All Kinds of Music On Tap in the Twin Ports: One Week LIve @ Beaners, and More

This will be a post about the 17th Annual One Week Live @ Beaners Central starting tomorrow evening, a week of finely crafted live music. But first, a few items of note.

Ingeborg von Agassiz

The fall schedule of events for Oldenburg House is online here at their website. It's really quite remarkable how far they've come in just over a year since their inaugural Cookin' @ the O kicked off, featuring jazz vocalist Pippi Ardennia with Billy Peterson* on bass. Debbie Duncan is returning in October for two nights. These jazz weekends have been selling out early so you will want to grab seats before the last minute.

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The second item of note is Ingeborg von Agassiz. I finally caught one of her live shows during Earth Rider Fest last week. The power of her presence and the sound she produces was striking. I raved about her CD a few weeks back, but to see her live made an even greater impression. If you're in the region and you do the Twin Ports night life, follow her on Facebook and make an effort to see one of her acts. Her performance of Brian Wilson's "God Only Knows" is perhaps as spectacular of a cover as Jimi Hendrix's version of Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower." I kid you not.

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19 Bands, One Week Live, Volume 17 

at Beaner’s Central, September 23 to 29

Beginning tomorrow evening, Beaner’s Central Coffeehouse is hosting its 17th annual One Week Live series of concerts featuring some our region’s top acts. The week’s performances are recorded live.

Music and art have always been central to Beaners' vibe. One week live simply takes it to another level. Beaner’s owner Jason Wussow calls One Week Live one of the highlights of the year. “Sometimes I’m literally amazed at the talent here in this town," Jason says.

Jason himself can be numbered among those who enjoy bringing their music gifts to the wider community. Woodblind, his current ska band with Veikko Mark Lepisto, has produced a massive amounts of good energy in listeners. You'll be able to catch them Thursday with an expanded Jubilee ensemble.

HERE'S THE LINEUP
(All shows begin @7:00 except Friday at 6:00)

Sunday, September 23

Jacob Mahon (L) accompanied Mama's Stolen Horses
at the Singer/Songwriter contest during Dylan Fest.

Jacob Mahon & the Salty Dogs
Jacob and his brother Owen have amped up the energy and fun by adding Adam Johnson on bass, Camille Marsten on vocals and synth and Joe Anderson on sax. Great lyrics surrounded by nostalgic driving rhythms. Dan Dresser kicks off the night followed by the new acoustic trio One Less Guest.

Monday, September 24
Drew Peterson
Drew first appeared and recorded at Beaner’s during his days in 40-Watt Bulb over a decade ago. Recently he’s been touring with the Midwest Americana band The Dead Pigeons. Mandy Fassett of The Dead Pigeons will be adding her cello, mandolin and fiddle to Drew’s gritty vocals and foot-stomping guitar. This duo is receiving a local sandwich with Biochemical Characters on one end and Rich Matson and the Northstars on the other.

Tuesday, September 25
Christopher David Hanson
Catchy tunes with strong hooks and a heavy rhythm that gets folks dancing. The band has opened for many national acts and they have had songs placed in several motion pictures. These Iron Rangers will be bringing the full band to share the stage with the Trash Cats and Feeding Leroy.

Wednesday, September 26
Songwriters Competition
20 songwriters have prepared two songs each to win over the panel of judges and the audience. There will be a People’s Choice Award along with the judged winners, as well as fun prizes including studio time and musical gear. Judges will evaluate based on 4 categories including Lyrics, Performance, Originality & Melody. Past winner Ryan Lane will be hosting this midweek song eruption.
EdNote: I was a judge one year for a singer/songwriter competition here at Beaners, and it ain't easy. There is so much talent.

Thursday, September 27
A Band called Truman

Woodblind: Veikko  (on bass) with Jason

Guitarist and vocalist Leon Rohrbaugh leads the charge with this high energy eclectic band. Featuring a full horn section, this giant band will get you out of your seats. Expect to be smiling and sweating. Hardaybra, Mark Blom’s new band, will kick off the evening and Woodblind Jubilee will give us a wrap.

Friday, September 28
Plucked Up String Band
An original progressive sting band with the energy of alternative rock and punk bands. Four strong singers, led by the incredible voice of Amanda Hand, blend rich vocal harmonies with a hard driving rhythm section and hot instrumental solos by Bill Hansen on dobro & steel guitar. This acoustic night kicks off early at 6pm with Ten Crow Moon followed by A Lady Slipper and The Fish Heads.

Saturday, September 29
Edward Ojard
Edward is the youngest performer to be involved in our One Week Live recording project. At 9 years old Edward released his first full length original album entitled "Butterfly Dances." He started composing at age 4, has studied Suzuki techniques and performed with the Ragtime Society. The night continues with the youthful Langertsons followed by The Holy Hootenanners and their big gospel band.

IN CONCLUSION... It's a very special week ahead. Y'all come.

Hermantown Art Students Prepare for April Beaners Exhibition, The Illusion of Control

This past Thursday I followed through on an invitation to visit with several students in Robb Quisling's Hermantown High School art class. The students were Haley Zierden, Mya Austin and Eiley Kuhlmey.

The students have titled their April show at Beaners Central  The Illusion of Control. The concepts the students have undertaken to express deal with societal, religious and governmental controls. At the opening on April 5, 6:00-8:00 p.m.,  there will also be a vocal performance by Sophie Peterson at 6:30.

Eiley Kuhlmey's interest in art began in ninth grade. She's found it life-changing. Mya Austin's interests have drawn her to costumes and 3-D design. Haley Zierden produced pieces for the show in several media, including a set of cyanotype photos of her visit to Havana. What impressed me, even more than their learning how to work in a variety of mediums and develop technical facility, was the grasp of conceptual thinking that real artists learn to internalize.

Zierden, who curated this show, shared the following comments on what it would be about. "I wanted to pick a theme that would be relatable to the student population as well as to the adult community. The theme I picked is The Illusion of Control. As budding teenagers, if there's anything we are familiar with, it's control--usually over our decisions and actions. High school is when you really start to feel the pressures of social control, through peer pressure and cultural modeling. This is also often when you start to question the controls and rules you grew up with, put in place by parents, teachers, and other authority figures. Other forms of control seen throughout life and represented in this exhibit are shown in religion, government, culture, and other forms of restrictions put in place by society. Therefore, this is a topic that can be seen throughout the world, across cultures, and in all age groups."

"Art is another form of intelligence, another way to look at the world," one of the other students said.

Mya Austin expressed a mild frustration artists can have when people view their work. "People don't realize that you are telling a story," she said. In other words, many people look at a painting or drawing and see a picture without understanding that it is also a form of communication.

The class instructor Robb Quisling shared how he encourages the students to combine form with ideas, to experiment with various approaches, to try and re-try things until the thought gets fully explored.

The three paintings by Ms. Kuhley aim to challenge an accepted notion in our culture that a woman's value is based on an ideal of beauty. "Girls are taught at an early age that beauty is pain. My art shows how ridiculous this is as an ideology."

The experience brought back to mind some of my own early drawings which were an attempt to express stories, or inner impressions as a reaction to accepted premises of the culture I saw around me.

As I found my way out of the high school afterwards I noticed that student art had been hung in various corridors, perhaps as a way to honor the creative expressions of the students. Most gratifying was knowing that in at least one school district the arts continued to have value as part of the overall curriculum.

Meantime, art goes on all around you. Engage it.

Related Links
I first met Robb Quisling at a DAI show he was part of in 2016.
Last year I also wrote about about his exhibition Common Threads at the Washington Galleries.

Full House Enriched by Powerful Readings at Beaners Spoken Word Open Mic

Last Thursday I attended the January Spoken Word Open Mic, a monthly event that takes place  at Beaners Central, the 3rd Thursday of every month. Hosted by Tina Higgins Wussow, who weaves a trivia contest throughout the evening, the event features writers and all genres of written work. As further inducement to come, the win is half price on these special nights.

Writers from all kinds come to read, and often there is someone takes the stage who has never read their poems or stories in public before.

When I arrived Thursday the parking lot was jammed, something I'd never seen before for a poetry night. The street parking was also maxed as well,  so it was curious. As it turned out, the mob was gathered for Liz, a candidate for city counsel I believe. But even after the Rally for Liz thinned it was an exceptionally healthy crowd, from the stage to the windows in the other room.

After welcoming everyone, Tina announced that the theme of this month's trivia contest was "wood." During the course of the evening we were asked questions about what state produces the most matchsticks, which state produces the most toothpicks, what country has the longest wooden bridge in the world, what country has the oldest tree, along with questions about beavers and termites. It's multiple choice, so you can guess your answers if totally blanked out.

But the writers present were there to read, and it was an excellent crop, because as many as a half dozen were there as a final practice event in preparation for Gut Instinct, an event in Ashland in which winners of a writing competition were invited to read their stories. So, we were treated to some mighty fine memoir excerpts, stories and poems.

Tom Kanzar read first, sharing a story about an incident in the South Pacific during the Second World War. A typhoon sank a ship and the brave seaman of the Tabor searched for 36 hours to find survivors. Kanzar, a wiry older man, wore a Stetson cocked at an angle and took a Sinatra-esque pose. He said that he sees it as a performance in which the object is to become someone else.

The second reader, David, reads a section from his non-fiction memoir, a memory from the first grade. It began, "The kid that lives next door is the one and only guest who is not a blood relative at your birthday party..." The story segues to an incident in school that pummels you like a volley of punches.

Zomie followed, offering up two whimsically titled poems, Why the World Needs More Georgia (O'Keefe) and After the Endoscopy, After Which You Looked Into My Guts and Found Nothing. This poem was written in an effort to redeem a bad experience, a poem about fortitude in the midst of the system.

I recently produced a piece of flash fiction titled The Gladiator that I wanted to share. When I heard some of the other readers I realized the importance of practicing your work before you read. A little rehearing helps strengthen one's presentation, a lesson I need to remind myself of before my reading.

At least a half dozen readers had come as a warm up for Gut Instinct. The readings included a terrifying first person excerpt from a novel about mountain climbing, about hiding in a crevasse waiting out a storm in a ten day storm with the tensions over tough decisions vividly outlined; a memoir about memories of New Mexico; a piece  about tea and relationships; a wonerful story about teen angst that began, "In the middle of January Willen still hadn't figured out how to talk to girls. Even if he failed, trying was the right thing to do.

As a writer/reader myself, I get impressed by and take pleasure in beautiful sentences, and there were plenty of these Thursday. Chris, who teaches English as a second language at UMD, read an autobiographical piece about a camping trip. The poem converged into this one wonderful line: "And you realize it's this vulnerability you've been searching for all along."

Marie Zhukov of the Lake Superior Writers, shared a powerful non-fiction essay about being mugged and its subsequent events with the intriguing title, Book Signings Can Be Hazardous To Your Health.

A fellow named Kevin shared three short, heartfelt poems: 1. The Lonely Mop Bucket 2. Music of the Universe 3. What Is Art? and a young woman name Cheyenna took the stage for the first time in her life to read a pair of poems as well.

Keynote presenter Jayson Iwen took the stage along with a UMD student, Mollek Adju, who hails from Tripoli in Libya. Dr. Iwen, who teaches at UWS, is himself a writer and poet with experience teaching English and writing. Interestingly, he lived in Beirut from 2004 to 2006 where he organized, publicized and emceed the first postwar public open mic reading series in Lebanon, a series that led to ongoing readings at the Blue Note Café.

For this particular evening Iwen and Adju read from the recently published Lighthouse for the Drowning by Jawdat Fakhreddine. There was a tragic beauty in these poems. Adju read a portion of a section in Arabic and Dr. Iwen read his English translation. There were so many great lines that served as containers for profound thoughts.

The process of translating the work to English was intriguing. A literal word-meaning translation would be produced by his assistant, and then Dr. Iwen would craft this so as to be culturally accurate and parallel to the intent of the writer. The themes reminded me of the longing for homeland expressed in Psalm 137.

This latter portion of the program was so rich that I must save it for another day.

Best to you in the week ahead and cherish it.

Local Art Seen: Terry Millikan's "Meditations" @ Lizzards

Saturday afternoon Lizzards Art Galler & Framing hosted a reception for a exhibition featuring a new series of Mandalas by Terry Millikan. The images have been produced using a variety of media. What's fascinating is how several of the images appear almost three-dimensional as if embroidered.

The word mandala is a sanskrit word that means, literally, "circle." In Hinduism and Buddhism it is a symbol of the universe.

For Millikan there is a Southwestern influence woven into many of the the patterns reproduced here. Each has its own design.

The pieces vary in size as well as design.

Terry Millikan, right, shares how the pieces came about.

Looks like a circle of beads or peas on this one. It's just a drawing.

Millikan's Meditations series became an opportunity to explore ideas 

she's been thinking about for a long time. It's just one more reason to

stop in at Lizzards this holiday season.

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BONUS TRACKS

Adam Swanson had set up an easel inside Perry Framing yesterday. If you were

downtown doing some Small Business Saturday shopping, you could have 

stepped in off the street and visited with the popular local painter while he worked.

TONIGHT

If you don't have other plans, Beaners Central and Zenith Bookstore are hosting a special event celebrating the publication of The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen. Authors Chef Sean Sherman and Beth Dooley will be on hand for readings, signings and sample recipes, with books available for purchase. Author talks begin at 6 p.m. at Beaner's Central Coffeehouse. Samples of cedar-maple tea will be served throughout.The book, published in October, has been receiving stellar reviews. Some have called it life changing.  

Excerpt from Amazon.com: Here is real food—our indigenous American fruits and vegetables, the wild and foraged ingredients, game and fish. Locally sourced, seasonal, “clean” ingredients and nose-to-tail cooking are nothing new to Sean Sherman, the Oglala Lakota chef and founder of The Sioux Chef. In his breakout book, The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen, Sherman shares his approach to creating boldly seasoned foods that are vibrant, healthful, at once elegant and easy.

Meantime, art goes on all around you. Get into it.

Almost Wordless Wednesday: Live from Zenith Bookstore

https://www.zenithbookstore.com/

All images on this page come from Zenith Bookstore, Central Avenue in Duluth.

Maybe one day this will become the next City Lights. 

If you have not yet been, you should check it out.

Across the parking lot from Beaners Central.

For what it's worth, at least two of my books can be found here.

No shipping costs when you buy in the store. Nice!

Meantime, what book did you say you were reading today? Or writing?

Almost Wordless Wednesday: Stephanie Wilcox @ Beaners Central (Local Art Seen)

Stephanie Wilcox is an artist who paints and draws in Duluth, MN.

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Beaners Central is a great venue to experience local art, local music, poetry and culture. 

Located directly across the parking lot from the newly opened Zenith Bookstore, it is a great place to start your day (java and a warm greeting from Jason) as well as a nourishing mid-day stop for lunch.

Evenings it is music and more, always something fresh and real. 

Follow on Facebook Here. It's almost as good as family. 

Meantime, art goes on all around you. Get into it.

Local Art Seen: Gordon Manary's Rohrschach Totems at Beaner's Central

Beaner's Central, located at 324 No. Central Avenue in Spirit Valley, has gained a reputation as a place to relax, enjoy live music, poetry and art, as well as friends. In the front section of the coffee house there is always an exhibit of artwork by local artists. This month features Rohrschach Totems by printmaker Gordon Manary.

Manary is a graduate of Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, with a B.A. in Art. He's studied at the university of Massachusetts, Amherst, as well as the University of Minnesota here in Duluth. As a freelance artist/printmaker he specializes in the design and construction of sculptures for museums, trade shows, and commercial ventures as well a being a member of the Northern Printmaking Alliance.

Like many kids growing up I made inkblots similar to the Rohrschach designs invented by Swiss psychologist/analyst Hermann Rohrschach. In point of fact, we used to have a game in based on these tests which were designed to reveal the subconscious workings of our minds. Whatever the process Manary used to make his art, the similarity to these inkblot tests is unmistakable, and fun.

Rohrschach Totems will be on display through the end of September. Grab a bit of coffee on the way to work sometime, or a bite to eat. Home made and tasty soups, wraps, sandwiches, pastries and more. (I do not get paid to say any of these things!)

EdNote: The photos here were taken in low light and do not capture the sharpness of the images or the vividness of their details. You will need to check them out in person to fully appreciate the work.

EdNote: Art on the Plaza has now completed its move to Tower Avenue in Superior. Check out their new digs in the former Dunbar Building at 1413 Tower Avenue, next to Wine Beginnings. Parking available in the back.

Meantime, life goes on all around you. Keep it real.