Slow TV: Winter Share Packing at the Food Farm
See your Food Farmers pack up February’s share of vegetables and experience a phenomenon I like to call “maximum mesmerization.”
See your Food Farmers pack up February’s share of vegetables and experience a phenomenon I like to call “maximum mesmerization.”
Should we think about these photographs or their subjects? Yes. Do we consider the art of them or the culture they depict? Yes, both. And perhaps composition or feeling? Again, yes.
Ken Bloom’s exhibition Public Domain: Street Photographs of Japan 1976-78 at the Duluth Art Institute shows three years of his work from the mid-1970s in city areas of Japan. Most are black and white; a few later ones are in color. The compositions are tight. The subject is people in their time and environment. Movement (striding, shopping, riding, jumping, talking, gazing) and waiting (for the ferries, for the trains, for the kids, for the work day to begin) are the subjects of many.
This is fascinating and frightening. Check out “Draining Zenith City” a blog entry by Dan Turner, a photographer, urban explorer and historian. The name of his blog is Substreet. The picture here is Chester Creek, somewhere under the Rose Garden. Turner has also documented other places around Duluth and Superior, and industrial and abandoned spaces across the country.
The light on the dashboard catches your eye. Add an oil change to your list of mundane, human deeds to complete in the near future: file taxes, buy milk and diapers, DMV to renew tabs, post office for stamps, gas, and now, an oil change.
Here lies the start to a new series where we compare prices on basic, practical products and services around Duluth and Superior. First off, oil changes.
The prices below reflect the rate the establishment charges with tax included. Wisconsin and Douglas County sales tax total 5.5%. Minnesota and Duluth sales tax total 7.875%.
At the Duluth Art Institute, right now, exists a portal into other worlds and an alternate way of being. Head on over to Ed’s Big Adventure for a behind-the-scenes glimpse into artist Shawna Gilmore’s art studio, images from this show that appeals to children and adults alike, and more. Also included is Shawna’s painting that’s featured on Charlie Parr’s next album cover, due out on April 15.
Bent Paddle Brewing adds another seasonal beer to its rotation this week. Hop Forest Double India Pale Ale, weighing it at 8.9 percent alcohol-by-volume, will be on tap at Bent Paddle on Wednesday, available in 750-milliliter bottles on Friday and later find its way into liquor stores in 4-pack cans.
Hop Harvest will also be available at Beaner’s Central in time for Friday’s first-of-three CD release parties for the latest One Week Live compilation.
The text on the can reads: “Standing in a hop field brings forth a sense of solitude and wonder one can find in a forest. Hop Forest Double IPA provides full hop coverage with a tremendous load of tropical citrus and piney hop aromatics. Malt sweetness intertwines with the American hop varieties to create a balanced shade of flavor that invites one to sit down and enjoy the view.”
Here’s a bit of what you’ll find on this week’s PDD Calendar:
Duluth MakerSpace is holding a class on glass-etching, the Duluth Public Library is screening the kids’ film Inside Out, members of the public can get their antiques appraised at the Depot, the director of the cult film Microwave Massacre comes to town to talk about stuttering and the Duluth Playhouse opens the Neil Simon play Broadway Bound.
The Clean Water Gala 2016 is raising funds at Clyde Iron Works, the St. Scholastica theater department is putting on the bass-fishing-concerned Zara Spook and Other Lures, there’s free pleasure-skating at the Heritage Center, Beaner’s Central celebrates the release of its latest compilation album with three concerts and a long-running musical about Buddy Holly lands at the DECC.
Video by Dawn LaPointe of Radiant Spirit Gallery.
Wait for it.
Next week’s theme is “Presidents in Duluth” in honor of Presidents Day. Send your suggested quiz questions (and answers) to lawrence @ perfectduluthday.com by noon on Wednesday, Feb. 17.
Safe at Home
Somewhere at sea: Two landing craft ease their way — side by side — through the wide opening at the stern of the USS Duluth. The craft employs almost all the room available on coming aboard. After the boats are tied down, the ballast tanks are emptied and the wall is drained.
(U.S. Navy photo via United Press International)
The climb feels endless. Tattered concrete fills my field of vision — taunting and mocking my painfully slow bike ride up the hill. My legs ache and are starting to shake. My lungs burn and seem to collapse a bit more every time I turn the pedals over and try to suck in a great, heaving gulp of oxygen.
The front wheel wobbles for lack of momentum, forcing me to cross back. Now I’m shamefully zig-zagging across the steep avenue, which both relieves the burdensome pitch, but quadruples the length of the climb. There is a deep desire in me, immutable by logic or maturity, to ride the whole way, steep inclines notwithstanding.
Then the moment of kinetic equilibrium arrives in which the depleted energy of my legs can no longer overcome gravity’s backward force and for the briefest moment my bike and I are stuck in suspended animation. I dismount at the very moment gravity begins to prevail. With humility washing over me, bike and I switch roles as I become the vehicle delivering the two of us up the hillside.
Superior Business Improvement District, Wisconsin Arts Board, the National Endowment for the Arts and WITC-Superior welding students unveiled their public sculpture in the vacant lot adjacent to Sclavi’s Restaurant on Tower Ave. in Superior.
The Wishing Tree is a community art participation project. Thirteen welding students of WITC-Superior, under the direction of Aleasha Hladilek, were asked to create a 7-foot sculptural metal tree. These 13 students are enrolled in the full time technical structural welding course.
