Is It Time To Give Duluth A New Name? Let's Call It Dylan Town.

While doing archival research on another project recently I came across a Jim Heffernan column that was published thirty years ago when Duluth city councillors were again debating the naming of a road after native son Bob Dylan. (This debate went on for two decades, fwiw.) Heffernan, a journalist and humorist, responded by saying the city should honor Bob Dylan by naming giving the city itself a new name: Dylan. He writes:

Let's say we change the name of Duluth to Dylan in honor of the performer Bob Dylan who was born here in 1941. Duluth is such an old hat name anyway. Let's get with the '90s. Dylan, Minnesota 55802. It's got a ring to it, don't you think?

The thing about this Dylan idea that's so interesting is that it also starts with a D so it would work well to existing logos. The Duluth Dukes (a 1990s minor league baseball team here) would be the Dylan Dukes. Students' letter jackets for Central High School wouldn't even have to be changed. Take UMD the University of Minnesota-Dylan. The Bulldog teams could still be UMD.  

Hef also suggested that the City of Superior could be re-named Joan Baez, even though UWS (University of Wisconsin-Superior) would have to be changed to UWJB.

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There's risk involved when newspapers permit columnists to propose such radical ideas. I mean, there are quite a few locals who might seriously want to pursue this. If that happened, the City Council may get bogged down with debating it and using valuable meeting time that could be used to address our city's other problems like the shortage of affordable housing and the cost overruns of roundabouts. 

Nevertheless, Hef did build on his case for a rename noting that "First Bank-Dylan adapts well. Dylan Lighthouse for the Blind--it adapts social services." We could also end up with a Dylan News-Tribune (DNT),  Dylan Entertainment Convention Center (DECC) and a Dylan Missabe & Ir Railway (DM&IR), which all roll off the tongue rather nicely.

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Another major benefit of the city being renamed Dylan is that we'll no longer be confused with Duluth, Georgia, he wrote. I myself can't tell you how many times I've Googled a local store name and ended up with stores in our Georgia sister city. 

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One drawback, a minor one I believe, to this idea would be what to call our Duluth Dylan Fest should this proposal ever get adopted. Would Dylan Dylan Fest (DDF) be the new title for our weeklong celebration each May? It feels redundant, but if you only call it Dylan Fest, one might wonder if we're celebrating the city or the Nobel Prize recipient who was born here. 

In a digression, Heffernan presented a novel idea that might work well as an alternative method of conducting our singer/songwriter contest. Currently contestants sing one Dylan song and a song of their own. Hef suggested a "Freestyle" song competition "in which entrants can sing any Dylan song in a non-Dylan style (as in the rap version of 'Like a Rolling Stone')-- or sing any non-Dylan song in Dylanesque fashion."

Heffernan's column appeared in the DNT on 8/12/92. If I remember correctly, he closed with this witty barb:

There is another, admittedly selfish, reason to change the name of Duluth to Dylan. Duluth has such rotten weather.

Heffernan is a News-Tribune columnist and editorial page associate.

RELATED LINK
The Case for Celebrating Dylan's Home Town

Harbor City Roller Dames: Imagination + Athleticism = Entertainment

Skating has been a part of our national experience for as long as I can remember. Whether ice skates, roller skates or the now popular inline form of skates, there’s something to be said for gliding fast, unshielded, in a tuck close to the ground with your heart pounding, the whoosh of wind in your face. Though never an accomplished skater myself, I've enjoyed the experience and can appreciate the talents others display when they’re especially good at it.

Tonight, the Mississippi Valley Mayhem will be coming to the DECC for the big end-of-the-season showdown with our local stars, the Harbor City Roller Dames, in a meet titled Bruise Directors. Off the battlefield you can’t tell these ladies from artists, writers, accountants or administrators. But when they don their gear, look out Charley. You’re gonna get hit. And hard.

According to the About page on their website, “Harbor City Roller Dames (HCRD) is the Twin Ports’ and Northern Minnesota’s ORIGINAL women’s flat track roller derby league! HCRD provides an opportunity for all women ages 19+ to learn and play the sport of flat track roller derby and participate in the skater-run business aspects of the organization. HCRD strives to maintain a presence of athletic entertainment in the Duluth and Superior area, while using the efforts of the league to give back to the local community.”

I think this last part especially intrigued me. Through volunteer opportunities and bout proceeds the HCRD gave $4000 back to the community in their first season alone. And their giving back has grown continuously.

Jilly Willy

"We have worked to benefit organizations such as Animal Allies, Program for Aid to Victims of Sexual Assault (PAVSA), The Emily Program, Safe Haven Shelter, Habitat for Humanity, Special Olympics, Damiano Center Kids Cafe, Center Against Sexual and Domestic Abuse (CASDA), First Witness Child Abuse Resource Center, and the Lakes and Pines Girls Scouts Outreach to Girls at Risk Program.”

The popularity of Roller Derby as a sport – or serious form of entertainment – got legs in the early 1950s with the advent of television. We older citizens remember the name San Francisco Bay Bombers. I actually saw them live in a performance/competition at Ohio University in the early 1970s. But like many activities, the enthusiasm waxes and wanes.

In more recent years there has been a resurgence of the sport, primarily in small to mid-sized communities like ours here where our Harbor Cities Roller Dames were founded in 2007. They team became skater owned in 2009, becoming involved in the Women’s Flat Track Roller Derby Association in 2011. The league is open to all women age 19 and up. According to Jilly Willly of the HCRD, “It's the fastest growing female sport in the country.”

I love the creative names the players assign themselves. Names like Bubonic Tonic, Ghost Whirl’d, Smackmeister and Thunder Bunz seem to reflect the characters at play. Here’s one with literary roots: Violent Baudelaire. (Baudelaire, a French poet and essayist who initiated the translation of Edgar Allen Poe’s dark works. His most famous collection of poems is translated Flowers of Evil.)

Even the refs in this league have hilariously dangerous names… like Dread Kennedy and Blue Screen of Death. Tonight they are winding up the season here at home, coming off a big win against the Northern Pains in April. Action starts at 7:00 p.m. at the DECC.

About Town
If jamming and two-fisted tango is not your thing, there's plenty more to see and do here this weekend, not the least of which is the Duluth Superior Film Festival . Get out and see what you can find.

Lyle Lovett, Wynn Davis and Tomorrow Night's Gallery Action

I was first introduced to Lyle Lovett's music in 1987. I'd never heard of him, but the deadpan wit and spot on melancholy in his delivery riveted me. I often say I am not into country music, but Lyle is so distinctly Lyle he doesn't fit that category for me. The layered sensitivity in a simple song like "If I Had a Boat" won me immediately. The somewhat ribald playfulness in a song like "Hot To Go" only set the hook deeper. His "sound" incorporates the best of American jazz, country, blues, rock and folk traditions in that unique style that can be only described as Lyle. If you haven't got your tickets yet, he will be playing here in Duluth July 20 at the DECC.

If you choose to miss the show, there's plenty more to do that weekend. Artist Wynn Davis will be showing his drawings at an opening hosted by the Ochre Ghost Gallery on Second Avenue East. Davis is an exceptional draftsman who recently illustrated Charlie Parr's latest CD. "Post-education I have had the time to steer and develop my ideas and draftsmanship via the medium of graphite drawing," Davis said. "I reached a point with photography where the print could no longer be a means to an end, especially with how I wanted to communicate my ideas visually. Photography obviously still plays a major influence as both a tool and a vehicle for inspiration." Originally from Wisconsin, the artist said he plans to move to the Twin Ports in the near future, yet one more asset joining the scene here. This Ochre Ghost show will open July 20 and remain up through August 4. Look for a more complete interview with Wynn Davis next week either in The Reader or here at Ennyman's Territory.

THIS WEEK'S GALLERY ACTION starts tonight at the Duluth Art Institute beginning at 5:00 with a show suitably titled Summer Gallery Celebration. The show features the art of cartoonist Chris Monroe and illustrator Tasha Tudor. According to The Wave, "The Summer Gallery Celebration marks the opening of Monroe’s show and will include sidewalk chalk, cotton candy and maybe a surprise visit from Chico Bon Bon."  Not sure who Chico Bon Bon is, but it might be Duluth's version of Superior's Phantom of the Galleries. Guess we'll find out tonight.

Tomorrow night the PRØVE Collective's ninth show is titled Slow Motion. Curated by Nicolas Monson I will be giving a full preview tomorrow morning here at Ennyman's Territory. For a sneak preview of what to expect, visit the Wikipedia page dedicated to Alexander Calder.

From 6-9 two blocks up the hill you'll want to see Andrew Floberg's Rectifying the Door Through a Separate Moment at Washington Gallery. Floberg works with watercolor pencil, graphite and mixed media. “My paintings are representing by way of portraiture, the phantasmagorical personalities from fictitious characters of an enchantingly hexed and antithetic venue, enraptured and entangled betwixt time.” After tomorrow's opening Rectifying will be open Saturdays and Sundays from 1-5 pm, or by appointment, through July 29. The Washington Gallery is is part of the Washington Studios Artist Cooperative, a community housing facility for artists. The co-op is owned by Artspace Projects, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit, and managed by Bowman Properties of Duluth.

AND FINALLY, there will be a free screening of Chris Marker's A Grin Without A Cat at Ochre Ghost, beginning at 7:00. Described by Marker as "scenes of the Third World War," this epic film-essay covers the worldwide political wars of the 60's and 70's: Vietnam, Bolivia, May '68, Prague, Chile, and the fate of the New Left. The Ochre Ghost team is showing this film to celebrate the unofficial opening of their Small Print Social Club - Zine Library and Book Store! The film will be shown in two parts starting at 7:00 PM sharp with one intermission.

Just another amazing weekend here in the North Country. And I haven't even touched on all the theater happening this weekend, including Hair. It's here! In the meantime, I do hope to see you out and about. Enjoy the shows.