Tag Archives: columnists

Flood proved worth of electronic media

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Duluth was treated to Mother Nature’s softer side during Grandma’s Marathon weekend — so much so that the News Tribune pointed it out in the headline of a follow-up story Monday.

People interacted with the Duluth News Tribune via Twitter throughout the week of flooding in Duluth. (Jimmy Bellamy / jbellamy@duluthnews.com)

What she brought out for an encore, though, few could have predicted.

The storms and subsequent flooding that ravaged Northeastern Minnesota and Northwestern Wisconsin painted a picture of chaos across its beautiful landscape: cars under water, roads crumbled, bridges decimated, homes’ basements resembling fish tanks.

The road to restoration will be long, no doubt, but these are the trials that bring out the best in humankind. Video camera in tow, while documenting the devastation in Moose Lake, the overwhelming spirit, optimism and positivity of its residents stood out more than the cold, murky water through which I waded.

Like any maelstrom event with wide public interest, the storm and flood brought out the best in the News Tribune newsroom. Fellow multimedia editor Andrew Krueger provided a Herculian effort that began with the creation of a severe-weather live blog on Tuesday that he kept watch over well into Wednesday morning. His all-hands-on-deck e-mail to newsroom staff shortly after 3 a.m. triggered what since has been nonstop coverage and updates at every turn.

People flocked to duluthnewstribune.com, our Facebook page, Twitter feed and our — most-recent addition — iPad app for the latest news, photos, videos and chatter about road closures, relief efforts and everything related to the massive storms and floods.

Our Twitter handle — @duluthnews — jumped from roughly 4,300 followers to more than 5,100 in a 24-hour period between Wednesday and Thursday, and our Facebook page increased by more than 1,000 “likes” to just under 5,000 in the same timeframe. Each has been an interactive platform that leads to even more information on our website.

The News Tribune iPad app, which can be downloaded free from the app store on an iPad, is another way for you to stay in touch with us any time.

When things have looked the worst, we’ve been there. And we’ll be with you throughout every step of this recovery.

Jimmy Bellamy is a News Tribune multimedia editor. He may be reached at jbellamy@duluthnews.com and on Twitter and Facebook. This post originally appeared on duluthnewstribune.com.

Facts in alleged beating are few, but that doesn’t stop cyber mobs

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Jimmy Bellamy is a Duluth News Tribune multimedia editor. (Clint Austin / caustin@duluthnewscom)

A little more than a week ago, a party was thrown at an abandoned gravel pit by a group of people that included students from Proctor High School.

Aside from that, little else is known as fact about the events that took place that Saturday night in Kelsey Township, where a 21-year-old Duluth man alleges he was beaten by as many as nine people because he told them he was gay when asked about his sexual orientation. One person was arrested — a 19-year-old man who isn’t a Proctor student. He since has been released from jail with pending charges.

The absence of facts didn’t stop people from using social media as a platform to fill in the blanks with what they think occurred.

“Proctor u (expletive) hicks. 13 kids beat the (expletive) outta 1 gay kid for being gay n (expletive) near killed him,” read one tweet posted within hours of the alleged incident.

Similar chatter dominated Duluth-area conversations on Facebook, where a screenshot of a post — complete with redacted names — alleging a 13-on-1 assault made its way from newsfeed to newsfeed.

“JUST WITNESSED THE MOST VIOLENT HATE CRIME BY PROCTOR HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS!!!” the anonymous post read.

And on the News Tribune’s own Facebook page, a reader posted “10 of them decided to jump 1 person.”

So, what happened?

Did nine, 10 or 13 people attack one person?

Was everyone involved a senior at Proctor?

Why were no Proctor High School seniors arrested?

“With this known hate crime, you can’t expect people NOT to speak out,” another DNT reader posted.

True, but was it a hate crime?

One fact that can’t be denied is that a gravel-pit shindig of underage alcohol consumption still is illegal, despite any pretense of parental control or law enforcement. And the pit party did nothing but hurt Proctor’s reputation.

“It comes as no surprise to learn it’s Proctor kids,” a Facebook post read.

As a student at Denfeld High School in the late 1990s, I’d hear people in neighboring communities tongue-in-cheek poke fun at Proctor. Remarks such as “Proctor High School has a parking lot reserved exclusively for snowmobiles” and “Upon entering high school, Proctor kids are handed boxes of hair bleach at the door” were commonplace. And when my Hunters played soccer against the Rails, it was almost a guarantee that our best players would be limping off the field by game’s end.

Two people were arrested Saturday, May 26, 2012, after a man reportedly was assaulted near Erickson Road in Kelsey Township. (Steve Kuchera / skuchera@duluthnews.com)

My friends from Proctor have spent years dealing with unfair potshots directed at their community. This latest chapter of living up to those stereotypes does nothing but set the town back in the eyes of those critics.

A problem of social media this case illustrates is the cyber-mob mentality that can make a story almost instantly spin out of control. Armed with all the information it needed, a group of instant protesters called for a rally in response to the alleged attack (they didn’t use the word “alleged”). Thankfully, by the time they gathered in Proctor on the rainy Memorial Day afternoon, cooler heads prevailed and the event was peaceful and civil.

Authorities promised daily that charges were forthcoming, but still haven’t announced any, now saying wait until next week. Even so, the actions will remain alleged until there is a conviction.

But whether or not anything ever is proven in this case, nothing justifies an attack on a person or group of people based on their human condition.

It doesn’t matter if you’re gay, or from Proctor.

Jimmy Bellamy is a multimedia editor for the News Tribune. He may be reached at jbellamy@duluthnews.com. This column originally appeared on duluthnewstribune.com.

Death isn’t funny, but Twitter and Kim Jong Il changed that

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Il’s death wasn’t violent like the ones experienced earlier this year by fellow world-famous bad guys Osama bin Laden and Moammar Gadhafi.

The 69-year-old communist wasn’t overthrown by the people he oppressed and hurt. And he didn’t get gunned down by U.S. military forces. He reportedly died of heart failure while riding on a train.

Kim Jong Il in puppet form was the main villain in the 2004 film “Team America: World Police.” (Photo from rottentomatoes.com)

No mass celebrations.

No cell phone-camera footage on YouTube.

No faux death photos.

One common thread they did share? Plenty of one-liners and jokes on Twitter.
“Kim Jong Il’s son has some tiny shoes to fill,” actor Jeff B. Davis said, referring to the diminutive stature of Kim, whose son, Kim Jong Un, was named his successor.

“Kim Jong Il? More like Kim Jong Dead,” tweeted a flurry of people, each of whom I like to imagine thought they were the only person in the world funny enough to come up with the line.

My Twitter timeline blew up shortly after 9 p.m. Sunday with everything from that last piece of comedy gold to news reports with as much detail as one could get from a less-than-cooperative North Korean government.

One of my favorite tweets came from comedian Jimmy Kimmel.

“Rest in peace Kim Jong Il. You were a very sweet lady,” Kimmel said of Kim, who I’m almost certain looks like somebody’s grandma somewhere.

But nothing appeared as often as references to “Team America: World Police,” the 2004 movie made by Trey Parker and Matt Stone — the creators of “South Park” — that used marionette puppets for characters. The terms “Team America” and “World Police” quickly entered the website’s list of trending topics in the U.S. The main villain in the film was Kim Jong Il in puppet form, complete with oversized glasses, bulldog jowls and tan jumpsuit.

“We did it Twitter. We made every Kim Jong-Il joke there was to make,” musician Brendan Maclean tweeted. “I’m sure North Korea will appreciate it once they get the Internet.”

Like it or not, to my generation, that’s how Kim Jong Il is best known. One of world’s most hated men is seen by millions of people as a puppet with a voice that sounds like South Park character Eric Cartman’s.

Jimmy Bellamy is a Duluth News Tribune columnist and multimedia editor in Duluth, Minn. Contact him at (218) 723-5390 or jbellamy@duluthnews.com. This column originally appeared here.

‘Two thousand’ is over, and it’s time for the twenties

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2012.
How does that sound? Seriously, how does it read to you?
Did you hear “two thousand twelve” or “twenty-twelve” in your head when you read it?
Since 2010, I’ve heard it with a mix of “two thousands” and “twenties,” and “two thousand,” sadly, is winning in a heavily lopsided battle.
The year 2000 was quick and easy to say. And we didn’t have much choice in how we said years 2001 through 2009 — I never heard someone say “twenty-o-one,” for example, when talking about 2001.
But 2010 and beyond has offered options. Do we stick with what we knew for a decade or save time and syllables for the next 87 years? I’d go with the latter.
Just do a comparison using the 1900s.
The year 1900, I only can assume, was said at the time as “nineteen hundred,” not “one thousand nine hundred.” Just like the year 1910 was “nineteen ten” instead of “one thousand nine hundred ten.”
I cringe each time I hear someone on TV or the radio, and in everyday conversation, talk about the current year and start with “two thousand.” Saying “twenty-eleven” flows better. Plus, no year should take six syllables to say.
Hopefully with 2012, a year long talked about for its connection to the end of the Mayan calendar and the belief of some that the world will end, people will drop the two thousand and stick with twenty. I mean, even the 2009 movie “2012” was pronounced “twenty-twelve.” And think about how fun it will be to say “2020” when we get there.
Comedian Bill Burr, who hosts my favorite podcast, “The Monday Morning Podcast,” starts every show by saying, “Hey, what’s going on? It’s Bill Burr, and it’s the Monday Morning Podcast for Monday, (whatever the date is), 2011.” He almost always says the year as “two thousand eleven” or even “two thousand and eleven.” And it bugs me to an unreasonable and irrational degree.
But this week, something was different. He said “twenty-eleven” for only the second or third time this year, and it sounded so right.
All of us should get behind the twenty and make that battle a little less lopsided.

Jimmy Bellamy is a Duluth News Tribune columnist and multimedia editor in Duluth, Minn. Contact him at (218) 723-5390 or jbellamy@duluthnews.com. This column originally appeared here.

‘Movember’ about more than men’s facial hair

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Normally, I advise against it.
Just as Liberace’s impressive ability to wear sequin capes didn’t guarantee you can do the same, not everyone can look good with a mustache.
But for one month, I strongly encourage maximum participation.
Born out of an idea by a group of friends in Australia in 2003, “Movember” is a mustache-growing (spelled “moustache” outside the U.S., hence “mo”) campaign to raise awareness and money for men’s health during November, according to movember.com, its official website. The campaign especially targets prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men.

Movember

This was my beard by mid-November. Weak, I know. After seeing this, I'm more concerned about the back-of-the-neck hair. ("Movember" 2011 file / News Tribune)

“I think it’s a good way to bring attention to the issue,” Duluth native Aaron Ballantine, a two-time Movember participant, said. “Often times, people look at me and say, ‘You’re a clean-cut kid with a big mustache.’ It always gives me an opportunity to educate someone.” (See Ballantine’s and others’ facial hair here.)
The usually clean-shaven 26-year-old gives up his baby face one month a year for a personal reason.
“One of my good buddies lost his dad to prostate cancer,” he said, “so it’s close to heart.”
Today the movement has grown into a well-groomed worldwide phenomenon and spawned similar trends such as “No-shave November” and “Novembeard,” which aren’t necessarily aimed at a specific cause.
My approach to wearing a mustache has been the same as my take on bangs on women and bowties — even if you look good with them, you’d look better without. So rather than stop at a mustache, I prefer to grow a beard, neck hair and all.
There is, however, the occasional man who represents all that is great about the mustache. Northland residents don’t need to look far for their spokesman.
Former longtime WDIO-TV news anchor Dennis Anderson has done more for the mustache than actors Tom Selleck and Sam Elliott combined. Anderson’s bushy lip-warmer looks as if it were sculpted by Michelangelo himself.
A more appropriate month might be “Manuary,” one of my colleagues suggested. But November as the facial-hair-growing month gives some Minnesota and Wisconsin deer hunters an ally against the wind and cold during firearms season.
So grow that mustache or beard, and do it for a good cause. It beats a sequin cape.

Jimmy Bellamy is a Duluth News Tribune columnist and multimedia editor in Duluth, Minn. Contact him at (218) 723-5390 or jbellamy@duluthnews.com. This column originally appeared here.

Kim and Kris kaput? I called this one

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It may seem like only yesterday, and that’s because it practically was.
The napkins would have been inscribed “August 20th.” The TV broadcast was Oct. 10.
Those are the dates that mark the wedding of Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries — the first being the day of the actual wedding, the other the day that it made it on the air.
Britain has its future king and queen get married on TV, while we have a woman best known for starring in a sex tape and a basic-cable reality show marrying a guy who averages 5.6 points per game over a seven-year NBA career. Oh, and he owns the Five Guys Burgers in Duluth or something.
And now, 72 days later, it’s over.
Kardashian filed for divorce Monday from Humphries, turning the seemingly endless magazine covers and TV coverage into an even bigger joke. The couple reportedly had most of the $10 million cost of their wedding covered and made nearly $18 million capitalizing on media attention of the nuptials, highlighted by E! television’s four-hour, two-part “Kim’s Fairytale Wedding: A Kardashian Event.”
When the show aired, Kardashian tried to disrupt my regular Monday night viewing of “WWE Monday Night Raw” by telling people via Twitter to watch her big day unfold. I replied, saying I wouldn’t be watching but would be sure to tune in for the divorce.
Seriously. Thirteen people retweeted it.

I saw this coming, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one. (Screenshot from Twitter.com)

I wasn’t making light of divorce, but pointing out how people can make a mockery of something politicians and priests and protesters all tell us is sacred.
Without weighing in on the politics of same-sex marriage, those who are so dead-set on defending marriage would do far better working to prevent such made-for-TV shams than worrying about which genders are hooking up together. Whatever you say about those unions, they usually last longer than 72 days.
The marriage of two men or two women or two anything couldn’t be any worse for society than whatever this multi-million-dollar fairytale farce was supposed to be.

Jimmy Bellamy is a Duluth News Tribune columnist and multimedia editor in Duluth, Minn. Contact him at (218) 723-5390 or jbellamy@duluthnews.com. This column originally appeared here.

Zombies, monsters and superheroes have left the woodwork

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Actors appear as zombies on the set of "Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies" on Feb. 2, 2012, in Savannah, Ga. (Richard Burkhart / Savannah Morning News, Associated Press)

There never has been a better time than now to be a zombie. Or a vampire. Or a superhero.
And it has zero to do with Halloween creeping up.
These characters provide us with an alternative from a world consumed by real-life monsters in the form of recession, war, disease and feuding politicians.
I played a zombie once — by accident. I smacked the corner of a wall and split my head open at my grandparents’ house while frantically running away from the TV the first time I saw Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video in the mid-1980s. The injury has long since healed (its effects are debatable), but other zombies live on.
Don’t believe me? On Sunday night, AMC’s hit, zombie-covered TV show “The Walking Dead” set record viewership numbers in its season-two debut. This comes off the heels of movies such as “Zombieland” and “Shaun of the Dead” in recent years, zombie walks in Duluth and zombie pub crawls in the Twin Cities and all over the country.
And the Barnes & Noble bookstore in Duluth even has a “Teen Paranormal Romance” section.
Then there are vampires. They may lack exposure to sunlight, but they’ve seen plenty of the spotlight.
The fourth installment of “The Twilight Saga,” movies and books (there’s your “Teen Paranormal Romance”) for fans of the sensitive vampire, hits theaters in a month. This year also gave us the movies “Priest” and “Fright Night.” And TV shows “True Blood,” “The Vampire Diaries” and “Supernatural” have capitalized on the craze, too.
MTV has a show called “Teen Wolf,” but there are no zombies or vampires, and there’s not even a trace of a basketball-playing Michael J. Fox. You can imagine how disappointed I was upon hearing that news.
The zombies and vampires may meet their match in a new collection of superheroes — or more accurately, superhero wannabes.
Benjamin Fodor, who wears a bodysuit that would make Batman blush and goes by the handle Phoenix Jones, was arrested in Seattle recently after he covered a group of people with pepper spray in what he says was an attempt to break up a fight, the Associated Press reported. He’s one of a growing number of costumed vigilantes popping up; the website reallifesuperheroes.org lists 660 members.
“With the current economic state, people are getting into easy, inexpensive escapes,” said Josh Allen of Duluth’s Dragon Port Games & Comics. “Exactly why? The geek thing became cool.”
Certainly cooler than terrorism and cancer.

Jimmy Bellamy is a multimedia editor at the Duluth News Tribune in Duluth, Minn. Contact him at (218) 723-5390 or jbellamy@duluthnews.com. This column originally appeared here.

Passion cools for iPhone after latest release

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The more things change, the more they stay the same — at least to some.
People got worked up this week leading up to Apple’s unveiling of the next iPhone.
And some still are — but for a different reason.
Excitement about the rumored release of the iPhone 5 quickly ballooned into disappointment this week after Apple announced that the successor to its iPhone 4 wasn’t a 5 at all, but a 4S.

iPhone

Apple’s iPhone 4S doesn’t differ much from its predecessor, the iPhone 4. (Koji Sasahara / Associated Press)

The wonder of its capabilities went unappreciated by techies from casual to hard-core, all because the company’s latest version is called by the same number and has the same look as its predecessor.
But you can’t blame them for expecting something different.
Technology has changed so rapidly in the past decade-plus that it’s hard for those of us in our 20s and 30s to appreciate incremental improvements to something that only used to make and receive calls.
“I was kind of underwhelmed, initially,” said Max Caven, a 21-year-old from Duluth and a self-professed Apple fanboy. “But as I thought about it, it really didn’t surprise me.”
The news didn’t curb customer interest, though, at the AT&T store on Central Entrance in Duluth, where an employee said a steady stream of calls continued to come in since Apple sent invitations last week about the iPhone media event at its California headquarters.
But tech geeks and basement dwellers throughout the Internet still declared a “fail” by Apple CEO Tim Cook, whose company’s new phone doesn’t have the capability to make breakfast or deliver babies.
“I think a lot of people were expecting a 5, and a lot of people were let down,” Caven said. “For all intents and purposes, this is a 5; it just doesn’t look like a 5.”
So, there’s no way to tell that you’re cooler than the dude with an iPhone 4. People will just have to take your word.
We’re waiting for the first phone to flip a pancake and cut an umbilical cord. But until then, we’ll have to settle for the cool stuff the iPhone 4S promises to do. Cook says the phone is faster, carries an improved camera, and even has a voice-activated service called Siri, which responds to a user’s questions and commands.
“This is the typical Apple scenario: People keep wanting it to do the impossible,” Tim Bajarin, a Creative Strategies analyst, said in an Associated Press story.
“I’m not impressed with the new #iPhone4S,” Joshua Gonzales (@SpanishJedi) said via Twitter. “Sure it’s faster & has a few more upgrades, but nothing to impress me.”
And you won’t be until the arrival of that long-awaited toaster-oven app.

Jimmy Bellamy is the multimedia editor at the Duluth News Tribune in Duluth, Minn. Contact him at (218) 723-5390 or jbellamy@duluthnews.com. This column originally appeared here.

Sidewalks are for everyone, now and later

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The residents of Glenwood Street have drawn a line in the sand, gravel, rocks and cement.
And all the other ingredients that make up concrete.
Some don’t want the green space in front of their homes reduced by sidewalks — the durable, manmade paths used for pedestrian travel that exist throughout the suburban neighborhoods of developed nations.
How dare anyone think about constructing more sidewalks?
In a News Tribune story Monday, 89-year-old Morley Heights resident Irene Thomson said she sees no need for a sidewalk in front of her home.
“I hope we, the people, have some say here,” she said.
You do have a say, but that’s where it should end. Let the Duluth City Council stick with its “complete streets policy.”
I don’t like that the guy on my block whose yellow Lab constantly defecated in my yard got another Lab puppy when the old one presumably died. But that doesn’t mean I should be able to prevent him from owning a dog. (I wish it did, though.)
My house is on a corner lot in Lakeside with sidewalks for twice the snow-shoveling fun. My house isn’t far from a three-block stretch of street with no sidewalks. There are no intersecting roads on that segment so it’s not terribly dangerous, but I wouldn’t mind having a car-free path for when I walk my pug.
“They’re trying to shove something down our throats that we don’t want,” Laura Johnson said about the Glenwood Street sidewalks in Monday’s story.
You might not want them, Laura, but the sidewalks slated to be installed will serve a purpose long after you and Glenwood’s current residents leave the neighborhood.
To solely include the feedback of current residents when making long-term streetscape decisions would be shortsighted. A sidewalk isn’t just for the people who live next to it; it’s for everyone. It provides a safe walk home and serves as a canvas for kids to display chalk art.
Let this be where the sidewalk debate ends.

Jimmy Bellamy is the multimedia editor at the Duluth News Tribune in Duluth, Minn. Contact him at (218) 723-5390 or jbellamy@duluthnews.com. This column originally appeared here.

Bulldogs’ winning ways prompt more fans to wear their pride

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Where my ’Dogs at? These days, they’re everywhere.
The University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs are on shirts. Hats. Car windows. Even cupcakes. (My favorite is chocolate, with gold frosting.)
It wasn’t always this way, though.
As a child growing up in Duluth, the only thing I knew UMD for was a hockey team that never won quite as many games as I’d hoped.
“I remember 15 years ago, when if you only looked in the crowd and not on the ice, you wouldn’t know what teams were playing based on what fans were wearing,” UMD sports information director Bob Nygaard said. “Apparel or sporting your school colors is the most visible sign of school pride. Nothing is a bigger marketer tool than getting your image out there on everything from stuffed mascots to notebooks.”
The past decade-plus has brought expansion — I can’t remember a day during my time there as a student that something wasn’t under construction — and with it, a grip load of students.
Sure, new facilities have made UMD a more desirable institution, but I never saw anyone wearing a T-shirt with the Swenson Science Building on it. It wasn’t until the school’s recent athletic success that it got something that all the fundraising, top-notch courses and ever-rising tuition costs could never buy — swagger.
It began in 2008, when the Bulldogs went undefeated in football and won the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II championship for the first time in school history.
I didn’t attend a football game in my four years at UMD, but I couldn’t have been happier than I was jumping in front of my TV with my maroon Bulldogs T-shirt on that day.
“Part of the reason I came here was they were already coming off a national championship,” said Chase Vogler, a junior from the Twin Cities area.
He’s now the Bulldogs’ starting quarterback and held that position last year when they again won an NCAA title — in an unbeaten season.
In 2009, the UMD men’s hockey team made a remarkable playoff run highlighted by becoming the first No. 5 seed to win the Western Collegiate Hockey Association Final Five and a final-seconds comeback in an NCAA regional game.
I almost tore my Bulldogs T-shirt off Hulk Hogan-style after watching Evan Oberg’s tying goal with 0.8 seconds left in the third and Mike Connolly’s overtime winner in that game against Princeton.
The volleyball and women’s hockey teams had impressive seasons, too, bookended by the women’s hockey team’s NCAA Division I titles in 2008 and 2010 — cementing the respect they earned in 2001, 2002 and 2003.
Then in April came the icing on those gold-frosted cupcakes: The Bulldogs won their first NCAA Division I men’s hockey championship — in overtime, nonetheless — in their home state. And I witnessed it from my third-row seat along with my younger brother, Josh, and thousands of fans in Bulldogs gear.

Kenny Reiter

Junior goaltender Kenny Reiter led Minnesota Duluth to its first NCAA Division I men's hockey title April 9, 2011, in St. Paul. (Clint Austin / caustin@duluthnews.com)

All this happening on national TV suddenly made UMD a “sexy” school.
In the past year, I can’t walk downtown or fill up at the Spur or buy ant killer at Marshall’s Hardware without seeing people decked out in Bulldogs clothing. And it’s not my imagination. As of the end of May, UMD had sold a quarter-million dollars in NCAA championship-related apparel in 2011, Nygaard said.
“People like to come in and get their championship stuff as well as other stuff and support their team,” said Caroleen Zylka, who works at UMD Stores.
Not to mention the explosion of another Bulldog-embossed item — the championship ring.
Can’t buy that.

Jimmy Bellamy is the multimedia editor at the Duluth News Tribune in Duluth, Minn. Contact him at (218) 723-5390 or jbellamy@duluthnews.com. This column originally appeared here.