Cloud Cult, a band formed by Craig Minowa in Duluth, performed at the Greene Space in New York on Nov. 1 in an event streamed online and available in the video above. Dawn Gross, host of the radio series Dying to Talk interviews Minowa between songs on the topics of love, loss and more.
Jonathan Richman, founder of famed proto-punk band the Modern Lovers, dropped a Duluth reference on his third solo album, 1991’s Having a Party with Jonathan Richman.
We’ve shared plenty of Ingeborg von Agassiz videos recently, and with all the videos she has been posting, it would be easy to turn this into Ingeborg TV. But dang, this is a gorgeous song.
Minneapolis-based musician and occaissional Duluthian Mary Bue is poised to record songs for her eighth album, The World is Your Lover — “a collection of songs about the world, players and cheaters, snow falling on sage, the River Styx, gemini eyes, and tomatoes.”
Up first, a Kickstarter campaign.
The song “Cincinnati Dancing Pig” was released by everybody and their brother in 1950, and in this post several versions are gathered. The words were written by Al Lewis and the music by Guy Wood. The internet purports the first recording was by Dick Jurgens and His Orchestra in May 1950, but the first release was by Red Foley in August 1950.
The Duluth-related lyric:
From Duluth to Birmingham
He’s the pork chop Dapper Dan,
He’s the keenest ham what am,
Cincinnati dancing pig
An ode to procrastination by Duluth’s Ingeborg von Agassiz.
Another spontaneous little ditty from Duluth’s Ingeborg von Agassiz.
Low teams up with director Phil Harder again for this video from the new album “Double Negative.”
The video was shot at the Hillside Whole Foods Co-op.
The video for the title track of Duluth musician Ingeborg von Agassiz‘ debut album features footage from the 1933 animated film The Mascot by Ladislas Starevich.
Chicago-born composer Joshua Musikantow references Duluth on three tracks of his 2006 new-classical album Etched in Twilight and Other Works. Above is “Duluth 99: In the Garden with Mary.” Below are “Duluth 99: Rope” and “Duluth 99: Haiku.”
Musikantow notes “Duluth 99” is “a duet for flute and percussion consisting of three movements, each inspired by a different personal experience in Duluth.”
Forgive the bar noise. Summer 2018
Saxophone virtuoso Jim Snidero for some reason titled an instrumental piece “Duluth at Noon.” Whether the tune sounds like a midday stroll on the Lakewalk is up for interpretation.
Perhaps coincidentally, the song is on Snidero’s 2015 album Main Street, which is the same title as Sinclair Lewis’ famous satiric novel from 1920. Lewis had visited Duluth while in the early stages of crafting Main Street, and moved to Duluth 23 years after it was published.
The experimental “post-classical” band Teach Me Equals was in Duluth in 2014 for a performance at Red Herring Lounge. The next day the duo teamed up with Manny Villanueva and Brandon St. Germaine of the Duluth-based creative video outfit Clear Cut to record three songs performed live for a series of “Oners.”
Part 1: “Lullaby for Piano”
Part 2: “As the Crow Flies”
Part 3: “Dictionary of Imaginary Places”
The alternative rock band They Might be Giants dropped a reference to Duluth on its self-titled debut album in 1986. Whether “the Big Duluth” mentioned in the lyrics to “Rabid Child” is supposed to be a clothing store or the nickname of a person or what, well, that’s up to the listener.
There are certain dignities and indignities that come with old age. Most of us would like to be considered wise, but we also want to run fast and be sex symbols. All of that is relative, of course. There are plenty of intelligent teenagers and elderly imbeciles. I ran a half marathon when I was 31 and people twice that age were passing me.
The word “old” is as relative as the attributes associated with it. You can join the American Association of Retired Persons at age 50, collect Social Security at 62 and retire from your job at a wide range of ages or never. I think I was 27 or 28 the first time one of my friends seriously commented that we were “getting old.”
Well, sure, we’re all getting old. But when are we actually old? Do our looks and physical/mental fitness have anything to do with it, or is “old” just a number?
I say it’s just a number, because I can’t, in seriousness, walk up to more wrinkled people my age and ask, “what’s it like to be so old?”
