duluth_bishop Posts

Time Capsule Needed

What’s the proper endgame for this shirt? In my practice, bleach spillage (as is the case here) would usually qualify this shirt for a move from my Saturday pile to the rag bin. But with this being such a noteworthy piece of early Perfect Duluth Day, and for that matter Duluth history, it seems like there should be a more proper retirement.

Webster House

Yesterday, for some reason, Perry Webster came to mind. Perhaps the milestone of Starfire’s 50th birthday got me thinking of Legends of the Twin Ports. Along with Scott Lunt and Slim Goodbuzz, the “Mount Rushmore” of Duluth would certainly include at least one of the Websters. With that — “The Webster House” — part Airbnb, part youth hostel, part “Lincoln Bedroom,” part homeless shelter, part fraternity/sorority, part halfway house, part fact and part fiction came to mind.

Starfire-sitting

I saw an article in Slate today about the economic imperative for bands to tour and the need for childcare on the road. I was disappointed that Duluth’s own Scott “Starfire” Lunt was not consulted, let alone mentioned. His duty as nanny on Low’s 2003 tour will serve as more good fodder for an “official, unofficial history of Duluth” on PACT-TV. What Mrs. Doubtfire is to in-home child care, rawk-legend Starfire is to tour-bus child care.

Slate: “The 21st-Century Family Band

Edmund Fitzgerald

I missed posting this by two days, but it’s still worth a look.

Catering Recommendation in the Twin Cities

Daily I am reminded of the charmed life I once lived in Duluth. The most recent pain comes in needing to identify a few restaurants or catering companies I could collaborate with on a fundraising event my employer is sponsoring in September.

Back in Duluth, this would have been a wonderful experience as I would simply visit with some friends or mutual acquaintances to find the right partner. Not so with this endeavor. So with that, I am reaching out to the “best of the best” here on PDD: if any of you have a CATERING recommendation for me [ST PAUL, MSP] and could provide a soft introduction, that would be very helpful. I’m not holding out for free food, I’m just interested in creating a partnership and want to engage an honest, service-minded owner. Feel free to email me directly: bbertsch at crchealth dot com.

Duluth shout out on Alaska Public Radio

I’ve been talking to a buddy up in Sitka, Alaska, about the Jazz scene in Duluth – as well as across the state. He does a weekly radio show on KCAW and yesterday featured artists that have played at a number of venues throughout Minnesota: The Club Saratoga, Dakota Jazz Club & Restaurant, The Riverview, Bayport BBQ and Nashville Hot Wing, and Healdsburg Jazz Festival.

I haven’t listened to the whole show yet, but Duluth gets a nice shout-out about 15 minutes into the program. I think it’s a pretty neat tribute and I wanted to share:

Spotify / Archived Show

East End Tailor

I used to work in West Duluth, and West Duluth Sewing was conveniently accessed. I made a special trip over the last week, and to my disappointment they seem closed – as in not open for business anymore.  Anyway – Joanne was great – always happy – she could fix anything:  hem pants, repair gear, advise on relationship issues …

Information Overload – Need a virtual tutor

Spent a few minutes with Google looking for a decent app or website we can direct our kids to for working on the skills and concepts being introduced in the classroom. We are open to a subscription service, but don’t want to commit without some endorsement or referral from a trusted PDDer. Sure, there is plenty out there for free, but weeding through advertisements and such makes it complicated and cumbersome at times – we’d also like to track progress. Any of you using anything you can recommend? Specifically looking for math, spelling and phonics for the K-5 audience.

Travel Advice: San Diego

In a few weeks, I’m going to be in the San Diego area for work [i.e. standing in front of a marketing display slapping backs and shaking hands]. The Prioress is going to meet me at the tail end for a few days.

Bullhorn Permit??

One of my buddies was horsing around with a megaphone this weekend – he was announcing an impromptu ski race. The police showed up and told him that he needed a “megaphone permit” in order to OWN a megaphone [perhaps he meant “use”?]. Anyway – we have been reviewing the city permit page and can’t find the requisite paperwork. Should the authorities have referenced a different regulation? Anybody have experience with this?

Yakima Hack

Through some horse trading and good luck, I’ve acquired two Yakima Rocket Boxes. I would like to mount them both on the current touring rig for our upcoming summer travels, but they both hinge the same direction. I really don’t want to mount one backward, and therefore am trying to figure out if the hinges can be switched with any success.

App Recomendations

I know there are websites, public access TV shows, blogs, YouTube channels, radio shows and perhaps 1-900-services dedicated to all things iPad\phone\pod\touch – but I don’t have the time or interest in sorting through all of it. I need a few iPad app recommendations for the following: 4th grade Math Tutoring; Kindergarten sight word development and basic piano skill development. We justified getting an iPad as an “educational tool”; but have frankly been overwhelmed at the prospect of loading decent apps. At present, it’s a $500 machine for playing “Temple Run” and watching Netflix.  A well vetted resource for finding this information would also be valuable.

Viking Dishwasher

Is there any value in a 2010 Viking Professional Series Dishwasher that has never really worked the way it is suppose to? Are there any vendors that take this stuff on trade? Should I part it out on eBay? I traded my neighbor for it [his wife didn’t like it – there is no drying element] and the drain pump went out this weekend. I don’t want to put any money into it [it’s the worst dishwasher we’ve every had]; but it feels like there needs to be some value in it. I guess the damn thing was over 1K when they bought it and I’ve got sausage in my freezer that’s older than this thing. Perhaps I should set it out on Island Lake and sell chances at guessing when it falls through in the spring? Winner gets 1/2 the pot? [actual fundraiser by the Lion’s Club in my hometown, except it was a car on the Mississippi]. Will entertain interesting offers.

You forgot something the other night …

Perhaps this brief rant is more appropriate for Craig’s List, but I’ll digress anyway … 

Photo Archive

I’m looking for a simple solution to “cloud type” photo storage.  Currently we attempt to consolidate all our photos on one computer via thumb drive and other work arounds.  My wife and I each have a smart phone, we have multiple digital cameras, and multiple computers to which photo’s end up being downloaded – so it gets to be a mess when we “organize” pictures.

It seems that it would make more sense for me to directly upload pictures to a remote site we all could access for viewing.  Editing would be constrained to one computer.  A nice option would be to have some sort of “syncing” tool similar to the iTunes and Google Drive solution suggested here by my earlier post.

My wife likes to edit photos and put together photo books while we are driving and therefore needs to be able to access the photos offline. So ideally, as photos were edited – these would also be reflected online post sync. There would not be a need to keep all photos locally – just the ones of interest. The syncing would only need to be with one computer; but uploads would be from various sources.