Duluth Reader Weekly

Remembering the music of George Zizzos I grew up in Cloquet and listened to George Zizzos and his bands for almost 60 years. Two of my classmates were in his first band, Cottonmouth, when I was in high school (class of 72). George was always the glue in all his bands and just a great guitar player. A great soloist but so rock solid playing the rhythm of a song too. He always was humble and friendly to everyone. I never met a person who didn’t like George.

The “Arc de Trump” being planned for our nation’s capitol will be an eyesore and an embarrassment to the nation. We have plenty of monuments to war and militarism. We don’t need another one and we certainly don’t need this $100 million egotistical monument to Donald Trump. What people honor and memorialize reveals who they are and what they value. There are numerous war memorials in D.C., and all over the country (including to Confederate monuments).

After starting a war that is tanking the economy of Southeast Asia, leaving millions of north Africans a few months from mass starvation and giving Iran more power than ever with its cheapo drones while blowing up $25 billion worth of very expensive weapons and handing the Ayatollahs control of the world’s oil while we pay $4 a gallon for gasoline, Donald Trump has gotten bored with the Persian Gulf. He’s driven along the Reflecting Pool to examine his new blue paint job.

Marimbist Jenny Klukken at The Belvedere. Photos by Jill Fisher. This past week I was lucky to get a chance to see marimbist Jenny Klukken in concert for the second time. She was a discovery of mine back in November 2023 when she was a guest performer at a concert by UMD’s Percussion Ensemble (reviewed in the Nov.30, 2023 Reader issue). As it happened, I was in the Twin Cities on Thursday, May 7, and able to attend her gig at The Belvedere at Crooner’s Supper Club in Fridley, Minn.

Harry's round-the-world vessel, Queen Mary II. Incidental contact with a fellow inmate causes me to think it might be appropriate to address some cruising concerns. First it might be wise to forewarn potential cruisers the possibility of getting drawn into squabbles. Some passengers seek allies for their mutinies.

Run Smelt Run! Parade & Party: The wonderfully weird annual celebration returns for its 13th year, starting at 3:30 pm Sunday. The non-motorized parade kicks off at the Aerial Lift Bridge with a stilt-walking Royal Guard, a school of silver smelt puppet and mask dancers, a giant Smelt Queen and two brass bands. Be sure to wear silver. Mud Puppies Friday, May 15, 9 pm Sir Benedict’s Duluth’s Mud Puppies call their sound “folk grunge” and the tag fits like a worn flannel.

The Boswell Energy Center in Cohasset, Minn. Electricity is interesting. You flip a switch and the light is on, instantly. On the other hand, it seems to take electric utilities years to figure out how they’re going to get that power to you. The answers to that question tell us how quickly we’ll move away from greenhouse gas-emitting power to the clean power we know the planet needs.

Time for 341 million grand jury to act on crimes against humanity I was about to start my next column when Yahoo revealed that scientists stated that life of every living thing started 4.2 billion years ago, only about 600 years after planet earth’s formation. Life began with LUCA, or the Last Universal Common Ancestor, which is a prokaryote-like organism such as a bacterium whose DNA is not contained within a nucleus.

Pine warblers supplement their insect diet with seeds more than any other warbler. This also means we sometimes get to see them at our bird feeders! Photo by Emily Stone. On a cool morning in mid-April, two friends and I ambled down a gravel road toward their family cabin. What we’d planned as a quick drive to scout for black ash trees to harvest for basketmaking had turned into a longer trek because of a maple tree whose rotten base had unexpectedly given way and blocked the road.

Included in the Gender Joy Arrt Show, “She Tweets,” by the late Leah Yellowbird, 1965-2025, depicting “A harmony of birds singing the feminine divine.” Acrylic and wood board on canvas, 36 x 24. Not for sale. Photos of art work and participants by Laura Marland.