Featuring the Keep Aways.

This is the maiden voyage of the Gonzo Science youtube channel, the Gonzonomicron.

Metal lives on Friday, March 19 at Pizza Luce in Duluth for the Ides of March.  Duluth’s own Bryon Maiden hit’s the stage midnight or so.

Come see: Cory “Hotrod” Ahlm as Paul Di’anno/Bruce Dickinson
Brett “Moleman” Molitor as Dave Murray
Allen “Alien” Cragin as Adrian Smith
Bryon “Gaynor” Maiden as Steve Harris
Mat “Internet Predator” Milinkovich as Nicko Mcbrain.

Be there NERDS!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Children by the million sing for Alex Chilton
When he comes ’round
They sing, “I’m in love. What’s that song?
I’m in love with that song.”
– The Replacements

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is new classical chamber music featuring a real PDD’er!

The concert features the music of 4 umd alumni composers: Robert Linnemann, Ryan Rapsys, Nick Mroczek and James Gould. All of the pieces are lyrical, varied and entertaining. Every composition is a world debut! The Gichigami Piano Trio is the featured group, but the umd woodwind quintet and other small ensembles will also play.

The UMD music program has graduated many talented composers, and this concert features four of them. On Tuesday, March 23 at 7:30 pm in Weber Music Hall, you can enjoy new classical chamber music composed by UMD alumni composers Robert Linnemann, James Gould, Nick Mroczek, and Ryan Rapsys. Each is active in their communities as composers and musicians. For tickets, visit www.tickets.umn.edu. A very special UMD alumni price of only $ 2.00 per ticket is available.

“We are thrilled to premiere new works by four UMD alumni composers. It is especially wonderful that concert goers will be able to experience these pieces in beautiful Weber Music Hall,” said Jack Bowman, dean of UMD’s School of Fine Arts.

The featured performing group is Duluth’s own Gichigami Trio. Boasting great professional musicians, the Gichigami Trio consists of Josh Aerie (cello), Laurie Bastian (violin), and Sam Black (piano). They have championed accessible new music together, and each of them is active in the Duluth community. In addition to the Gichigami Trio, current UMD students as well as UMD graduate students will also perform.

Justin Rubin, professor of music at UMD, is pleased to act as faculty sponsor for this event. He worked with each of these composers when they were students at UMD. “It’s exciting that the audience will hear what the new young artistic voices in classical music today sound like and how diverse those voices can be. Each composer has such a different aesthetic. Robert comes from a jazz background. James is more traditionally classical. Nick is an experienced operatic composer with an unparalleled melodic gift, and Ryan is quite avant garde,” Rubin said.

Robert Linnemann is the organizer of this concert. He lives in Duluth and plays saxophone with the premiere local lounge group Tangier 57. He also plays oboe and has written music for the Duluth Community Orchestra. He has worked locally as a composer-in-residence at Harbor City International High School. Linnemann also has a music business called Epistrophy Products which produces the music manuscript paper, Staffgraph (available at the UMD bookstore). He writes music in jazz and classical styles. Linnemann graduated with a Theory & Composition Music degree from UMD in 2005. Website: http://robertlinnemann.com.

James Gould began composing music at an early age. Maybe too early – his first piece was a tremendously complicated work entitled “Birds” written in crayon on a staff of his own design (6, sometimes 7 staff lines!). From there, music became an ever-growing interest that eventually brought him to study music composition at UMD with Dr. Justin Rubin. While studying music composition at UMD, Gould developed a great interest in the texture of music. To this day, texture is the driving force in his compositions. After graduating from UMD in 2005, Gould moved to Minneapolis where he continues to compose, perform, and teach music to this day. Starting in 2009, he founded the MPLS Music Group that performs music exclusively composed or arranged by members of the group.

Nicholas Mroczek received his Bachelor of Music degree in Music Theory/Composition and Vocal Music Education from UMD in 2007. Mroczek’s compositions have been performed by groups ranging from the Hermantown 7th grade choir to the UMD Opera Theatre to the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra. In part with an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program Grant, his first opera, Evelyn, was premiered by the UMD Opera Theatre under his direction in April 2007. Mroczek received honorable mention in the 2007 Roger Wagner Contemporary Choral Composition Competition and was a finalist for the MENC National Convention Young Composers Concert in 2004. Website: http://nicholas.mroczek.org.

Since graduating from UMD in 2004, Ryan Rapsys has been engaged in a number of music composition projects, including the original soundtrack to the film Minnesota’s North Shore (2007) by photographer Craig Blacklock as well as an original theatrical score for the Duluth Playhouse’s production of It’s A Wonderful Life (2008) and The Three Musketeers (2009). Currently, he continues to pursue opportunities to compose music for a variety of media through his business Erratik Music Solutions, including short and feature film, commercial, and web video projects. Website: www.erratik.com

The new store is at 124 W. First St. in Downtown Duluth. The grand opening is Saturday, March 20, from 4 to 8 p.m.

From the news release:

This small community-based business will fill a niche in Duluth’s art scene by providing darkroom and studio space for a nominal fee. The store will be open seven days a week and will have children’s, student grade, and professional quality art supplies for sale. In addition, there will be a gallery for artists to display and sell their work and a wide variety of art classes for all ages and abilities.

Passionate volunteers who strive to share their love of art with others operate Pineapple Arts. They encourage the public to share ideas and make requests.

Hours are 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Saturdays and 12 p.m. until 4 p.m. Sundays. The phone number is (218) 722-2919.

The building is affectionately known as the Pineapple Building because of the Pineapple design at the top center of the Building.

Ryan is our featured artist this month. His new CD All But My Soul is on sale for $7.99 throughout March. Come check out his acoustic set and support local artists!

The Iron Range Tourism Bureau has a new website called ComeHomeBob.com.

Catching up on some of my favorite tech blogs this morning and found this familiar face headlining a post on Gizmodo. 

Duluth, Minnesota
But wait! Patrick Garmoe, public information officer of the Google Twin Ports Initiative laughs sheepishly as he explains Googlefest, an event that is one part rally, one part carnival and all parts enthusiasm for the promise of Google Fiber. In the midst of bands, choirs and other entertainment, “We’ll be shooting a movie with real actors and a Hollywood director and live-streaming the event to impress Google,” Garmoe says. The new initiative comes on the heels of Deluth mayor Don Ness’s own stunts. In a spoof video proclamation that in honor of Google, all first born males would be henceforth named GoogleFiber and first born females would of course be Googlette. Also, he literally sunk to a new low in the brutal battle for business. He jumped into the freezing waters of Lake Superior. Hizzoner, perhaps you’ll be deterred from further lunacy by these extremely gnarly Google Image results for “frostbite.”

[Google Twin Ports]

In short, Duluth and Superior represent the best-functioning example of an interstate relationship between two medium-sized cities, united by a common goal: survive the next winter.