R.I.P.
Thank you all, good fucking night.
Well, Bone Appetit played it’s last show ever last weekend, and it ended just like it began — sloppy, drunken, and unpredictable.
Thanks to everyone throughout the years that supported us, and thanks even more to the people who took time out of their lives to rip on us, thus giving us even more press than our supporters. I wish I could take the time to individually thank everyone, but I refuse to do that knowing I’d forget someone. We may have never sang about “what’s cool,” and never really fit in with the whole Duluth scene, but to those that embraced us for doing whatever the fuck we wanted, I thank you!
I have more good and funny memories from that band than most any other thing in life, and even though some of us don’t really get along in the band anymore, I will still say that I love each and every one of those guys. We’ll never get the accolades that some bands in that town get, but there isn’t one fucking person who deny that we fucking rocked that town over the years. In the end, I like to think we left a nice big skid mark on certain parts of that music scene that can’t be wiped off.
To everyone I’ve had a beer/smoke/laugh with over the last 11 years in this band, I have nothing but thanks for you. I love you all, and Good Fucking Night.
Love always,
Cory “Hotrod” Ahlm
P.S. Special thanks to Starfire, Adam Guggemos, Paul Lundgren/Barrett Chase, Christa Lawler, Rick Boo, Eric Swanson, Slim Goodbuzz, Jason Cork, and Chris Whittier. Anyone else I forgot, hit me up for a beer.
The Quizzard is dead! Long live the Quizzard!
Dear reader, as I sit down to write this obit, I still cannot believe the debauchery I have witnessed this eve. A poor, young virgin, probably, icon of the fair festival we have undertaken, only minutes ago, laid upon his deathbed, while a group of Brats, of the Wurst kind, danced around in glee as he snuffed it. He appeared on stage to give blessing to the Brats, and was slaughtered in front of a cheering mob. Oh, woe are we who expected to see him appear at every stage during this and every coming festival. I feel I cannot go on … but I must, if only to warn future generations of the TINY TWAT who wrenched him from my grasp, promised to free him, and then returned him to the entrail encrusted demons on stage to be rendered, to their delight. May the giant chicken have mercy on our souls.
Bone Appetit’s Last Temptation of Duluth
This Friday, at the Rex Bar in the Fitger’s Complex – roughly 60 hours from now, maybe more, depending on where SuddendEATH is – Bone Appetit will play its last show ever. Bone Appetit: Duluth’s Worst, then Sexiest, then Greatest Band, forever laid to rest after over a decade of service to you, the citizens of Duluth. As of last glance, there are 85 confirmed guests for this show, which [using mathematical extrapolation, as well as consulting my trick knee] means the room will be filled well beyond the fire marshal’s stated capacity.
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Downtown Ace Hardware closing
Losing Daugherty Hardware was bad enough. Now Ace Hardware downtown is closing. The big-box stores cannot compare, and downtown takes another hit. Poop!
R.I.P. Jaime Escalante (the teacher who inspired ‘Stand & Deliver’)
I don’t know about you, but he made me want to be a teacher to a bunch of really tough, overlooked but brilliant kids. And it worked, I did it. I even used his line about Mayans being first to popularize the zero to my own mostly Mayan descended students a few years after I saw the film when I was a volunteer teacher in Central America. Oddly enough the film didn’t do much to quell my fear of calculus.
I’m not sure how the film holds up now, 22 years later, but it was a great depiction of a great man. RIP, Maestro Escalante.
Alex Chilton 1950-2010
Alex Chilton of Big Star and the Box Tops died last night of heart complications at the age of 59. Here’s a eulogy from Rep. Steve Cohen (D) Tennessee, which he gave today before congress.
Children by the million sing for Alex Chilton
When he comes ’round
They sing, “I’m in love. What’s that song?
I’m in love with that song.”
— The Replacements
Poet Lucille Clifton Dies at Age 73
“homage to my hips”
these hips are big hips
they need space to
move around in.
they don’t fit into little
petty places. these hips
are free hips.
they don’t like to be held back.
these hips have never been enslaved,
they go where they want to go
they do what they want to do.
these hips are mighty hips.
these hips are magic hips.
i have known them
to put a spell on a man and
spin him like a top!
*This is one of my favorite poems. Ms. Clifton. I have yet to develop an opinion on her last book of poetry, “Voices”. But she left many great works before her death.
Threaded Comments – Aborted
As explained in this post, Perfect Duluth Day experimented with threaded comments for a few days. The benefits of it seemed to be outweighed by the complications of it, so the experiment is now over and comments are back to working like they used to.
Since previously threaded comments are now unthreaded, we hope it won’t create too much confusion to readers who haven’t been following along.
Remembering the Ripsaw’s Transition
It’s been 10 years since the Ripsaw published the last of its monthly scandal sheets and converted to an “alternative newsweekly” format. Here’s a look back at the old monthly editions of Duluth’s most infamous rag.
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That’s Trouble of Some Kind, George
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMfXAVM4Bl8
Previously unseen amateur video of Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.
R.I.P. Howard Zinn, 1922-2010
Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States and many other books died this week.
Here are references I found to Duluth and Minnesota in “A People’s History of the United States” (more…)
Alas, Mr. Salinger is dead
The car moved west, directly, as it were, into the open furnace of the late-afternoon sky. It continued west for two blocks, till it reached Madison Avenue, and then it right-angled sharply north. I felt as though we were all being saved from being caught up by the sun’s terrible flue only by the anonymous driver’s enormous alertness and skill.
MPR Remembers Bill Holm
Minnesota poet, essayist, memoirist and musician Bill Holm died earlier this year. (See PDD post from Feb. 26.) This MPR program features highlights from a tribute held at the Fitzgerald Theater on April 14, with Robert Bly, Emilie Buchwald, Barton and Ross Sutter and so on. Also, many clips of the man himself.
R.I.P. Lakeview Castle Duluth
Word on the street is the Lakeview Castle will be closing it doors.
Suburbs Memories
If anyone has fun memories of going to a Suburbs show especially in Duluth please post them in the comments. I want to read them on my radio show today between sets of awesome Suburbs music.
R.I.P. Bruce Allen.
Ed Fitz radio doc to air tonight
The annual airing of the 2-1/2 hour documentary We’re Holding Our Own: The Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald will be tonight at 7 p.m. on KUWS-FM (91.3 Superior, 102.9 Ashland). The ore carrier sank in eastern Lake Superior with no distress calls, no witnesses and most tragically, no survivors. This doc was produced by Wisconsin Public Radio over a five-year period and aired November 10, 1995 on the 20th anniversary of its sinking. Two-and-a-half hours seems like a long time, but it moves pretty fast and doesn’t have Gordon Lightfoot’s song all over it.
Yoshikas Sauna: Seventeen years of Memories in Duluth’s Friendly West End
From 1991 to 2008, Yoshikas Sauna served the West End with its famous “erotic” massages. Everyone in town knew prostitution was going on there, but somehow the long arm of the law seemed to ignore it.
It was finally shut down when the city decided not to grant a massage establishment license to owner Suzy Woo-Young in November 2008. (Woo-Young had operated Yoshikas without a license all those years, and decided to finally apply for one. Oops.)
Kevin Lund bought the building and had it torn down last Thursday.
Any Yoshikas memories for the record, PDD commenters? (You know, stories that won’t gross us all out.)
By the way, people always called the place “Yoshiko’s Sauna.” The News Tribune refers to it as “Yoshiko Sauna,” which is also how it appeared in the phone book. The sign (pictured above) said “Yoshikas Sauna,” so I spell it that way. It seems like there should be a possessive apostrophe, but I’m not sure who or what a Yoshika is.
Denfeld vs. Central: Bookends to a Rivalry
Duluth Denfeld played Duluth Central tonight in high school football for what will very likely be the last time. Denfeld won 20-6 in front of a crowd of maybe 500 at Public Schools Stadium. (more…)
Chip Stewart
Chip Stewart has passed away after a long battle with cancer. Thousands of people knew Chip and his wife Marcie as proprietors of the amazing Amazing Grace Bakery & Cafe in the DeWitt-Seitz Building in Canal Park.
I don’t have any more details right now, but hopefully those will materialize as is possible. But what I can tell you is that Chip was a very great man who I first met in 1997 when I was working on a story as a freelance reporter. Amazing Grace was hosting a counter-rally when anti-gay freakshow activist Fr*d Ph*lps was coming to Duluth. And that was the beginning of many, many conversations. In 2004 he gave me the biggest business break that I never deserved when (despite owning a successful food service operation of his own) he allowed my little food stand to come in and sling some wienies during events at the Historic NorShor Theater, which he was hoping to revive at the time. Chip was a friend to many, many people. The bread, coffee and all the food at Amazing Grace is fantastic, he provided a great venue for live folk music in Duluth, and he also provided a great place for people to sit in a non-rushed atmosphere. One of his least heralded but possibly most important gifts to all of us was providing a safe and fun place for young people (and sober people) to gather, play cards, surf the net and socialize, there was nothing quite like it in Duluth before it opened, and it remains a one-of-a-kind institution with Chip’s fingerprints all over it. He gave big breaks to many more musicians, artists, waitresses, bakers, baristas and entrepreneurs than just me, dozens, maybe hundreds of people’s lives and careers were enhanced by contact with this man. I feel safe in saying that his impact on our community will reverberate not just for days and weeks, but for generations.
My heartfelt prayers go out to his wife Marcie and all of his family, and to the rest of us, his chosen family. May you rest in peace, my brother.
If someone has a good photo or two of Chip, please post it here or provide a link to where we can all see them.
Kill the Skunk! – Plus open ranting in the comments about experiences at the West Duluth Kmart
Last night I walked past a house that reeked of a fetid oil recently sprayed from the anus of a West Duluth skunk.
Two kids, who looked to be about 11 years old, were walking the sidewalk toward the odiferous house as I was walking away. They seemed to know that something was going on. Another kid, maybe two years younger, came from across the street and shouted, “Did they kill the skunk yet?”
“No, but they’re about to,” one of the other kids answered.
“Awesome!” the younger kid yelled with great enthusiasm, running over to join them.
I continued on my way, as I often do in these situations, only to wonder later why I didn’t hang around for the full story. It seems that, at some point in my life, getting to Kmart became more important than witnessing an execution.
Dr. Samskar has died
Former Denfeld principal Wayne Samskar died on Friday in Appleton, Wis. He was 81.
Dr. Samskar taught and was principal at several Duluth-area schools before becoming principal at Denfeld in 1970. He’s credited with helping to establish the Greater Denfeld Foundation, which awards scholarships to outstanding students.
He retired in 1984, but helped architects design Denfeld’s gymnasium addition in 1987. He was inducted into the school’s hall of fame in 1996.
For Torr…
I was asked to pass this along (time intentionally vague-my understanding is we have no need for “rules” or “formalities”):
This Thursday Evening – R.T. Quinlan’s