MPLSzine
F R E E D O M
I S S U E
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FREEDOM IS... FREEDOM IS SWEET, SAYS JONATHAN GERSHBERG.
10 FREEDOM ISSUE - JULY 3, 2013
CONTENTS COVER BY DANIEL JAFFE LAYOUT BY BETHANY HALL & AMANDA REEDER BACKGROUND PHOTOS BY ANDREW CASEY
REPLAYING THE PAST LUKE FRIEDRICH SPENDS HIS FREE TIME RELIVING THE CIVIL WAR AS A UNION ARMY OFFICER.
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I WISH I WERE A WOLF HER DESIRE TO BE A WOLF WASN’T JUST A FANTASY, BUT A CONNECTION TO HER NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE.
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I WASN’T A HERO AT AGE 90, LINDSEY FREY’S GRANDFATHER FINALLY STARTED TALKING ABOUT WORLD WAR II
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SOAKING OUR BONES, CALIFORNIA, BIG SUR, 2013 PHOTO BY NATASHA VAN ZANDT
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FREEDOM TO FREAK PUBLIC ACCESS SHOW FREAKY DEEKY GAVE ITS CAST MEMBERS THE FREEDOM TO LET LOOSE AND BE THEMSELVES.
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LABOR OF LOVE SARA MONTOUR HAS BEEN ABLE TO MAKE A CAREER OF HER PASSION: TAKING PHOTOS OF LIVE MUSIC.
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PHOTOS BY ALEXA VACHON BALL AND CHAIN COMIC BY JOHN AKRE
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LAND OF THE FRISKED BEING QUESTIONED BY THE POLICE MADE JOE MITCHELL REALIZE HOW HOPELESS THE JUSTICE SYSTEM IS FOR MANY AMERICANS CAUGHT IN IT.
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MAY 14, 2013 PHOTOS BY JOE DAMMEL
CONTRIBUTORS Publication Director Chris Cloud
Layout Director Bethany Hall
Illustration Director Kyle Coughlin
Editorial Intern Ashley Wolfgang
Editorial Director Colleen Powers
Visual Director Andrew Casey
Social Outreach Director Matthew Jacobs
Layout Intern Amanda Reeder
John Akre makes animated films and comics and helps youth and adults create videos about their communities. Find out more at johnakre.com and greenjeansmedia.com Joe Dammel is a film photographer roaming the streets of Minneapolis with a bag full of antiquated technology. He embraces modern technology, too: Find his work at abrandnewminneapolis.tumblr.com Lindsey J. Frey is a modern storyteller by day and a seamstress/athlete by night (depending on the day). A native of Duluth, she grew up basing all direction on the lake and cannot tell east from west in her adult life here in Minneapolis. She loves animals and has caught on fire twice. You can read more from her on Twitter @LJFrey and at cargocollective.com/ LindseyFrey Luke Friedrich is a Minneapolis native with old-fashioned sensibilities. Music and medicinal blood collecting occupy most of his waking moments. But a few times a year, he travels back to the 1860s to get a taste of life as a Civil War soldier. Jonathan Gershberg is a person, recent college graduate and stand-up comic performing mostly in Minneapolis. Daniel Jaffe is a Minneapolis-based artist who mainly works in the medium of paper. Highly influenced by pop art, psychedelia and other contemporary movements such as graffiti, his art often addresses the interaction between man and the natural world. www. flickr.com/photos/theylivewesleep
Craig Nordeen is a designer, illustrator and overall artist. While starting out drawing on his parent’s living room walls (when they weren’t looking), he soon learned that other mediums worked better for not getting into trouble. A graduate of the University of Minnesota-Duluth with a major in design, he’s now a designer and illustrator working in Minneapolis. He works in whatever medium makes the most sense for a project – from watercolors and ink to full blown digital artwork and animation. You can follow him @ cnordeen and view his website at craignordeen.com Christiaan Tarbox, better known to the world as Bacon, is a graduate of the University of Minnesota’s journalism program, a freelance graphic designer, a film review blogger, undisputed Minneapolis karaoke champion, and a professional nerd. Follow him on Twitter: @thatbaconguy Natasha Van Zandt is a Minneapolis-based multimedia artist and photographer. Her personal work has been juried into galleries around the United States and locally in Minneapolis. Since the young age of six years old, she has traveled to over 20 countries and has lived abroad several times. Her photographs from those journeys have helped her to reflect on one of the most important things she has learned: that the true wonders of this earth are the people. See more at www.natashavanzandt.com
Joan Vorderbruggen is a storyteller, designer, textile artist, freelance window creative, professional nurse, community organizer, public art administrator, and rather giggly. In 2012, Joan created and ran the “Artists in StoreJoe Mitchell is a recent law graduate heading into a fronts” project, assisting over 120 artists from career as a public defender. He likes cross-country 5 to 80 years old with exhibits of original work skiing, and can be found @joewmitchell in under used commercial storefronts. Sara Montour is a lifestyle portrait photographer based out of Minneapolis and is also the founder of LIVE LETTERS; a local music website and concert series. saramontour.com // liveletters.com 4 MPLSzine // HUMOR
LETTER FROM THE EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Things that make me feel patriotic: Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man.” The space program. The 1992 USA basketball Dream Team. The fireworks scene in The Sandlot. The Gettysburg Address. This week at our MPLSzine team meeting, Publication Director Chris Cloud read Lincoln’s famous post-battle speech out loud and reminded me of the impact the words still have, especially the end: “...We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” I remember crying when Barack Obama quoted those words as he accepted the presidency in 2008. “Of the people, by the people, for the people.” It’s hard to look back at those joyful tears without thinking grimly of drones, indefinite detention and NSA spying--just as it’s hard to be patriotic about the ideals that made up our country’s founding documents and speeches without thinking of slavery and the Native American genocide, not to mention continuing economic disparity, institutional discrimination and fucked-up education and health care systems. Some of the contributors to this issue have taken a very dim view of American freedom, and it’s easy to understand why. And still those old words are stirring. The people that founded the United States weren’t perfect (the Three-Fifths Compromise? Not a good look for the Constitutional Convention), but they put systems in place to guarantee that progress over time would be possible, and that power would be limited and balanced. They said that “the pursuit of happiness” was an inalienable right. Not everyone has the luxury of thinking comfortably about those ideals, and there’s a lot to be cynical about in America in 2013. I get bogged down in focusing on the stuff that seems like it can never be resolved. But maybe remembering the good, the words and actions of the best Americans, can free us from being paralyzed by the bad to try to work toward something better. Sincerely, Colleen colleen@mplszine.com HUMOR // MPLSzine
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Be part of MPLSzine! Our themes for the next issues are: SOCIAL & PERFORMANCE Submissions due July 11 Publishing in July & August PLEASURE Submissions due July 28 Publishing in August If you can’t contribute right away but want to learn more, email us anyway. We’d love to have you join us. hey@mplszine.com Read past issues of MPLSzine at mplszine.com
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FREEDOM IS . . .
by Jonathan Gershberg Freedom is sweet. Freedom is waking up on a Saturday to birdsongs instead of your cellphone alarm. Freedom is eating ice-cream for breakfast. Freedom is dancing around your apartment building. Freedom is wearing a plaid shirt with striped pants. Freedom is not wearing underwear. Freedom is not putting on deodorant. Freedom is not showering. Freedom is quitting your day job as a dayshift manager at Caribou Coffee. Freedom is pursuing your dream of being a professional accordionist. Freedom is finding out no one pays to hear accordion music. Freedom is not paying off your college loans. Freedom is putting all of your utility bills directly into the trash. Freedom is not needing electricity. Or heat. Or water. 8 MPLSzine // FREEDOM
Freedom is building a fire in your apartment living room. Freedom is roasting roadkill over the fire. Freedom is discovering that squirrel tastes like chicken. Flattened chicken. Freedom is catching your pants on fire. Freedom is screaming hysterically. Freedom is stopping. Freedom is dropping. Freedom is rolling. Freedom is setting off the apartment buildings’ alarm system. Freedom is not answering the door when your landlord, Kent, comes to investigate. Freedom is pleading with him not to evict you. Freedom doesn’t work. Freedom is sleeping outside. Freedom is washing yourself in Lake Calhoun. Freedom is not having a change of clothes. Freedom is walking down Hennepin Avenue completely naked. Freedom is feeling the cool breeze against your skin as you run away from city police. Freedom is putting your hands up. Freedom is spreading your legs. Freedom is being read your Miranda Rights. Freedom is being unable to post bail. Freedom is defecating in plain sight of your cellmates. Freedom is developing a strong relationship with your bunkmate Bruizer, for self defense. Freedom is savoring every bit of prison food. Freedom is recieving a care package from your mother. Freedom is the feeling that someone still cares about you. Freedom is finding a slightly melted Hershey bar enclosed. Freedom is sweet. FREEDOM // MPLSzine
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Replaying the Past { } A conversation with phlebotomist / drummer / Civil War officer Luke Friedrich. All Photos by Tom George Davison/TGDavison Photography Interview by Bethany Hall
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‘cause I was really trying to find one of these hats. I found these dudes who meet at Fort Snelling. I went there and I was too young to carry a musket for insurance purposes-they are heavy, and they didn’t want 14-year-old kids getting killed. So I started playing the fife and drum, and that’s how I learned how to play drums. Q: So you’ve known these people for a long time? There’s a core group I’ve known for a long time. One of them, the guy that got me into it, was my mentor and kind of taught me everything. He lives with his wife just a couple blocks away from me--they are in their fifties now. I lived with them for a while and go over there for dinner once a week. Q: What do you do when you go to Fort Snelling?
Luke Friedrich
Q: Tell me about yourself. My name is Luke Friedrich. I’m a musician and I work at the American Red Cross as a phlebotomist. A phlebotomist takes blood from people for blood donations and transfusions. Q: When did you start Civil War re-enacting? When I was in seventh grade, 14 years ago, so I’ve been doing it for a long time. My parents took a trip out to the East Coast and came back with a bunch of Civil War stuff, like a bullet and some material--I got really into it then. When I was in seventh grade we got the Internet, and I was poking around 12 MPLSzine // FREEDOM
Fort Snelling is just where we meet, and then we go all over the country. In a couple weeks we are going to Gettysburg to re-enact the 150th anniversary of the battle.
Most of the time I’m a drummer or play the fife, but this time I’m an officer: battalion adjutant. The battalion has 300 guys, there are two or three battalions in our brigade, two or three brigades in our division. So 5,000 infantry reenactors--7,000 total for the North, and then the South has their own thing. So there’s gonna be like 20,000 people. I’m an officer and I run around with a sword and yell orders at people. I also do Civil War paperwork, which is a weird thing to get used to with quill and ink, and to try to make it look like I’m not a third grader and like I’ve been doing it my whole life.
Q: Is this a performance for other people? Or is it just a passion, like knitting club or chess club? Most of the stuff we do is for us. There are spectators that come, there will be a few thousand at least, but we’re live for the whole four days that we are there. We’ll get there and set up camps and operate the same way that they did. There is a chain of command and wagons will roll up and will issue thousands of pounds of salted meat that are in big wooden barrels, and everybody will get rations of coffee. I’ll run over to the musicians and get them up at like 4 in the morning and they’ll play first call, and then they’ll play musicians call and they play the assembly, and everybody starts waking up and we start moving. We go live. The guys on top know what’s going on and they trickle it down like they would’ve, with privates and stuff, to get as close an experience as it would be to be in the army at that time.
Q: That’s incredible. There’s a lot of stuff--we’re really focused on authenticity. Our uniforms and everything we do is made the way they did. We research what unit we’re gonna be in, what color trousers they had, what kind of hats they had... There’s a lot of prep work. Q: From my research (Wikipedia today), I know that Civil War history has had to be passed down by word of mouth. How do you know accuracy? How is that checked? The benefit of being a Northerner, or a Union re-enactor, is that everything is documented. Every time they got a shipment of something or moved somewhere, it was written down. They still have a lot of those documents, so you can look it up and see exactly what they did that day. The South, those guys aren’t so lucky because that info got destroyed. A lot of our stuff is very accurate--we can read journals from
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that day and see what the weather was like so it’s pretty specific. You can never emulate what an army of 150,000 guys did when you have only 5,000 to work with, but you can do the best that you can.
They caught one guy climbing a fence with a loaded .22 on his back--he was gonna kill himself some Yankees. There is a little friction there sometimes.
Q: So is there still friction with the South?
Q: Why do people do this? What motivates people?
Like you wouldn’t believe. In the actual war the Northerners always outnumbered the Southerners by a lot, but it’s the total opposite in Civil War re-enacting. They are very passionate about it. Some of them are doing it for the same reason we are, but I went to a Subway down there and they said, “We don’t serve Yankees here.”
A lot of the guys are big history buffs, and a lot of them get real specific with the Civil War because it was here. A lot of re-enactors are too old and fat to look like real Civil War soldiers, so they like the guys that look younger and can grow big giant beards. Most people are really introverted, sort of a theatre-nerdy-geeky thing because it is
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build up the collection of stuff I have. As the war progressed, the uniforms changed--so we got different uniforms. There was the enlisted stuff when I was a drummer and now that I’m an officer I got a fancier uniform. Q: I’m talking to you for our Freedom issue. How does that resonate with you and re-enacting the Civil War?
like performing--you’re pretending you’re in that time, and you don’t use certain words and modern phrases. Everything we wear is authentic: our underwear ... my toothbrush is made out of cow bone. It’s a passion-based group of people who really get into it. Q: Where do you buy this stuff? There are some vendors that are good. A lot of guys buy patterns and learn how to sew-I’ve never had enough time or energy or talent, so I commission a friend to make all my stuff for me. There’s places where you can order boots and hats, and some places are better than others. It’s taken me 14 years to
A lot of it is about doing it to appreciate the amount of suffering that they did, or that anybody who was ever in a war did. I had to enlist in the Marines when I was 17--didn’t end up going and I was really grateful that I didn’t have to end up doing it. The pretend army is just fine for me. It gives me a sense of how much suffering they really went through. Eating the food they ate, marching around and getting acclimated to that environment. When we get back to the big coach bus and I take off all the wool and put my normal shoes and a pair of shorts on and drink a glass of cold water, I just think, “This is amazing.” My life is cushy; I don’t have to worry about surviving on a day-to-day basis, other than getting hit by a car or eating too much McDonald’s. The idea of having to have seven kids to run your farm because half of them are going to die and someone’s going to get dysentery, or any medical thing... The lack of modern comforts kind of opens my eyes. I get to make music, I get to do fun things because these people before us did all this stuff, so I appreciate all of that. I appreciate anybody who serves regardless of the political overtones. Every war is total bullshit. There’s all the reasons for it. I don’t care about that stuff; it’s all individual for me. FREEDOM // MPLSzine
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Q: Anything else you want to talk about? I could talk for a week and a half about this. I recently got into a circuit of church ladies and they’ll have me come out and they give me pie and wine and I’ll talk for three hours; they just keep asking me questions--it’s great. It’s a lot of fun. I’ve always been really into it and love talking to people about it. Q: Is there a female role in this? There is to a degree--there are a lot of different strata in the types of re-enactors. Some units won’t let women do it and others will. We allow women to do it as long as you conceal yourself and look like a man; you can pretend to be a soldier--there are some women that are very believable. When we do garrison-type events at Fort Snelling or other forts around doing a camp
thing, there are civilians. And when we go to Gettysburg, they will recreate the town of Gettysburg, so there’s a civilian population there wearing period clothing and they each have a thing that they do. They are really cool--that’s some of the really cool stuff; at night when all the spectators are gone, you can go there and get blasted on whiskey. Since I’m an officer I can do that. Enlisted men don’t get to do that. Q: Is the Gettysburg the biggest event you’ve ever done? That’s a relative term. It’s the most exciting, because it’s the 150th anniversary, so the last few years have been really cool. A couple of years ago we were at Fort Snelling and we did the organization of the 1st Minnesota, which is the base unit that I’m part of. We all had period civilian clothing on, and we went and got sworn in and trained with sticks and things like that. So it’s progressed throughout, and there’s
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been some amazing experiences and I could never compare them to one another. Riding in on an original steamboat and landing in the middle of the night laying down on the side of the road, and the rest of the night you just hear guys getting dropped off this boat, and in the morning cannon fires going off five miles away. Everybody gets up and we march five miles and its getting louder and louder. When you get there, it’s guys running back that are wounded and there’s horses everywhere, guns and cannons going off. I have no idea what to expect from any one of the events because they are all so different in their own way. This one is really exciting because I get to be part of the command structure and I get to see a lot more things and provide a good experience for these other guys. Q: Are there any casualties of war? Nobody wants to go across the country, pay a couple hundred bucks, and lay down in the
middle of a Pennsylvania field in the middle of July, so the battle scenes are usually pretty corny, in a way. It’s hard to emulate real combat. But people do actually get hurt--a lot of guys go down because of heat stroke. They aren’t used to wearing three layers of wool and a black hat, sweating your ass off, not drinking enough water. There have been instances... Once somebody had an original pistol from the war and never checked it. They pulled it out and shot it and it was loaded, and they shot somebody in the neck. I don’t think they died, though. The Civil War muskets, you’re supposed to use a ramrod and ram this ball down, but we just pour the powder down. They don’t allow them to use the ramrods because you get excited, you forget that thing is in there, and you shoot that and it’s going to kill somebody. Cannons going off, that’s scary and you have 300 horses coming at you--things happen, people fall down and get hurt. There is a small amount of risk, but there are no real bullets for the most part.
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I Wish I Were a Wolf Tribal Sovereignty and Personal Paradigm: Walking in Two Worlds, Guided by the Wolf
At age nine I had a heavy beige plastic structured IBM in the corner of my bedroom at my grandma’s house, and there I would sit and type “poetry.” I had a printer too. I’d type up a little ditty that I valued as gold, fold up the thick white printer paper of that era into a bulky square, and stuff it into a little flowered stationery box that I wrapped hair binders around to keep the lid on when it finally got overfilled. In my very first typed piece I wrote: I wish I were a wolf. I could walk softly with padded paws through rich rough wooded forest, roaming endlessly with my brothers – mystery, stealth, and power. I’d feel cool misty morning fog enter my lungs as I straightened my legs and brought myself to sitting, surveying, calling out some playful yips to test my strength. FREEDOM // MPLSzine
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The wolf is very intelligent. Its brain is 30% larger than the domestic dog’s. Captive wolves learn after short periods of observation how to undo simple latches and free themselves. Wolves can also hear the heartbeat of small animal prey up to three feet beneath the snow. They are exceptionally beautiful and impressive animals. Countless scientific facts and breathtaking photos can be called upon to present quite a convincing argument about the prowess of the animal. One can easily be seduced by the wolf. However, not only was I unaware of many of these intriguing facts at age nine, I also know now that this is not what drew me to my fascination and feeling of oneness with the wolf. When speaking about the wolf hunt issue in Wisconsin and Minnesota, Joe Rose Sr., a professor emeritus of Native American studies at Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin, and an elder of the Bad River Band of Chippewa Indians, said in an interview, “Wolf, or Ma’iingan, is a sacred creature. It is a strong symbol of the wilderness … it represents the natural world. We see the wolf as a predictor of our future. And what happens to wolf happens to Anishinaabe.” And he said, “Whether other people see it or not, the same will happen to them.” At age 27, I am still humbly and respectfully learning aspects of my Anishinaabae heritage and culture that have significantly shaped my life and influenced my personal paradigm. I know now that in Ojibwe culture, there is a creation story in which the wolf and a man walk together, the wolf being a companion and a guide, eventually a brother. I understand that being American Indian, being Anishinaabae, instilled in me a sense of companionship or brotherhood with the wolf. Many of us know what it is to walk in two worlds, in some way or another. This is what I have done throughout my life, at times my awareness being forced to the forefront (encountering people who assume I must have enjoyed a free college education because I am native), and other periods where my grasp on my identity was hazy at best. The journey I have walked has led me to now working for American Indian people, to protect and preserve the sovereignty of the 11 Minnesota tribes. I couldn’t be happier to work to ensure the well-being of Anishinaabae and Dakota people, to preserve these rights.
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Tribal sovereignty is a concept that is not taught in schools. It is not a part of regular curriculum in secondary school, high school, or post-secondary education. For this reason, I would venture to say that most people find the concept confusing entirely and this leads to many common misconceptions about the relationship between tribal nations, the state, and the federal government. Without delving into dry academics, an important message I would like to deliver via this essay about myself and about freedom is that indigenous nations have an inherent right to govern themselves and their people. An American Indian tribe has a government, elected by its people, and this government has authority over its own people and territories. This right is protected by treaties/agreements that were made long long ago between American Indian tribes/tribal leaders and U.S. government officials. These treaties still exist and they still matter. It has been a struggle to preserve and protect the sovereignty of tribal nations. American Indian people who are citizens of tribal nations and are living on reservations are living on land that was not given to them – but that was in fact theirs, and this remains true. So much more could be said about what is missing from our basic public education curriculum about the history of treaties or government-togovernment agreements between tribes and the American government, but this is not an opinion piece. I am grateful to my ancestors and all those who have gone before me who have fought for the freedom I possess today. I have profound respect for both American Indian and all military veterans who served bravely in American wars. I remember them today and always. I am doing, in a small way, something to preserve the freedom for people who share my heritage to govern themselves on their land. I think and I believe that although my blood is mixed and stirred, the spirit of the wolf resides within me, acting as a companion and a guide. I am also grateful for the richness I find in the spirits of others I meet and for moments in which we share our stories! Thank you to MPLSzine for creating this forum that allows us to interact in such a way. Miigwetch. -Nenooqaasiquay
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The boat shuddered as it scraped ground beneath the waves, sending the men lurching forward and sideways into one another. Packed in closely together, they righted themselves, some adjusting rifles on their shoulders. Others tightened helmet straps under chins that could barely grow beards. Fear and anticipation were as palpable as the salt in the air. “We’re ashore!” the captain cried out. “First lines--OUT!”
--My grandfather was amongst this group in the Allied invasion of Sicily in July of 1943. He was 25 years old. On his right shoulder was his rifle. On his left, a bag of colored positional flags to communicate significant attack locations along the shore. And if he kept them both, he would drown.
The men leapt over the He shrugged “Again, the plane returned to his rifle from his sides, confident their feet would meet solid ground attack. Sheltering himself near- shoulder and swam beneath the surface. But for shore, the flags by, my grandpa watched the the boat hadn’t actually still gripped tightly hit shore yet—it was only same lieutenant dive back into with his left arm. a sandbar. Plunging deep Struggling onto the same slit trench for cover. beneath the surface, they the sandy beach, panicked, flailing and Completely full of shit.” and under fire from reaching the toes of their the Germans, he boots for any sign of the would run in soggy, solid ocean floor. It was at least nine feet sand-caked boots up and down the Sicilian deep, and fully clothed and armed, they coast unarmed and carrying a bag of giant sank quickly. colorful flags. He was never issued another rifle, but somehow he survived this and many other dangerous close encounters during the time he spent serving with A Company, 40th Combat Engineers in World War II. While precariously balanced on a telephone pole, he swatted at bees before realizing the “bees” were bullets whizzing past his head. And he stayed on that pole until he’d fixed the broken telephone line, so that orders could be sent to the front lines just 20 miles away. He slept in a bowling alley where he had nightmares of being a bowling pin, while the Germans threw bowling balls at his head. He recounted the sounds of a Big Bertha howitzer propelling giant shells at buildings nearby. And then there’s my other favorite story, one that’s full of insubordination and shit. 24 MPLSzine // FREEDOM
Literally. After several months advancing, the communications unit settled on the frontlines in Italy. There, they came to know the schedule of German scouts flying through the area. In advance of the enemy’s daily flyby, my grandpa and the other engineers immediately turned off the generators that powered the lights, disguising the unit’s location. One day, at nearly the plane’s flyover time, a new lieutenant ordered them to power up the generators and turn the lights back on. My grandpa, a sergeant, blatantly disagreed with the order for fear it would put them under attack. Threatened with a penalty for disobedience, he reluctantly did as he was told. Within minutes of powering up the lights, the plane circled overhead and bombarded the camp, forcing men to take cover wherever they could. The generators were switched off again, and a short time later, all was quiet. My grandpa was walking through the darkened camp when he came across the lieutenant who had made the power up order. He was covered in shit. When the bombs had started up, he’d dove into the only nearby place he could take cover—one of the slit trenches for soldiers to relieve themselves. And still, he ordered the lights be turned back on a second time. “Oooh, I just wanted to tell him, ‘Is your brain also full of shit?’” my grandpa later told me. But again, he obeyed the order against better judgment, and he powered up the generators. Again, the plane returned to attack. Sheltering himself nearby, my grandpa watched the same lieutenant dive back into the same slit trench for cover. Completely full of shit.
But our family wouldn’t hear these tales for nearly 65 years, long after we’d abandoned our curiosity and the desire to hear of the violence and glory that we thought were war. “I wasn’t a hero,” he would only say, preferring to cite his best friend Wally, who had been shot three different times during the war and was awarded a Silver Star medal and three Purple Hearts. But then something changed. I don’t know if it was the continuous and painful losses of his wife, then Wally and other friends in old age, peers who may have been the only ones that understood what he had been through in Europe. Or, if it was the bond that re-formed when, at age 90, he moved in to live with my father and brother. One day, he just started talking. It was in little bits and slight references at first, but eventually it blossomed into the full and exciting stories we’d always craved. We’d stare at him in awe, as much enraptured by the stories as we were afraid that, at any moment, he’d realize what he was saying and just go back to watching baseball. But one of the smartest things I’ve ever done happened in July 2010. I took a small handheld video camera home to Duluth with me, and I subtly recorded him telling me some of these stories. At the time, I just thought it’d be something nice to share with younger relatives in the future. I forgot I even had the footage. But I’m so glad I do. He died on the bombing anniversary of Pearl Harbor, December 7, 2011. He was 93 years old. And because of him and others like him who served in WWII and the conflicts since, we remain a free nation. To me, he was and will always be a hero.
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Soaking our Bones, Big Sur, California 2013 From when we hitchhiked the Highway One to swim in the Big Sur Hot Springs. By Natasha Van Zandt
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Page composition by Christiaan “Bacon” Tarbox
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Words by Christiaan “Bacon” Tarbox Photos by Hal Lovemelt
It was a weird feeling coming back to Studio A after all this time. A large, empty room in the heart of Minneapolis Television Network in Northeast Minneapolis, it was all coming back to me the minute I walked inside: three large television cameras situated in the back, facing a massive blue wall meant to be replaced by whatever backgrounds the producer wanted the audience to see. Adjacent to the studio was a control room, where a long panel of computers, preview screens, switches, and dials made the televised magic happen.
a variety of experimental shows Griffin-Cassidy meant to circumvent the limiting nature of a three-second delay implemented by Comcast, especially after his interactive Call-in Karaoke program was rendered ineffective.
Seeing the studio so empty felt strange, and even a little sad. But that sadness turned to joy when old friends and co-stars started piling in for the photo shoot I organized, meant to celebrate and revisit a cable access mainstay that gave us so much joy and creative freedom. Even though most of us remained friends and hung out on a frequent basis after our last night in Studio A in March of 2012, it was still a surreal experience for us to occupy the same room once more. And honestly, it’s like we had never left. Almost immediately, we were cracking inappropriate jokes, mugging it up for the cameras, and going through multiple states of dress and undress. For one night only, the jolly fools of Freaky Deeky were together again.
In late 2007, Griffin-Cassidy experimented with other shows such as the free-form PoeTVision and the caller-influenced art show Philo, but it wasn’t until joining forces with local cult filmmaker “Rock ‘n Roll” Ray Whalen that the foundations of Freaky Deeky were laid. Taking cues from PoeTVision’s do-whatyou-will narrative attitude and Call-in Karaoke’s reliance on viewer interaction, Freaky Deeky became a playground for artists, musicians, and free spirits of all kinds to let loose, have fun, and unleash their inner Freak for all to see.
“They couldn’t really read the karaoke and fall into the right place in the song because there was roughly a three second delay,” said Griffin-Cassidy. “And we tried to work around that, but couldn’t, and I said, ‘Screw it, I want to do a show, I won’t be deterred.’”
During the first year, the cast and crew were minimal. Aside from Griffin-Cassidy as producer and Whalen serving as the show’s host, only a handful of co-stars While most cable access shows joined the party, including Grifwere devoted to politics, religion, fin-Cassidy’s girlfriend Carolyn or community service, Freaky Kopecky, whose uncanny artistic Deeky was cut from an altogether skills served the show well in the different cloth. The brainchild of creation of various props, coslongtime MTN producer Hamil tumes, and superimposed backGriffin-Cassidy, Freaky Deeky grounds, and musical support was the televised descendant of was initially lent by electronic FREEDOM // MPLSzine
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musician Micah Buckley-Farlee to give Freaky Deeky its trademark bizarre melodic ambiance. It wasn’t until January of 2009 when Griffin-Cassidy recruited the services of VJ Hal Lovemelt to enhance the show’s visual effects and overall essence to a whole other level. Along with longtime friend and co-worker Matt Visionquest, Lovemelt took advantage of the studio’s chroma-key capabilities to give Freaky Deeky the extreme psychedelic visuals that it soon became so lauded for. Soon enough, more and more people became interested. The cast and crew got larger. As I set up this present-day photo session, a great number of co-stars got involved, but they represented a mere fraction of the countless artists, dancers, musicians, techies, exhibitionists, and weirdoes in general (all collectively and lovingly dubbed “the Freaks”) who occupied the show’s roster every Sunday night over its four-plus-year history. I myself got involved due to my participation with Hamil’s Philo show in early 2011, and my oddball sensibilities were a perfect fit. I created a north-ofthe-border superhero persona known as “Canadian Bacon” (complete with a spandex bodysuit with a maple leaf motif), and while it was absolutely idiotic on both paper and in execution, it didn’t matter. There was no place for eloquence or sophistication on Freaky Deeky. Just unadulterated
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weirdness. A Sandbox of Ideas In the beginning, Hamil’s goal with Freaky Deeky and its cable access progenitors wasn’t to be artistically or visually groundbreaking. It was just to keep producing content, no matter what. “I just wanted to not fail,” said Griffin-Cassidy. “I wanted to continue to do something and figure it out. I’m not going to give up. That was pretty much my main motivation: to figure out how to evolve it so it could still be fun.” Indeed, producing Freaky Deeky in his free time when he wasn’t making other shows for MTN as an employee granted Griffin-Cassidy an ample amount of freedom in regards to bending and even breaking the rules of how television was made. Adding Lovemelt and Visionquest’s technical prowess the to mix made that goal all the more plausible. “Hamil was open to creative collaboration from the get-go,” said Lovemelt. “[It was] a jam session in terms of creative direction… where everybody works together, both behind the scenes and onscreen. It was an avenue for experimental trial and error.” And Visionquest, who mainly worked behind-thescenes as a VJ and camera operator, enjoyed the
sense of creative liberty his position granted him. “I think Freaky Deeky granted me freedom in that I had a crew of people dancing in their underwear and crazy costumes, and I was free to do with them as I pleased,” said Visionquest. “Which was really great, as a content producer to have a multitude of Freaks that will just do anything I ask of them.” With the addition of videographers such as David Rector and Daniel Garritsen, handheld cameras captured the action with much less physical restrictions. The artwork of Kopecky and Wes Winship increased the show’s multimedia approach. Regular callers such as Ray McParlin, Biker Dad, and Evan Lefavor (who ended up joining the cast himself) upped the interactivity level to new extremes. And even if most of the episodes were too abysmal to follow, every taping was a hoot to participate in (not to mention the riotously funny viewing parties held afterward). As the show expanded and evolved in 2009, Freaky Deeky’s creative and cultural scope went far beyond what was expected of a mere public access program. Each week’s episode had its own theme—some were elaborately planned and executed with even a loose sense of narrative (and guided further by our regular callers), while some of them were just plain ignored in favor of danc-
ing with our clothes off. That was another hallmark of Freaky Deeky. We were by no means conservative. We regularly tossed around innuendos, dark humor, and racy (and sometimes seriously deranged) visual gags that would give the FCC conniptions. Shit got REAL weird. Homoeroticism was rampant at times. One episode culminated with the floor plastered in cake batter, and another with pumpkin guts. I got “married” to co-star Sam Gelfand one time. And every episode ended with what we called “Naked Time”. I’ll assume you can guess what that meant. “Naked Time was my favorite, obviously,” said Minneapolis burlesque star Tomahawk Tassels, a frequent FD performer. “But [Freaky Deeky] also allowed me to play dress-up and to play with other characters, to experiment with other looks and other things that I wouldn’t normally get a chance to do even with burlesque.” “And there was a community, there was a feeling of family and a regularity with it,” said Tassels. “And it was a nice release, to unload stress and frustration, and it was a nice creative outlet.” Indeed, being able to do essentially anything onscreen granted the cast and crew a release few other things would allow. “It gave me the confidence to do whatever I wantFREEDOM // MPLSzine
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ed,” said Bobby Kahn, who served as the show’s co-host and, eventually, final host after Whalen’s 2010 departure. “I know a lot of people kind of need to drink or do something else to let loose, but [Freaky Deeky] really put all my fears to rest, and it just made me a more confident person.” “I think a few people have described it as a therapy for them, or great exercise,” said Griffin-Cassidy. “It was extremely healthy for me because I was working on a number of shows at MTN as an employee, and it was great to be able to do the things you’re not supposed to do when doing a real television show. “There’s a sandbox of ideas that you can play in.” Going Beyond the Studio The rate at how large Freaky Deeky’s influence became was remarkable in and of itself. For a show that had meager, bare-bones origins, Freaky Deeky became the place to be for folks of all stripes. The interactivity became more in-depth. One brilliant episode in particular, titled “YourTube”, was Hamil’s attempt at creating viral videos in real-time using both the Freaks acting them out, and the callers narrating the action, strung together by a wonderfully convoluted storyline featuring Gelfand as a straw-obsessed politician experiencing a psychological breakdown. The show’s music evolved and expanded. Local musicians like Buckley-Farlee and Brent Koenig, who were essentially the house musicians of the show’s first year and a half of existence, considered Freaky Deeky a means of honing their craft in ways that regular rehearsal sessions couldn’t allow. “When I started, I had no experience playing music live,” said Buckley-Farlee. “So it forced me once a week to completely put myself out there and come up with an entire hour of music, which at the time was and still is a huge challenge.” “I was pretty much just doing experimental, not really ‘musical’ stuff,” said Koenig. “And Freaky Deeky definitely made me much more structured. I 38 MPLSzine // FREEDOM
figured that the people of Freaky Deeky were kind of my audience.” Soon enough, more and more notable Minneapolis music acts—such as Mark Mallman, Jazari, 1st Pube, Grant Cutler, and Mrs. Smith, among others—took turns giving a unique voice to Freaky Deeky every week. But it didn’t stop there. Live shows were held at venues such as First Avenue and Patrick’s Cabaret. Even nationally-recognized celebrities and performers got in on the action, with guest spots by comedians like Comedy Central stalwart Ben Kronberg and viral video stars Leslie and the LYs. The show and its cast even had a cameo in the 2011 independent film Stuck Between Stations, starring Minneapolis native Josh Hartnett. Such was the success of their visual contributions to Freaky Deeky that Lovemelt, his wife Kara, and Visionquest founded their own “digital playground” company Playatta. And regular Freaks Ashley Sierra and Eric Zuelke even got their own spinoff program, The Show and Tell Show, which airs on MTN to this day. All the while, the show (with the exception of a seven-month stint at Stuart DeVaan’s Hotbed Studios in 2011) was always right at home at MTN, up to the very end. Freaks Forever By March 2012, Griffin-Cassidy felt a major sense of burnout from producing a live show every Sunday night, and decided that it was time to bring an end to his beloved pet project. It was a sad moment when we aired our final episode on March 25, but at the same time, it was a joyous celebration of creative freedom and collaboration that aired in the same studio for almost half a decade. In particular, Griffin-Cassidy fondly remembers the sense of kinship and family the show gave us. “I do miss doing the regular television show with so many people,” said Griffin-Cassidy. “I met some of the best people I’ll ever know in my life through that show, and when Freaky Deeky had to stop going on the air and I didn’t have time for it,
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most of those friendships continue.” There’s always the possibility that Freaky Deeky will return in the form of live events or even a one-off reunion show on MTN. Griffin-Cassidy has hopes of creating new programming, but intends to give it same spirit that made his previous show what it was. “The fact that we worked together the way that we did on Freaky Deeky is phenomenal,” said Griffin-Cassidy. “And I would love to see that happen underneath the constraints of a more produced project.” To the cast and crew, though, Griffin-Cassidy’s success was immeasurable. Freaky Deeky was more than just a goofy public access show. For the participants and even some callers, it changed our lives. It gave us a playground to embrace our inner child, express ourselves in ways we’d never imagined possible, and celebrate the joy of free
speech that the show and MTN itself promoted. And if some viewers didn’t get it, so what? We were still having the time of our lives. Personally, Freaky Deeky gave me a new lease on life. I made countless friends of great talent and skill. It gave me a chance to express myself and network with likeminded people. It made me appreciate Minneapolis and its creative community even more. And it made me more confident. If a pudgy, hairy man in skintight spandex could feel like a television superstar, anybody could. After the photo shoot for this article came to a close and everyone left, a smile grew on my face. I had only been on this wonderful, wonderful show for 13 months. And yet it felt like a lifetime to me. I was sweetly reminded that even though we all went our separate ways, we were more than co-stars and Freaks-in-arms. We were—and still are—family. And we kept Minneapolis weird.
Be sure to follow Freaky Deeky on Facebook (https://www. facebook.com/ FreakyDeeky. tv), and follow them on Twitter @ freakydeekyMTN. You can also download full episodes on iTunes.
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Photos by Eliesa Johnson
LABOR OF LOVE Interview by Bethany Hall Name: Sara Montour Jobs: Photographer. Music Lover. Optimist. Within the last few years, (as long as I’ve known you), you’ve made some changes in your so-called “career.” Talk to me about that--rewind to school and what you thought you’d be doing, and how you got to the breaking point of chasing your dreams. When I started college at UMD, I didn’t really know what I wanted to be doing. I had this vague idea of possibly owning my own business, perhaps my own music venue, but really didn’t know at that point. I decided to start studying business and marketing because I figured that it would be the most useful in whatever I decided to do later on. After my second year of college I decided I need a break, so I took a year off and moved to London and Dublin, and while I was there I really fell in love with photography. When I came back I finished my degree, but my life path had definitely changed and I started actively pursuing photography from that point on. What were your motivating factors? What’s been the best thing to come out of this? I’m so nostalgic in my life and continually think back to those split seconds that make you smile from the inside out. I think that’s why I fell head over heels in love with photography. This crazy device is fast enough to capture those split seconds and save them forever; I don’t think I’ll ever stop being amazed and thrilled by that. So, now that you’re doing what you want, what is it that you’re doing? My main business and life passion is photography. Most of my time is spent documenting people’s lives so they can cherish them and look back on them forever. Another huge passion and driving force for me is music, specifically live music. I run a local music website called LIVE LETTERS with my friend Steve, where we document live music around Minneapolis and beyond, and we also have a couple of concert series where we host really intimate live shows. What’s it like being your own boss? Biggest challenges? What keeps you up at night? What makes you get up in the morning? I think that the hardest thing about this, and what I’ve only started realizing in the past few years, is that you really have to let go of the idea of your life being this linear path. Growing up we have this idealistic FREEDOM // MPLSzine
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vision of graduating high school, graduating college, getting a job, saving for retirement, etc. Essentially this straight-line path that continually leads to bigger and better. As a whole I don’t think that’s how it works in life, but specifically when working for yourself. There are constantly giant setbacks and giant strides forward, most of which are unpredictable, and riding that wave is the most defeating and the most exciting thing. Let’s talk about LIVE LETTERS more in-depth--where did this start? Who is involved? Where is it going? What do you hope for it? LIVE LETTERS is a collaborative passion project by me and my friend, Steve Korf. We’ve been going to concerts together for 10+ years and throughout that time have fallen in love with live music and with documenting shows. I photograph concerts and Steve does audio recordings of them. LIVE LETTERS started, initially, as a website to house these photographs and audio recordings, and has since evolved into us also hosting really small, intimate concerts with both local and national musicians. The concert series idea started by thinking of our very favorite live music moments, dissecting what made them so important to us, and then trying to put all of those takeaways back together in a perfect storm of musical possibilities for people. We host private concerts for a small group of people with some of our favorite musical acts in the city. We really try to strip down the concerts to create something special and memorable for both the musicians and the audience. The future is looking exciting! We’re currently looking at expanding into different spaces and implementing some great new ideas. LIVE LETTERS started as more of a vision and a feeling than anything, and has turned into a community of people that are all celebrating, and reveling in, that feeling. Having job freedom is something that so many young adults want -at least the ones I talk to. Do you think that’s a generational thing? Do you find that it’s easier or harder than you thought it’d be? I think we’re in an interesting time right now in that career paths are less linear than ever before. You don’t necessarily have to take the traditional steps to get somewhere or to get your idea out there. Everything is far more accessible than it’s ever been, so if you have a great concept and a smart way of getting it out into the world, you can jump from A to Z really quickly. I think it’s far harder than it seems, but also far easier than our fears let us believe.
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FREEDOM // MPLSzine 47 Photos by Sara Montour
Minneapolis is amazing in that the creative market is incredibly vast and supportive--would you attribute some of your success to this? How so? If not, how? I spent a lot of time jumping around and moving a lot every couple of years. Minneapolis was always the home base and when I moved back here a couple of years ago, I really wanted to commit to staying and enjoying it. This community is beautiful, if you let it be, and like most things in life it will give you as much as you put in. I definitely need to be better about being an even more active part of it. What do you have to say for someone out there (me?) looking to go down a similar path and work for themselves in some way? So many people dream of working for themselves and of doing something other than what they’re doing. I constantly hear people say “Someday I’ll work for myself,” “Someday I’ll start this dream project…,” etc. “Someday” is always tomorrow until you make it today. We’re only gifted this one life and I don’t want to get to the end realizing that I traded in all of my dreams for a life I didn’t love. So much of the hesitation is based on the fear that it might not work out, but I don’t think you should ever let the fear of something ending prevent you from starting it.
Photo by Eliesa Johnson
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Joan Vorderbruggen and Tom Siler photographed by Berlin photographer, Alexa Vachon, in fall of 2004 after being rescued by a friend and given a bedroom to sleep in following seven weeks of “urban camping” in an ‘86 Chevy cargo van “Down Underneath the Manhattan Bridge Overpass.” All photos by Alexa Vachon
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Land of the
Story by: Joe Mitchell
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Illustration by Amanda Reeder
Frisked I’m not used to being dominated. I’m used to having enough control over my environment to keep me out of situations that might degrade me. Once, though, I got stopped by the police while I was going for a walk. Somebody had called in “suspicious activity,” apparently referring to me (the only pedestrian on a quiet street). The police came, asked to see my license, and frisked me. It messed with my head.
At every stage of the process, we force people to make the same humiliating capitulation that so troubled me. The whole system is designed to penalize resistance to the system. It’s designed to reward those who are willing to tolerate the humiliation I felt that night. I was so repulsed by the way I felt that night, and I’m repulsed that the criminal justice system makes so many feel that way.
What stuck with me about the encounter wasn’t that they detained me or frisked me. It was the way they made it very clear to me that if I challenged their authority to stop and detain me, they’d make the process much more humiliating for me. I felt wronged by the stop, and wronged by the way the officers used their badges to cut off my questions about what I could do. I tossed and turned in my bed for the following week, angry with how I had been dominated by an unjust show of force.
Minnesota’s highest-security prison is in Stillwater. In it, there is a solitary isolation wing. That wing is populated by people who have refused to capitulate to the system. They chose and choose to disobey the commands of those who can exert physical force over them—they rebel against the system’s commands and incentives. The prisoners, like many others, feel wrongly imprisoned, or they feel like they were never listened to at trial, or that the prison system wrongly had them shipped to Stillwater. Like many in prison, these prisoners feel like what’s happened to them is unfair. And instead of cowing, as I did and as most do, these prisoners refused to give in. For their refusal to succumb to the humiliation and indignities imposed on them, they spend their whole lives alone, entombed in their rooms.
Every stage of the criminal justice system does to defendants what those officers did to me. People come into contact with cops just as I did. Then they’re charged with crimes written so broadly that police and prosecutors can charge just about anyone with a crime. After that, they’re bullied into taking coerced plea bargains, aided by politicians who have written such extreme sentencing provisions that defendants often can’t risk trial and the full sentences permitted. Lastly, they’re herded off into prisons.
I walked back outside after my tour of Stillwater prison, my stomach in a lump. The flagpole above me reminded me that I—and they—live in what we still call the Land of the Free. FREEDOM // MPLSzine
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May 14, 2013 / Photos by Joe Dammel
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MPLSzine summer social Save The Date: July 11th, 2013