference desks), and lots of pedestrian-friendly restaurants. Minneapolis is the epitome of the Midwestern city ideal -- polite, friendly, and very clean.

The city's mayor spoke at our conference, and claimed Minneapolis is the most bike-friendly city in America. The most obvious proof of this are the "pedicabs" found everywhere. These are modern-day bicycle-powered rickshaws, and are a lot of fun to ride. Plus, the drivers are a lot friendlier than the cabbies.

But Minneapolis hasn't stopped there -- in addition to the pedicabs, there is also a contraption known as the "Pedal Pub," which has to be seen to be believed. You get a group of folks together, rent this contraption (and a sober driver), and you can pedal your way around the city while drinking anything you choose to bring on board (there's even space for a bartender). Which only goes to show Minneapolis takes the whole "bike-friendliest" concept to new highs. So to speak.

The only oddity in local lingo I noticed is that, for some inexplicable reason, parking garages in the city are known as "ramps." Anyone from the area who would like to explain this Minnesota-ism, please let us all in on the scoop.

The best thing about the Minneapolis streets I addressed in yesterday's column -- the fact that the spoof "newspaper" The Onion is available in hardcopy everywhere for free, since they are based here. There's nothing quite like reading The Onion on newsprint.

Netroots Nation

It's always fun to get together with a lot of people who share your interests and/or opinions. Netroots Nation is a giant mix of people who blog from a Lefty perspective, politicians who value the opinion and share the views of such bloggers, and interest groups who want to influence what folks over on the left think and write about.

While what I call the "A-level" bloggers get the speaking spots on the stage (and near-rockstar adulation from the crowds), it is also possible for those of "B" or "C" (or even lower) level status to also meet fans of their work. This is one of the best things about the conference -- the opportunity to have personal interactions in what is normally a faceless online world.

For instance, the conference was the second time we (my wife and I) got to hang out with Matt Osborne, of OsborneInk.com. Last year, he befriended us and showed us the ropes of how to survive the conference, and this year he was doing about twelve things at once, but we did manage to sit down for an evening and shoot the breeze. See you next year, Matt!

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee's parties were the best of the convention, as usual, but they had a seriously small suite this time around, which led to problems ("I'm just stepping out for some oxygen, I'll be right back..."). Rumor has it that P.C.C.C. (or, in hip parlance "P-trip") is thinking about renting a house with a pool for next year's shindig, in Providence, Rhode Island. This idea gets my vote!

Senator Al Franken got off the funniest lines of the whole week, which should not really come as a surprise. In a private fundraiser, he swore not to "say anything interesting" because he knew bloggers such as your humble narrator were in the small audience -- and because his aides had sternly warned him against saying anything interesting. Heh. Nonetheless, he did observe that Minnesotans had their own phrase for identifying loonies in their midst, much like people from the South will use the phrase: "Well, bless her heart!" According to Franken, the local version in his state is: "Isn't she darling!" Senator Franken then took the opportunity to give an example: "Isn't that Michele Bachmann darling!" So much for not saying anything interesting....

The best movie at Netroots Nation was The Last Mountain, an extraordinary documentary about the evils of mountaintop-removal mining in Appalachia. I heartily encourage everyone to seek this movie out, as it is an Oscar-worthy presentation of a very serious situation.

Best political theater -- or, at the very least, "best costume" -- went to the Public Citizen information booth, for the woman who spent the entire conference in a Statue of Liberty outfit. Very eye-catching, and I'm sure it provided a draw for visitors to your booth.

Worst political theater was Andrew Breitbart attempting to crash the party. He swept through the outer areas of the conference, with full video team in tow, and tried to bull his way in to the main exhibition floor and auditorium (where the keynote speeches were held). Thankfully, a most-likely-underpaid security guard barred his entry, and he was sent packing. But not before he got what he came for -- a few folks took his bait and started yelling at him (while his cameras, of course, were rolling). The thankful thing about this episode was that right before he made it down the main escalator, Debbie Wasserman Schultz had just been wandering the crowd, shaking hands and taking photos with anyone who walked by. But she had disappeared about a minute or two before Breitbart arrived, which turned out to be perfect timing. Kudos to her almost-psychic aides for getting her out at precisely the right time.

Speaking of Righties, I do have something to say. The right-wing blogosphere has been playing copycat to Netroots Nation by provocatively scheduling their own conference in the same place and time as Netroots Nation. This year, we stayed in the same hotel the Righty convention was happening (theirs is a smaller event, so it fit in a hotel's conference facilities -- ours was across the street at the bigger city convention center). What this meant was you had to look at the credentials hanging around everyone's neck to see which conference they were from, while roaming the halls and elevators of the hotel. But in the sum total of my experience, this caused absolutely no ruffled feathers whatsoever. Everyone I met from "the other side" was uniformly polite and respectful to all, and I saw the same sort of civility from my fellow conferees. It was almost fun to crack jokes with a Righty riding up the elevator with you, in nine instances out of ten. And the tenth instance was nothing worse than polite silence. All around, a very high level of respect for each other was shown by all. The only gaffe I witnessed was my own -- when I mistakenly identified a guy without a badge showing as a Righty, and he informed me he was one of my own group. How embarrassing! I had "profiled" him because he was wearing a suit! Boy, was my face red....

[Join us Thursday for "Part 2" of this column, where we talk about the people on stage giving speeches and presentations.]

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant