Rust Belt Steampunk Gains Traction in the Twin Ports

Welcoming figure by Mary Plaster

When the 2nd Annual Steampunk Spectacular was announced for May 16 & 17, I may have been among the first to notice the scheduling conflict between this and the Hard Rain concert at Weber Hall. My fear was that the two events might chew into one another's attendance, thereby weakening one event or the other. But as they say, 95% of what we fear never happens. Turns out both were events were spectacular.

Both events were actually sequels to last year's May shows of the same ilk. And both events knocked our socks off.

It was especially fun to see the Spectacular get front page coverage in Saturday morning's Duluth News Tribune with a story by Mike Creger, Steampunk Spectacular showcases style. Last year the whole idea of conducting the Steampunk event right inside the train museum proved so thrilling that it simply had to happen again. This year's event including a time machine that took all our steampunk fans and guests back in time for an ride on one of these early steam-powered locomotives.

During both days The Depot's Great Hall was devoted to the art of steampunk as well as an Emporium in which Steampunk artisans displayed wares they produced for sale.

Richard Rosvall, Mayor of Steampunk

Rosvall with wares at 2012 event in Depot.

My first experience with the local Steampunk culture here was through an event called Chronicle that was put together by a circle of artists who called themselves Friends of Industry. One of the characters of seemed connected to nearly everyone in this entourage was Richard Rosvall, who has graciously assisted many by providing costume embellishments to acquire "the look." I recently spoke with Rosvall regarding his involvement with this genre.

EN: How did you personally become so involved in making Steampunk attire?

RR: I got into it because my son asked about making a Halloween costume one year. I had a little idea of what it was about, had seen a few pictures… but went to Flickr as a photo sharing site and typed in Steampunk as a search word…. over 100,000 images. Then I typed in Steampunk Weapon, which narrowed it to 15,000; Steampunk Goggles, 10,000. After looking around a little while we came up with a couple pretty good costumes for he and his girl friend at the time. I had so much fun working on that that I haven’t stopped.

EN: What makes it fun?

Gas Mask

RR: I’ve always been a fan of science fiction and fantasy literature. It’s just so wide open to your imagination. Any kind of sci-fi gadget you can think of you can adapt to that time period. I was lucky that for forty-some years I’ve had experience working with wood, leather, metal and stone, so I have a skill set that enables me to make stuff that looks like it would come from that time frame.

EN: Do you read Steampunk literature?

RR: Not really. I know there’s tons of it out there and I see notices about new literature coming out in that genre, but I don’t have a big budget for buying brand new books.

EN: Films?

RR: I've seen a few. Not a lot. My costumes come from Internet images and my imagination.

EN: It seems like the Internet has really brought Steampunk to a new level.

RR: I’ve made hundreds of friends through Facebook who attend the big conventions on the East coast and West coast and down in Texas. Most of what I’ve been made aware of is on the East coast and out West. Not a lot going on in the Midwest other than TeslaCon. There seem to be a lot of people who travel to these events, vendors and lectures… I’ve been having fun lately making my own little gears out of Damascus steel.

EdNote: Based on my observations, this is a subculture that has real legs. Especially in the fashion part of it. Start preparing your costumes for next year... today!

MEANTIME, we're still celebrating North Country Dylan Days. Tonight is an Open Mic for singer/songwriters at Beaners. Sing a Dylan tune and one of your own Dylan-inspired pieces.... Call Jason at 6:00 p.m. or after in order to get slotted on the agenda. I will most definitely see you there.

Steampunk Fashion... Rosvall Style. (Richard R top left, photo John Heino)

Poets Gather To Celebrate The Bard During North Country Dylan Week

Zane Bail of the Dylan Way team.

In a week of events devoted to celebrating Bob Dylan's 72nd birthday (officially, this Wednesday the 22nd) it only seems natural that in addition to music, movies and trivia there would be a component dedicated to his influence as a poet. And this year it came to pass.

At 3:00 p.m. yesterday afternoon poets and friends of poetry gathered in the Zeitgeist Atrium for the first of what will hopefully be many such assemblies. For myself it was nice to associate faces with some of the names of our local scribes. Thank you to Zane Bail and/or whoever else gave impetus to initiating this event, which included a nice handout, and some wonderful refreshments. The aroma of fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies was an unexpected delight. Sarah Brokke's painting of a woman with an outstretched arm as if presenting our poets made for a nice serendipitous addition to the readings.

Poet Laureate Deb Cooper

Sheila Packa, 2010-2012 Duluth Poet Laureate, had been tapped to be moderator for the event, which included many of our region's respected poets. Bail wasted no words welcoming us and handing over the reigns. Packa began by citing a Dylan quote that underscored one of his motivations, to "write against the darkness.," readily recognized in his early protests against militarism and racism. Deb Cooper, our 2012-14 Poet Laureate was then introduced.

Cooper read from her book Under the Influence of Lilacs. The poem she selected, "She Is Grateful for the Bells," echoing Dylan's "Ring Them Bells" from his Oh Mercy album. She followed with a poem about teaching poetry at the jail, with numerous poignant lines like, "Night falls the same way everywhere..."

Ellie Schoenfield, who also has several books of poetry under her belt, followed. Schoenfield began with The "Rain Falls on the Roof" and another short piece, then offered up a knockout punch, a poem with a very long and ironic title about the last thing a man saw as he died in Guantanamo. 

Gary Belhower, 2012 winner of the Foley Poetry Award, read three pieces from his most recent book of poems, Marrow, Muscle, Flight. The first carried the simple title Poetica. He followed this with a poem titled Figure It Out. "The moon has its own reasons; you don't have to figure it out." His summing up was with a poem titled flight, which included references to Icarus, among other things.

Connie Wanek followed with a reading of "In My Craft for Sullen Art" by Dylan Thomas before sharing four of her own pieces beginning with "A Parting" and summing up with a poem for two titled "Two Degrees of Separation" which she performed with her husband.

Jan Chronister shared various poems related to road and completed her set with "I Got A Gun For Christmas."


Michelle Mathees began by mentioning that she was approaching Dylan from the Gen X perspective. Recently I've been observing a rich new crop of young poets emerging locally, and Mathees proved to be a wise addition to our more seasoned brood. She shared a poem titled "Junk It."

Phil Fitzpatrick, winner of the Dylan Days poetry contest, was scheduled to share last. His winning poem was an autobiographical accounting of his relationship to guns from early childhood cap pistols to pinging squirrels to having several close friends return from Viet Nam in various degrees damaged by them, one of these in a body bag. Poets look for fresh words and fresh ways to tell life stories, and Fitzpatrick's contributions achieved their intended aim, cajoling us into the stories and planting seeds to mull on later.

Ed Newman, least worthy of this poetry tribe, was given an opportunity to share a piece as well, noting that while in school Dylan's songs cut through to that inner place where he struggled with the disconnect between cheerful pop culture and the brokenness so apparent in Viet Nam, racism and our riots in the streets. He then shared his poem "Bad Break."

Sheila Packa closed the event with several poems of her own, keying in on the word blue. The poems were titled "Rapture", "Blues", "Denial" and "Suspended in Blue."

Zane Bail thanked us again for being present and expressed her hope that this will be another event that grows in the future.

Tonight at Carmody's Irish Pub there will be a Dylan Trivia Competition at 8:00 p.m.  The answers, my friend, will be blowin' in the wind.

Enjoy your daze throughout the week. Hope to see you on the scene.

Hard Rain In Duluth Kicks Off 2013 North Country Dylan Celebration with Zeal

Gene LaFond and Scarlet Rivera start cookin'.

If last year's concert brought the crowd to its feet last year, then last night's concert Hard Rain In Duluth left us floating off into the ether. What a great sequel to last year's visit featuring violinist Scarlet Rivera accompanied by Gene LaFond and the Wild Unknown, with special attraction and warm up performer Courtney Yasmineh (yazz-min-ay). Thank you all for a great evening of music and more.

The "more" was an afterparty at Tycoon's Alehouse & Eatery in Downtown Duluth, where Geno and team showed what they're really about... a band that can make you move your feet.

Scarlet, Geno and Courtney Bring It Home

The event was not without drama. Less than an hour before showtime Courtney and Scarlet were on their way to change into their costumes when they made a wrong turn to go the wrong way on one of Duluth's sometimes confusing one-way streets. Yasmineh intended to rectify the situation with a quick turn and was struck by another car. The accident was severe enough to deploy a side airbag. They immediately notified Nelson French, the master of ceremonies for the evening, which created a small buzz behind the scenes as everyone was concerned for their safety.

Ironically, the day before, in an impish moment Scarlet texted Nelson to say she had injured her wrist and would not be able to play violin the following evening. It was a joke. This accident was not a joke. Fortunately, the women made their appearance in a timely fashion and the concert was underway.

As last year, Nelson French opened the evening by welcoming us and noted that the concert is a fund raiser for the Armory Music and Arts Center. With funding for music and art being cut from public education, providing support and spaces for youth to develop is a valuable contribution to the community.

French then introduced Darin Bergsven of the Sacred Heart Music Resource Center (MRC) where the jazz guitarist of Tangier 51 serves. Bergsven shared a brief video detailing the activities of the Music Resource Center and its mission "to educate and inspire young people and through music equip them with life skills for the future." It must have been inspiring to have had Scarlet Rivera, Courtney Yasmineh and Gene LaFond visit the Center yesterday afternoon and share time with them.

The concert began with songs by three students from the MRC. Jack Campbell, a senior at Duluth East who is attending DePaul University this fall, opened the evening with a song. He had great poise and a beautiful guitar... and could he ever play. Jake Vainio, who was one of the accompanying musicians at Al Hunter's poetry reading earlier this year, performed next. That Steinway makes an impressive sound, but his finger and sustains were especially rich. A sophomore named Melita then performed a song she'd written, accompanied by Vainio.

After thanking a long list of people who made this event possible, Nelson French introduced Courtney Yamineh, who normally would have brought her band along but this night wove herself into the Wild Unknown. Yasmineh was born in Chicago. At age 17 she left home to headed for the Iron Range where she moved into a cabin on Lake Vermillion previously owned by her grandfather. It was a cold winter of a kind she was unaccustomed to. Despite frozen pipes and bitter winds, she sustained herself by putting logs on the fire and listening to tapes of Bob Dylan that she acquired there.

More than a sexy guitarist, Yasmineh displays confidence and command with vocal variety and complex lyrics that carry messages from various spaces in her life journey. You can check out her YouTube vids or try to find her new album This Is Manifesto when it comes out. After a relatively short set there was an intermission. Fortunately she would return later to add her embellishments to Scarlet and Gene's portion of the program.

A nice surprise after the intermission was a brief magical interlude by John Bushey, professional magician and host of KUMD's Highway 61 Revisited. Bushey, who likely has the largest collection of Houdini handcuffs and memorabilia in the country, cited an interview with Dylan in which the North Country native was asked, "If you could go back in time and see any event in history, what would it be?" Dylan said, without hesitation, that he would like to go back and see Houdini's famous escape from the East River in New York. Bushey confided that he has a film of that escape and Mr. Dylan would be welcome to come over to his house and view it sometime.

Bushey proceeded to do a little bit of magic for us, a trick with ropes and knots that Harry Houdini himself had invented. A perfect way to start the second portion of our concert... magically.

Gene LaFond introduced his band who proceeded to perform three of his own songs, some of them new. He said it has been a long winter, and writing songs helps you get through. Courtney came aboard as the group offered up a dynamic rendition of Dylan's Shot of Love. At this point we were all aboard, Yasmineh's vocal harmonies taking us to higher ground. Then Scarlet joined the set, and things began to soar.

The obligatory Hurricane kicked it off. I use the word "obligatory" because these were the first notes by which Scarlet Rivera's sizzling violin accompaniment struck the world with a new kind of electicity. Besides, it's just a sentimental favorite when you gather a room full of older Dylan fans.

The playlist unfolded in this manner, with numerous high points along the way. The set began with the full troupe and these four Dylan classics:

Oh Sister (Desire)
Hard Rain (The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan)
Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You (Nashville Skyline)
One More Cup of Coffee (Desire)

The band withdrew and Scarlet then played Chopin's Farewell, accompanied by Geno. All returned and Geno led the next section with one of his favorite Dylan songs, Most of the Time. (Oh Mercy)

Geno gave us one of his own tunes again, Jake and Jenny, followed by one of my favorites, Born In Time. (Under the Red Sky version.) 

The rest of the set included:
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues (Highway 61 Revisited)
You Gotta Serve Somebody, in which Scarlet provided some potent vocals in tandem with Courtney. (Slow Train Coming)
Love Minus Zero, No Limit (Bringing It All Back Home)
Tangled Up In Blue (Blood on the Tracks)
You're a Big Girl Now (Blood on the Tracks)

After this culmination and a standing ovation as the performers retreated backstage. Geno alone returned for the encore, presenting us another new tune, a song about his funeral, with measured levity. Finally the whole crew returned to sing Watching the River Flow.... The enthusiasm flowed as well. A friend who was with me leaned over and said, "They really love her, don't they?" No question about it.

Everyone was invited to Tycoon's to continue celebrating. Gene, along with band mates Brian, Dean and Steve, showed that they still know how to make our feet move. I myself even did a little shuffle-foot myself.

Thank you, Nelson French and the Armory board members whose passion and commitment are apparent to all. Courtney, good luck finishing the book you're working on. Scarlet, thank you for your generosity. It was nice dancing with you. I should have been wearing my bellbottoms.

Today, the celebrations continue with Poets from the North Country @ Arts Atrium. 3:00 p.m., a poetry reading hosted by past poet laureate Sheila Packa. Then it's back to Tycoons for Duluth Does Dylan featuring Marc Gartman with Tim Saxhaug and Dave Carroll.

Gene and the team making music you can move to.

John Bushey: Dylan On His Mind

Extract from DNT a few years back

Name three things that Highway 61 Revisited host John Bushey has in common with Steve Martin? Both like music very much. Both are in the entertainment field. And both had early experiences as a demonstrator in a magic shop at an early age.

You know the job. Pull a trick off the shelf, pull in a small crowd, dazzle them and get them to part with a portion of the contents of their wallets. Steve Martin, as a teen, worked in such a shop at Disneyland, honing entertainment skills that carried him forward for life. John Bushey worked at Bruno's Costumes and Magic here in Duluth. And like another Duluthian whose love of music carried him away to the four corners of everywhere, Bushey's passion for magic has taken him around the world as well.

I've never asked him, but it would be interesting to see if John Bushey's passion for magic played a role in his passion for the music of Bob Dylan, who's ability to generate lyrics out of thin air is comparable to a master magician's sleight-of-hand.

Bushey has been host of KUMD's Highway 61 Revisited, a.k.a. The Dylan Hour, for more than two decades, of which I've been a fan for at least ten, or whenever it was that I became aware of the program, which by means of the internet can be heard around the world. Last year at this time I watched Bushey entertain a circle of friends on the Blood on the Tracks Express, performing magic. Making things appear and disappear, and more. When you watch a master do card tricks, all kinds of words come to mind. Mind-blowing. Befuddling. Astonishing. Bewildering. Fun.

But the pro Dylan buff does more than entertain. He's a collector as well. An enormous fan of Harry Houdini, he began collecting memorabilia related to escape artists at the age of ten and has continued to this day so that he has one of the largest collections of handcuffs and gadgetry pertaining to escapology in the country. We're talking hundreds of handcuffs of all styles.

Bushey is one of the forces behind our North Country Dylan Fest Celebration, which kicks off tonight with the Hard Rain Concert featuring Scarlet Rivera accompanied by Gene LaFond and His Wild Unknown. Special guest Courtney Yasmineh will be preceding them. Last night I discovered that Courtney lived on Lake Vermillion for a spell as a teen and, like me, she has a passion for writing. We're all looking forward to a great evening of music and entertainment. If you haven't purchased a ticket yet, there are still seats available and we'd like to see a full house. All proceeds will go toward the Armory restoration.

The great part of his show Highway 61 Revisited is Bushey's tireless effort to find rare tracks of Dylan music from obscure sources including outtakes and unreleased recordings that you won't hear anywhere else. One of Bushey's projects for this year's Dylan daze is a film collage featuring 12 great Dylan performances, to be projected Tuesday at the Red Star Lounge in Fitgers.

As a longtime listener to the program I've noticed that despite the quantity and breadth of Dylan's output, Bushey does return frequently to a number of favorite tunes. Several times in recent weeks he's played Highlands from Time Out of Mind and I asked him about this. He noted that the long songs give you a break when you're on the air. Why would a foremost Dylan DJ need a break? Answer: he's currently wrestling with Stage 4, Grade 2 follicular lymphoma. i.e. cancer. Bushey reassured me that Stage 2 cancer means it progresses very slowly. The goal of his current treatment regimen is remission, since there is no cure.

My prayer is that the escape artist will be able to get out of cancer's cuffs and take us for another 20 year journey into new channels of Dylan minutia. There are Dylan lyrics for every kind of situation and perhaps in an upcoming program he'll share an assortment of songs pertaining to new lessons he's learned from this experience. Meantime, he's got Dylan on his mind and a heart in the highlands.

Visit the Duluth Dylan Fest  page on Facebook.

Bob Dylan's Amazing Balancing Act

Bob Dylan is the consummate story-teller. Even when it's surreal ("Changing of the Guard") and even when a few of the facts are wrong ("Hurricane"), and especially when it feels very personal ("Tangled Up In Blue"), he knows how to tell a good story. He's been telling them in song all his life.

What makes a good story? First, there are the characters. And it's the author's task to make the reader or listener care about those characters. Second, there is a theme. "Simple Twist Of Fate" is about cognitive dissonance, and perhaps a $100 misunderstanding. "Neighborhood Bully" is a penetrating overview of Jewish history and why this beleaguered nation behaves as it does. Third, there is plot. "Lily, Rosemarie and the Jack of Hearts" not only has a storyline in spades, it's just plain fun as a tune. Fourth, there's usually a setting, a space in time. Again with Lily etc. it's the wild west. Finally, the story illustrates another feature of story writing: conflict. "There's something funny going on, you could feel it in the air." In the end there are decisions made.. with consequences.

If you read Chronicles, Volume One, you'll find that Dylan's not only a good story teller in song, but a writer of stories as well. Dylan's autobiography won't tell you the whole story of his life, and it won't be told in the traditional start to finish manner that many biographies follow. (eg.: Young Abe was born in a log house in Kentucky...) I've read it twice and recently picked it up again in preparation for this week's Dylan Days / Dylan Fest activities. Spring has finally sprung in the Northland.

Dylan's story is a about characters whose lives he intersected in one way or another. Anecdotal evidences of his influences peppered throughout.... John Hammond, Buddy Holly, Gorgeous George, Bobby Vee, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Van Ronk, Joan Baez...  in settings far and wide.

But what amazes me most after reading a dozen other Dylan biographies over the years is that he had so much privacy that he could still write volumes about what we didn't know. Dylan is perhaps one of the most public of all public figures. His website, bobdylan.com, tells where his every live concert has been played for more than a half century, and every playlist from these concerts. We can track where he's been and where he is going, how many times he's played "Gotta Serve Somebody" and how many tours of Europe he's taken.

Which leads one to wonder how people in the spotlight create private spaces and thereby preserve their internal sense of self. Dylan has not only been a master of the craft of songwriting and performing, but he's also demonstrated a brilliant ability to balance his public and private spaces and selves. It's an amazing balancing act.

On one level, who Dylan really is is none of my business. But he's had a heckuva run telling stories that intersect with all of our business. It's an amazing balancing act.

The week ahead will be a celebration of all things Dylan. Join us tomorrow night for the Hard Rain concert at Weber Hall, UMD, Duluth as Scarlet Rivera, violinist who accompanied Dylan on the Rolling Thunder Revue and his Desire album, accompanies Gene LaFond and the Wild Unknown.

Better yet, join us at all the week's activities here and in Hibbing.
Check out the schedule to see where you can plug in. Celebrate the arts with us as we remember this man's significant contributions to music and culture. Or just come along and listen to the music.

Dylan portrait by Ed Newman. Photo by Andrew Perfetti, featuring Scarlet, Gene and the Wild Unknown, Weber Hall 2012.

Wordless Wednesday: Signs

Confessions of a Steampunk Journalist

Eric Horn

This week the Duluth Art Institute is hosting the 2nd Annual Steampunk Spectacular on May 16 & 17 at the Depot. I kid you not, this is not something you see every day… I’ve already noted part of the agenda for this event and hoped to draw your attention to at least some of the very special artist/inventors who will be there. This morning I’d like to invite you to a lecture that I have the privilege of being part of this Thursday evening at The Underground from 6:00 - 7:00 p.m.

Our working title for the lecture is:
"Steampunk 101: An International Movement & A Duluth Phenomenon” 
Manifestations from Our Rust Belt Steampunk Scene

Part I will be a presentation by David Beard, Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Department of Writing Studies, University of Minnesota Duluth. Beard has been a fan of Steampunk culture for quite some time and has written extensively on the topic. I’ll be presenting the local Steampunk culture, as much as I understand it through close association with some of the local artists involved with this movement, or diversion, depending on how you look at it.

As for me, when it comes to Steampunk I consider myself late to the dance… I’d seen it in myriad ways, in a Will Vinton claymation movie about Mark Twain, in a variety of films from the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. But I’d failed to grasp that it was itself a genre, until the scales fell off my eyes. Eventually I became fascination with it as a cultural phenomenon, and allowed my association with it to influence some of my art.

Like postmodernism, Steampunk is a catchall for a variety of manifestations along a convoluted stream of individual expressions. Attempts at a perfect definition are elusive, but there are common threads that stitch these various components together as David (Professor Beard) has explained.

If at first you don’t “get it” you needn’t be alarmed. Sooner or later you’ll understand.

Patty and Wally Mahnke

One of the things that struck me about nearly all the people who have immersed themselves in Steampunk art and activities is that they have become real students of history in order to get their costumes and gear accurately created. Whether Roman times, Medieval times or Victorian Era, each period of history has its own fashions and technological limitations. Steampunk role-players research this in depth in order to conceive and produce their own fashions and gadgetry.

It may be too late to rustle up your complete dream attire for this year, but if you're interested in being a part of the train ride Friday evening (5:30 - 7:00 p.m.) or partying in the Railroad Museum afterwards, here are some images to give you an idea of what others might be wearing. Don't worry, you may come as you are. No one will make fun of you. Afterwards you can start collecting ideas for next year's costume.

Last year, as I was going into the Depot I saw a young man with a weapon affixed to his left forearm. Upon closer inspection I realized he had modified a typewriter carriage with a few gizmos, and hed had "the look." 

The Steampunk art show and Emporium in the Great Hall will be free both Thursday and Friday, open to the public up till 7 p.m. The train ride will cost you a few bucks as will the party in the Railroad Museum, to defray expenses of making this a true Spectacular. And don't forget the afterparty.

Photos courtesy Andrew Perfetti Photography