David Beard Posts

The Nerd Habit of Collecting Signatures

Mar 12, 2024 2 Comments

As I mentioned in a previous post, at MarsCon in Bloomington last weekend the son of a nerd who had died was selling his father’s collection of media, books, games and ephemera.

I picked up the Doctor Who cookbook from the previous century, some trading cards, all for pennies on the dollar. Perhaps the best find, or at least the one I can’t ever imagine finding again, was the single by the actor who played the third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, “Who is the Doctor?”

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Signatures for a Nerd

Mar 11, 2024 No Comments

At MarsCon in Bloomington last weekend, the son of a recently passed nerd was selling his father’s collection of media, books, games and ephemera. I picked up the Doctor Who cookbook from the previous century, some trading cards, all for pennies on the dollar.

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Riley Grace Brett at Gabriel’s Book Store

Feb 19, 2024 No Comments

I met a new local author in the wild over the weekend at Gabriel’s Book Store in Lakeside. Riley Grace Brett volunteers there; she has also released a new novel.

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Pączki Day (and Ash Wednesday) in Duluth

Feb 14, 2024 1 Comment

Hello from a former Catholic who misses life in Milwaukee, where Pączki Day was a thing. Ash Wednesday was a day when you could walk the streets and see your tribe, and Duluth seems to have none of that. Maybe I walk the wrong streets.

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Seeking migration stories to teach, publish

Jan 05, 2024 No Comments

This semester, I will be teaching a class focusing on migration stories. If you have a favorite such story (about human migration, bird migration, software migration), especially one with a Duluth connection, please send it my way: dbeard @ d.umn.edu, or comment below.

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Former Duluthian writes about hockey-playing cousin

Jan 04, 2024 No Comments

Former Duluthian Crystal Gibbins writes about northeast Minnesota hockey legend Henry Boucha on the Coffee House Press website.


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Former Duluthian teaching painting online

Jan 03, 2024 No Comments

Former Duluthian Nancy Valentine teaches bamboo painting online (thanks to an arts grant).

Coloring pages related to this project are available via Google Drive.


Art

Thoughts on Flags, Art and a State of Perpetual Revolution

Dec 21, 2023 5 Comments

This post is about the new Minnesota State Flag, about abstract art, and about the exhausted feeling I get in contemporary politics.

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Art

Saturday Morning TV

Dec 20, 2023 4 Comments

While this post isn’t specifically about Duluth, I am hoping that posting will bring some Duluth stories out of the woodwork.

Below are lists of Saturday-morning cartoons as they ran in my childhood. I remember many of them (Scooby-Doo, of course; repackaged cinema cartoons like Bugs Bunny Looney Tunes; originals like the animated Star Trek).

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Community Resource List: Freelance Grant Writers

Dec 18, 2023 No Comments

I’m seeking entries for a community resource list. The category of resource I am hoping to build first is “Freelance Grant Writers.”

If you’d like to be on such a list (one I am hoping to convince the University of Minnesota Duluth would be good to have both internally and to serve its community better), please comment below with your name, your electronic presence (e.g., website, LinkedIn, or social media) and the areas you are comfortable writing grants in (e.g., arts, the environment, education, etc.).


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Learning the back-story of “Random Acts of Radio”

Nov 14, 2023 5 Comments

I am sorting through items found at the College of St. Scholastica book sale, and I ran into this CD from the 1990s.

It feels like an argument could be made to submit this to the archives and special collections at the University of Minnesota Duluth as a significant artifact of the Duluth music scene.

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History, Music

A lot of work to do before I can find joy on Thursday

Nov 04, 2023 5 Comments

I want to take a second to talk about an event some friends of mine are putting together. It’s being done entirely on volunteer energy (except for some food provided by UMD catering), it includes music and writing and community discussion, and I’ve never been so excited for an event that I think will make me sad.

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Events

What is the future of Ordean Plaza?

Oct 27, 2023 No Comments

A recent Duluth News Tribune story about plans to convert the top five floors of the Ordean Building into rental housing included a brief mention of the city selling the small park next to it.

This particular little postage stamp of parkland is called Ordean Plaza, a public square across from the Duluth Public Library. It’s part of the larger Fifth Avenue Mall, a late-1960s and early-1970s effort to beautify Fifth Avenue West.

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News and Current Affairs

Zombie Media: Honey West, the Girl from Uncle and More

Oct 23, 2023 2 Comments

I’m still amazed at the media I am finding around town — especially since Best Buy announced it will no longer sell movies or TV shows on DVD or Blu Ray. Will we see a resurgence in the medium in ten years, as vinyl and even cassettes have come back lately?

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History

New Collections, Projects and Ideas for Publishing Mentorships

Oct 19, 2023 2 Comments

As a teacher of writing at the University of Minnesota Duluth, I’m both concerned with how students learn to express themselves and how they position themselves for lives and careers after graduation. Of late, I’ve been trying to develop coursework and experiences for students that prepare them for careers in publishing. This includes learning about BookTok, developing materials to explain the difference between an editor and an agent, and more.

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