December 2009 Posts

Boxing Day 2009 Sledding Conditions: Horrible!

Today’s report is from Lincoln Park. It was well packed down yesterday, and frozen rock-hard today. So, the speed on the way down is totally out of control, and the ride is full of solid bumps that threaten to permanently damage one’s sphincter ani externus muscle.

You don’t bring a gun to a snowball fight

News story

Does anyone feel like throwing snowballs around 1 at Lake and Superior today? Just don’t bring any guns.

Another song for the season…

Auld Lang Syne” performed by Coyote, recorded at Hog Damage Collective.

Happy Holidays!
-jerree

p.s. Save the date… Saturday January 9th, 2010
Coyote CD Release show at Teatro Zuccone Coyote - When it all comes down

Yoda hockey Christmas booze snow goon

YodaHockeyChristmasBoozeYay

Merry Christmas. Let’s have a contest. The person who posts the best snow goon before midnight Sunday wins two tickets to Wilco at the DECC on Feb. 19.

UPDATE: Or maybe the slushy snow will all freeze after this is posted, making it impossible to build a snow goon and forcing this contest to be scrapped.

Merry Xmas-A tradition.

PDD Tracks Santa

Stock up now. Limit travel.

snowzombieapocalypse

Duluthmas

Does anyone have a key to the armory? I figure all of us non-native Christmas refugees could set up camp there and have our own non-family celebration. I’ll bring the Charlie Brown tree. Who knows the Linus speech? I recall driving 60 miles to Mankato during the Halloween blizzard to make it to an old college roommate’s house, knowing we wanted to be in the old neighborhood for four days of snow fun. It took 3 hours. I was younger, stupider, and perhaps not now as motivated to take on the weather with my car. Home is an hour south of the TCs. A string of 43 straight appearances will be broken. Lamentations?

Christmas lights in Duluth

This is our third winter in Duluth (so we still consider ourselves newbies) and we’re wondering if anyone could recommend a good neighborhood/area for Christmas light displays or recommend a good route.  (Please be specific; I get lost easy, especially downtown.)

Thanking you sincerely in advance,
the NewKid

Baby genius

baby2
Overheard in Target, 10 p.m. Dec. 22 amid Christmas shoppers. I probably wouldn’t have thought this was so funny before I had kids.
Indignant college-age woman to second indignant college-age woman:
“It’s just so, like, what a freakin’ 6-month-old would say!”

Bob Dylan’s “Must Be Santa”

Harkening back to akjuneau’s post from when the album was first released, here’s Bob Dylan’s video single from his recent “Christmas in the Heart” album. What’s your take on the visuals as well as the audio? Will you be popping this in the rotation during your family mixer?

Christmas Eve Celebration Downtown Duluth @ Encounter

Christmas Eve Meal and Worship at Hillside and the Encounter

Forecasters are calling for some big time Christmas Eve snow so this could be a classic opportunity to snowshoe downtown, get a great meal, celebrate the original meaning of Christmas and maybe even walk away with a gift or two for the kiddies. My favorite part? After years of being part of all kinds of spiritual traditions around the world, finally at this party I see people of all shapes, stripes and shades joining together as one. That is truly a beautiful very Duluthy thing for me and I’d love to see some of my PDD pals there, too.

In any event, Merry Christmas, folks.

Hell yeah

WalkerScreen

I was just wasting time following a twitter link to the Walker Art Center site, and saw this. Holy poop, my seagull is right there on the Walker site IN FRONT OF Joel and Ethan Cohen.
Take that you famous Hollywood / Minnesota guys.

Hey man, just because Frosty’s got eyes made of coal doesn’t mean you should taunt him.

SquirrelAndFrosty2

Isn’t it time for better transit?

All this talk about sustainability in Duluth, and how the DTA was named Best Transit Provider in Minnesota, and it wins all the Sustainability Points it can get (biofuels, paper reduction, hybrid busses, new technology, etc) – but..

Why can’t a car-free-sustainable-person like me take a bus downtown or to a movie on a Saturday night?

Seriously… is anyone else feeling the pinch of poor transit options for the car-less or car-free of us in Duluth? Some of us make the choice to be sustainable and car-free, and then what?  We get to sit at home every Saturday and Sunday evening, because our busses stop operating around 7pm!  How does that make a “sustainable city” or attract sustainability-minded folks?  Now service is cut on the 24th during the week (no service after 7:15pm), yet not New Year’s eve.  Huh?

Have there been any attempts at better transit in the past? Advocacy groups?  Sustainability groups that take action rather than pat politicos on the back or host “seminars”?  Any ideas on organizing a Bus Rider’s Union or getting a Car-sharing program going in Duluth?

Or, as I asked the mayor in an email, as well as the DTA – “Should a guy like me just buy a car and ‘shut up’ in Duluth?”

Ideas are welcome, as are interested organizers! Send email to [email protected].