Dear Friends of Sacred Heart Music Center,

I am writing you today because of your past support of the Sacred Heart Music Center as either a patron, a donor, a performer or a volunteer. It is through your efforts and contributions that Sacred Heart has been able to continue to provide Duluth with a unique venue for music and the arts and we want you to know how much that support is appreciated.

Now we would like to ask you to lend your voice to our cause and here is how you can help.

On Tuesday, March 22, 2011 the Community Development Committee of the City of Duluth will consider a request from Sacred Heart for a Community Development Block Grant. We are applying for this grant to help pay for major repairs needed to the steeple and roof of the SHMC.

If we receive this funding we will also likely get matching funding from the Minnesota Historical Society that will enable us to continue
to preserve our historic building.

The Community Development Committee’s decision will be largely influenced by how much support the community shows for Sacred Heart.

You can best help by attending the Committee meeting on March 22, 2011 at 7pm in the City Council chambers 3rd floor City Hall to lend your support by your presence or by speaking to the Committee to tell them how important Sacred Heart is to the Duluth arts community, the Central Hillside neighborhood and the city at large. Sign in for Sacred Heart and please let the Committee know how valuable Sacred Heart is to Duluth.

You can also help by sending a copy of the [letter pasted below] to the Committee, or emailing a copy to the Committee care of Keith Hamre, Community Development Manager khamre@duluthmn.gov, Charles Froseth, Senior Planner cfroseth @ duluthmn.gov and Scott Wallschlaeger, Chair swalls @ mail.mpplplan.com by this Wednesday, March 16.

We hope you can help us with our goal to continue to be a major part of the Duluth arts community and preserve a landmark building.

Sincerely,
Eric Swanson
Program Coordinator - Sacred Heart Music Center
201 West 4th Street
Duluth, MN 55806
bookings@sacredheartmusic.org

– Letter for mailing to Committee –

City of Duluth
Community Development Committee
407 City Hall
Duluth, MN 55802

Dear Committee members,

This letter is written in support of the Sacred Heart Music Center’s request for Community Development Block Grant funding.

The Sacred Heart Music Center is a vital and vibrant part of the Duluth arts and music community and a landmark historical building in the Central Hillside neighborhood. Sacred Heart provides cultural opportunities for local residents by presenting art and musical performances in a unique and inspiring setting. Sacred Heart continues to help serve the local neighborhood by providing free concert tickets for lower income citizens through the Damiano Center, doing musical outreach programs to local schools and by the implication of the pilot program for the Music Resource Center, a program designed to provide musical educational opportunities to disadvantaged youth.

We urge the Committee to help Sacred Heart continue its artistic mission and preserve its historic building by approving its request for a Community Development Block Grant.

The Boundary Waters has a long literary tradition. From the works of Sigurd Olson to Paul Gruchow to Helen Hoover, many writers have tried to capture the adventure, solitude and beauty of canoe country.

Now, it’s your turn.

This fall, the Friends of the Boundary Waters will publish the first edition of a new chapbook, “The Firegrate Review,” and you are invited to submit your essays, stories, poems, and other written works.

As a collection of wilderness writings, the chapbook will be the perfect size to slip into your Duluth Pack for reading in the tent or around the fire.

Submissions up to 1,500 words in length will be considered, but writers are encouraged to keep submissions concise. Poems should be fifty lines or shorter.

The deadline for submissions is the end of the BWCAW permit season: September 30, 2010.

Visit http://www.friends-bwca.org/firegrate-review/ for details

“To encourage, enable, and document the consumption of a Cheeseburger on every summit on earth.”

Granted most people are completely and totally unaware of the sport of Summit Cheeseburger-ing and perhaps that is why there is a lack of said activity in St. Louis and Douglas Counties so I will forgive you, good people of said counties. But, now that you are being educated on this activity I see no reason for easy targets like Ely, Bardon’s, Moose, Sugarloaf, Pike, and Sugar Camp Hill to be conquered with zest, vigor, and zeal!

Summit Cheeseburger Locations near Duluth

Do you like to hike, bicycle, drive, or just generally get off your couch and go do something but are looking for an excuse? Then attaining a Summit Cheeseburger just may very well be for you!

1. Grab a cheeseburger and your camera

2. Visit the Summit Cheeseburger website and find a summit.

3. Hike (bike, drive, fly, whatever) to the summit.

4. Photograph yourself nomming down a cheeseburger.

5. Post it to the S.P. site.

6. Repeat!

I’ve tagged summits in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Montana but Minnesota, and particularly Duluth is full of virgin first ascents just waiting for some PDD’ers to start tagging. Bon Voyage, Happy Trails, and Bottom’s Up!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d24W46NdH-U

The video can be found along with more Low and Retribution Gospel Choir information at the “Black Eyed Snakes” blog:

http://www.walloftvs.org/music/theblackeyedsnakes/2010/01/14/low-show-cancellation-retribution-tour-hide-it-away-video-ballet/

Thursday, December 3
Duluth League of Women Voters Forum
US EPA Conference Center
6200 Congdon Blvd, Duluth
Showing of Precious Waters at 6:30 p.m. followed by a panel discussion and audience questions

Monday, December 7
Teatro Zuccone
222 E. Superior St.
Movie showing at 7 p.m., followed by a panel of local speakers

Tuesday, December 8
Teatro Zuccone
222 E. Superior St.
Movie showing at 7 p.m.

The film is also available in it’s entirety for viewing online along with more info regarding this important topic at http://preciouswaters.org.

Retribution Gospel Choir’s new album “2″ is slated to be released January 26th, 2010

Label: Sub Pop

Tracklist:
01 Hide It Away
02 Your Bird
03 ’68 Comeback
04 Workin ‘ Hard
05 Poor Man’s Daughter
06 White Wolf
07 The Last of the Blue Dream
09 Something’s Going to Break
10 Electric Guitar
11 Bless Us All

Notes: Second album from this Minnesota band, led by Low’s Alan Sparhawk, recently signed to Sub Pop. Hear “dub” versions of two tracks, “Electric Guitar” and “White Wolf” at: http://www.myspace.com/retributiongospelchoir

Live: RGC will be performing a concert December 19th at the 501 Club in Minneapolis.

Two days ago, after I’d decided to move I found out about a contest that Madsen Cycles was putting on. If you’re interested in helping me win, click this link to their site and check out their cool bicycles (it’ll open in a new tab/window). If not, read on and enjoy.

MADSEN Cargo Bikes

Resonance: The Odyssey of the Bells Resonance tells the forgotten stories of two sacred Buddhist temple bells that survived the scrap metal drives of WWII only to be taken by the US Navy as war trophies and given to the cities of Duluth, Minnesota and Topeka, Kansas.  In the decades following the war the difficult process required to return these bells reconnected two nations that had been torn apart by war.  For Duluth, the return of this bell forged the connection with Japan that later inspired the prosperous Duluth/Isumi Sister City relationship and Peace Bell in Enger Park.

Project History – Project Goals The documentary film Resonance is built on research conducted in America, Japan and Great Britain.  After learning of over five bells brought to the United States after WWII, a story emerged that focuses on the Duluth and contrasting Topeka bell story. In the fall of 2007, a 10-minute excerpt of the film was aired on Twin Cities Public TV in conjuction with Ken Burns’ “The War.” The 30-minute version of the film is an official selection at the 2009 Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival, April 15-28th. Resonance will be entered in national and international film festivals and seek broadcast on both American and Japanese public television.

Paul Creager
Director