Three-for-one at Black Bear

Former WWE wrestler Goldust (Dustin Runnels) will be at Black Bear Casino in Carlton on Saturday, May 4, 2013, for the first day of the two-day “Jokes, Pokes and Chokes” comedy, tattoo and wrestling convention. (Photo courtesy of Dave Sabick)

Three events.

Two days.

One venue.

The cleverly and aptly titled “Jokes, Pokes and Chokes” comedy, tattoo and wrestling convention comes together in a three-way dance of hilarity, pain and mayhem today and Sunday at Black Bear Casino Resort in Carlton.

The event, the first collaboration of Duluth-based organizations Tattoo You Minnesota and Heavy on Wrestling, will feature live music, stand-up comedy, burlesque dancers, more than 75 licensed tattoo artists and piercers, and professional wrestling matches. The concept was born out of friendship, Tattoo You Minnesota founder Dave Nelson, of Duluth, said.

“I’ve always wanted to do something in conjunction with these guys,” Nelson said, referring to his longtime friends, Dave Sabick of Heavy on Wrestling and Ron Houk of Northern Lights Burlesque. “Tattooing is so mainstream it goes with everything. Sports figures are tattooed, and tattooing and entertainment go hand in hand.”

The combination of tattoos and professional wrestling is a throwback to the days of carnivals and freakshows featuring inked-up oddities and strongmen. Add comedian Dwight York to the weekend lineup, and jokes complete the trifecta.

The wrestling card will feature six matches each day as well as meet-and-greets with wrestlers for autograph signings and photo ops. Some of the wrestlers scheduled to appear are former WWE talents Goldust, Honky Tonk Man, Trevor Murdoch and Shelly Martinez. The main-event match of the weekend — fittingly — is a triple-threat title match between Heavy on Wrestling champion Ben Sailer, Arik Cannon and Arya Daivari.

Nelson returns to Carlton in August for his annual Tattoo You Minnesota convention, which is in its 22nd year. Sabick would like to see “Jokes, Pokes and Chokes” become an annual event if the weekend is successful.

“If it rocks,” Sabick said, “we’ll get it rolling and do this every year.”

This story originally appeared on duluthnewstribune.com.

‘Trailer Park Boys’ star talks Duluth, NHL lockout, Colorado and Washington marijuana laws

Posted on December.13.12 by Jimmy Bellamy

From left: Julian (John Paul Tremblay), Bubbles (Mike Smith) and Ricky (Robb Wells) are the Trailer Park Boys. (Courtesy of Sonic Entertainment Group)

Duluth will catch a whiff of Sunnyvale today when the cast of the hit Canadian TV show “Trailer Park Boys” makes a stop on the “Dear Santa Claus, Go (bleep) Yourself” tour.

The mockumentary-style show, which aired on Canadian television from 2001 to 2007 and spawned two movies in recent years, follows the lives of Ricky, Julian and Bubbles, three foul-mouthed, booze- and drug-filled underachievers who have a tough time avoiding jail. Most of the show takes place inside the confines of Sunnyvale Trailer Park in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

After a successful run as Showcase TV’s highest-rated program, “Trailer Park Boys” continued to grow a devoted worldwide cult following through DVD sales, Netflix instant streaming and airing in 15 countries. Shooting for a third film begins in March.

Joining Ricky (Robb Wells), Julian (John Paul Tremblay) and Bubbles (Mike Smith) onstage for the show at DECC Symphony Hall are park supervisor Jim Lahey (John Dunsworth) and assistant Randy (Patrick Roach).

Wells spoke with the DNT this week about the tour, show, trailer parks in Duluth, the NHL lockout; Colorado and Washington voting to legalize marijuana, and just what makes these guys so lovable.

DNT: When did you first realize that “Trailer Park Boys” was a phenomenon and pretty big deal to people?

Robb Wells: We’re still starting to realize it, I guess. It’s always been big in Canada, obviously, but it seemed like it just went a little slower across the border in the U.S. Now with Netflix, it’s really, really picked up a lot of steam; it’s big over in Europe and England, Ireland, Scotland. We’ve been to Australia and New Zealand. It really is phenomenal; it’s crazy. We had no idea that it would ever get this big.

DNT: When you first got into the show, was it a year-by-year, season-by-season deal?

RW: Originally, it was only supposed to be a six-episode miniseries kind of a thing. The response was really, really great, and we need another season right away before the first one even aired. As it gets selected to do more and more, trying to keep everyone together has been a challenge, to say the least.

DNT: Every time I watch the show, it seems that a lot of it is improvised. What gives it that real feel or that authenticity is some of the motions that the characters make or if somebody drops something, it looks so unintentional.

RW: Everything’s fully scripted, but we always improvise based on the script, on the vague kind of things. We’ll shoot some scripted takes then we’ll play around a little bit. That’s why it has a more real feel to it. That’s the whole intention of trying to make it as much like reality TV mockumentary as we can. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. We definitely play around with pretty much every scene, based on the script.

DNT: The Duluth area does have a few trailer parks. What advice would you have for their park supervisors on making improvements?

RW: (laughs) Well, I’m not sure how the parks are there, but if they’re anything like Sunnyvale with Mr. Lahey, try to keep them under control. But it’s all about having fun. Make it as fun as you can, and people get along more for some reason.

DNT: Out of all of the park supervisors Sunnyvale has had, who was the best?

RW: Well, I can’t say me, I guess. I think Lahey’s a good supervisor. If he stayed off the alcohol and just minded his own business more, the whole community would get along better and there wouldn’t be so much trouble with police around. Randy was a lot easier going, so maybe Randy would be the best one.

DNT: Colorado and Washington voted to legalize marijuana. Would Ricky (known marijuana smoker and grower) consider moving south of the border?

RW: It’s good to know he can’t get in trouble or get busted, but with it being legalized there’d be a lot more of it around, so it’d be hard for him to make a living. I guess his stuff is supposedly the best; it probably would be a good place for him to go live and find some good clients and make a living and not worry about going to jail again.

DNT: What do you think about the NHL lockout?

RW: I’m a huge hockey fan (don’t get him started on his beloved Toronto Maple Leafs) and it’s very disappointing. Last week it looked like they were making some ground, like they were going to resolve it. Now it’s worse than ever, I guess. I really don’t think we’re going to see a season this year, unfortunately, and it’s really sad for all those fans and all the players as well. It’s very unfortunate.

DNT: Have you been to Minnesota before?

RW: Yeah, I have a few times; it’s very pretty.

DNT: How has the tour gone?

RW: The strange thing about the show is the demographic is anywhere from teenagers up to senior citizens. It’s a very diverse crowd, which is nice. It’s nice to have all five of us (cast members) for a change. There’s something in the show for everybody.

DNT: What makes these guys so beloved? They do some horrible things, but they’re so endearing. What is the quality that makes that so?

RW: When we’re writing, the one thing is that because these characters are so crazy — there’s guns and dope and so much swearing involved — we have to have a lot of heart. We try to keep as much heart as we can, with family and friends and just love. Although these characters are crazy and out of control, they’d do anything for their family and friends. I think that’s what redeems them in all of the craziness.

IF YOU GO

What: “Trailer Park Boys: Dear Santa, Go (bleep) Yourself”
When: 8 p.m. today (doors open at 7 p.m.)
Where: DECC Symphony Hall
Tickets: $36.50 and $42, ticketmaster.com and DECC box office

This Q&A originally appeared on duluthnewstribune.com.

Lit guitarist Jeremy Popoff looks back on, forward to music

Posted on August.2.12 by Jimmy Bellamy

Lit are (from left) Ryan Gillmor, Kevin Baldes, A. Jay Popoff, Jeremy Popoff and Nathan Walker. (Photo courtesy of Good Cop Public Relations)

Jeremy Popoff wonders where the time has gone.

The Lit guitarist and his bandmates first found mainstream success in 1999 — after 10 years together — with the release of the album “A Place in the Sun.” The album’s biggest hit, “My Own Worst Enemy,” still gets consistent radio play today. The band’s run continued into the 21st century with three follow-up albums through 2004. But Lit’s time in the national spotlight faded as the band dealt with a series of tragedies.

In 2005, Jeremy and frontman A. Jay Popoff’s mother, Sheryl Suglia, was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident when she and their stepfather, Kerry Suglia, were struck by a drunk driver. Kerry Suglia died.

In 2008, drummer Allen Shellenberger was diagnosed with brain cancer. He died in 2009.

But the Popoffs and founding member Kevin Baldes (bassist-singer) never stopped playing. The Fullerton, Calif., band of brothers — biological and in friendship — continued to play shows despite going eight years between album releases.

With new members Nathan Walker (drums) and Ryan Gillmor (guitar and keyboard), Lit released “The View from the Bottom” in June.

The band wraps up the Summerland Tour, a ’90s-themed throwback of sorts that includes Sugar Ray, Everclear, Gin Blossoms and Marcy Playground, on Saturday night at Bayfront Festival Park in Duluth.

Jeremy Popoff, 40, spoke with the News Tribune on Wednesday about his band, writing songs for Lit and other artists, and a career that has spanned four decades.

Jimmy Bellamy: Maybe it’s because it hasn’t been that long since the ’90s, but Lit’s music doesn’t sound dated.

Jeremy Popoff: “I think our new record sounds like Lit, and I think it sounds current and relevant. I don’t think it sounds dated. But at the same time, we’re just a rock band. I think a lot of the rock bands I grew up listening to kind of have their sound and they make records for 10, 20, 30 years. It’s funny; we were together 10 years before success and then all these people thought we were new. We’ve been around for a long time.

“One of the things that hasn’t changed is my guitar tone. I was an ’80s metal kid. I always had that sound and tried to achieve it since the ’80s. My sound went from dated to cool, dated to cool. I just never changed it. As accessible as music is now on the Internet, it’s kind of a trip. To be making music with Les Pauls and amps … that’s just how we’ve always done it. Now it seems like it’s rare to do it that way.”

JB: Have you been able to adapt to the changes in the music industry because of the period of time when you first were successful? Has it helped deal with how grimy the business can be?

JP: “The griminess of the business definitely hasn’t changed. The business of selling records has changed. We were fortunate. I’m stoked that I have a couple of platinum records hanging on my wall. Who knows? Maybe someday they’ll have an award for most ‘likes’ on Facebook. The idea of going out and selling a million physical hard copies of an album is difficult now. I was lucky to be a part of a band in that last wave, so to speak.

“We were lucky to be a band in the late ’80s. We’ve been around for a lot of stuff. We’re lucky to still be doing it. … I can’t believe how fast the last 10 years have gone.”

JB: After everything you went through, you never split up. Was it made easier because your brother’s in the band with you? Did you ever talk about a break-up?

JP: “I don’t think that that was ever an option. We’ve gone through a lot of crazy stuff over the last 10 years. I think it’s just real-life stuff that every person goes through. You keep going through it and getting through it. It’s not like Lit is a hobby or a side project. We’ve known Kevin since junior high. A. Jay and I are brothers, and Kevin’s my brother.

“(Even without new albums), we still had the ability to come and play shows. It’s what we dreamed about doing since we were little kids. You work your ass off for a lot of years to get to a certain point. We did it so long before we had any success.”

JB: You’ve continued to play together all these years. You hear and read about people in bands who go through burnout. You must love to perform.

JP: “It’s a rush and for real every night. I think the burn factor can definitely set in for other people. It’s different because we have kids and families and businesses now; it makes it difficult to be on the road for a period of time. It’s challenging in that regard, but for the most part we’re able to make it work.”

JB: You released the album “The View from the Bottom” in June. Has it helped to have new material at shows?

JP: “We’ve been waiting for a long time to be able to put out new music. The response has been awesome and the crowd is digging the new stuff. We weren’t working on this record the entire time.

“We were writing songs, but we also were writing songs for other people and other projects. That’s how Ryan joined the band. We got together to write songs for other people. The gears were turning; it feels good. Even though it was eight years (between albums), I couldn’t imagine looking back and saying, ‘We should have dropped a record that year.’ ”

JB: Did your success outside of music (the opening of The Slidebar Rock-n-Roll Kitchen in 2004 in Fullerton) make that easier?

JP: “I don’t know. I’m not sure that it has to do with success or not; it’s a matter of you go through the cycle. You get back to writing and do it again. It’s not that we weren’t (successful) in the past; it’s that other things were going on. As far as the next record, it might be next year. It’ll probably be quicker (than eight years). I have a recording studio in Nashville, so we have access to be able to jump in and go.”

JB: When putting an album together, are there certain songs that make the cut and others you stash away for later?

JP: “For us, we’ve never been a band that writes 30 or 40 songs and picks 12 and the rest go in the trash. Because we write for other things and other genres, we usually don’t finish a song we’re writing unless we’re into it. Usually by the time we have 12 or 13 songs, we’ll go and record those. It’s a waste of time and money to record songs that people aren’t going to hear.”

JB: You’re coming to a close on the Summerland Tour. Have you toured with some of the bands in previous years? How’s it been?

JP: “It’s been awesome. We’ve never done any shows with the Gin Blossoms, and those guys are great. The Marcy Playground guys; we hadn’t really known them before this tour. Sugar Ray and Everclear we’ve known, and those guys are awesome. I’ve been friends with (Everclear frontman) Art (Alexakis) for a lot of years.

JB: What are your tributes to Allen on the new album?

JP: “ ‘Here’s To Us’ and ‘The Wall’ are for Al. But really the whole record’s a tribute to him. We have a slideshow of him playing on the big screens during some shows. And we’ve done some other stuff, too. It’s different. I know other bands have, but I hadn’t been through it before. There was the public stuff, then the personal, private stuff. And some of it overlapped. But, yeah; I think every night’s a tribute to him. He’s up there onstage with us every night.”

JB: What’s in the works for you and Lit post-Summerland Tour?

JP: “We’ll be on the road again after this. We’re going to go home for a couple weeks, see the fam. We’ll be back on the road in the fall. Our first single’s going to radio in a couple weeks — ‘Miss You Gone.’ Check them out on iTunes and give them a listen.

“I also have another single I wrote coming out. It’s a country song called, ‘Why’d You Have To Be So Good,’ by Heidi Newfield. So, I’ll have two songs out there on different formats; it’s awesome. I love it. (Writing songs) is something that I’ll be able to do for a long, long time.”

This Q&A originally appeared on duluthnewstribune.com.

Celebrity mourners, where’ve you been?

Posted on February.14.12 by Jimmy Bellamy

The death of singer Whitney Houston on Saturday at age 48 was big news, no doubt. At one time in the 1980s and ’90s, Houston arguably was the biggest act in music.

Houston died Saturday at the age of 48. (1998 file / Las Vegas News Bureau, Associated Press)

I vividly remember being 9 years old and watching TV as Houston belted out a spine-tingling, tear-jerking rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” before Super Bowl XXV in Tampa, Fla., at a time when American troops were at war in Iraq.

But years later, Whitney had battles of her own. Her beauty and one-of-a-kind voice soon were replaced by her often-publicized problems with drugs and then-husband Bobby Brown as the things for what she was best known.

Sure, like the Olympics, she’d come around every four years or so, singing a song at an awards show or making a TV appearance for an interview. But she never quite made it back to her spot at the top.

During those dark days, and even in recent years when she seemed to get back on track after her split from Brown, little was said about Houston publicly, which is hard to imagine now that we live in a world with social media and a 24-hour news cycle.

That was until moments after news of her death broke. Everyone from Aretha Franklin to Kim Kardashian offered their public condolences, and words like “inspiration” and “best ever” and “influence” were used by countless celebrities who couldn’t seem to wait to talk about Whitney Houston.

With any person — well-known or not — who dies, it’s expected that the people who knew them or knew of them share their memories of the deceased. What I take issue with is that when celebrities die, particularly ones who had personal struggles made public, some of the famous seem to try to use it as a chance to get attention even though they have little to no connection to deceased.

When Michael Jackson died in 2009, the celebrity train was so long that it took weeks to get through the list of people who had something to say or wanted to perform at the seemingly endless number of tributes to the “King of Pop.” But many of those same stars wouldn’t have been caught dead associating with Jackson in the final decade-plus of his life because it would have been career suicide.

The same could be said about Houston, the “Queen of Pop.”

New posts coming soon

Posted on February.7.12 by Jimmy Bellamy

I'll be back this week with new posts. I also retroactively added my News Tribune columns from recent months.

For anyone who still has this blog on an RSS feed, thank you for your patience or for forgetting to delete it.

I’m in the process of retroactively adding my Duluth News Tribune columns from August to December 2011.

A lot has happened since I regularly posted on here. Brett Favre joined and left the Minnesota Vikings. Tons of people famous and not-so famous have died. And I’ve had a few birthdays.

Jimmy Jabber will be back with new posts and commentary in the coming day.

There’s no one to blame but yourself for missing class

Posted on December.27.11 by Jimmy Bellamy

Video games are the reason for students’ struggles in school as much as food is to blame for people’s weight issues.
College often is a person’s first taste of freedom (loads of free time) from parental supervision and influence, especially if said student lives away from home during the school year. And it happens to coincide with the dawn of adulthood.

This is me playing "Mortal Kombat" for PlayStation 3, and I turned out all right, right? Well, I graduated, at least. (Photo illustration by Steve Kuchera / skuchera@duluthnews.com)

The key is having the desire and drive to complete the necessary work without overindulging in the circus outside of the classroom. Remember, college is optional no matter how much pressure your parents might apply.
As gaming has evolved the past 25 years from the days of 8-bit, side-scrolling heroes Mario and Link to elaborate, co-op, first-person shooters and full-body, motion-sensing controllers, so, too, has its benefits. Titles such as the popular “Call of Duty” series force gamers to use multitasking, problem-solving skills and hand-eye coordination — and teamwork in online play — in order to succeed, as one friend reminded me. But that doesn’t mean any college student should blow off that 8 a.m. Intro to Psych class in favor of blasting zombie Nazis.
People are responsible for the decisions they make. Yes, video games can be a distraction when you’re living away from Mom and Dad in a dorm or house with your buddies. But so can alcohol and drugs, which all too often contribute to the derailment of people’s educational and life tracks with devastating consequences.
Some of my best memories from college — what I remember of it, anyway — include all-hours marathon gaming sessions of “WWF No Mercy,” “NHL,” “Mortal Kombat,” “Goldeneye 007,” “Contra” and “FIFA Soccer” with roommates and friends. In college — or even today, when family and full-time jobs take up time — we played when we could.
That guy who failed every class this semester because playing “Skyrim” took priority over studying for that calc final — and I’m sure there’s at least one out there — has no one and nothing to blame but himself.
I’m tempted to use the standard “bad parenting” blanket excuse that inevitably gets pulled out of the linen closet of clichés at this point, but it goes beyond that. There are such things as common sense and learning from the mistakes of others.
The “iWorld” we live in today makes it easier to act like slugs, passing up physical activity and face-to-face interaction in favor of the Netflix Instant Queue and Facebook chat. (Sadly, there’s a reason the NFL feels like it has to encourage kids to run around outside for an hour a day. It makes me feel guilty for watching eight hours of “Dexter” the other day.) But that doesn’t mean we should be held to lower standards than before.

Jimmy Bellamy is a Duluth News Tribune columnist and multimedia editor in Duluth, Minn., and a lifelong gamer. Contact him at (218) 723-5390 or jbellamy@duluthnews.com. This pro-con piece originally appeared here. The opposing view can be read here.

Kim and Kris kaput? I called this one

Posted on November.1.11 by Jimmy Bellamy

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

Posted on October.19.11 by Jimmy Bellamy

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.

What’s in a number? At 30, seeing things clearly

Posted on September.1.11 by Jimmy Bellamy

The day that for so long seemed a lifetime away has arrived. Today I turn 30.
The 1 at the front of my age was great, and the 2 was even better. So, forgive me if it takes a while to get acclimated to the 3.
I still have vivid and fond memories, as a 10-year-old, watching the Twins win the 1991 World Series in arguably the best seven-game series in baseball history.

Jimmy Bellamy is the Multimedia Editor of the Duluth News Tribune. (Clint Austin / caustin@duluthnews.com)

In my 2 decade, in April, I sat third row in St. Paul with my little brother as one of our boyhood dreams became reality when the University of Minnesota Duluth men’s hockey team celebrated its first national championship.
Certainly, every decade has its ups and downs, though.
With one kick, Morten Andersen and the Atlanta Falcons broke my heart when I was 17.
Real heartbreak came at age 20, when I stared in disbelief at the TV as airplanes struck the World Trade Center towers.
The myth — if ever there was one — that everything somehow gets worse after 30 has long been busted. My family, friends and colleagues are proof of that.
I’d just like to know what to expect.
“My 30s have been far better than my 20s. I used to fear getting older, but I have to be honest, I wouldn’t want to relive my 20s ever again,” my co-worker Devlyn told me this week, “other than the birth of my children, of course.”
That’s a relief to know. But how will I feel?
Will my body ache more or not heal as quickly? I play a lot of soccer, and don’t plan to give that up any time soon.
Will my metabolism slow even more than it did when I left college? Running more and cutting down on pop are two things I’ve had to do since my UMD days. And trying to kick Red Bull.
There’s no way I’m giving up video games. I still can play those, right?
“In your 30s, you’re further along in your career and done with all that soul searching, career-wise, relationship-wise,” said Mike Seyfer, who at 40 is vice president of H.T. Klatzky and Associates in Duluth.
I don’t know how he had me pegged, but he seemed to describe my idea of 30 when I was 12 versus my hitting it today. Back then, I thought I’d be coming off my third World Cup appearance with the U.S. national team. Instead, I’ve settled for four Duluth Amateur Soccer League finals.
“What you do in your 30s sets the tone for the rest of your life,” he continued, reminding me that my mind and body should be more in tune with each other, and that one hasn’t fallen apart yet while the other finally begins to see things clearly.
I think I’m going to like the 3.

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.

No Lady Gaga at MTV VMAs

Posted on August.30.11 by Jimmy Bellamy

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a Lady Gaga album. Maybe even two, though I didn’t pay for them (it wasn’t covered in the divorce settlement).
So, I’ll admit listening to her music, but I really don’t need to see her in a dress constructed entirely of pig entrails or a blood-red Queen of Hearts outfit from “Alice in Wonderland.”
Thankfully, the bizarre singer-songwriter was nowhere to be seen at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday night. Instead, performing, presenting, and accepting the award for Best Female Video was a “man” named Jo Calderone.
I began to have flashbacks of when I was 6 years old and forced to try on a Rainbow Brite dress for my cousin, Jill, who was about the same size I was.
Looking like an extra from the movie “Grease” crossed with Al Pacino’s “Scarface” character Tony Montana, Calderone opened the show by smoking a cigarette and reciting a five-minute diatribe about nothing in a half-hearted Bronx accent.

Lady Gaga performs at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday in Los Angeles. (Matt Sayles / Associated Press)

The awkwardness ended — almost — when (s)he bellied up to the piano and performed Gaga’s hit “You And I” (I’ll be the first to say she’s a quality singer-songwriter-dancer) with help from legendary Queen guitarist Brian May.
Then the (accidental) laughs came.
At one point during the performance, Gaga/Calderone stood on the piano and poured a bottle of beer on the floor. The camera shot changed just as she appeared to slip and fall on the spilled beer. The shot changed back a few seconds later as the singer got up off the ground.
The VMAs always have given way to the strange and provided a unique twist compared to the stereotypical awards show. This is Hollywood, not Ken Buehler at the Kitchi Gammi Club.
Coming in a close second for strangest was Katy Perry, who wore a hat that only could be described as a giant cheese cube — nothing to do with the Packers — atop her pink hair.
Lady Gaga wasn’t the only one who left the show with a bump.
Best New Artist went to 20-year-old hip-hop performer and producer Tyler, The Creator. While going to accept his award, Tyler jumped on stage and injured his foot. He confirmed it later in the night on Twitter. I’d give you his Twitter handle, but I can’t print it. It contains a word he said several times during his mostly bleeped-out acceptance speech.
The network’s annual event honors the year’s “best” music videos, which is funny considering MTV — it removed “Music Television” from its logo a while back — barely has room to cram videos onto its airwaves between episodes of “Teen Mom,” “Jersey Shore” and “16 and Pregnant.”
But with each year, even as the credibility of the award itself has increased, so, too, has that high-school-cool-kids’-table feel that tortures viewers.
Except they must be masochists, because a record 12.4 million watched, including me.
Next year I wouldn’t mind seeing Lady Gaga back at the show, only as a woman. I have a Rainbow Brite dress she can borrow.