A couple of UMD Students won Animal Diversity Idol with this video. OK, it turns out that Animal Diversity Idol is not a “real” contest, although when I got started down this rabbit hole I thought maybe it was. It is something that a professor at UMD dreamed up to get students more interested in a variety of weird life forms. I this case the creatures are liver flukes. The video is one-part homage to Pink Floyd and two-parts CDC style public service announcement. Here’s the video:

Comfortably Trematoda by Locksteer

Good day! I took the high bridge over to Superior the other day and noticed a pair of cages placed in the creek estuary (or estuary-like spot with the water so low). Does anyone have any idea what they are?

Did anyone notice the low number of female performers at the Homegrown Music Festival this year? I did. There seemed to be about eight male performers for every one female. If you don’t want to count just look at the steering committee, it’s pretty representative of the entire festival. There are a few  wonderful women and a bunch of men.   

The ladies are around performing with a variety of styles unique to themselves and Homegrown!  They may be harder to find in that giant Homegrown Field Guide, but if you looked closely you’d find some on Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday, not peak days.  Often these women have to be underground, persistent or be extra bad ass, which they are, to get noticed. They often try harder and get less recognition. 

I don’t want to start a fight, maybe just a good discussion, I’m just saying we noticed.

Homegrown Music Video Festival entry by Emily Norton.

Yesterday I was out at The Princess Bride with a couple of goslings and other uberfans at the Zinema for their excellent Saturday-morning-movies-for-the-whole-family series. That would have been awesome enough, but they threw in free juice boxes for the kids, but it got even better. In the place where we expected the opening previews, or maybe a video short to roll we were treated to this 2006 video, by Duluth’s Willie the Warlock

Willie the Warlock Youtube video

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I was fortunate enough to be up the North Shore Monday night near Grand Marais and caught an awesome Aurora Borealis Storm that was, dare I say, a Perfect Grand Marais Night. This art showing by Mother Nature was one that I would have thought I’d have to travel to northern Norway to witness. I have seen the Northern lights many times in the past, but this was pretty amazing, there were many moments over the course of 3 hours I had to duck as I thought they were gonna hit me. I probably should have been wearing a tin foil hat.

More brother-on-brother nerf violence as Allen defends against attack inside Gonzo Science headquarters. Both men use a full-auto Stampede ECS. In addition Jim deploys an impenetrable “Captain America” shield.

I’m a little late this year, but here is the annual call. We’re looking for your Homegrown photos! The guidelines are the same as always. We’ll rotate Homegrown images in that extremely horizontal and hard-to-fit-a-photo-into space at the top of the page during next week’s festivities.

Brother on brother nerf violence as Jim attempts to assassinate Allen inside Gonzo Science headquarters. Both men use a full-auto Stampede ECS. In addition Jim deploys an impenetrable “Captain America” shield.

For anyone who has ever seen (or heard of) the May Day Parade in Minneapolis and wondered why we don’t have anything of the sort in Duluth, do we have some news for you!

The Magic Smelt Puppet Troupe formed in 2011. At the nucleus are newish Duluthian Jim Ouray, bringing 30 years of experience with In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theater (Minneapolis) and local musician and visual artist Anton Jimenez-Kloeckl. They’ve offered free stilt-walking and mask-making classes and are presently holding costume and puppet production workshops which will culminate in the Run, Smelt, Run! Parade and Party on April 22.
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You’d never know what would happen next at a Dukes of Hubbard show (circa early 2000s). On stage, they would mix Phish with Kenny Loggins, then beatbox. Or play Ween followed by a Beatles medley and other antics. Or Jane’s Addiction followed by Herbie Hancock, while trading instruments and doing shots. And with Trudy (good dog, may she rest in peace) lounging off to the side. Some nights were more of a variety show than a usual set of music.

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Thursday, April 19th at 7pm at the St. Anthony Main Theatre in Minneapolis. Tickets are available here.

Wild Bill’s Run is a documentary about Willow River’s own Bill Cooper. He led a polar expedition in the 70s that was supposed to go to Moscow. But his life took some unexpected turns before landing him on the U.S. Marshals’ 10 Most Wanted List. In other words, I really grew to love this guy.

MSPIFF is the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival. It’s a pretty nice festival, even if it doesn’t take place in a barn.

I’m hoping to announce the local premiere soon. Not, like, tomorrow. But soon…

The scene down at the lake these days.

I wish I’d gotten more footage for an even better view of this typically quirky Duluth sight. But I had to wade in to get this and I froze my ass off doing it, so this is what you get.

If you scroll through this slide show displaying statues of Leif Erickson (or Ericsson, there seem to be many spellings of this name), you notice that Duluth’s statue has something most of the other statues don’t have. Go ahead, I’ll wait…

…so, did you notice? If you read the headline you already know what it is: horns. What’s more, if you read this article on LakeVoice written by UMD journalist Madiha Mirza, you will learn that Duluthian Stefan Guttormsson, president-elect of the Icelandic American Association of Minnesota, believes that our statue should not have horns.

Of course, if that’s true, does it also mean the Minnesota Vikings’ logo is, um, wrong?

Nicole Meyer came up with the creative project of making a logo for every lake in Minnesota. At one logo every day, she figures it will take her 27 years to finish.

In the spirit of that, it might be interesting to see what kind of logos Duluthians could come up with for places like Goat Hill or Casket Quarry.

So here’s an open invitation to consider your favorite people, places and things in Duluth that no one would ever consider commissioning a logo for, and make one. How about a logo for “The Path” – the place across the street from Morgan Park Middle School where kids go to smoke? For the zip code 55812? For Restormel Street? Pick your favorite noun and go for it. The more obscure the better. Upload them to the comments of this post.

This is not a competition, it is only an exhibition. Please refrain from using the word “branding” at any point. That word makes everyone sick.

After digging out my car yesterday, I saw this yellow stuff that had dripped off of it into the snow. I also saw it in almost every spot in the street after cars drove away. I can’t imagine all the cars on our block are leaking antifreeze, or that tiny dogs snuck under each car to pee.

Anybody else see it or know what it is? Let the conspiracy theories begin.

Let me start off by saying that I am already easily amused, and the sleep deprivation is not really helping in that matter…

So, I was reading the DNT’s Pets of the Week article, and found a picture of Cinnamon Roll the cat waiting to be adopted. Most of the time, these pictures are of animals looking super cute begging to be adopted, but Cinnamon Roll’s expression made me laugh. “Adopt me, or don’t. Whatever.”

Being easily amused (refer back to point A), I whipped up some simple edits that made me laugh – maybe they’ll make you laugh too (if not, try sleep deprivation).

Seriously though, someone adopt this cat – he sounds awesome!

More pics and a blank Cinnamon Roll photo if you’d like to roll your own.

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Earlier today I was reading about the Red Dwarf of Detroit, a harbinger of doom that’s been haunting the Detroit area for hundreds of years. It’s described as “a small child-like creature with red or black fur boots” that has “blazing red eyes and rotten teeth.”

Other communities have monsters that are unique to their location. Point Pleasant, WV has the Mothman. Southern New Jersey has the Jersey Devil. Botetourt County, VA and Mattoon, IL have the Mad Gasser, who was more of a serial killer really but I’m still including it here.

Mayor Ness wants to get the population back up to 90,000. Maybe some good old-fashioned mass hysteria is what we need to put this town back on the map.

If Duluth had a monster of its own, what would it be like? When would would it appear? Where would it appear? What would it be called?

Well, somebody had to.

In honor of “The Tiny Art Show” at Prøve Gallery, I thought I’d throw things open to people who are either too lazy to submit their tiny art to a show, or are pretty sure it’s not good enough to be in a show.

PDD’s comments now have an easy image-upload tool, so go ahead and share a weird photo or other piece of art or pseudo art.

If you haven’t heard, the Duluth Art Institute will soon be starting screenings of Robert Hughes’ Shock of the New, which is a fantastic eight-part series on the rise and fall of the modern art movement. Not only will you be able to rest your eyes on the handsome and talented Robert Hughes, but you will be able to do it for free.
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(Getting to the end — thank you so much for putting up with these January in Duluth encroachments in this wonderful space.)

Last day of January and I have a few sackfuls of questions with incomplete/partial answers. With time running out, maybe you can give me a few hints on my homework? Below, I’ve boiled down a list of [A] v. s, isolating dichotomies about life here in Duluth — if you have a few extra intro/outrospective minutes to kill today, I’d love to hear how you’d weigh in on any or all of these. Of course, in each matchup there’s no need to declare a clearcut winner (balance in all things), so your answers can take the form of one word or a phrase or a few thoughts or an essay if you’re exceptionally motivated:

(1) Isolation v. Community.

(2) Passion v. Responsibility.

(3) Nostalgia v. Trailblazing.

(4) Cynicism v. Optimism.

(5) Underdog Mindset v. Inferiority Complex.

(6) Willing Confrontation v. Passive Aggression.

(7) Coffee v. Beer.

(8) East v. West? How deep is the division?

(9) “Come enjoy our wonderful city!” v. “Stay the hell out.”

(10) If Duluth were un-propered into a regular vocabulary word, “duluth,” what part of speech would it be (to duluth, a duluth day, look at that duluth) and what would its definition be?

But not forever, I’m thinking.

So tomorrow is the last day of January in Duluth (and everywhere else too). I’m going to be writing a post in the morning asking some bigger picture questions I’ve been thinking about, but haven’t answered definitively. Look out for that (also, if you’ve been following and holding back, you can tell me what you really think about the project — but wait for tomorrow to do that).

For today, I have a morbid question. If you knew tomorrow were your last day on earth, and you were to spend it entirely within Duluth/immediate surrounding area, what would you do? A last day, in Duluth.

The January Days are dwindling and the need to gorge on as much Duluth as possible is rising. I spent an hour with Mayor Ness today — he’s a wonderful guy. Also, I had an odd idea I might try to execute this weekend if anybody is interested.

Is anybody out there a film person? I have a very short film I’d like to make — named “100 Seconds of Solitude” — that’s reasonably simple in concept/shooting but might be a little tricky to edit. If anybody wants to spend some time this weekend on a fun project, I’ll bring the beer!