Homegrown Week, I know.
My Lilac Bush 4.28.09
I spotted this sign along Wisconsin Highway 13 between Ashland and Mellen a few weeks ago, right before the spring elections in Wisconsin.
I got a kick out of so many things about the sign – the use of “Spud” as the primary name, the (afterthought?) addition of “AKA Ryan Collins,” the use of scrap wood and (probably) leftover purple paint, nailing the sign right on a tree trunk… Small-town, north woods campaigning at its best. Well, except for that whole nailing to a tree trunk thing. I’m not a big fan of that.
Apparently Spud won a seat on the town board (scroll to the bottom). Godspeed, Spud – I hope you serve the Town of White River well.
Here we have a small jet crossing back and forth over the central hillside/downtown area. The trails behind this jet are not to be mistaken as “Con-trails”!
Con-trails in warm weather will dissipate immediately if they are even visible at all. Who knows, maybe it is just white flour to excite the chattering class … bring out the weirdos, know what I mean. Perhaps entertainment or to mess up our eyes as we repeatedly look toward the sun. Do you suppose they are disabling our pineal glands, disrupting our inherent clairvoyant abilities? Will I wake up tomorrow with an arm growing out of my ass? I hope not, but in a strange way, I do. View an essay.
Thirty years ago, Bud James was one of the custodians at Laura MacArthur Elementary School. All the kids loved him.
Because I was so young then, my memory of Mr. James is fuzzy. What I do remember is that he used to sing all the time, whether it was at assemblies or just randomly in the halls while cleaning up puke. I don’t remember if he was good at singing, or if he was just a ham, but it was great either way.
Every kid should grow up with a singing janitor. Thank you, Mr. James.
Hey kids, we know you’ve got ’em, and we want to see ’em. Turn your best Homegrown photos into PDD banners. We’ll try to rotate Homegrown-specific banners during the Homegrown Festival. Same rules apply, the image must be 960 pixels wide by 167 pixels high. Don’t stretch or squish the image to make it fit, that always looks bad. The Perfect Duluth Day logo will be added by PDD’s art department. Or, if you’d like, you can add it.
E-mail if you want the Photoshop template with the logo
E-mail your banners to [email protected], and we’ll start organizing them.
Also, a reminder, the banners go up on Flickr eventually. If anybody wants to add info about their shots in the Flickr comments, that would be cool.
My girlies dyeing eggs this year OUTDOORS!
We’ve been having an annual Easter Eve Egg Dyeing Party every year since I decided to participate more in my family rather than just attempt to finance it by working every Saturday.
Is this?
Washington Galleries Presents:
CROSSING HEMISPHERES
New Directions By: Travis Melin & David Gross
Pinhole Photography & Environmental Paintings
Exhibit Runs: April 3 – 26, 2009
Opening Reception: Friday, April 3rd 2009 6-9pm
Closing Reception: Saturday, April 18th 2009 6-9pm
Gallery Hours: Saturdays & Sundays 1-5pm
or by appointment.
Please contact: Travis Melin at 218-343-9527
or email:
[email protected]
Washington Galleries
315 N Lake Av
Duluth MN 55806
Congratulations to Mary on her victory in the Whacko Yard Art Photo Scavenger Hunt. As promised, Mary will recieve a Geek Prom T-shirt and Space Patrol walkie talkies. I’m also throwing in a used copy of Cinderella’s 1988 hit album Long Cold Winter, since the contest ended on the first day of spring.
The Whacko Yard Art Photo Scanvenger Hunt is over and the finalists are Mary and Mark. (Sorry, Barrett, but you missed the deadline. Those rules are there for a reason, mister.)
I said I’d allow comments to sway my decision, so those with a strong opinion on who should win have until … oh, let’s say noon … to make their voices heard. After lunch I’ll return from my chambers with a decision.
OK, so it’s after 10 p.m., but I thought I had until midnight to enter the Wacko Yard-art Photo Scavenger Hunt. Nonetheless, I’d like to submit these beauties.
These signs are located on Highway 53 near Cotton. I took these photos today, but the guy who makes these signs changes them every now and then. I remember back during the whole French Fries/Freedom Fries debate, he had a sign up that said, “Piss on the Poodles” with a picture of a French flag and, of course, a poodle.
When I was a kid, my family had a cabin near Cotton, and these signs always entertained me. Also, back then he had a sign advertising timber wolf pups for sale, which would always stir elaborate Jack London-esque fantasies in my young mind.
Anyway, I know I’m late. But I still wanted to share these pics. Perhaps I can get an honorable mention.
Now, I don’t know if this counts, because I took these pictures back in September and I don’t know if it’s still standing (it looks like parts of it were made out of papier-mâché, so I’m not sure how it would’ve fared through the winter months), but it was definitely in a yard and it was definitely art.
And yeah, definitely a little whacko, too.
(East Superior Street, near the Northland Country Club, 9/21/08.)
