Wednesday Night at the Schooner

A cryptic phone call: a promise of 20s era tunes and I was out the door on a “school night.” When I got to my destination, the Schooner Tavern, The Hula Peppers were already on stage:



“Lotta Miles” lost in a ukelele reverie:

An appreciative crowd of regulars got into the vintage vibe:



The Peppers offered the perfect soundtrack for a night out:

Hijinx and Hearsay

Scenester Stories From Minnesota’s Pop Life
Text by Martin Keller
Photographs by Greg Helgeson
Minnesota Historical Society Press

This handsome book chronicles pop culture in Minnesota in the 70's and 80s. It was a heady time for local music (Hüsker Dü, The Replacements, Prince, Dylan) as well as for the burgeoning comedy scene (Joel Hodgson, Louie Anderson, Lizz Winstead). Keller and Helgeson covered it all, as well as visits with numerous stars (John Lee Hooker, The Rolling Stones, Bob Marley, James Brown), stars-to-be (U2, Devo, Elvis Costello) and local legends (Willie Murphy, Steve Kramer, and Koerner, Ray and Glover). Even some literary giants (William Burroughs, Garrison Keillor, Tim Carr) make an appearance in its pages. I picked up a copy directly from the authors, they were having a book signing at The Schooner, a neighborhood “dive bar” (in the best sense of the word) that is becoming a cultural oasis of late. Martin Keller was always supportive of the groups I worked with during that time; he was one of the few (there were two!) writers who consistently covered the local scene.

There was another local legend in attendance at the Schooner as well: the notorious Jiggs Lee who has been performing in the area since the 1960s in such groups as The Grasshoppers, The Bananas (while wearing a yellow suit with brown buttons!) and, most successfully, Cain. Jiggs was in fine form last Friday, playing with his latest group, The Jiggs Lee Invasion, playing mostly covers of obscure tracks from The British Invasion bands of the sixties. They ended the first set with the Yardbird’s rave up Over Under Sideways Down. At the break I asked Mr. Lee if he had been at the group’s legendary department store concert in 1966.

Of course he had.


Jiggs Lee, June 28, 2019

Heroes and Villains

Minneapolis, May 29. The Schooner Tavern is the building in the background with sign on top, damaged but still standing.

The recent protests in Minneapolis and neighboring communities were triggered by the police murder of an unarmed man, caught on video. That incident is not what this post is about, there are far better voices to be heard on that subject than that of a fictional professor.

The rioting, while related, is another problem altogether. Recent evidence indicates that organized provocateurs from out-of-state are behind much of the mayhem, particularly the arson and destruction. Some of the perps (seen at right) have been caught on camera and they sure weren’t protesting George Floyd´s murder. Much of anarchy is aimed at black businesses and all of it aimed at black neighborhoods. Most of the Twin Cities area is under curfew, the National Guard has been mobilized to prevent and recurrences of the previous three days.

If there are any heroes in this tragedy they have yet to emerge. The villains are easy to spot, with Donald J. Trump the foremost. Donald Trump’s incendiary Twitter feed has been blocked by Twitter for violating its standards. His devoted lackeys (most of the Republican Party) can all take credit as enablers. A more subtle villain, however is the duplicitous head of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. He has, from its very inception, used Facebook as a tool to pander to the basest emotions, enabling sociopaths to thrive while destroying lives of innocent people. Note Zuckerberg’s recent refusal to reign in Trump’s lying:

“We’ve been pretty clear on our policy that we think that it wouldn’t be right for us to do fact checks for politicians,” Mr. Zuckerberg said. “I think in general, private companies probably shouldn’t be — or especially these platform companies — shouldn’t be in the position of doing that.”

It is in complete contrast to his recent (October 2019) sworn testimony to congress:

“If anyone, including a politician, is saying things that can cause, that is calling for violence or could risk imminent physical harm — or voter or census suppression, when we roll out the census suppression policy — we will take that content down.”

Grand Marais 2019

It’s been nearly two years since I’ve been in the jewel of Minnesota’s Arrowhead Region.


Always a good time to be had here and (usually) a break from the summer heat. The weather Saturday and Sunday was gorgeous; we made the most of it.

Here a few photographic impressions:

Audie, Sandy and Cory relaxing in the municipal campground:



My old work buddy Don showed up at the Gunflint Tavern, driving up from his retirement home in Two Harbors. A fabric artist showed her felting prowess at the arts fair:

            

The Rich Lewis Band played under the moonlight:



While a restored schooner plied the smooth waters of the bay during the day:



And the harbormaster kept an keen eye on the proceedings:

I Dig the Nightlife #1

On the advice of my music guru (Tom Surowicz), I headed out to The Schooner Tavern last Tuesday night to catch King Kustom and the Cruisers:



Bill and Ernie Batson have been mainstays of the Twin Cities music scene for over 40 years now, in this group (specializing in obscure 50s rock-a-billy and garage rock),The Hypstrz (similar, but faster) and The Mighty Mofo's (similar but punkier). Dressed in complimentary bowling shirts, the brothers served up a raucous stew of crowd-pleasers:



This woman (selling pull-tabs) made a surprise “guest appearance” when she went home for the night:



The booth’s only door opened to the stage and she had to walk between the brothers!

Some of the patrons found other amusements more enticing:

12°

A veritable heatwave forced me out for the third time in a month—a birthday party
for venerable Minneapolis music writer Tom Surowicz (pictured below) at the even
older Schooner Tavern,  possibly the oldest continuously run bar in the Twin Cities:



Tom, a long time supporter of the Minnesota music scene, likes to get his friends
and musical acquaintances together for informal gatherings, paying it forward as
it were. The band on this night was fronted by John Beach (on keyboards) and
included his son (on guitar) and Mary on vocals.
Standards, Blooz and Jazz. Mellow.

Thanks Tom! Hope to see you again next year!