David Beard, Author at Perfect Duluth Day

Empty Bowls

Apr 12, 2017 No Comments

It was good to go to the Empty Bowl event tonight. For $20, every year, I get a handmade pottery piece. I have more than a half a dozen of these small bowls holding change and keys and so on. I also get soup — tastings of clam chowder, chicken spaetzle, chicken noodle from the best restaurants in Duluth. A local food pantry receives the cash.

And this year, among the bowls, there was what appears to be a spoon rest for the stove top, or possibly a small bowl for after-dinner chocolates, or possibly just a cool thing. (See picture.)

If you know OAR, the signature on the back, mention I adore the work. It made me so happy. If OAR is a practicing artist, I’ll edit this to add info. Love the work.

Empty bowl was a salve. Empty Bowl reminds me that I can do the right thing, I can make positive change, in a way that rewards me and the world. Hoping for more of that.

Art, Events Empty Bowl

Electronic magazines published in the Duluth area

Apr 10, 2017 1 Comment

I’ve been thinking about the energy and quality writing that have gone into electronic magazines in our region. There are the two I have looked at lately — Split Rock Review and New Theory. What publications am I missing?

Art Literature

Buying a Car in Duluth

Mar 30, 2017 3 Comments

I skipped my usual visit to listen to Darin Bergsven at the Blacklist brewery taproom downtown to visit Kia of Duluth in the West End.

Random

Fragments of chalk and glass in an oil painting

Mar 28, 2017 No Comments

I’ll be talking about art on Saturday at Zinema 2 in an event sponsored by the Duluth Art Institute, for the showing of American Splendor. Here is other writing of mine on art; if you like it, I hope to be this elegant Saturday.

A Woman Bathing in a Stream by Rembrandt

When I was 22, I took the bus to New York and visited the Rembrandt/Not-Rembrandt exhibit.

I learned that conservators struggle with Rembrandt’s work, because he added ground chalk and bits of glass to the paint to add texture and to speed drying. These practices make the paintings hard to preserve hundreds of years later.

… fragments of chalk and glass in an oil painting, causing the paint to crack over time.

Those fragments have become integral to identifying a Rembrandt — a painting without them starts from the presumption of forgery. The bits of glass have become a sign of authenticity.

It is impossible to admire a Rembrandt without admiring the cracks and breaks caused by the ground and broken things.

… so it is with falling in love.

Art, Events Duluth Art Institute, Sappy

Three Events: SuperMonster市City, Gao Hong and Sarah Deer

Mar 22, 2017 No Comments

This past week, I went to see Gao Hong, Sarah Deer and Ed Downs give public talks, each a kind of rethinking for me.

Events

Masculinity and History in Logan, in International Women’s Day, and in Munchkin

Mar 12, 2017 No Comments

Three events this week made me rethink the past, present, and future of gender roles. The movie Logan draws deep in the past of gender roles, echoing them and updating them (just a bit) for the 21st century. Debates about the wage gap on International Women’s Day make me struggle with the present of gender. Playing Munchkin with some adorable children makes me feel optimistic about the future — of gender and of a better world generally.

Random

Squelching local efforts toward earned sick and safe time

Feb 20, 2017 No Comments

I’m watching the action at the Minnesota State Legislature with an eye toward what is happening in Duluth, too.

I look at these two initiatives. I wish I had some principle here, like “local control is always best” or something like that, but I don’t. I just prefer the results of the Duluth ordinance over the results of the state law. If I liked the results of the state law better, I would prefer that.

What do you think, comparing:

The work of Duluth’s “Earned Sick and Safe Time Task Force,” which “gathers information, collects public input, proposes the best options for implementing ESST policies and brings forward policy recommendations.”

vs.

SF 580 as introduced – 90th Legislature (2017 – 2018)

A bill for an act relating to employment; providing uniformity for employment mandates on private employers;proposing coding for new law in Minnesota Statutes, chapter 181.

Politics

Local bookshop, national attention

Feb 13, 2017 No Comments

In addition to stories on Perfect Duluth Day in September and the Duluth News Tribune this morning, Zenith Bookstore was mentioned today in the book industry newsletter Shelf-Awareness.

Nifty: Constitutional amendment providing gender equality under the law

Feb 11, 2017 3 Comments

I’m having fun looking at what Minnesota legislators are up to. This seems like the kind of thing people could be talking about, no?

Senate SF0224 3 01/26/2017 Proposed by Cohen
Senate SF0101 2 01/12/2017 Proposed by Dibble
House HF0189 3 02/02/2017 Proposed by Omar
House HF0313 1 01/17/2017 Proposed by Hornstein

A bill for an act proposing an amendment to the Minnesota Constitution, article I, by adding a section; providing for gender equality under the law.

News and Current Affairs

Two Harbors photographer in Iceland

Feb 03, 2017 No Comments

John Gregor is in Iceland. So beautiful.

Photos

TED at Teatro

Jan 19, 2017 No Comments

Last night, I went to the TED at the Teatro. This regular event (on the third Wednesday of every month) has both a Facebook Page and a Youtube Channel. It’s the second time I attended, and it’s an event I’d like to return to, even if it had some complexities.

The event is structured with a chatty welcome, last night including an uncomfortable handshake (getting us to meet the people around us, like the handshake in a church). There is a Raymond Carver essay in which Carver reflects on something Tobias Wolff told him when Carver invited Wolff to an event, to meet some people. “I don’t want any new friends. I can’t do right by the ones I have now,” or something more or less like that. If, unlike me, you are into meeting strangers, sure, this was fun.

There was music from Medical Underground. Others, more into local pop/rock music, might chime in on their quality. I found them pleasant. One of the refrains of one of their songs appeared to be something like “We will be okay,” which maybe is reassuring.

Events

Bowling

Jan 16, 2017 No Comments

Ever since I tried curling a few months ago, I’ve hungered for bowling. It’s been ten years since I bowled, almost exactly, on the weekend my friends married (at the Incline Station). I’ve been to parties and for volleyball at Skyline Lanes. But I haven’t bowled in a while.

Sports Bowling

HF 41: Student Physical Privacy Act

Jan 10, 2017 5 Comments

Posted without comment:

1.1 A bill for an act
1.2 relating to education; establishing the Student Physical Privacy Act; proposing
1.3 coding for new law in Minnesota Statutes, chapter 121A.
1.4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:
1.5 Section 1. [121A.35] STUDENT PHYSICAL PRIVACY ACT.

R.I.P. Francine York

Jan 07, 2017 No Comments

Aurora, the Iron Range city about an hour north of Duluth, was home to Francine York. “From the 60s and into the 70s, she was a guest-star on dozens of series, with some of her most remembered roles from Batman, Lost In Space, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, and The Streets of San Francisco.”

Bleeding Cool has the obituary for this Northland celebrity.

R.I.P. Iron Range

(It’s all about that) Duluth Bass Player Adam Booker

Jan 06, 2017 No Comments

Woot for the local artist, internationally recognized. In the Contrabass Conversations podcast from Prague, Duluth bassist Adam Booker is interviewed about …

traditional jazz bass lines and what notes were really being played
confessions from a former string neurotic
what surprised Adam the most about academia
Stefon Harris and his description of scales as a collection of emotions
hanging up on Milt Hinton … and then watching Jeopardy! with him
not just creating great bassists, but creating great people

Music Adam Booker

David Beard Posts

Empty Bowls

Electronic magazines published in the Duluth area

Buying a Car in Duluth

Fragments of chalk and glass in an oil painting

Three Events: SuperMonster市City, Gao Hong and Sarah Deer

Masculinity and History in Logan, in International Women’s Day, and in Munchkin

Squelching local efforts toward earned sick and safe time

Local bookshop, national attention

Nifty: Constitutional amendment providing gender equality under the law

Two Harbors photographer in Iceland

TED at Teatro

Bowling

HF 41: Student Physical Privacy Act

R.I.P. Francine York

(It’s all about that) Duluth Bass Player Adam Booker

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