Northfield Downtown Development Corporation

The buzz surrounding the Friends of the Library’s Third Annual Adult Spelling Bee begins. This year’s bee will be held next Thursday, September 25th, 7 p.m., at the Grand Event Center.

The theme for 2008 is Bees at Work, and proceeds from the bee will go toward expanding the library’s business resource area. Hey, talk about increasing Northfield’s business-friendliness!

Will Healy will be emcee for the event again this year. Paul Zorn, who was a member of the winning St. Olaf team the past two years, will serve as pronouncer for the event. Finally, the other teams will have a chance!

If you’d like to compete as a team, sign-up sheets are available at the library reference desk, the Friends of the Library web site, or by calling 645-6566. Otherwise, it’s a great spectator sport.

So come on down(town) for the Bee!

Ray “Jake” Jacobson’s “Harvest” sculpture has been placed in its permanent home.

The piece was temporarily sited outside of the entrance to Malt-O-Meal, one of Northfield’s major employers and one of the sculpture’s major funders, but is now firmly installed along the soon-to-be-finished Riverwalk enhancement between 4th and 5th Streets.

The sculpture’s location was selected to visually link the artistic commemoration of Northfield’s economic roots in milling to its on-going business benefits from the historic Ames Mill.

The grist mill was started by town founder John North, later sold and repositioned as a flouring mill by North’s friend Charles Wheaton, and eventually sold to the mill’s namesake, Jesse Ames.

The Campbell Cereal Company purchased the mill in 1925 and founded the Malt-O-Meal company in 1927, which continues to produce a variety of cereal products from a number of sites, including the Ames Mill.

The official dedication of the sculpture was originally scheduled for Thursday, October 2nd. Philip Spensley, Chair of Northfield’s Art and Culture Commission informs me that it’s now been pushed to the 16th. More details to come.

Writing up a post on the art and culture activities this weekend makes it clear that the colleges are back in session. There’s a whole lot of shakin’ goin’ on.

There’s much buzz about the show at The Flaten Art Museum on the St. Olaf campus. It’s called “Science, Art and the Imagination“, featuring book art by Daniel Kelm, photography by Amanda Means, painting by Merrill Steiger and video by Susan Woods. The opening begins at 5 p.m. tonight (Friday, September 12th) with a talk by Merrill Steiger. The Northfield Arts Guild also has an opening tonight, 7:00 p.m. It’s for the show “Wind Water and Light“, featuring photographs by Megan Longtine-Jones and paintings by Joonja Lee Mornes.

My personal favorite, Occasional Jazz, is playing at The Contented Cow, 5:30 p.m. Monroe Crossing is playing at The Grand Event Center, 6:30 p.m. Dr. Lynn Trapp is giving an organ recital in Boe Chapel on the St. Olaf campus, 7:00 p.m. James Curry is at the Contented Cow, 8 p.m., and Joey Heinz is at the Tavern Lounge.

On Saturday, ArtOnWater Gallery has an opening for the show “Impressions”, 3 to 8 p.m. It features the work of Mark Daehlin and Ingrid Bjerstedt Rogers.

The Urban Hillbilly Quartet is playing at The Contented Cow, 8:30 p.m., and John Manners is at The Tavern Lounge.

Sunday, there are Songs for September: Music of Justin Merritt, in the Christiansen Hall of Music on the St. Olaf Campus, 3:15 p.m., featuring Chai-Wei Li, Kathryn Ananda-Owens, Andrea Een, Elinor Niemisto and Jun Gian. Finally, for those who enjoy the art of discussion, there’s Politics and a Pint at The Contented Cow, 6 p.m.

Yeah, I’m promoting my band once again. It’s only because our guitar player, Jerry Johnson, is taking some time off after this gig to refresh his creative energy. At any rate, we’re throwing all caution to the wind and doing The Full Cowboy. That’s right, we’re going to shamelessly perform all the great cowboy songs, throwing in the occasional yippie-ki-yi-yo and yippie-ki-yi-yay. Wendy Nordquist is even going to yodel.

So come on down to the campfire at the Tavern Lounge, tonight from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and join Jerry, Wendy, Lance Heisler and me in Blue Moon. It’s the one time a year that we’ll show you The Full Cowboy.

Also tonight, Friday, September 5th, the Bridgewater Ramblers at at the Contented Cow, 5 p.m. Jesse Jane’s Jamboree is at the Arts Guild Theater, 7:30 p.m., the Spruce Top Review is at the Contented Cow, 8 p.m., there’s Square Dancing on Division Street between 4th and 5th Streets, from 8 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., and the Norwegian Cowboy is playing at the Tavern Lounge from 8:30 p.m. to midnight.

Saturday, September 6th, Down Lo is playing at the DJJD Entertainment Center from 1 to 3 p.m., Thomas Maltman is doing a book signing at River City Books from 2 to 4 p.m., Under Otter Project is playing at the Contented Cow at 3 p.m., Kevin Stanke is playing at the Tavern Lounge from 4 to 8 p.m., Jesse Jane’s Jamboree is at the Arts Guild Theater at 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., the Norwegian Cowboy is at the Contented Cow, 6 p.m., Matt Arthur and the Bratlanders are at the Contented Cow at 8 p.m., Jack Knife and the Sharps are at the Grand Event Center, doors open at 8 p.m., and Harmonic Voodoo is at the Tavern Lounge, 8:30 p.m. to midnight.

And don’t forget, it’s the Defeat of Jesse James Days, all weekend long, here in Historic Northfield.

The excitement and energy of 5,000 college students is slowly returning to Northfield, and next week is the Defeat of Jesse James, our town’s biggest party, so perhaps this is the last weekend, for a while, that Northfield’s year-round residents can come on downtown for a relatively quiet weekend of food, wine and music.

Critically acclaimed singer, guitarist and songwriter Chris Herriges is at the Tavern Lounge, riverside of the Archer House, 212 Division Street, tonight (Friday, August 29th), and popular Beatles tribute band The Eggmen are at The Contented Cow, 302B Division Street. Our opportunities to enjoy the river views of both of these fine establishments are winding down too.

On Saturday night, Norwegian Cowboy, with his unique mix of old-school country, alt-country and alt-ernator music (and famous pronunciation of Norwegian), is at the Tavern Lounge.

Monday is Labor Day, a tradition dating back to 1882 from the folks that brought you the eight hour work day (remember that concept?). In Minnesota, it’s more commonly known as “the last day of the State Fair”. Whatever your motivation for celebration, have a good one.