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October 31, 2005

Bi-annual Emerson Party-related Post

Before The Party (yes, those are Pink Floyd Zubaz and a Home Depot Nascar shirt. Incredibly, both are available right now at Kmart):

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After the Party (yes, that is a $1.00 vest from the Grand Marais thrift store):

after.jpg

What PDD Needs...

presmarc.jpg... is more stuff about gartman. Yeah! Pictures, Rumors, Innuendo (ouch!), Sightings...allthings gartman. Actually this site should change it's name to PerfectGartmanGartman...or better yet gartmangartmangartman.com that'd be cool. Here's my latest rumor, NoWaitWait (NoGartmanGartman) is "taking time off" because they're getting to fricken good, they'd blow us all out of the water s, being the cool cats they are, they decided to let my band catch up a bit...we wont let you down marc.

October 30, 2005

Something's wrong with my gas orifice.

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I'm a cheap bastard.
When something breaks in our house, I try my darndest to fix it instead of shelling out the cash for a new one. The first time our dryer broke, I had parts scattered all over the basement, the drum was rolling around on the floor and the rest of the family figured we'd be out shopping at Sears the next day. But I got it going again. Sure, it took about a day and a half of my life, but it only cost about $7, AND I learned a whole bunch of stuff about the dryer which came in handy the next time it broke.

I owe it all to this site - appliance aid.com

Thanks to this site, I've fixed the dryer 3 or 4 times, the ice maker, the stove, and determined that one washing machine was beyond repair. This week's challenge - the oven. Educated guess so far is the hot surface ignitor is not pulling enough current, not heating up enough, and not opening the gas valve. That's the theory according to appliance aid.com anyway. Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion after I visit the Daugherty's parts department and install a new ignitor tomorrow.

Dear(Deer) Hunter

To say that I have ever truly been hunting would be a lie. To say that I love to walk through the woods in early fall and smell the leaves as they whither and die would have to be true I guess. It is this solitude that I enjoy most. Not because it is peaceful, but because it reminds me of the brother that would tell his hunting stories at THanksgiving dinner. About trudging through the woods to get to his deer stand and then sitting there hours for waiting for that little deer to pass him by. He was the toughest brother you could ever have. One that was intimidating even until the day he died.

I remember the day I got the phone call from my brother Duane that Friday afternoon on my way to work. "Jeff, Mom and I are on our way to Morgan Park. There is something going on with Mike." Three days later I was on my way from Boston and at his funeral. You see my brother was supposed to be at work at 10 o'clock that Friday morniing and instead of going, he called the police and told them not to let his kids in his house, that he had a gun. HIS LAST WORDS?????? THat gun that he used to do the one thing that I KNOW he loved took his life. But it his his love for hunting that always gets me to think about him in the fall.

I remeber the night of the funeral one of his closest friends said to me, "Next time you see Mike I bet you want to smack him in the face?" My reply was, "No, I already forgave him,


HE'S MY BIG BROTHER!"

Sorry for the downer guys. It's been two years and I never get to vent......

October 29, 2005

Is there a Cover band scene in Duluth/Superior?

Hey From T Bay! Just checkin about the scene down there. If there is any bars, or venues that host cover bands we are trying to source comin down there. We are regulars on the weekends and are now trying to find out the happenin scene/ Venues. Thanks in advanse all!

It Wasn't Me.

Starfire Police Sketch

Want to kill some time? Head over to this site and draw your very own police sketch.

open thread.

openthread

I am stealing this idea from MnSpeak. What's on your mind?

October 27, 2005

Blade Phillips joins Low

I never would have guessed that a former member of Bone Appetit would become the bassist for world-famous band Low.

cork1

October 26, 2005

How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?

Found this little shindiggy courtesy of a blogging acquaintance of mine, Masukomi. I did my blog (worth about $1600), Ezra's blog (worth about $560.) I threw PDD into the "How Much Is Your Blog Worth" computer and... voila, the results for your enjoyment:



PDD is worth $26,533.38.
How much is your blog worth?




For those of you who have blogs other than PDD, how much is your blog worth?

2000 Dead.

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In rememberance of the 2000 soldiers killed in Iraq there is a candlelight vigil tonight. Meet at Lake and Superior at 6:30. Dress warm and bring a candle. More info and a sign up sheet are located here.

October 25, 2005

Walking.

Nonchalant Jaunt

Click pic to watch


click here to download

I finally got around to editing my footage of the Nonchalant Jaunt #3. We had a blast but it wasn't quite the challenge of either year one or two. Join us again next year for some sort of walking shenannigans or just go outside right now.

Sky Rats - Perfect art exhibition for Duluth

Could there possibly a better artistic representation of our city?
kader-attia.jpg

Picture 1
Picture 2 (I am such a morbid fuck - I laughed hysterically at this one)
Picture 3
Artist's site

"Kader Attia presents, here, an installation whose title is taken from the English expression flying rats, which refers to pigeons : the visitors find themselves face to face with a birdcage containing 150 pigeons and 45 children made from moose mixed with compacted bird grain. In what seems to be a recreation courtyard, girls and boys play with marbles or squabble while the pigeons are slowly devouring them. Throughout the exhibition, it will be the pigeons that appropriate the space provoking the evolution of the piece. With all the utilisation precautions connected with a volatile security and vigorous hygiene rules, the birdcage will therefore become a natural habitat, a microcosm in which the pigeons will make there nest and will devour the children. Beyond the cruelty of the scene, Kader Attia wishes to remind us that childhood is probably the period in the life that we see further and further behind us but still think of very nostalgically".

October 24, 2005

What do we want? BRAINS! When do we want it? BRAINS!

What are we wasting our time with work and food and the sleeping, when we could be having... brains!

***

Madison is the next city to face the shambling undead hordes.

At 2pm on Saturday, October 22, zombie fans will assemble in full costume to kick off Zombie Lurch 2005. Join us! We'll meet on the Capitol steps (Carroll/Mifflin side), shamble down State Street with stops for tasty brains and beverages, and end at the Union Terrace for even more beverages.

To add a particularly Madisonian touch, it's not just a Zombie Walk but a Zombie Protest. Fight for zombie rights by bringing a protest sign, sandwich board, or customized t-shirt. With slogans like Let Zombies Walk!, The undead are people too! Open your heart and mind to zombies, or even an eloquent ARGH, we'll raise public consciousness for the plight of our cannibalistic brothers and sisters. What do we want? BRAINS! When do we want it? BRAINS!

http://www.livejournal.com/community/madisonwi/676911.html#cutid1

Art + Internet = Fun

Brandon Bird:

If you like weird paintings of: Christopher Walken building robots, Abe Lincoln in a cage match, L. Ron Hubbard lounging on a couch eating funyuns and pizza, and other oddities check his page out.

http://www.brandonbird.com/paintings.html

These just creep me out:

http://members.aol.com/JesusImages/

Red Ice or Yellow Ice?

Has anyone seen the film "North Country" yet? I caught it on Friday night at Premiere Theatres in Cloquet. (That was as close as I was willing to drive to the Iron Range for the most authentic possible movie-going experience.)

I have mixed feelings about the film. The polka bands, hot dishes, rice krispie bars and even the accents all felt authentic without going too far over the top. But the trial scenes were just plain painful. As Woody Harrelson screamed at a witness, "Are you red ice or yellow ice?" I feared Jack Nicholson might burst into the courtroom to respond, "You can't handle the truth!"

I've decided the film is just going to have to be a "bad movie I love." But I'll cringe if it starts picking up any major awards.

Meanwhile, Premiere Theatres in Cloquet is a great venue. I think it's a converted grocery store or something. The exterior is made of corrugated metal. giving the entire enterprise an impermanent feeling. Like a circus tent. Or a traveling freak show. There's also a liquor store in the same building. (Which makes it more convenient to get crunk before you catch "Wallace and Gromit.")

October 21, 2005

Greek to me

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From the Economist.com
When a Greek sponge diver called Elias Stadiatos discovered the wreck of a cargo ship off the tiny island of Antikythera in 1900, it was the statues lying on the seabed that made the greatest impression on him. He returned to the surface, removed his helmet, and gabbled that he had found a heap of dead, naked women. The ship's cargo of luxury goods also included jewellery, pottery, fine furniture, wine and bronzes dating back to the first century BC. But the most important finds proved to be a few green, corroded lumps—the last remnants of an elaborate mechanical device.

The Antikythera mechanism, as it is now known, was originally housed in a wooden box about the size of a shoebox, with dials on the outside and a complex assembly of bronze gear wheels within. X-ray photographs of the fragments, in which around 30 separate gears can be distinguished, led the late Derek Price, a science historian at Yale University, to conclude that the device was an astronomical computer capable of predicting the positions of the sun and moon in the zodiac on any given date. A new analysis, though, suggests that the device was cleverer than Price thought, and reinforces the evidence for his theory of an ancient Greek tradition of complex mechanical technology.

Michael Wright, the curator of mechanical engineering at the Science Museum in London, has based his new analysis on detailed X-rays of the mechanism using a technique called linear tomography. This involves moving an X-ray source, the film and the object being investigated relative to one another, so that only features in a particular plane come into focus. Analysis of the resulting images, carried out in conjunction with Allan Bromley, a computer scientist at Sydney University, found the exact position of each gear, and suggested that Price was wrong in several respects.

In some cases, says Mr Wright, Price seems to have “massaged” the number of teeth on particular gears (most of which are, admittedly, incomplete) in order to arrive at significant astronomical ratios. Price's account also, he says, displays internal contradictions, selective use of evidence and unwarranted speculation. In particular, it postulates an elaborate reversal mechanism to get some gears to turn in the right direction.

Since so little of the mechanism survives, some guesswork is unavoidable. But Mr Wright noticed a fixed boss at the centre of the mechanism's main wheel. To his instrument-maker's eye, this was suggestive of a fixed central gear around which other moving gears could rotate. This does away with the need for Price's reversal mechanism and leads to the idea that the device was specifically designed to model a particular form of “epicyclic” motion.

The Greeks believed in an earth-centric universe and accounted for celestial bodies' motions using elaborate models based on epicycles, in which each body describes a circle (the epicycle) around a point that itself moves in a circle around the earth. Mr Wright found evidence that the Antikythera mechanism would have been able to reproduce the motions of the sun and moon accurately, using an epicyclic model devised by Hipparchus, and of the planets Mercury and Venus, using an epicyclic model derived by Apollonius of Perga. (These models, which predate the mechanism, were subsequently incorporated into the work of Claudius Ptolemy in the second century AD.)

A device that just modelled the motions of the sun, moon, Mercury and Venus does not make much sense. But if an upper layer of mechanism had been built, and lost, these extra gears could have modelled the motions of the three other planets known at the time—Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. In other words, the device may have been able to predict the positions of the known celestial bodies for any given date with a respectable degree of accuracy, using bronze pointers on a circular dial with the constellations of the zodiac running round its edge.

Mr Wright devised a putative model in which the mechanisms for each celestial body stack up like layers in a sandwich, and started building it in his workshop. The completed reconstruction, details of which appeared in an article in the Horological Journal in May, went on display this week at Technopolis, a museum in Athens. By winding a knob on the side, celestial bodies can be made to advance and retreat so that their positions on any chosen date can be determined. Mr Wright says his device could have been built using ancient tools because the ancient Greeks had saws whose teeth were cut using v-shaped files—a task that is similar to the cutting of teeth on a gear wheel. He has even made several examples by hand.

How closely this reconstruction matches up to the original will never be known. The purpose of two dials on the back of the device is still unclear, although one may indicate the year. Nor is the device's purpose obvious: it may have been an astrological computer, used to speed up the casting of horoscopes, though it might just as easily have been a luxury plaything. But Mr Wright is convinced that his epicyclic interpretation is correct, and that the original device modelled the entire known solar system.
The Greeks had a word for it

That tallies with ancient sources that refer to such devices. Cicero, writing in the first century BC, mentions an instrument “recently constructed by our friend Poseidonius, which at each revolution reproduces the same motions of the sun, the moon and the five planets.” Archimedes is also said to have made a small planetarium, and two such devices were said to have been rescued from Syracuse when it fell in 212BC. This reconstruction suggests such references can now be taken literally.

It also provides strong support for Price's theory. He believed that the mechanism was strongly suggestive of an ancient Greek tradition of complex mechanical technology which, transmitted via the Arab world, formed the basis of European clockmaking techniques. This fits with another, smaller device that was acquired in 1983 by the Science Museum, which models the motions of the sun and moon. Dating from the sixth century AD, it provides a previously missing link between the Antikythera mechanism and later Islamic calendar computers, such as the 13th century example at the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford. That device, in turn, uses techniques described in a manuscript written by al-Biruni, an Arab astronomer, around 1000AD.
Advertisement

The origins of much modern technology, from railway engines to robots, can be traced back to the elaborate mechanical toys, or automata, that flourished in the 18th century. Those toys, in turn, grew out of the craft of clockmaking. And that craft, like so many other aspects of the modern world, seems to have roots that can be traced right back to ancient Greece.

October 20, 2005

Off to Toronto soon.
The land of the big.... thing in the sky, as well as where I was born.

Thanksgiving (the "band" not the holiday)

Hello Hello,
I had posted a while back asking for help finding a venue for Adrian Orange a.k.a Thanksgiving to play.
Well we switched some things around and now he's playing in my living room on Tuesday the 25th at 9:30, and you should come, for more information you can email [email protected] and I will tell you where I live.

There will be no cover but we strongly encourage those who come to buy some merchandise off of him or bring him some kind of treat (edible or audible) for the final leg of his tour as he drives by himself for 2 weeks back to Portland. He will also be playing on "Bang Bang Rock and Roll" on KUMD 103.3 fm the night before at 11 o'clock if you want to hear him first or check out the Marriage Records site

"The best songs ever written are being written RIGHT NOW by Adrian Orange."
-Phil Elverum of the Microphones/Mt. Eerie

October 19, 2005

PDD Curlers

curler.jpg

Does anyone in PDDland curl? Any strong opinions about curling? I will be playing in the sunday afternoon league.

Your Comments, Please

OK. PDD has been pretty fun ever since its rebirth. But still, I'm curious -- why is it that 3/4 of the members of this site have never posted anything?

I wonder if there are things we can do to make it easier, or if there is a problem that we're overlooking.

When I look at the Activity Log for PDD, I see a lot of weird things. A lot of people are apparantly having trouble remembering their username and password. Well, I can't help you there really. But if there's anything else about the way the site works that's keeping people away, I'd like to know.

Keep in mind that there is a lot I can't change. I don't have power over how Movable Type works. But should there be tutorials? Clearer instructions? A better "psychological environment"?

I'd especially like to hear from those PDD members who have not posted. But everyone is welcome.

Thanks.

October 18, 2005

Possesed: Twin Ports Halloween Bash

This will be a hell of a good time...


possessed_final.JPG

October 17, 2005

Screw Christopher Walken

I'm kneeling before Zod in 2008.

October 15, 2005

Herd of Cows?

you have two cows...

DEMOCRATIC
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
You feel guilty for being successful so you send one to the Katrina victims.
Oprah has you on her show to applaud your efforts. Barbara Streisand sings for you.

REPUBLICAN
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
So? They can go screw themselves.

SOCIALIST
You have two cows.
The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.

COMMUNIST
You have two cows.
The government seizes both and provides you with milk.
You wait in line for hours to get it.
It is expensive and sour.

CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
You sell one, buy a bull and build a herd of cows.

BUREAUCRACY, BUSH STYLE
You have two cows.
Under the new Bush Farm Program, the government sends one to Iraq, buys the other one from you for $100, then hires Halliburton to milk it for $4,000 a day, then pours the milk down the drain.

AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one.
You force the two cows to produce the milk of four cows. You are surprised when one cow drops dead. You spin an announcement to the analysts stating you have downsized and are reducing expenses.
Your stock goes up.

FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike because you want three cows.
You go to lunch and drink wine.
Life is good.

JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.
They learn to travel on unbelievably crowded trains.
Most are at the top of their class at cow school.

GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of beer, give excellent quality milk and run a hundred miles an hour.
Unfortunately, they also demand 13 weeks of vacation per year.

ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows but you don't know where they are.
While ambling around, you see a beautiful woman.
You break for lunch.
Life is good.

RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have some vodka.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You have some more vodka.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
The Mafia shows up and takes over however many cows you really have.

TALIBAN CORPORATION
You have all the cows in Afghanistan, which are two.
You don't milk them because you cannot touch any creature's private parts.
You get a $40 million grant from the US government to find alternatives to milk production, but use the money instead to buy weapons to use against Americans.

BIN LADEN/SAUDI ARABIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
They go into hiding.
They send video tapes of their mooing.

PRAIRIE CHAPEL RANCH
You have two bulls.
Employees are regularly maimed and killed attempting to milk them.


FLORIDA CORPORATION
You have a black cow and a brown cow.
Everyone votes for the best looking one.
Some of the people who actually like the brown one best accidentally vote for the black one.
Some people vote for both.
Some people vote for neither.
Some people can't figure out how to vote at all.
Finally, the Supreme Court tells you which one you think is the best-looking cow.

CALIFORNIA CORPORATION
You have millions of cows.
They make real California cheese.
Only five speak English.
Most are illegals.
Arnold likes the ones with the big udders

BUSH TWIN COWS
You have two cows.
You get drunk on tequila and ride them all over the pasture.
Then you milk them and use the cream to mix with Kahlua.
Then you get drunk again.

October 13, 2005

Music Sweet Music.

mixtapemadness.gif

UPDATE! REGISTRATION IS FULL, THANK YOU!

I want to start a Mix-tape club. Heres how it will work. The first 11 people that email me can be part of the club. When your month comes around you make a sweet sweet mix CD, Burn 12 copies and mail one to each member of the club (keeping one for yourself of course.) You can make artwork to go along with the CD or not, it's up to you. In exchange you will get 11 other mix tapes that will blow you away.

I'm taking May since that's my birthday month. I want to start in November so sign up soon. Feel free to suggest a month you would like to have in your email but first come gets first pick.

Lets get this party started!

October 12, 2005

Video iPod?

Steve Jobs with his Nano.

Today at noon Steve Jobs is making his big "One More Thing" announcement in San Francisco. There is much back and forth speculation that he will announce the Video iPod. I for one wouid love it even if it doesn't connect to TV's. You can watch the event by clicking here.

Maybe he will be announcing his bid for President of the Universe.

October 11, 2005

more ufo-y things to check out

I thought of posting this in the comment section of the below post, but decided everyone should see it.

UFO maps, using google maps.
click on the ufo-y thing to get details.

October 10, 2005

Gonzo Science Expedition to the Paulding Light (UPDATED AGAIN)

Come one come all. The Paulding Light, a ghostly/UFO-like phenomenon unique to Paulding, Michigan, appears nearly every night, sometimes looking like a faraway train light but sometimes coming in close and lighting up the whole area UFO-style. We here at Gonzo Science are field tripping out there this Friday in a caravan of wierdos and funseekers, to spend the night and see what we can see. There may be some hiking involved to get up close to the thing. Any video we get will be shown at the UFO Convention on Nov. 5th. We are also bringing an electromagnetic field reader, a laser thermometer, and my UFO Hunting Suit, which SHOULD act as a UFO magnet, so we're SURE to get some crazy pictures. In particular we want to get more video cameras rolling, so if you have one, consider coming along (it's for science!) or consider loaning it out (crazy I know). Several folks from the Whole Foods Co-op scene are coming along on this escapade to gather data and/or images, and we'd like to extend the invitation to the general PDD community. The drive is four hours both ways and as of this writing the camping facilities are unknown and may be non-existent, so be prepared to rough it/improvise/sleep in your car. Departure time of caravan: TBA, but probably around 2PM, stay tuned for location of the launch pad, or just meet us there using the map below. Updates as events warrant. Professor out.

Directions to the Paulding Light: http://www.astronomycafe.net/weird/lights/paulding4.htm.

UPDATE: We are meeting Friday 14th at Peace Church at 2:45pm to arrange carpooling arrangments. We have permission to leave extra cars in the lot overnight. Blastoff: 3:00pm.

SECOND UPDATE: We saw it and got video and it is genuinely wierd. EM readings were useless because of the nearby powerlines. I will try and get stills or video online soon if I can... lots of fun, there were like 50-75 people there at any given time, a constant baccanalian backwoods party at the spooklights. This will become an annual pilgramage!

Looking for

Anyone know where I can get a replacement headshell wire locally? Or alternativly anyone have a busted headshell I can steal the wires from?

I know of the Needle store in Minneapolis off of 14th(?), but i won't be down that way for a while and seems like a long trip to just get 1 smal llittle wire.

Radio Shack is useless, Northern Music don't have, ditto Dad's electronic, Best Buy.


help me pdd, you're my only hope

October 09, 2005

The "z" makes it fresh.

Your tax dollars at work, ladies and gents.

October 06, 2005

Gunter glieben glauchen globen

Evil Jeffy and I were pondering various definitions of this thing called Rock...more specifically, "Cock Rock" and "Butt Rock." The main query being, what characteristic (if any) would qualify a band such as...ohh, Winger or Skid Row, or even Cinderella as belonging to either of these categories? Cinderella, IMHO, is almost a no-brainer. Other examples of such labeling would also further this thread.

I just wanted to use the category

October 05, 2005

Pamela vs. Martha

If you're around at 3pm today, flip on channel 10 and check out Duluth's Pamela Matson talking about her apple dolls on today's edition of Martha.

Rock on, Pamela.

Nonchalant Jaunt 2005

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Meet on Sunday, Oct. 9, at 10 a.m., on the top of Enger Tower.

This year's Nonchalant Jaunt will be very different than the previous two. This time, there is no specific destination whatsoever. We will meet, decide to take off in some direction or another, and basically wander the city in search of fun.

Previously, the Nonchalant Jaunt has been much more chalant. Read about 2004 here and 2003 here. This year there are no rules. We can jump on a bus to Canada if we want to.

Assuming no surprises in his work schedule, Barrett Chase will be vlogging the event, so camera-shy should stay home or wear a mask.

If you have any questions, well, that's what the comments section is for.

October 03, 2005

Question

So... I have been thinking about learning to play electric guitar.

I need some advice.

What is a good, fairly inexpensive, setup to invest in. This would be for someone who does not play a musical instument currently

I was listening to the first Modern Lovers album recently and got, shall we say, inspired.

Vlogging On Da Radio!

Everybody's buddy Chuck Olsen will be on the second hour of the mid-morning MPR show (10am). That's at 100.5 fm for those of you that shun Public Radio.

He will be appearing with 2 other Vlogger's, Jay Dedman and Ryanne Hodson. They live in New York.

October 01, 2005

It's almost Halloween!

LeftEye.jpgRightEye.jpg
Halloween is pretty much the only holiday that I get excited about. So, to celebrate the holiday in the Twin Ports, I created a Halloween site that has a listing of all spooky October events.
www.HauntedDuluth.com