american roots

if you happen to log on, or is that blog on, right about now, tune in to American Roots on MPR. Nick Spitzer is doing a great political-themed show. Lots of great songs and interviews with musicians about presidents past, present, and FUTURE (ie Kerry).

Is this a metaphore for what Bush is Really Saying to the World?

an interesting little clip from our Prez.

Malkovich malkovich, malkovich malkovich.

So anyone interested in some good ol' fashioned bartering? I have photo prints up for grabs. I do web design as well as post-processing for photos and the like. I also do band photos, blah blah blah.

How about you?

email billnye at gmail.com

Who is your favorite?

Sell out!

You may notice that Google ads now appear on the Blog. After speaking with some folks who have taken the dip it seems like we might actually be able to cover the yearly costs of hosting with these. Any extra moola will be put back into the PDD community. I hope no one is too offended. Barrett may do some tweaking as far as location. Any input can be directed to me, (starfire at gmail dot com.)

The ads can also be quite hilarious since they are related to the content of the Blog.

Enjoy!

Ooops!

Boo!

"Oh, Gimli!"*

For the snobbits...and those who love/fear them:

Ancient hobbit-sized human species discovered

*When I went to see The Two Towers in the theater, there was this girl sitting in front of us who kept giggling "Oh, Gimli!" every time that character did something even remotely amusing. Which, apparently in her mind, was every time he came onscreen. I think she had the hots for him...but it does make a great catchphrase, I've gotta admit.

Just a couple more days.

If you are like me, an MPR junkie and a Blogoholic you have probably had it up to here with this political season. So get off your butt and head down to the Brewhouse tomorrow (10/28/04) for an evening of PROTEST music, good conversation and beer.

Joining me for this special edition of the Starfire Lounge are some of PDD's best, Edgewood and Godsey. On drums Bob Johnson (kidding, he's on the turntables.)

It all starts at 9:30pm. Precinct polling locations and maps will be on hand if you are not sure where to go.

Tell your friends, tell your co-workers, tell your family. Then go out and VOTE.


artwork kindly provided by Bridget Riversmith

only 5 days left

New Kinky Geek Sex Talk

When it's over, and you're feeling fully satisfied, it's fun to exale deeply and moan, "baby, your blog has published successfully."

It can also be helpful in the process to let your lover know where you are at. "Oh yeah! ... That's it honey! ... Files published: 66 percent!"

John Peel dead at 65.

The legendary John Peel has died while on vacation in Peru.

I was lucky enough to almost meet him twice. Low has done 2 or 3 Peel Sessions and the last one was at his home. He had a full studio in his country home and would often host bands there. His lovely wife Sheila made us dinner and he was on his way to join us but was stranded in London due to a larger than normal snowfall. It was amazing to be at his home looking at his music collection and seeing all the pictures from a long and distinguished career. You could tell that he really loved music.

Rest in peace Mr. Peel and say hi to all the dead Rock and Roll stars.

WTF?

When I lived in the Twin Cities, I saw a bumpersticker on tons of cars, but I never knew what the hell it was. I saw them all over, on junky old cars, new sweet cars, but I could never figure out what the hell the sticker meant.
Just when I had convinced myself that I had made it up, yesterday I saw the sticker again!
Please oh please can someone tell me what this hell this thing means???
<--my crappy rendition

check, check, is this thing on?

I am sitting outside, in front of the Dunn Bros. in Minneapolis enjoying the 60 degree weather and WiFi access. I am on my way home from a weekend visit to Austin, MN. It has been quite some time since I have visited and my grandfather is in the hospital recovering from Colon Cancer surgery so it was a great time to head south. I was able to visit with him a couple of times and he improved greatly from my first visit. I also hung out with my nephews and my brothers and my Grandma and my folks. All in all a good trip.

Yesterday I hijacked my brothers video camera and some of their videotapes and I made this movie[10mb Quicktime]. I hope I am not taking up more than my share of bandwidth but I had so much fun making this I thought I would share it with y'all.

Now I must get back in the rental car, say goodbye to the last gasp of summer heat and head home to Duluth where I belong.

Fear

*UPDATE*

I didn't win the contest but I did make runner-up status. Check out all the entries right here.


I stumbled across a contest today over at Coudal.com. The idea is simple. Use clips from the Nasa Flight Crash Simulation depaertment, add some music and voila, instant movie. This is a one day only contest tune in around lunch on friday to see the winning entries.

I present to you "Fear" by our own local faves Low.


Fear [5mb Quicktime]
Fear [12mb Quicktime]

Come on Down to Hawk Ridge

As many of you know, I've been volunteering at Hawk Ridge on weekends. I help out where ever I can. I sell merchandise, answer visitor questions, and transport/hold hawks for the naturalists. It's loads of fun. On a good day you can see thousands of hawks fly by. You can also see them up close when they are captured and banded at the banding station.

The migration season is from September through October and so is coming to an end. I just wanted to encourage any PDDers that haven't been to Hawk Ridge this year to come on down. I'll be volunteering on Sunday from 8am-1-2ish if not later. If it's nice, you will see some great birds, like this Dark Morph Rough Legged Hawk.

P-I-N-K-E-Y-E

Sorry to here Mr Lundgren has PinkEye. I was afflicted with this malady in my childhood. It was on a family road-trip when I was about 8 or 9 years old. We were travelling out west and the day after this picture was taken I awoke unable to open my eyes. I actually thought it was kind of cool. Like when you let Elmers glue dry on your skin and then peel it off.

Mr. Lundgren I wish you a speedy recovery. You GEEK.

I hrt you.

UFO-Related Art Wanted

For display at Area 61 UFO Convention, November 6th, Lakeview Castle. Ideally art should be freestanding although this parameter is flexible. Contact gonzoscience@hotmail.com and put ufo in the subject line somewhere (so you don't get accidentally deleted or anything).

Also, looking for an overhead projector if anyone has any ideas.

Pansy-ass, tea-sipping opinions

Continuing the spirit of all the politics on the blog recently, this ought to make you proud to be an American.

My favorite: "Please be advised that I have forwarded this to the CIA and FBI."

[via Space Waitress Gate A]

Get involved.

I just got a call from the Minnesota MoveOn office. They are having a teleconference tonight at 9pm and all Duluthians are invited to join in. Lindsay from MoveOn said they are understaffed in Duluth and are desperately looking for more bodies.

I hate getting involved as much as the next guy but I will join in tonight and here what they have to stay.

The 411

Call this number at 9pm | 712.824.4000

Enter this PIN number | 273987

You will be charged for the long distance call but it should only last between 15 and 30 minutes depending on how many questions folks have.



Also, don't forget about Cocktails with Charlotte VanVactor tonight at the NorShor from 5-7pm. Local politics are just as important as the national elections and Charlotte is pretty darn cool.

the secret revealed

Order Prints

Anyone got a Light?

Remember what happened a year ago?

Ca-chee and Nick sure remember. Here's to our good friend Scott. May his jaw never ache again.

We've come a long way, baby!

"The Good Wife's Guide" comes from a 1955 issue of "Housekeeping Monthly." (Not sure who did the underlining and circling; I got this through e-mail.) Hard to believe this was less than 50 years ago...

Tony D.

More Fun with Google Image Search

The Anchor Bar. I stole this from the Minnesota Film and TV Board website.

Ridin' the Rails.

Does anyone out there have any experience with the Eurail Pass? V-Nick and I are spending 2 weeks or so travelling in Europe after the Low tour in Spain and we are considering the Eurail Pass. The thing is spendy however and I was wondering if it will be worth it. It does give us lots of flexibility to stop and visit wherever we please but flying is super cheap.

The only places we have definite plans to be are Spain, Amsterdam (our departure point) and Stockholm.

Thanks for any advice.

The smoking debate...

While I enjoy the benefits of going to the brewhouse and coming home smelling nothing like smoke, I don't agree with the city wide ban on smoking in restaurants / bars etc.

My reasoning is that each store should have the right to say whether they are a 'smoking' or 'non-smoking' establishment. It isn't your right as a non-smoker to demand that any place you visit should be smoke free. It is, however, your right to eat somewhere else. You don't like how a business is run? then don't support it. If 70% of the people want non-smoking establishments, then businesses will cater to your needs. Supply and demand at it's basics. However, right now, 70% of the people are deciding what 100% of the people are able to do.

The government is over-stepping it's authority in saying that you may not allow smoking in your restaurant. It should be the right of the business owner to declare what they will or will not allow.

We have liquor licenses, maybe we should have tobacco licenses. Then consumer's would know ahead of time that a business allows smoking.

Anyway, that's my opinion. What's yours?

Duluth Symphony Orchestra

Does anyone have a season ticket & can't make it to one of their events from now till Dec? I'm taking a music class & need to write a review of one of their performances.

R.I.P. Superman

The Sucker MCs Follow Him Like Cattle

"I wear a cowboy hat
My fucken belly's fat
I'm rhymin' hip hop now
The fuck is up with that?"

--Brad Nailer

Doesn't Maria look like the woman in "Her Tears Became Birds and Flew Away" by Bridget Riversmith?

I think so...

(this post originally contained a photo of the painting but was removed at the owner's request)

In Defense of Flip-flopping

From Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance."

"The other terror that scares us from self-trust is our consistency; a reverence for our past act or word, because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our past acts, and we are loath to disappoint them.

"But why should you keep your head over your shoulder? Why drag about this corpse of your memory, lest you contradict somewhat you have stated in this or that public place? Suppose you should contradict yourself; what then? It seems to be a rule of wisdom never to rely on your memory alone, scarcely even in acts of pure memory, but to bring the past for judgment into the thousand-eyed present, and live ever in a new day. In your metaphysics you have denied personality to the Deity: yet when the devout motions of the soul come, yield to them heart and life, though they should clothe God with shape and color. Leave your theory, as Joseph his coat in the hand of the harlot, and flee.

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. -- 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' -- Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood."

Rock the vote! ROCK IT!!!

I filled out my absentee ballot tonight, since I'll be in Missouri on November 2nd. (And, quite possibly, still hung over from Halloween. Better to do it now while I'm of semi-sound mind.)

Best part about absentee voting (besides the voting part): the enchantingly teensy-tiny pencil that the nice folks at the county election office enclosed with my ballot. It's like something a pixie would use, if a pixie had a need for a writing utensil. Montana may be backasswards on a lot of things, but they are light years ahead of the game when it comes to tiny pencil technology.

2nd best part about absentee voting: when you vote at home, you can make your own fun. Like with a pirate hat. And beer. Try pulling that off at the neighborhood polling place. Those senior citizens manning the polls are all about the voting, sure, but not so much about the rocking of it.

God bless America. And teensy-tiny pencils.

Crikey lots of posts...

A friend asks...

"Who sings the 'I like it in Duluth' song?

The chorus is: "To tell you the truth/I like it in Duluth."

It's stuck in my head..."

...anyone?

I blogged too soon

I just found one more:



Will the real Godsey please come forward?

Meet the Bloggers II

Of all the bloggers I searched by full name in the Google image library, only "Scott Lunt" produced a photo of the Scott Lunt we all know and love. I'm going to use the bogus image I found instead, however, as I present:



Scott, Tim and Nick

I chose to search two bloggers by nickname:



Ca-Chee and Lumpy G

And what happened when I searched for "Paul Lundgren"?



Pretty much what anyone would expect.

Meet the Bloggers Update

I thought you all might like to see some new pictures of PDD's bloggers. So I searched Google's image library and collected a few to share. I'm sure my method is 100 percent accurate.



Barrett, Maria and Edgewood



J.J., Zoey and Tomasz

More to come. Yay! Fun!

All-Time Record!

Someday, we will scoff at that number.

road trip!

foggy & i took a road trip to grand rapids on saturday to attend a memorial bonfire in honor of a friend's brother who went missing in the woods while hunting. the weekend was beautiful & sunny with all the trees changing colors. as usual, there was plenty of debauchery involved: