A Visit to the Valley

Over the river*, through the woods to the Fox Valley we go. You know its worth driving through three states for a single decent meal and a half of a week in the LC. The weekend was kinda sucky and awkward. The time spent there reminded both Hayley and I that we are both folk of the north.
*Fun Fact: I cross the Wisconsin River three times each way to and fro LC.

Got on the highway and left my beloved Duluth. 

But then I took that glorious Wisconsin exit. 

And crossed the Blatnik bridge to Wisco.

I picked up a hitch-hiker in Ashland...Some chick named Hayley Weyers. Several miles later I missed my exit and accidentally went to Michigan. The photo above shows my confused/road rage face. 

Oh and in Michigan they build their roads out of slush. 

Hayley's lost-in-Michigan face. 

This candid shot actually shows my real lost-in-Michigan face. 

In the end we probably lost maybe five minutes tops. 

We stopped in Minocqua to eat some lunch and do a little snoopin' around. 

We went to the Gaslight Square Antiques. The square was all decked out for Christmas. 

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In the end the drive was fun, but the weekend in the valley was not so much. Apart from Thankgiving, the only things I really did was climbed about the escarpment, bought some cheap doughnuts at Kwik Trip, and cruised the ave. 

Some interesting new stuff to mention about the LC:

The high school got a wind turbine. 

And there is considerable progress on the windmill. 

Speaking the Ojibwe Language

One of my assignments was to record myself speaking Ojibwe. Wanna hear me butcher a sacred language? Then press "Play" now!

The Flames of Discontent

What do you do on a Saturday night? At the Duluth Autonomous District we have a campfire on the front steps of the city, county, and federal government. The night was filled with poorly played flutes, an accordion, and even a didgeridoo(we later ditched the instruments and put some classic rock on the radio instead.) We actually started the unusually warm evening walking around downtown and the lake shore for boards and driftwood. It was a gorgeous evening. 

Oh, there was a hookah happening also. 

This is definitely going to become a regular thing. 

My 5.5 Seconds of Fame

Today I was hanging out at the camp when people from AFSCME came by and dropped off some donations including tents, sleeping bags, socks, as well as a gift card to the co-op. After I put their donations in our comfort tent I decided to reorganize the comfort tent. Soon afterward some guy asked me if the union people came by and I said yeah. Then he asked what they donated and I was weirded out so I asked "why?' Finally he explained that we was from the media and was supposed to have came when AFSCME was there. But seeing how he missed them for some reason he asked if he could interview me instead. I said sure.
Later tonight there was a story on the news about the donations which included awkward shots of me reorganizing. As well as a brief statement with the misspelled name "Blake Romensesko" at the bottom of the screen.

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All Souls Night

All Souls Night is a time to call upon our ancestors and burn the world's bad ideas. Then we can refill the world with ideas of hope and joy. In Duluth there was an All Souls Night celebration that was coordinated by a local puppeteer. The ceremony was indirectly sponsored by Occupy Duluth and vice versa. 

We all met in the Depot (one of the prettiest buildings in Duluth) where there was drummers and gypsy belly dancers. 

Inside the Depot there were alters set up in memory of those who had recently passed. 

Later we gathered outside for a march. 

The three people who did the mourner puppets were actually my friends Jenny, Jesse, and Jay. (AKA The "J" Team)

The moon made an appearance. 

The puppets and stilts people led the parade. 

We marched up 5th street to the Civic Center where we marched around the DAD encampment. 

The weird purple thing is the people's living room. It's purple because some of the walls are translucent(for solar-passive heat) and the main light source in there are Christmas lights. 

Kids ran around, danced to the drummers, and spun in circles throughout the parade. 

A vid of some of the sights and sounds of the march:

After the parade we gathered to the stage under the library's cantilever for the ceremony. The ceremony opened with some poetry. Then we all wrote down evil ideas on paper and burned them on stage. Many people read out their idea before they burned them and most of them were economy related like "economic injustice," "corporate personhood," and "the 1%."

After the burning we all joined hands in a circle and danced around the drummers singing, "By breath, by blood, by body, by spirit; we are all one."

The ceremony ended with an about 15 minutes fire dancing performance. Video: