DockDogs is one of the fastest-growing sport on four legs. It was started in 2000 “to create a nationally recognized competitive sport based on rules and precedents in track and field competitions,” the organization’s website states. DockDogs brought the competition this past week to the Polk County Fair in Fertile, Minn. Grand Forks photographer Russ Hons was on hand for the …
People seem to start thinking about decorating their homes for the holidays earlier and earlier every year. Some in October or sooner, and a few even like to have their Christmas decorations up all year. In a way, Ginny and I may fall into that latter category. That’s because one reminder of Christmas hangs on our wall year-round, too. It’s …
I was extremely saddened to learn of the passing of Ronn Guidi this week. Ronn founded the world-famous Oakland Ballet Company in 1965. It’s interesting that Ronn would pass at this time of year, the start of what could be called “The Nutcracker” season. After resigning as artistic director of the Oakland Ballet, Ronn brought productions of his “Nutcracker” to …
It would be one thing to be on a cruise ship in some sunny locale during the holidays if you wanted to be, but quite another thing to be working on a cruise ship if you’d rather be celebrating the holidays at home in the Midwest with your family and friends. If it’s Dec. 24 and you’re longing to be …
I’ve been intrigued by the movie “Fargo” ever since the cast and crew came to town years ago to shoot some of the scenes here. More accurately, north of here. I hung around the edges of the production for a couple of days, shooting television news stories, not knowing a classic American movie was being made. A new book called …
Comedian Ali Sultan made his network television debut last month on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” Happily, he’ll be bringing his comedy to East Grand Forks this Thursday and Friday. Ali moved to America from Yemen at the age of 15. Fast forward a few years and he would be named both Best Local Comic and Artist of the …
County fairs in a way are a slice of small-town Americana. Photographer Russ Hons recently took in the West Polk County Fair in Fertile, Minn. Here is a small sampling of what he saw, including the rodeo Wednesday night and the DockDog’s competition Saturday and Sunday. (Check out more photos from Russ Hons here.)
The area’s newest comedy club, The Prohibition Comedy Room in East Grand Forks, will be in full swing Friday night with some of the Twin Cities most popular comedians providing the laughs. Among them, Ahmed Khalaf, by way of Minneapolis, San Diego and Somali. Eventually, there will be weekly Friday night comedy shows at the Prohibition. The name, by the way, …
Like a lot of others, I’m looking forward to CNN’s new six-part documentary series “The Story of Late Night,” a look at the history of late night television talk shows. The first episode at 8 Sunday night will likely focus on Steve Allen, the co-creator and first host of NBC’s “Tonight Show.” It was network television’s first late-night talk show. …
One lasting thing this pandemic will leave behind with us, I believe, will be a new regard for cleanliness. In addition to social distancing, we’re told day after day to wash our hands. It’s like a mantra. Wash your hands. From time to time in the past month, I’ve found myself wondering, “What would Monk do?” To explain. Adrian Monk …
Ken Burns’ wonderful, new documentary series “County Music” on PBS is just terrific. I hope you got a chance to see it. I was especially taken with one particular section of the film, on the country’s “singing cowboys” of the late 1940s and early 1950s. It got me thinking. That’s not always a good thing, but in this case harmless …
I’m looking forward to Red River High School’s production of “Godspell” this weekend for a couple of reasons. For one thing, it’s one of my favorite Broadway shows. It led to the stardom of people like Gilda Radner, Martin Short, Andrea Martin, Eugene Levy and, in the orchestra pit, a young bandleader named Paul Schaffer, Canadians all. The musical is …
I could hear her 2-inch stilettoes on the tile outside my admittedly shabby office, even before she walked through the door. I was working late on a Friday night again. What the hell! My old lady had left me a few months before. She said I was married to my work. Shacked up, maybe. I could see this broad was …
There’s never been anything like it in Grand Forks before. Already something like 250 people have lent a hand (or two) to help create the World Peace Pageant set for Sept. 15 presented by the Greater Grand Forks Community Theatre. The unique theatrical event will be dominated by a 14-foot-tall Mother Earth puppet and a masked cast of 50. The …
If he was gonna do it, Ed Schultz should have expired July 4. It would have fit his sense of theater. After all, he was a football All-America quarterback and in many ways reflected America itself — high achiever, pugilistic, self-centered, generous, mercurial, brilliant, reckless and fearless. It was one of the few times Ed missed his mark. Then again, …
As lake weather approaches, it’s a little sad to learn that city leaders continue to have problems with the Detroit Lakes (Minn.) Pavilion. The Pavilion is old, more than a hundred years old. With age, come problems, not the least of which has been continuing drainage issues for the building, which in 1915 was set just a little too close …
In a few days, a week of events will mark the first two decades of the Empire Arts Center in Grand Forks. A 20th Anniversary Celebration Concert on April 21 will open the week that will also include an open mic night, a movie night and more and conclude with the Empire’s annual dinner and dance. The Empire is such …
One thing about the Super Bowl is that if you’re not disappointed by the outcome of the game, you can be disappointed by the halftime show. This year it was Justin Timberlake’s turn to disappoint. Part of the problem is that we’ve set the bar for the game’s show unreasonably high. Also, everybody is a critic, myself included. To begin, …
Meryl Streep just picked up another Academy Award nomination this week, her 89th. Something like that. This time it’s for her role as Washington Post publisher Katherine Graham in The Post. Tom Hanks, who plays the Post’s editor, Ben Bradlee, was snubbed, as they say. The story revolves around the newspaper’s publication of the Pentagon papers, classified documents detailing U.S. …
For me, a trip to Cuba earlier this month would not have been complete without experiencing the Tropicana nightclub in Havana. Its cabaret show is considered among the top three shows in the world (by people who decide these kinds of things, I guess). After seeing it, I believe it. For openers, Havana’s Tropicana nightclub shouldn’t be confused with the …
Even with hundreds of television channels, HBO and all the rest to watch, and Netflix, Amazon and Hulu to stream, sometimes there just doesn’t seem to be “much” on TV. So, every once in awhile, Ginny and I like to watch “What’s My Line?” The 1950s and ’60s game show is seen currently in all its glorious black and white-ishness …
After a long struggle with Alzheimers disease, Glen Campbell died this week at the age of 81. Of all the celebrity interviews I’ve done, the two I did with Glen Campbell are among my very favorite. For openers, it’s always as surprise that a star of his caliber was willing to talk with little, old me. For some reason, the …
A new biography of David Letterman has reminded me just how much I miss those nightly Top 10 lists of his. So much so that I thought it might be fun to put together one. Not the ha-ha, funny kind. But for no particular reason, a list of the coolest people I could think of. My cool criteria is simple. It’s based mainly on achievement. …
Today is Don Rickles’ birthday. It’s also my mother’s birthday, but that’s another story and another post. Don Rickles died a month ago. If you’re like me and you always wanted see him live but never did and you feel cheated, the next best thing may be to watch the terrific John Landis documentary “Mr. Warmth.” Johnny Carson was the first to call …
Hazen, N.D.’s Tigirlily performed Thursday night in the Brick and Barley Bar and Restaurant in downtown Grand Forks. They had a guest appearance by Jozy Bernadette (Grand Forks native) who recently was a contestant on the NBC’s “The Voice.” (Bernadette is the daughter of Bridgie and Glenn Hanson of Grand Forks.) (Check out more photos from Russ Hons here.)
“Bates Motel” has been one of my very favorite guilty television pleasures for the past couple of years. The A&E series is a prequel, of course, to arguably Alfred Hitchcock’s most popular film, “Psycho.” I saw “Psycho” back in the 1960s, when I was way too young. Apparently, they didn’t check IDs back then. Anyway, I was too young to have an ID. Suffice …
It was 1976. Just a half-dozen years old, already The UND Writers Conference was a well-established and highly regarded cultural event. But conference founder John Little had outdone himself that year, booking two of the country’s best-known authors, Tom Wolf and Truman Capote. Wolf, ever the clothes horse, opened the weeklong conference with a reading of his works wearing a blazing yellow three-piece suit, …
“I never thought I’d sing in Devils Lake,” third-generation gospel singer Mark Blackwood said Monday night, “but here we are.” And a near perfect night it was. The rain held off, the temperature was perfect, and there wasn’t a mosquito in sight at Roosevelt Park. This will certainly date me, but I first heard the Blackwood Quartet at a little county fair …
For most of the past couple of months of my life, much of my time and what little concentration I can muster has been taken up not with writing or speaking but rather with acting. Yup, acting. I had a small role in the Fire Hall Theatre’s “Arsenic & Old Lace,” a 70-year-old dark comedy about two little old ladies who, as …
Family vacation, Glacier Park, Montana, 1988. Noon. Ham and cheese sandwiches in a jammed restaurant just outside the park. After Dad paid the tab, I put $1 in the juke box, played Prince’s “Raspberry Beret” seven times and headed for the door. Before I got there, Prince started. Loudly. The juke box was set at the previous night’s volume, when …
Even before the untimely death of Minnesota music icon Prince a few days ago, 2016 was shaping up to be a particularly bad year for celebrity deaths. Yahoo lists something like 30 celebrities ― major and minor ― who have left us so far this year alone. David Bowie, Glen Frey, Patty Duke, Merle Haggard, George Kennedy and Abe Vigoda among them. On Facebook, …
I’m compelled to confess that I skipped church Sunday. A friend called Saturday evening and wanted to go to First Avenue and Paisley Park to mark Prince’s passing and leave some purple mementoes. It was surprising even to me that both my husband and I said yes to the spontaneous plan. We were curious. We’ve listened to more Prince music …
It seems as if we’re losing a lot of entertainment industry folk this year. The latest, Academy Award-winning actress Patty Duke, who died early Tuesday morning at the age of 69. I had the great pleasure of spending a few minutes of television time with her a couple of years ago. Patty Duke won fame playing a young Helen Keller in “The Miracle …
The 88th annual Academy Awards presentation is coming up. I look forward to it every year. For me, it marks the beginning of the end of winter. Or, at least, the beginning of the last half of winter — or something. I enjoy the Oscars, not because I’m so into movies or rich people handing over awards to other rich people. And …
I get very excited whenever a new Coen brothers movie is about to open. I’ve been a fan ever since doing a television story on the Minnesota natives and their first feature film, “Blood Simple,” back (unbelievably) in 1984. Minnesotans in the movie business were big news back then. The Coen brothers still are. I’ve seen most of their films, …
How was your week? Mine was a little stressful. Here’s why. Some time ago, Ginny and I decided to add a fireplace to our home, forgetting the old adage — I just made up now — that when you add something, something else has to be subtracted. In this case, that something else is storage space. That storage space was …
The excellent, new biography “The Life and Times of Mickey Rooney,” by Richard A. Lertzman and William J. Birnes, got me thinking about an interview I did with the film legend some years ago. My experience with the 5-foot, 3-inch screen star was not at all a pleasant one, so if you like and admire Mickey Rooney it might be …
It’s been quite the (traumatic) year for those of us who enjoy the late night talk shows, what with the recent departures of Jon Stewart from “The Daily Show” and David Letterman from “The Late Show.” Earlier, Craig Ferguson from “The Late Late Show.” And earlier still, Jay Leno from “The Tonight Show.” It seemed like a good time to pick …
Country music star Lynn Anderson left us this week, much too soon. She died at the age of 67. “(I Never Promised You A) Rose Garden” became a gigantic crossover hit in the early 1970s. In her career, she had a dozen No. 1 hits. She won a Grammy and seven Grammy nominations. Twice she was named the Country Music Association’s …
I thought I knew everything. But until I read Mike Sacks’ terrific new book about comedy writing called “Poking a Dead Frog,” I had never heard the name Peg Lynch. Even though in her day she was a huge star. She was a comedy performer on radio and later television in the 1940 and 1950s. But her even larger talent was …
Grand Forks does things a little differently sometimes. For example, instead of buildings, it names “lift stations” after people like Marilyn Hagerty and Dave Barry. A new tradition now, perhaps. Last night, the alley that runs behind Sanders 1907 restaurant was renamed “Kim Holmes Alley of Love.” To me, it seems like just yesterday that Kim rolled into town on …
Once there were a ton of them, television variety shows. Shows like “The Dean Martin Show” and “The Andy Williams Show” with big names and big production numbers. Then, suddenly, they were gone. It was almost as if television executives had all gotten together to set the price of gasoline or something. Much is riding on a new television variety show …
So, “Mad Men” has ended with a something of a whimper rather than a big bang. The series ends with the lives of most of the major characters taking somewhat uncharacteristically positive turns. The one exception was poor January Jones’ character, who continues to die (beautifully) of lung cancer. She also continues to smoke in her final scene, but what …
I listen to Frank Sinatra’s voice almost every day of my life, mostly in my car. I don’t know what would happen to be if I didn’t. I’ve been a Sinatra fan since I was a teenager. Like great classical music, I can listen to his music over and over again and hear something new in it almost every time. …