Lake Superior Aquaman
Peace Pipeline: Duluth-based Yes Men video takedown of Line 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLsddzXOUjY&t=8s
My brother Allen Richardson and I were “Yes Men” for a day. This is how the amazing project went down.
The Floating Island of Fremont, Duluth’s Breakaway Township
As documented in the book Duluth: An Illustrated History: “The opening of the Duluth canal proved to have a beneficial effect which its promoters had not anticipated. Currents flowing through the channel carried away a considerable amount of rotting timber and mucky islets which had infested the harbor. In fact, one of Duluth’s original townsites — Fremont — was thus swept out into Lake Superior and lost forever.”
The Zenith City Press website confirms the account: new currents swept several floating bogs in the harbor out to sea. The largest of these islands was 1,200 feet long and 400 feet wide — larger than the largest lake vessel — and it contained the township of Fremont. It began where Rice’s Point is today, and on May 10, 1873, it passed through the canal to the open sea.
I must correct the error, often propagated, that Fremont broke up that night in rough water. The truth is, Fremont is still out there, population 299, comprised of 20 families that each own a business. I know because I have been to Fremont. I have hiked its marshes and shopped its cute, bustling downtown. I have fished off its docks. I have traded stories, dreams, and fears with Fremonters around beach campfires.
Many people have. Lake Superior is dotted with cities that Fremont has visited. I highly recommend, next time Fremont is visible on the horizon, try to get there. The Fremont music scene is a delight. And of course anyone who loves lake culture and the outdoors probably already knows about it. (more…)
I Don’t Want to See Another Naked Woman as Long as I Live
“All you sweet girls with all of your sweet talk, you can all go take a walk” – The Velvet Underground, “Heroin”
I am not on heroin, I’m expressing freedom from love and sex. I’m celibate as a monk from here on out. Retire my jersey, I’m out of the game. You can leave your hat on — and all the rest of it too. Quoth the bard, “Love stinks.” If you ever wonder if I want to get in your pants: I don’t.
The title of this piece is an actual quote. I heard someone say it while they were having really remarkable romantic troubles. You can switch the genders up in this essay to suit your tastes. The sentiment works any which way. I am not advocating a lifestyle. This is not an aspirational document. It’s just that I’ve been thinking: I’ve approached love like the depraved addict in “Heroin.”
Love and sex have always been indistinguishable to me. I loved everyone I ever made it with, or I wanted to love them, or I tried to love them. Whatever it takes to pick up strangers and have casual sex, I never had it. My game was serial monogamy. I was good at that for many years, traipsing from relationship to relationship. But I started living like I needed a partner to make me whole. I am not a sex addict, but I behaved like a love addict. And isn’t that what addicts are supposed to do: quit? (more…)
New Plan: Trick the Archeologists of the Far Future
Mockup example of proposed bronze historical marker series
New plan is to commission pieces on bronze or stone that can survive longer than paper, longer than digital, to really communicate with the future. The alien surveyors of 5000 AD will ask themselves, “WTH was going on in Duluth?” I’ve reached out to a few locals with the right skills; I hope to be able to show a nice series by Fall.
AP: University of MN Anomalies Department tests gravity-refracting material in Duluth
The Arthur M. Anderson fitted with gravity-refracting hull invented by Dr. Mallard McPurdy of UMD
AP: University of Minnesota Duluth – The university’s Anomalies Department worked closely with the local Institute for Sideways Research to develop the space-age material necessary for hovering ships, seen lately in the skies over this Midwestern beach town. The hulls of cargo ships (called “ore boats” on the inland seas) were irradiated with strangelet particles discovered by UMD’s Dr. Mallard McPurdy in 2018. These particles were later commercialized by the Institute for Sideways Research which specializes in gravity refraction. The Institute’s founder, Dr. Horace Zontal, explained, “With this innovative particle, we were finally able to refract gravity a full 180 degrees in the hull of the revered Arthur M. Anderson.” The shipping lanes of the world are expected to be revolutionized in the coming years to take advantage of the new phenomenon. Dr. McPurdy estimated, “Costs will be slashed by two-thirds leading to cheaper commodities for all humanity.”
Essay series by Jim Richardson
Art, literature, my relationship to Lake Superior, the secret history of Duluth, and other stuff. I keep this updated. New installments appear roughly monthly as part of PDD’s “Saturday Essay” feature, with more I post myself.
Fish Frozen in Lake Superior Ice Sheet
Fish of increasing size frozen at various depths in 8 inches of ice or so. Pic #1: 3-inch fish. Pic #2: 6-inch fish. Pic # 3: 12-inch fish.
Ice Angler Rescue
Ice anglers rescued after ice sheet breaks away from shore.
KBJR. WCCO-TV. Star Trib. Duluth News-Tribune.
I was skating that ice 48 hours ago, so I’m going to crawl under my bed now.
Skated the big lake today
Skated the big lake today in -30 windchill or so. Had it all to myself because I’m a baller, shot caller, 20-inch blades on the Impala
More Wild Ice
Skating Duluth’s inner harbor at “the slip.” Photo gallery below. (more…)
Avant-Garde Women: Michele Bernstein, Queen of the Situationists
The video below is from a 1960 French TV interview about Michele Bernstein’s subversive novel “All the King’s Horses”. Yes this is in French, which I cannot follow. The auto-translation isn’t much better. It’s sort of a friendly verbal chess match. At around 2:30 the interviewer asks her something about having respect for her literary forebears. She replies: “We each import our own small stone to the cathedral.” Asked what novel she can compare hers to, she replies, “I don’t know; if it is simply a novel we can compare it to all that exist.”
More of My Indie Rock Guitar Goddess She-roes
There is a vein of singer-songwriters I refer to jokingly as “weepy folk.”
Avant-Garde Women: The Shakespearean Tragedy of Peggy and Pegeen Guggenheim
The story of Peggy and Pegeen Guggenheim, as told by the Situationist painter Ralph Rumney, reads like Shakespeare: court intrigue, backstabbing, madness, and suicide. Rumney’s book The Consul provides a critical point of view on this fraught mother-daughter relationship cracking up at the cutting edge of the art world.
Bailey is Short Rap
This is basically an in-joke between friends but local and fun enough to post. A diss track inspired by my short friend Bailey. She dared me to do this, is how I remember it.
Music: “Young Thug Type Beat 2018 – ‘Sippin’ | Trap Instrumental 2018” by MADEBYFLOWERZ
The Richardson Brothers: Bailey is Short Rap
Diss track about my short friend Bailey. Music: "Young Thug Type Beat 2018 - 'Sippin' | Trap Instrumental 2018" by
richardsonbrothers.libsyn.com
Some of My Indie Rock Guitar Goddess She-roes
My favorite musicians are women. Who’s the coolest member of the Pixies? Kim Deal! You don’t even have to think about it for a second. And my favorite genre is indie rock. Indie is not major label, and not pop enough to score strings of giant hits. The term is frequently applied to punk-lineage garage-y guitar bands, but not exclusively.
The past few years I’ve discovered many indie chick rockers and all-female bands. Here are some highlights. This (not comprehensive!) list showcases indie women who play guitar or bass, either solo or in bands, who have been active in the past five years. Therefore many of my classic faves have been excluded — for instance a suite of 1980s and ’90s rockers. I will write about them one day, but here the focus is on contemporary artists.
My descriptions are fleshed out with links to music videos, interviews, rig rundowns, and live performances. This part one of two, and I plan to give Duluthians their own essay in part three. Here goes — some of my indie rock guitar goddess she-roes: (more…)
Schrodinger’s Beer: A Refutation of Quantum Physics from the Duluth Bar Scene
The Richardson Brothers: Schrodinger's Beer: A Refutation of Quantum Physics from the Duluth Bar Scene
richardsonbrothers.libsyn.com
Latest Richardson brothers podcast episode. Full text below the jump. (more…)
The Musician as Inventor
The recent passing of Eddie Van Halen reminded me of a favorite topic: the musician as inventor. I refer to the invention of objects, techniques, and concepts. It’s invention in the service of an art form. For instance, musical instruments are invented, then shaped with further inventions which make additional modifications possible. Musicians have always been inventors. Here are some of my favorite examples.
Rock and Roll Itself
The invention of rock music, with its pedigree of blues, gospel, and so on, is these days commonly attributed to Chuck Berry in the early 1950s. Berry produced the musical mutant that would conquer the world when he combined rhythm and blues with country and western guitar licks, then packaged it with guitar solos and other showmanship. His signature duck walk may be considered a lasting invention, still in use by Angus Young of AC/DC who credits Berry for, well, everything. Berry was influenced by Sister Loretta Tharpe, whose 1944 song, “Strange Things Happening Every Day,” is sometimes considered the first rock record. (more…)
Lake Superior Aquaman: Trench Lyfe
Things the camera saw looking out of a Lake Superior trench.
Phallus Impudicus
The “impudent phallus.” Like many mushrooms, they have both uh masculine and feminine qualities; in their egg stage they are called “witch eggs.” They also have qualities of both life and death: although uh generative in appearance, they have the strong stench of carrion — which attracts the flies which spread their spores. Wikipedia entry.
