Summer can be a manic time of year. I write this from a farm that is absolutely swarming with gnats despite my husband’s best efforts with a nontoxic-to-pets yard spray. The chickens have spent the day peering at us from behind the garage door, whatever brain space they possess likely occupied with wondering when the bugs will be gone. We have no answers.
Tuesday, July 22nd: YME Referendum Community Meeting 7-8 pm YME Auditorium. Meet with Superintendent Schneider and YME Board Members.
I’m a fan of a phenomenon that I don’t believe has a name, though maybe my long-winded German ancestors had a word for it. Let’s call it “awe at surprise rural architectural gems.” For instance, I once accepted a farmer’s invitation to visit his sculpture garden. Should I have said yes and gotten into his truck? Probably not. However, would I then not have gotten to see an actual Stonehenge of ancient twelve-foot-tall hand-carved rocks he’d imported from the South Pacific to install on his Iowa hilltop? Almost certainly yes.
Each week, the Advocate Tribune will share a photograph from our archives for you to “guess who”. To submit your guesses, send us a message by email to jstolen-jacobson@cherryroad.com or message our Facebook page. We will publish the answers the next week.
Friday, July 11th: Live music at Bluenose Gopher Public House 7-9 p.m. with SW MN Musician Sam Jeffrey. No cover charge.
At our meeting last Wednesday, we heard some good news: in addition to all the other pluses of having them around, our summer interns’ cheery presence is drawing people into the gallery. Abby’s family has eaten lunch with her at the tables in the front, and other curious onlookers have found themselves wandering in, then enjoying experimenting with the lavish supplies at our Art Lounge space in the back. Please pop in too – I can attest to the facts that our July show is cool (more on that below) and that the watercolor markers in our Art Lounge are particularly damp and exquisite.
It is a dark and stormy night: perfect weather for my current activity, which happens to be “sit in a potentially-haunted chapel with a group of 10, two professional ghost hunters, a historian, and an app that purports to translate spectral voices into audible speech.” Later, I will quietly complete a Duolingo lesson before midnight so as not to break my streak; a hard bench in a long-dead pastor’s home church will officially become the weirdest place I have ever learned Polish via an angry bird app.
I am thrilled to report that the artist who won the dog park bench’s artist call for submissions is none other than whiz-kid SMSU PSEO student / recent Marshall High school grad Leah Teig. Based on an essay she wrote about learning to paint cats in my class last fall, I suspected she’d be a shoo-in; she waxed rhapsodic about the tiny brushes she learned to use, about her triumphant struggle to adequately capture a sparkle in the cat’s eyes. Even before she showed me the painting, I knew it would be good.
Each week, the Advocate Tribune will share a photograph from our archives for you to “guess who”. To submit your guesses, send us a message by email to jstolen-jacobson@cherryroad.com or message our Facebook page. We will publish the answers the next week.
[This week’s “This Happened Here” is courtesy of a Minneapolis writer, data analyst, and comedian who is also known as my brother Joe Hennen. Its “happening”: last Saturday June 14th. Its “here”: an extremely slow-moving bus making its way from Minneapolis to St. Paul, a line whose maiden voyage, I’d argue, had big Titanic vibes. I am glad Joe survived to write this column… and also that he told us all of this after he was safely home. Insofar as it’s possible, I hope you enjoy this tale of slowly-escalating danger and the beautiful stubbornness of the human spirit. –Jessie Hennen]