Thursday, August 18, 2011

Culturology 8-18: Feeling the crunch?

by Travis Ryder
Can you feel the end of the season coming?  Colleges are in session next week, with K-12 schools starting soon after.  Labor Day is in sight.  There were some LEAVES on the ground in my yard yesterday.  Make the most of the remaining days of summer by taking in some of these events:

The Beltrami County History Center has reopened with a new exhibit.  “Uncle Sam’s New Deal” illuminates the federal government’s role in reviving Minnesota communities 70 years ago through photography, interviews and New Deal film footage.   This exhibit was created by Minnesota Landmarks in partnership with the Minnesota History Center. It is on display through September 24, at the center in Bemidji.

Thursday, August 18
Admission is free in the evening at Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm.  There’s live music in the Amphitheatre starting at 7 with the groups Fathers and Sons, and Mark Henderson and the Mojosaurus Blues Band.

Friday, August 19
Grand Rapids Area Library hosts a music and dance performance by the Hmong Cultural Center of St. Paul.  The free performance starts at 7 p.m.

There’s a classic-car cruise night Friday and stationary car show Saturday from 10 to 2 on Chestnut Street in downtown Virginia.

Lakes Area Chamber Music Festival has a recital featuring young talent on pieces by Liszt, Rachmaninoff and others Friday night at Tornstrom Auditorium in the Washington Building.  There’s a pre-concert talk at 7 and the music starts at 7:30.

Saturday, August 20
Children’s watercolor event at MacRostie Art Center in Grand Rapids.  Staff and volunteers work with children and their parents to create art with watercolors.  Choose one of four one-hour sessions starting at 10 am.  Pre-registration is recommended; call us for more information.

Forestedge Winery hosts an art fair on the winery grounds near Laporte.  Featuring 28 selected artists selling pottery, porcelain, jewelry, fiber, leather, wood, sculpture, paintings, along with food, music and wine.  It’s happening 10 to 5:30 Saturday and Sunday.

Music, dance, poetry and storytelling about the northwoods at Forest History Center this Saturday from 11 to 4.  A Wild Edibles session will run from noon to 3:30.  Both are included with regular admission.

Lake Bemidji State Park hosts two different performances Saturday.  At 5:30, it’s Mudsong, a swamp tale of a motherless child with a six-piece band to accompany it.  Then at 7:30 the park’s concert series presents local trio Bluebird.

The Northern Lights Trio will entertain at the annual Piano Bar event at The Edge Center in Bigfork.  It starts at 7 p.m. Saturday.

Twin Cities psych-rockers the Magic Castles are in concert Saturday night at the Blue Ox  in Bemidji.

Sunday, August 21
Range rockers the Tisdales play a show in Meadowlands as part of the Central St. Louis County Fair, happening all weekend.  Other highlights include an adult kickball tournament Friday, craft show Saturday, and car show Sunday.

The Itasca County Fair wraps up Sunday.  Harpist Marina Whight performs from 1 to 3 in the fine arts building.

Mozart, Mendelssohn and Beethoven are on the program for the finale concert of the Lakes Area Chamber Music Festival.  It’s a 3 p.m. show at Tornstrom Auditorium and like all the festival events, it’s free.

The 12-piece Air Force Brass In Blue ensemble is touring the region.  They perform free shows on Sunday at Leif Erikson Park in Duluth, Monday at Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm, Tuesday under the Rotary Tent at the KAXE Amphitheater in Grand Rapids, and Wednesday at Bemidji High School.  All shows start at 7.

Monday, August 22
The Reif Talent Search includes a $500 prize for the winning act.  The top ten entrants will perform starting at 7:30 Monday at the Reif Center in Grand Rapids.

Minnesota History Datebook
August 15, 1899  Fire wipes out much of the city of Cass Lake.

August 18, 1929  A hungry 350-pound bear smashes through the window of the Hotel Duluth's lounge. The hotel's night watchman and a bystander confront the bear, hitting it with a chair and a hammer. A police sergeant tries to edge the bear out of the hotel unharmed, but he’s forced to shoot it. The bear is the third killed in Duluth that year.

August 19, 1863  The first time Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin flew in a balloon, he did it in St. Paul.  He would go on to develop the rigid, self-propelled, guidable airships that would bear his name.  He was in the US as a volunteer for Union forces during the Civil War. 

August 19, 1957  The air force launches the ultra-high-level balloon Man-High II in Crosby. Pilot David Simons reaches a record 101,516 feet (almost twenty-one miles) before setting down in Elm Lake, South Dakota. The flight takes thirty-two hours and ten minutes, but Simons occupies the balloon's capsule, from pre-launch to landing, for forty-four hours, a period longer than Charles Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic.

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