Culturology Calendar 3-29-12

by Travis Ryder

Thursday, Mar. 29

In honor of both Vietnam Veterans Day today and Women’s History Month, UMD’s Alworth Institute offers the Lecture, “Sisterhood of War  - Minnesota Women in Vietnam,” presented by Dr. Kim Heikkila, Kay Bauer & Mary Breed.  Dr. Heikkila‘s book, Sisterhood of War, documents the service of 15 Minnesota nurses who served in Vietnam.  Dr. Heikkila will then facilitate a discussion with Kay Bauer and Mary Breed, military nurses who served in Vietnam.  Sisterhood of War has been named a finalist for a 2012 Minnesota Book Award and the Hognander Minnesota History Award.  This lecture will be held at UMD Montague Hall 70 tonight at 7:00 p.m.  The lecture is free and open to the public.  A book signing and reception will follow the lecture.  

The twelve-piece Bemidji Trombones ensemble will host their spring concert on March 29 at Bemidji State University. The concert will be held in Thompson Recital Hall on the Bemidji State campus at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free. The group will welcome guest artist Russ Zokaites,  a doctoral student at the University of Missouri - Kansas City. He will play a solo aria from Gounod’s opera “Faust”.  He arranged the piece himself for trombone choir and solo trombone.

The 24th Annual Spotlight on Books Conference starts tonight at Ruttger's Sugar Lake Lodge; author sessions and signings, Friday and Saturday. The conference is for adults focused on youth & young adult literature;  info:  www.nlln.org/spotlight.html

Friday, Mar. 30

Grand Rapids Players present the first weekend of their production of “A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum” at the Reif Center in Grand Rapids starting at 7:30 Friday and Saturday, 2 on Sunday.

Community theatre presentation Friday through Sunday in Pequot Lakes: it’s “Arsenic and Old Lace” at the high school auditorium.

Saturday, Mar. 31

The 2012 Leech Lake Tribal College Nimi'idim (Powwow) happens Saturday, March 31, 2012, at the Cass Lake-Bena High School.  Grand entries at 1:00 and 6:30 p.m.

Mesabi Range College presents a children’s musical called “The Elves and the Shoemaker” Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m.  The shows are at the Virginia campus theater.

Tuesday, Apr. 3

Boundary Waters Choral Festival features over 100 choir students from seven schools, performing in their own choirs, and together en masse.  This happens at the Northeast Range School in Babbitt starting at 7 p.m.

Minnesota History Datebook

Mar. 27, 1905 The Aerial Bridge, spanning the Duluth Ship Canal, carries its first passengers across the harbor inside a carriage suspended from the bridge's framework. The system would be replaced with a lift bridge in 1930.

Mar. 25, 1963 Karl F. Rolvaag is sworn in as governor, having beaten Elmer L. Andersen by ninety-one votes in the state's closest gubernatorial election. The recount of the election had taken four months.

Culturology Calendar 3-15-12

by Travis Ryder

Thu., Mar. 15

Bemidji State professor emerita Annie Henry grew up in the segregated South.  She retired in 2007 and created endowed scholarships for African-Americans in education.  Henry will be signing copies of her new memoir today from 4 to 6 at the American Indian Resource Center on the BSU campus.

Fri. and Sat., Mar. 16 & 17

“Winter Dance Party” is an authentic recreation of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper's final tour, and the only show endorsed by the stars’ estates.  Performances are Friday and Saturday night at 7:30 at the Reif Performing Arts Center in Grand Rapids.

Sat., Mar 17

Acclaimed Minnesota bluegrass band, Monroe Crossing, and Celtic group, Caleigh, play a St. Patrick’s show Saturday night at the Chief Theater in downtown Bemidji.  On the other end of the downtown district, singer/songwriters Sonny Johnson, Jim Miller, and Gwenfrewi Burger play at the Blue Ox.

Crosslake has their 38th Annual St. Patrick's Day Parade and Celebration on Saturday.
There’s a Pancake Breakfast, Hot Air Balloon Rides, Costume Contest, the parade at 2, then live original music and DJs through the evening at several venues.

Sun., Mar. 18

Sunday at the Reif Center in Grand Rapids, it’s a stage adaptation of a native tale from the Pacific Northwest.  “Raven Stole The Sun” starts at 7.

Tues., Mar. 20

Brainerd Public Library welcomes Minnesota history character, Virginia Mae Hope, portrayed by Melissa Friedmann of the Minnesota History Players.  Virginia was a pilot and was a member of the Women Air Force Service Pilots.  The presentation is at 3:30 on Tuesday.

Minnesota History Datebook

Mar. 17, 1851 St. Paul hosts the state's first St. Patrick's Day parade. Irish immigration to St. Paul would peaked in 1890, but many Irish had already settled in town, taking jobs as domestics and dockhands.

Mar. 11, 1863 The present-day Leech Lake Indian Reservation takes shape.  Three bands of Ojibwe sign a treaty with the U.S. government that consolidates and expands the reservations already in place in the area.  Ojibwe from other parts of the state would have to move to Leech Lake as part of the terms.

Mar. 16, 1912 Clyde Elmer Anderson is born in Brainerd. A champion of social and humanitarian causes, he would serve a record eleven years as the state's lieutenant governor beginning in 1939 and then as the state's twenty-eighth governor from 1951 to 1955. He died in 1998.

Mar. 15, 1927 The Arrowhead Bridge across the St. Louis River opens, linking West Duluth to Superior, Wisconsin.  The low-slung wooden trestle with a drawbridge stays in service until the Bong Bridge replaced it in 1985.

Culturology Calendar 3-8-12

by Travis Ryder

Thursday, Mar. 8
Pam Brunfelt presents a history talk at noon today.  It’s on the Iron Range and its role in U.S. industrialization.  Bring a lunch to the Virginia Public Library for the talk.

Internationally renowned Celtic band Gaelic Storm comes to Brainerd tonight.  They perform at Tornstrom Auditorium as part of the CLC Cultural Arts Series, starting at 7:30.

Saturday, Mar. 10

The annual Doll, Bear, and Toy sale and show is at the Sawmill Inn in Grand Rapids.

Jess Lourey’s Writing and Publishing a Novel Workshop comes to the Brainerd Public Library Saturday at 10 a.m.  The saying goes, “If you wish to be a writer, write." But how? You’ve got the great idea, the one that won’t let you go, that embellishes itself as you walk around your day. How do you turn that good idea into a great novel? Join author and college professor Jess Lourey to fine the answers. Pre-register by calling 829-5574.
Members of the North Central Beekeepers Association present an Introduction to Beekeeping Class on Saturday from 1 to 4 at the Northland Arboretum Visitor’s Center.  It’s billed as being relevant to beginners and hobbyists and should teach everything needed to start up as a beekeeper.

The Reif Dance program has its performance, including local celebrities in the Dancing With Our Stars feature.  The show at Grand Rapids’ Reif Center begins at 7:30.

Monday, Mar. 12

Lakes Area Concert Series presents the a cappella group Street Corner Symphony at Tornstrom Auditorium in Brainerd for a 7:30 show.

Minnesota History Datebook

Mar. 9, 1874: Cook County is formed, commemorating Civil War hero Major Michael Cook from Faribault.

Mar. 4, 1892: In Tower, Father Joseph F. Buh publishes issue eleven of Amerikanski Slovenec (American Slovene), the first national newspaper for Slovenes in the United States. The paper had started in Chicago but had ceased publication after ten issues. Buh, who served St. Martin's Catholic Church in Tower and St. Anthony parish at Ely, would supervise the paper's publication until 1899.

Culturology 3-1: First Friday

by Travis Ryder

Both Grand Rapids and Bemidji are hosting First Friday art events this week.  Katie Marshall of MacRostie Art Center ran through the offerings in the Rapids with us, and brought printmaking/installation artist Dana Sikkila (and her U-Haul full of art) to the station for a chat.  Sikkila's work "depicts the overly obsessive relationship between and woman and her best friends. Animals and objects begin to take on human characteristics and interact in an unconventional domestic situation. Through printmaking and installation the viewer is confronted with the obsessive nature of the woman in question, turning her abnormal tendencies into a humorous, almost adorable mental mess."  Sikkila is completing her MA at Minnesota State University-Mankato.

The First Friday events in Bemidji include the ACLU-MN-sponsored "Art from Within" exhibition at Bemidji Community Arts Center.  This show features work depicting the Bill of Rights from the perspective of artists who have been on the business end of the criminal justice system. Wesley May has work in the show.  He said his artistic practice took a leap forward while he was enrolled in an alternative-sentencing boot camp program.  Hear Scott Hall's chat with artist Wesley May here.  The exhibition runs through the month of March at the BCAC.

Culture Calendar

Thursday, Mar. 1

Joe Wivoda plays at the Acoustic Café event inside Minnesota Discovery Center.  The event starts at 6.  Free admission to the whole place in Chisholm starts at 5, including the current quilting exhibition.

Friday, Mar. 2

The Grassroots Concerts series in Nisswa continues with guitarist Dean Magraw.  The show starts at 7:30 at the Journey Church next to the school.

Bemidji’s First Friday includes the ACLU-sponsored Art from Within show at the Community Art Center in the Carnegie building. Ten other visual and performing art venues are also participating.  The Bemidji Community Art Center site has details.

Grand Rapids’ First Friday includes openings at MacRostie Art Center and attractions at nine other venues.  Call us to learn more.

Nautilus Music Theater’s show, I am Anne Frank, Friday at 7 and Sunday at 2, at Edge Center for the Arts in Bigfork.

Saturday, Mar. 3

Opening reception for paintings and sketches by Alvin Zaberl and Bob Maki, longtime Range residents and commercial artists.  Noon to 2:30.

Aitkin Friends of the Arts fundraiser dinner and dance happens at the 40 Club.

The house band from Lake Superior Big Top Chatauqua, the Blue Canvas Orchestra, and the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra play together at the Kelly High School auditorium in Silver Bay.  The show is at 7 p.m.

Japanese taiko drumming will reverberate through the Reif Center in Grand Rapids Saturday.  The ensemble Mu Daiko with Hanayui performs at 7:30.

Sunday, Mar. 4

The Bemidji Symphony Orchestra presents a concert entitled "American Kids" at the high school auditorium starting at 3. Guest artist Dr. Nicholas Hardie is on cello, and area strings students will join the BSO for a selection. A post-concert Q & A session will be offered right after the performance.

Monday, Mar. 5

Words and Lyrics is a monthly literary event at the Lyric Center for the Arts in downtown Virginia.

Tuesday, Mar. 6

The Region 2 Arts Council has six opportunities for artists coming up in March.  Classes on Rigid Heddle Weaving, Painting, oak bench building, creative writing, and puppet building have registration deadlines coming right up.  All the classes meet in the Bemidji area.  Contact us to learn more.

The deadline for the photography exhibit at Brainerd’s Q Gallery is coming up Tuesday.  Call us to learn how to get in.

Minnesota History Datebook

March 3, 1849 Minnesota Territory is signed into existence by President James K. Polk. The territory has a population of about 10,000 Indians and 5,000 white settlers and includes present-day North and South Dakota east of the Missouri River. The U.S. Postal Service would release a three-cent centennial stamp on this date in 1949.

March 3, 1855 St. Louis County, the state's largest (6,611 square miles), is established, named for the St. Louis River.

February 28, 1866 Beltrami County is formed.  Permanent white settlement would not occur in the area until the 1880s. It honors Italian adventurer Giacomo Beltrami, who had explored the region in 1823.

March 3, 1990 A team led by Will Steger of Ely completes the 3,800-mile International Trans-Antarctica Expedition, the first dog-sled traverse of the continent by its widest distance.

Guido's Oscar Thoughts

This week on Between You and Me we talked Oscars with the Mom and Pop of Pop Culture, Julie Crabb & Jack Nachbar.  Here are Steve Downing's (Guido's) thoughts:

LIFE DURING WARTIME

            Watching the Academy Awards makes me squirm. Me, squirming, is not a pretty picture, so I tend to avoid those near occasions of sin. It’s not that I hate movies or the rich and famous people who make them, though I understand some of those folks are hateful. It has more to do with the unconditional, unmitigated, unabashed artifice of the whole ceremony. It’s a separate reality.

            For yours truly, Oscar night plays like a movie about the making of movies and the aftermath of the making of movies, while thumbing its nose at the three cardinal rules of the making of movies. 1) You need at least two stirring, eventually converging plotlines. 2) You need dynamic, three-dimensional sets-and-setting, preferably involving volcanoes and the deep blue sea. 3) And you need characters who’ll convince you they believe what they’re saying. How often does any of this happen at the Academy Awards?

            Or maybe it’s more (or less) complicated than that.  When I watch a movie, if I don’t care, really care---viscerally, emotionally---about anyone in the story, when there’s no moral difference between characters, or between means and ends, I’ll fall asleep. The narrative has to matter to me, ethically and aesthetically. Otherwise….

            Between you and me, Oscar night is a movie that, if tested against its own putative criteria, would wind up in its entirety on the cutting-room floor. I have to admit, though: after hearing Heidi and John’s conversation with Frank DeCaro on the Morning Show Friday, I’m thinking that a dinner party featuring the recipes of dead rich and famous people (The Dead Celebrity Cookbook) might be just the ticket for the likes of me. Barbecued Lamb ala Frank the Chairman of the Board Sinatra, anyone? Let’s watch the Awards with the sound off and Talking Heads/Popular Favorites as our soundtrack.

Culturology 2-23-12: Sled Dogs and "Rez Life"

by Travis Ryder

Mushing is such a part of North Shore culture that when the John Beargrease sled dog marathon was cancelled, racers banded together to offer an alternate course.  They pulled off the Mail Run race with only a couple weeks of advance notice.  Our producer Amy Clark was on the Gunflint Trail the last two days of January.  She talked with organizer and racer Frank Moe about this effort, and what mushing culture means to him.

Frank spoke to our new correspondent Amy Clark, who produced this piece.  Frank finished second of 12 finishers in the Gunflint Mail Run this January 31st.  He was first to the halfway point, but his neighbor Odin Jorgenson passed him in the second half to take first place.  Racers from up and down the North Shore, Chisholm, Outing, Togo, and the states of Washington and Alaska made up the field on the 120-mile course.

There’s more sled-dogging to be done around these parts: The Mid-Minnesota 150 around Outing and Remer is rescheduled to March 3. Back on the Gunflint Trail, March 9 and 10, it’s the Mush for a Cure fundraiser and noncompetitive sled dog/skijoring event.

David Treuer - courtesy USC

Son of a Holocaust survivor and an Ojibwe tribal judge, David Treuer grew up on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation.  He earned degrees from Princeton and Michigan State and now is an acclaimed author and professor of English at the University of Southern California.  Treuer's latest book, Rez Life, fearlessly delves into the complicated story of what it means to be an Indian today, and how it got that way.  KAXE's Charles Pulkrabek spoke at length with Treuer and filed this scintillating interview.

CULTUROLOGY CALENDAR

Thursday, Feb. 23

The Edge Center for the Arts in Bigfork presents the local production of Circle Mirror Transformation.  The play itself deals with an adult acting class.  Performances are Thursday through Saturday at 7 and Sunday at 2.

Friday, Feb. 24

Regional bluegrass group Monroe Crossing is at the Sawmill Inn in Grand Rapids at 7:30.  They’ll be at the Crossroads Music Café in Brainerd for a 7:30 show on Saturday.

Illusion Theater of Mpls brings their production of “My Antonia” to the Central Lakes College theater in Brainerd.  This is a new adaptation of Willa Cather’s novel.  One night only, 7:30 on Friday night.

It's A Taste of Opera Night at Bemidji State University's Thompson Recital Hall.

The 7:00 program will have 12 short scenes with music ranging from the popular operas of G. Verdi and G. Puccini to the lighter operatic music of Gilbert and Sullivan. Fifteen singers will participate in the performance with a reception immediately following.

Independent Film Night is Friday starting at 7 at the Wild Rose Theater.  Two filmmakers will be featured: Spencer Olson of Emily, MN, creates animated films utilizing Legos. The two films to be featured are "Patient 24" and "Bunnies: The Ancient Altercation."  Olson will be present that evening to give a short talk on his animation process. Nathan Fisher of Minneapolis, MN, is a documentary filmmaker who was an integral part of the "Navigating the Aftermath" tour that was hosted by the Fleur de Lis Gallery. His film, "The Unreturned," explores the condition of middle class citizens of Iraq.  Fisher spent many months in Iraq interviewing the subjects of this film. Audience members will have the opportunity to vote for the films they believe should progress to the 2nd Annual Fathom Film Festival scheduled for April 20 & 21 at the Wild Rose Theater.

 

Saturday, Feb. 25

The "Range of the Arts" series of events gets started this weekend in downtown Virginia.

Saturday from 10 to 2, the Arts International Bazaar is at Kaleva Hall.

Sunday, it's “Circle of Muses,” billed as "a play date for creative women," starting at 5:30 at the Lyric Center for the Arts on Chestnut Street.

Three original bands with Range-area ties are in concert at the Rainy Lake Saloon in downtown Virginia.  The Slamming Doors, Preston Gunderson, and Wuori Free Radio play starting at 8.

Sunday, Feb. 26

The BSU Wind Ensemble & Symphonic Band will perform Sunday at 3 at Thompson Recital Hall in Bemidji State’s Bangsberg Fine Arts Complex.  The concert will consist of several pieces for band, as well as chamber music by BSU Chamber Ensembles. The Symphonic Band’s program will include a Salute to Glenn Miller and “The Minnesota March” by John Philip Sousa. The Wind Ensemble’s program will include “El Salon Mexico” by Aaron Copland, “William Byrd Suite” by Gordon Jacob, and “Strange Humors” by John Mackey.

Tuesday, Feb. 28

Author William Kent Krueger appears at 1 p.m. at Bemidji Public Library, and at the Brainerd Library at 6 p.m.  Krueger writes a mystery series set in the north woods of Minnesota. His protagonist is Cork O’Connor, the former sheriff of Tamarack County and a man of mixed heritage—part Irish and part Ojibwe. The eleventh book in the Cork O’Conner series, “Northwest Angle”, was released on August 30, 2011.

Boreal Brewers Homebrew Class will be from 6 to 9 every other Tuesday starting February 28 at Harmony Food Co-op in Bemidji. March 13 and 27 are the following meetings. The students will learn about ingredients, methods of brewing, and styles of beers. We will brew an English ale and each student will take a share of the brew home at the third meeting.

 

Wednesday, Feb. 29

Find out how to use the new "Made On The Range" web site created by the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board to get the word out about your artwork.  The First Stage Gallery is the site of the workshop in downtown Virginia starting at 6:30.

Minnesota History Datebook

Feb. 19, 1851 An act signed by Congress sets aside 48,080 acres to support a state university, and the University of Minnesota is first incorporated six days later. 

Feb. 22, 1855 The Mississippi, Pillager, and Lake Winnibigoshish bands of Ojibwe sign a treaty with the U.S. government.  It hands over a major portion of heavily wooded north-central Minnesota. Lumbering companies were keenly interested in the timber there. The treaty establishes the current Leech Lake and Mille Lacs reservations.

Feb. 19, 1902 The pink-and-white lady slipper (Cypripedium reginae) is named the state flower by the legislature (following the discovery that the previously chosen variety of lady slipper is not native to Minnesota). This wild orchid has a brilliantly colored bloom and thrives in damp woods, swamps, and bogs; it would be protected by a state law passed in 1925 that forbids picking the flower.

Feb. 23, 1983 Mark Pavelich becomes the first United States–born National Hockey League player to score five goals in a game when the Eveleth native and member of the gold medal–winning "Miracle on Ice" 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team leads the New York Rangers to an 11 to 3 victory over the Hartford Whalers in New York City.