Shane Bauer Posts

Perfect Duluth Day in Nashville

I really enjoy rhetoric guy’s posts with details about a typical day in Duluth from his perspective. After spending a day in Nashville leading up to an evening of Duluth musicians performing on an iconic American stage, I couldn’t help thinking about sharing this profound experience in a similar way.

Latest ‘Duluth’ Song Reference

With a possible new entry for the Duluth Lyrics Vault – the new Phish album ‘plooped’ (or dripped) on Tuesday. Here are the lyrics to Halfway to the Moon:

Disturbing Lake Superior “Scars”

Can’t say I have identified any chemical trails over the Twin Ports (maybe they know that only the lake can control the weather around here), but this sad image has a strong effect.

Bridge Festival schedule confirmed … almost

We know this is ridiculous, but we promise to fit it all in and stay mostly on time. And the forecast is perfect! This schedule includes all the changes, switcharoos, and official times as of noon on the 4th of July (yes, there are still more events in the works we’ll try to update here):

Twin Ports Bridge Festival Pre-Sale for Accessibility

The Twin Ports Bridge Festival is hoping to meet a goal of selling 2,000 tickets at a reduced rate by May 31 to allow free access to area organizations and their constituents who could benefit from the inspiring messages and events at the festival, but would otherwise not be able to attend. These groups may include, but certainly won’t be limited to, those that help folks with mental illness, disabilities, and/or underserved youth. With this year’s date only two days after Independence Day, we are also hoping to be able to allow free access to all veterans.

Duluth’s Best Guitar Slingers

The Chaperone Records post (congrats on that – great to see here) reminded me of a conversation at Bayfront regarding the area’s best guitarists.

IMHO, the Twin Ports Bridge Festival featured three of the area’s top ten, maybe even five. Charlie Parr, who seems to have become a master of his genre. Jimi Cooper of the Fractals, who I have seen do many styles effortlessly. Barry Pirkola, also of the Fractals, who exhibits a similar smoothness to Jimi and works the steel as well.

We’re lucky to have so many great artists right here in our community (Twin Ports area – I titled w/Duluth because this is PDD). I’m curious and would enjoy hearing who others think are the area’s top five or ten if you feel like going deeper.

Twin Ports Bridge Festival 2012

Saturday, July 7:

10:00 Gate opens

10:15 Zumba, main stage ~ Join right in and get moving

11:00 Food, craft, nonprofit vendors open along with kids’ activities (bounce houses, Positive Energy Outdoors climbing wall, activity tent)

Welcome from masters of ceremonies, Drew & Jon Anderson

11:00 Batteryboy, tent stage

11:30 Sara Thomsen & Michael Laughing Fox Charette, main stage

Calling All Community Builders

With a creative answer to the questions below (not actually required), not-for-profit organizations pay nothing to promote themselves and connect with people at this year’s Twin Ports Bridge Festival. And the admission is free for a member of the organization to staff the booth! Since vendors and exhibitors are located in the concert bowl with a view of the main stage, this means a free Jayhawks concert plus a full day of music from other great bands along with community yoga, inspiration and fun for the whole family — all while spreading the good word about the organization.

Video Archive: Dukes of Hubbard Live at Schooners in 2002

You’d never know what would happen next at a Dukes of Hubbard show (circa early 2000s). On stage, they would mix Phish with Kenny Loggins, then beatbox. Or play Ween followed by a Beatles medley and other antics. Or Jane’s Addiction followed by Herbie Hancock, while trading instruments and doing shots. And with Trudy (good dog, may she rest in peace) lounging off to the side. Some nights were more of a variety show than a usual set of music.

Why is the library essential?

I thought about commenting on the post below, but this question deserves a post of its own. It looks like our library’s status is an issue that is going to stick around awhile. Libraries are closing everywhere, even in large metro areas like Chicago, Philadelphia and Charlotte (the first few that come up on a search).

It’s also a question that came up at the Duluth Chamber’s most recent “Forvm” event with city council candidates, and it led to some odd answers. One candidate said something like, “Absolutely we need to support our library.” I take that as meaning he thinks it’s essential. But then he went on, “I haven’t been there since college. It seems everything I need now is on the internet, but I was there all the time in college.”

My Potato Project – The Importance of “Organic”

[This post originally contained an embedded video that no longer exists at its source.]

The corn analysis made me think of this right away and had to share based on the corn comments. If you haven’t seen this already, it’s worth watching through. In addition to the experiment results, Elise’s scripted narration and awkward pauses are fantastic. She’s not from Duluth, but is from Minnesota and really likes our town.

An Open Letter To Our Community

Dear Citizens:

“Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.” — Maya Angelou

And perhaps we can understand each other right here.

We, the members of our state and local community, ask you, the members of our state and local community, to join us in making Saturday, July 9, 2011, a milestone.

He’s coming … probably barefoot. And we’ll be waiting on July 9 at Bayfront

Three years of road rage (and wide open left lanes)?

Since we have to endure this “mega-project” for so long, we better all get on the same page.

I’m one of those who follows the signs that say USE BOTH LANES when backed up and TAKE TURNS AT THE MERGE, which means take turns at the merge to me. I’m pretty sure these signs, their positioning, and the whole setup have been thought out and planned to make the situation as easy as possible for everyone.

Despite those instructions, it seems a majority of people decide to fall in line to the right, maybe assuming they’re eventually going to have to merge anyway. This creates a very long backup in the right lane and a wide open left lane up to the merge, which leads to angry drivers in the right lane who see others cruising by them in the left lane. If a majority of us would actually drive through this the way I think it was intended, I think it would be a lot smoother, similar to the second merge going west from downtown, where traffic spreads out a little and left laners can seamlessly get right without anyone having to slow down at all.

I bring this up after seeing the attempts by some to take up both lanes and actually getting swerved at yesterday for using the wide open left lane. Thank goodness the kids weren’t in the car. Seriously who “fake swerves” their vehicle at another moving vehicle?

Am I wrong here? And if not, how do we get everyone through this as intended? I’ve seen letters to the DNT addressing this and basically saying the same thing I am, obviously without impact.

A Homegrown Story

I always get a kick out of some of the band names in Duluth’s huge music family. After looking at this year’s lineup, came up with this little tale, using every single name listed for Fri./Sat. and pitting them against each other:

It was the battle of Rawk vs. Roll. Electric vs. Acoustic. And it all started at a park in Duluth one day in early May, Circa A.M.

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!