Extra! Extra!

Hey there – have you ever dreamed of being an extra in an independent film? Well here’s your chance! 4 Track Films is currently shooting a new romantic comedy entitled The Life Of Riley and we’re looking for folks to come out this Sunday night (3am-10am) for a club scene we will be shooting at RT Quinlan’s. There will be music, merriment and a state of the art Red One camera to ogle. If interested please call 218.336.1372 or email info@4trackfilms.com.

Punk show next Sunday

‘-Sweet Destruction
-Moon Is Down
-Indulge
-Sundowners
-Frozen Teens

Sunday, Sept. 6
Bohemia Arts all ages
7pm $5

Indoor storage for boat

I am looking for a place to store and work on my 30-foot wooden
boat over the winter. The boat is a little over 10-feet wide and on a trailer about 13 feet tall.

Road Trip to Fargo (Camping, Low Concert, & Health INS. Reform Rally)

Fargo, ND Road Trip!

Rally for Health Care Reform
In the Fargodome parking lot
1800 University Dr. N.
Fargo, ND
Saturday, Aug. 29
11 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Free Concert by Low

Note:  On Friday evening, Aug. 28 at 7 p.m., Minnesotans and North Dakotans will begin camping at the Moorhead-Fargo KOA site (4396 28th Ave. S., Moorhead, MN).

We reserved sites, so call Nathan Ness (218) 310-7682 to reserve a spot for only $5.  Friday night promises bonfires, drinks and songs around the campfires.  Saturday morning promises a free concert by Low, speakers and free food!

Contact Nathan Ness for more information at 218-310-7682 or via email at nessjnathan @ yahoo.com.

Slivovitz Festival Saturday

Hello Duluthians,

Hope you don’t mind the intrusion from Chicago (from a former Iron Ranger, at least), but you all should know about the Slivovitz Festival at Earthwood Inn on Highway 61 just south of Two Harbors on Saturday, Aug. 29. A day-long good time featuring Eastern Europe’s finest adult beverage, Slivovitz – which is a plum brandy. Delicious and high octane.

Also, my band is playing at 4:30 if you want to hear some brassy, balkan style music.

Connor Garvey House Concert

I am supposedly having a house concert this Sunday, around 8 p.m. It’s a folk guitar-uke singer/songwriter I met in Montana this past July. I say supposedly because he hasn’t gotten back to me recently … but it’s still listed on his tour page. Anyway, I need some more people to fill the house. If you’re interested in coming, please reply here. I’ll probably only accept regular posters, or if I can inspect you on the book of faces first, since it’s my house and I’m allowed to do that. But I’d really love to meet more people. So reply and come! And convince some friends to come, too! I’m shooting for 20 people; I have a small house.

Oh and there is a cover; $10 gets you music, wine and food. All goes to the musician. Hooray for grassroots!

R.I.P. Teddy Kennedy

Kennedy

Feb. 22, 1932 – Aug. 25, 2009

Goodbye Duluth

Dear Duluth,

I am sorry to have to let you know this way, but seeing your name is in the title of this website I thought it would good place to contact you. I have spent the last year thinking about our relationship and living situation and there is no easy way to say it but I am leaving you.

It is not that I don’t love you, I do. And most of the past dozen years have been good, but I have to admit I am attracted to other cities.

I want you to know that of your group of close friends you’re a shining star. Eveleth, Gilbert and Virginia–I am sorry to say–I find boring, and they depress me. And as for your sister Superior, well, she is a drunken, dirty whore.

Though there are many things about you that I enjoy, like your beach, your urban wilderness and your downtown, the truth is that you are just so cold most of the time. Sure, when you are in a good mood you are almost perfect, but seeing you that way for only 5 or 6 weeks a year is just not enough to fulfill my personal desires any longer.

I would love to tell you where I am going next but I honestly don’t know. I think I will wander for a while and visit old friends out west. I hope we can still be friends and I will come visit you in the future.

Take care and much love,
Me

P.S. I am stopping to have a three-way with Minneapolis and St.Paul on my way out west. You know I have always had a thing for them. Good times.

R.I.P. Torr

Tom Torrison

A non-cantankerous, very funny guy and talented actor.

Remembering Laura MacArthur

A commenter to the post about the house being torn down for construction of the new Laura MacArthur Elementary asked the question, “Who is Laura MacArthur anyway?”

Laura MacArthur was an elementary and junior high school teacher and principal in West Duluth for over four decades.

Born in England, she came to the United States with her family at around the age of 10. She attended high school in Wooster, Ohio, and graduated from the College of Wooster.

She came to Duluth in the spring of 1896, where she was assigned to teach Latin, algebra and civics to ninth graders at Longfellow School.

(more…)

Gimme an F …

woodstock_poster_sm

Duluth Does Woodstock
Oct. 8
Sacred Heart Music Center

Sign up for artists ends Sept. 4

Don’t miss your chance to fulfill your 1960s musical fantasies minus the rain, mud and bad acid.

NorShor

Tonight the Duluth City Council will consider suspending the Norshor “Experience” liquor license.

Here’s a picture of among other things, future Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Link Wray who had one of his last public performances in the United States at the NorShor before he died a few months later. He played with a number of Duluth rockers, some of you were there, it was pretty amazing.

(more…)

What’s wrong with having a keg at your high school graduation party?

GradPartyKeg3489572

Of course, I’m talking about a keg of root beer. What’s wrong with it? Let me tell you.

(more…)

Rules for Teachers, 1905 and 1872

During my recent visit to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Walnut Grove, I had a good laugh reading two lists of rules on the walls of the little schoolhouse.

(more…)

Aurora Baer at Carmody

Aurora at Carmody tonight. I’ll be in the cities, argggggg.

Fastest Vote in the West

DuluthBallot2009Primary347

Most precincts, like mine in West Duluth, have only two races on the ballot this year. At least we get to vote for two candidates in each.

Click here for a list of candidates that includes all the district races.

Haunted House Rummage Sale Sat-Sun (updated)

15_12

Sale this weekend at my brother’s old Babbitt-esque house at 1616 Jefferson St. (lower Endion, in the Loaves and Fishes zone if that helps anyone to place it). The kids and their friends have nicknamed it the “haunted house” because it’s one of those creeky old, not-quite-a-mansion-places that is just creepy enough to be fun, but not outright scary, and it is very popular with sleepovers for our kids, their friends and more.

I am selling stuff I can’t even believe I’m selling … (more…)

A problem that needs addressing

There’s something that’s confused me a bit about Duluth since I moved here (and I realize I may be the only person who has ever wondered about this).

Just about every town has a “0” point for its street addresses. In Duluth, that would be the corner of Lake and Superior, right? 1 E. Superior, 1 W. Superior, 1 N. Lake, etc. The lower the address number, the closer it is to the zero point. And in general, there are imaginary lines that spread out from that point, dividing addresses into north-south, and east-west.

That all works out well in Duluth on the main grid of streets – downtown, West End, West Duluth, Lakeside… but then it starts to get odd.

Free Tix to Singer/Songwriter Competition near Bayfield

I can’t make it, but If anybody wants them I have 2 tickets to the Singer/Songwriter Competition for Thursday, August 27, 2009 at 7:30pm at Mt. Ashwabay Ski Hill/3 miles south of Bayfield. First person who emails me at:

mark (at) amitycreek.com

with their snail mail address gets ’em. I’ll put them in tomorrow’s mail. Thanks!

Job opportunity: Become the leader of Duluth’s music scene bureaucracy

HomegrownChicken2The Homegrown Music Festival is looking for a director to follow in the footsteps of Paul Connolly, who has stepped down from the position.

Homegrown is Duluth’s yearly celebration of local music, featuring eight days of concerts with performances by well over 100 bands.

The 12th annual Homegrown will be held May 2 to 9, 2010.

The festival director is responsible for the overall management of Homegrown. (more…)

It’s a twister ma!

A tornado touched down a few times in Minneapolis. The Electric Fetus was hit.

We saw it coming from our work windows and headed to the basement. It touched down about five blocks from my theater.

And the winner is … (drum roll)

pdd_contest_lastsupper

And the winner of two tickets to Suzanne Vega at Big Top Chautauqua is Sam Haraldson, whose rendition of the Last Supper managed to capture our hearts and minds here at the PDD Headquarters. We have no idea who any of these people are, or what the story behind the photo is, but we like it. Congratulations, Sam. We hope you enjoy the show.

(more…)

How I Spent My Summer Vacation in Minnesota with Daniel Johnston, Laura Ingalls Wilder, my great-great-grandparents and a bunch of short-fiction writers

There comes a time in every Minnesota man’s summer when he climbs into a rusty conversion van with the love of his life and sets out across the state in search of everything and nothing in particular.

Once the dog and the cooler of beer are secure in back, it’s off we go.

(more…)

Event

Aurora Baer tonight at Carmody

New 4 Track Films Production

We’re going into production on a new 4 Track Film. This one is entitled The Life of Riley and is a romantic comedy. We’re shooting in and around Duluth and a little up the North Shore. (more…)