Chi-Town Muzak

CreComm has finally come to an end. It's kind of a weird feeling. After months and months of pulling out may hair from stressing out, it kind of feels like CreComm went out with a little bit of a whimper. I kind of mentally checked out a little earlier than I probably should of.

But first year is behind me now, so it's time to get ready for the CreComm Ad and PR majors trip to Chicago. The Windy City's always been on my list of American cities to visit. The history and style of the city has always appealed to me. It's considered America's Second City for a reason.

On the Chicago tip, my PR and Ad instructor extraordinaire, Kenton Larsen, has been blogging about different Chicago related topics for weeks now. His post about Chicago related songs inspired me to think about some of my favourite Chicago musicians. Chicago ranks right up there with New York and New Orleans as far as historical music hotbeds go. It's always been a blues and jazz mecca and has produced influencial rock, punk, and hip hop. Here are some of my favourite Chicago musicians.

Common



Screeching Weasel



Rise Against



Smashing Pumpkins



88 Fingers Louie



Kanye West

Volcano isn't just hitting airlines in the pocket books

When I travel, I usually blow through money like it's going out of style. Food and booze tend to empty out my wallet very quickly. Usually when I'm waiting at the airport, for a flight home, my bank account is sitting pretty close to empty.

That's why I can't imagine what people stranded in Europe, Asia, and Australia are going through right now. They're being forced to wait out a cloud of volcanic ash, each day eating more and more into their savings.

The airlines hit hard by this delay, don't seem to concerned with helping out their stranded passengers. Here's a story from the Associated Press, examining the tribulations of being stuck in transit.

Detroit: The Mogadishu of the Great Lakes

This last week was a turbulent time in a lot of far flung areas of the globe (like every week). The government was toppled in Kyrgyzstan, with Russia seemingly up to some Cold War era manipulation. Dozens of protesters in Bangkok were killed, as Thailand's fissure between the urban and rural population expanded into violence. In Sudan, thousands fled south across the border into Uganda, fearing election time violence.

The world is a dangerous place. Beyond Afghanistan and Iraq, civil wars continue to rage across Africa and political unrest burns in many Asian countries. In cities throughout the world, dodging bullets and bomb blasts is a part of daily life.

Last week CNN released a list of what they consider to be the world's most dangerous cities. Strife-torn urban areas like Kinshasa, Baghdad, Karachi, and Beirut are on the list to no one's surprise. The never ending Mexican drug war propelled border city, Juarez on to the list, while Cape Town's reputation as one of the world's murder capitals places it high on CNN's list.

The big surprise of the CNN's list is the inclusion of Detroit and New Orleans on the list. Now don't get me wrong, crime is definitely rampant in both cities, as New Orleans continues to recover from Katrina and Detroit from the collapse of the automotive industry, but it's tough to compare these two cities with places like Kinshasa and Baghdad, where civil wars rage through the streets.

It's a strange call by CNN to include these two American cities on the list, while leaving places like Mogadishu, Freetown, and even Rio de Janiero, where gang-related violence engulfs sections of the city. CNN makes the claim that they compiled their list using data from numerous respectable sources, but at face value it looks like the news network was looking for a controversial hook to draw in readers and viewers. If they didn't include American cities, there's always the potential for readers to pass over they story, with the "it's happening somewhere else" attitude. They definitely succeeded, as Detroit and New Orleans' inclusion has stirred up some controversy.

Here's a link to CNN's report: The world's most dangerous cities?

Journey to the Nub Part 3

I'll close up my chronicle of our journey to the Northwest Angle with the reason we travelled out there. Here's the article I wrote for my journalism class.


Flag Island Resort sits at the end of a long ice road that winds across the frozen Lake of the Woods. This ice road begins at the end of a long road that cuts through pristine, untouched wilderness. Flag Island feels like the edge of the world. That feeling is what brings droves of fishermen there every year.

“It's part of the experience, travelling down that wilderness road,” said Dan Schmidt, who has managed the 74 year old resort for the last 35 years. “It feels like you're going to no man's land.”

Flag Island sits 15 minutes by car off the shore of the Northwest Angle, the only part of the contiguous United States of America above the 49th parallel. The Angle, as the locals refer to it, owes its existence to American and British diplomats not being able to read a map properly. When they set the border between the U.S. and what would become Canada in 1783, they misread the map of the Lake of the Woods region. Because of this error, the fishing resort community of 8o permanent residents is separated from its home state, Minnesota, by Lake of the Woods and a heavily forested chunk of Manitoba.

Over 1,000 tourists visit the Northwest Angle every year to experience this secluded, isolated peninsula of land and the islands that surround it. In the winter they come from all over the American Midwest to fish for the highly prized and very savoury walleye. Most resorts set fishermen up in a tin walled, cramped ice house out on the lake. Flag Island Resort has a different philosophy when it comes to ice fishing.

“We don't emphasize ice houses. In an ice house you spend hours on end staring at a tin wall,” Schmidt said, as he sat in the living room of his house on the island. “We're in the middle of some beautiful wilderness, so why put people into a cramped shack.”

Flag Island Resort offers a guided ice fishing service that sets guests up right out on the ice, so they can fish surrounded by Lake of the Woods' legendary scenery. Deer, moose, fox, and timber wolf sightings are common and that helps to bring people back to the resort year after year.

The natural beauty of the Northwest Angle has drawn Duluth, Minnesota's Mark Bergstedt to Flag Island every winter since 1978. For the last ten years, he has brought his daughter, Christina, up for a father-daughter ice fishing weekend.

“If you hunt or fish or just vacation, this is a great spot,” explained Bergstedt, as he enjoyed a beer in the resort's rustic, wood-panelled main lodge. “Look around you. It's pure unspoiled wilderness. What more could you ask for.”

Visit www.lakeofthewoodsresorts.com to learn more about the secluded Northwest Angle. To plan your next fishing getaway, visit www.flagislandresort.com.