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Features

  • Roller Derby: Get in the Rink | by Aryn Henning Nichols
    By day she’s the housewife. The attorney. The writer, the stylist, the chef. She moves with confidence, a fresh bruise merely a reminder of her latest battle, and like a rogue superhero, she can’t wait to pull on her fishnets and hot pants, slap on some red lipstick and get back in the rink to kick some derby ass. It’s just the way she rolls.
  • David Gonzalez: a Man of Words | by Benji Nichols
    Passion. Grit. Soul. Rhythm. Truth. Stories. History. David Gonzalez is a man of words. Born of Puerto Rican and Cuban parents in the Bronx, Gonzalez embodies that which America is made of. With over eight original productions in his repertoire, a career in music therapy and public radio, and a steady performance schedule, Gonzalez’s tales of growing up in both Cuba and “la republica de Bronx” prove to be just as provocative as musically gripping.
  • Re: Recycling | by Aryn Henning Nichols
    He’s been called the Willy Wonka of recycling. Terry Buenzow walks around the Winneshiek County Recycling Center pointing at different contraptions that squeeze, shrink, shred, and generally squish all sorts of recyclable materials. With a friendly, teaching sort of voice, he talks over the clang of cans and the whir of forklifts, explaining the path of the cardboard box or number one plastic ­– “You’re wearing number one right there. Polyester!”
  • OFF is ON: the Oneota Film Festival | by Aryn Henning Nichols
    The truth, inconvenient as it may be, is that we’ve got our work cut out for us if we want to save the world. The people on this planet need to learn (or relearn) how to be sustainable. Organizers of the first Oneota Film Festival are taking a step forward on this monumental path
  • Reach Out A Hand (Give a lift to your fellow man.) | by Jim McCaffrey
    I got to thinking about what inspires volunteerism recently. It was after McCaffrey’s Dolce Vita joined several other area restaurants in hosting groups for Decorah’s Holiday Showcase of Homes Tour. Two stellar volunteers, Linda Quaas and Kris Kraft, formulated this novel idea just two short years ago.
  • The Borlaug Bounty | by Aryn Henning Nichols
    Growing up a member of the Clean Plate Club, “There are starving children in Africa,” seemed merely a parental guilt tactic to get us to eat the one thing on our plates dubbed “loser” – generally the most nutritious of the sides, like lima beans or spinach. While begrudgingly eating another painful bite, we thought to ourselves, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Starving children. Who are they and what do they mean to me?”
  • Getting Our Hands Dirty: A Growing Interest in Community-Focused Gardening | by Kelly Larson
    The disdain I once held for gardening still remains distinct in my memory. As a little kid, I dreaded being told to pick beans from the long, lush bushes beyond our back porch. With dirt-encrusted ice cream buckets in hand, my siblings and I would trudge out into the sunshine and complain our way down the never-ending rows, sweating and moaning.
  • School of Rock(apella) | by Kirstin Roble
    The story is something of a fairy tale really. In 1986, four men founded the all-male a cappella group, Rockapella, to rather humble beginnings. Headlining performances on street corners in New York City – their favorite, Columbus and 74th, parked them right in front of a Häagen Dazs – they earnestly crooned their best covers, often Barbershop and doo-wop, to any passerby who’d have a listen. Their blend was impeccable, and this talent didn’t go unnoticed for long.
  • From Steam to Gasoline | by Benji Nichols
    There are few inventions in history that have literally changed the landscape like the modern tractor. Steam locomotives were being primitively built as early as the late 1700s in Europe and then America, but it wasn’t until the mid 1800s that steam technology was applied to “Locomobiles” or traction engines (tractor for short!). These early replacements for draft horses were incredible inventions, but also proved to be slow, heavy, and cumbersome. This is where the story of the tractor takes an interesting turn on a little road in Northeast Iowa.
  • Reduced Shakespeare: Everything Irrelevant in 97 Minutes | by Kirstin Roble
    It’s a relatively simple concept: all of Shakespeare’s plays in one show… in 97 minutes. And keep in mind that there are 37 of them. Okay, maybe it’s not so simple after all. But the Reduced Shakespeare Company is going to do it. The ensemble will perform “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare” (abridged) in the Center for Faith and Life at Decorah’s Luther College Saturday, September 26 at 7:30 pm.
  • Making Butter into Art | by Benji Nichols
    With roots dating as far back as the 1400s, butter has been used in various ways to create art – Monks even made deities out of yak butter! Here in Iowa we’ve been making butter art since the early 1900s with the Iowa State Fair “Butter Cow.” The list of the artists who have worked in this medium at the State Fair is surprisingly short, but Inspire(d) was lucky enough to catch up with the latest heir to the title “Butter Sculptor.”
  • The King of Swing | by Keith Lesmeister
    One night, my wife sat me down and started massaging my neck after dinner. She worked me into sort of a daze, and just as my eyes started rolling back she mentioned something about signing us up for swing dance lessons. I snapped out of my daze and sat quietly. I thought about turning on the computer to look for plane tickets on priceline.com, thinking it’d be easier starting life in a new country than learning swing. But then I remembered this idea of being a “yes” person, and how great it is to try new things and have shared experiences as a married couple and all that good stuff. So I turned to Molly and said, “okay.”
  • Making Cents of Green
    Everything we do consumes a certain amount of energy – whether that's in the form of fuel for a vehicle, energy used in a building, or fuel in the form of food for our bodies – and with that fuel comes an environmental "footprint." Many large businesses have started touting and even advertising the "green sense" of their everyday operations as a feel-good promo plan. But these trends are more than slick marketing for many businesses.
  • Connecting Music & Faith
    When you think of the Midwest, the word that comes to mind is not usually "diverse." More often it's "farm" or even more exact, "corn." So it is a rare find indeed when a truly diverse group of students and staff from all corners of the country – even the world – actually choose to spend four weeks in some relatively small Lutheran college in the Midwest.
  • Throw a Disc
    On any dry day, if you're heading northbound out of Decorah on College Drive, you are likely to see several groups of all ages and skill levels playing disc golf on the Luther College campus. For those of you not familiar, disc golf is a sport just like "ball" golf, except instead of hitting balls into holes you throw Frisbee-like discs into chain baskets. Most are surprised to discover the sport has been around since the late 60s, and now many are thrilled it has hit Northeast Iowa.
  • About a Blog
    Aryn asked me to write something about being a blogger (and fellow bloggers, before you get your undies in a bunch over having more readers on your blog than mine: I know. I am not the authority on all things blog-related. I am not an expert at blogging – although I do consider myself an expert at one thing, the one-handed diaper change – but it's simple: she's my sister. I have an 'in' and her name is Aryn. Un-bunched yet?).

    • Artist Spotlight


    • Rare Bird Jewelry | by Becky Idstrom
      Pam Kester’s art studio is full of material ripe for creating. In just 10 short minutes she has already listed at least 15 different types of semi-precious stones, pulling open drawers and lifting box lids as she speaks. There are the river stones, the glass beads, the copper metal plates, the soldering materials, the fossils, the pictures, the coins – all different shapes, sizes, and colors.
    • Getting to the Heart of Things: an interview with artist Doug Eckheart | by Aryn Henning Nichols
      In the middle of a gallery, with walls covered in bright memories of places and events he’s experienced over the past four decades, Decorah artist Doug Eckheart begins a sentence just as he’s probably begun many before: “Like I tell my students…” he pauses briefly, “surround yourself with what you love.”
    • Hungry for the Pour | by Aryn Henning Nichols
      Sculpture artist Kelly Ludeking loves metal. Pretty much all kinds of it. And while he originally started with bronze and aluminum, it was an iron pour that really pulled him in. For Kelly, pouring iron is about community. It?s about learning and teaching, and it was this aspect that really sealed his path and passion.
    • Jeremiah Johnson - The Big Bang | by Michelle Pettit
      I first met Decorah artist Jeremiah Johnson at an art retreat. He was in discovery mode and his enthusiasm transferred to the rest of us. Jeremiah came up with a tree-installation project that everyone worked on together. Then he shared found-art treasures: twisted-up wires, multi-colored shotgun shells in an array of rainbow colors, and finally a small tin box with pieces of torn-up photos inside. At first I thought this was an ironic joke of some kind. But when I got into an accepting mind, I saw the real point.

    Reviews


    • KDEC Album Review: Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest | by Jason Hettinger
      Hot off the heels of 2005's Playing the Angel unquestionably their best album since 1990s Violator, It’s ironic that the Brooklyn-based independent rock band Grizzly Bear named their latest album after an uninhabited island off the coast of Massachusetts. Ironic in the sense that the album Veckatimest is vibrant and full of life. Even the band’s name is slightly ironic, as the name Grizzly Bear conjures up images of a tough, hard, rocking, and, well, grisly sound. Instead the band sounds (and by looking at their pictures, also looks) rather artsy and intelligent.
    • KDEC Album Review - Depeche Mode | by Jason Hettinger
      Hot off the heels of 2005's Playing the Angel unquestionably their best album since 1990s Violator, Depeche Mode enjoyed one of their most successful tours in the band's three-decade history. However, it is very difficult for a band that has been around as long as Depeche Mode (specializing in what many feel is the outdated music genre of electro-pop) to not become complete caricatures of themselves.
    • A Mix of Music Reviews | by Jason Stonerook
      Jason Stonerook, author of Rock 'N' Politics: A State of the Union Address, takes on Michael Jackson, Mos Def, Wilco, the Dead Weather, the Dave Matthews Band, Maxwell, Diane Birch, Passion Pit, Levon Helm, and Sonic Youth this time around. According to his birth certificate, he was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa … or was he?
    • A Mix of Music Reviews | by Jason Stonerook
      Jason Stonerook, author of Rock 'N' Politics: A State of the Union Address, tackles Bob Dylan, Green Day, Ida Maria, Art Brut, Conor Oberst, Silversun Pickups, The Airborne Toxic Event, Ciara and Country Joe. He wrote these reviews using enhanced listening techniques.
    • Some Enchanted Reading | by Amy Weldon
      The Book Doctress Amy Weldon reviews Jayne Phillips's Lark and Termite. Weldon teaches creative writing, literature, and Paideia at Luther College. A native Alabamian, she has a Ph.D. in nineteenth-century British lit from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (that’s the “doctress” part) and three cats – one with six toes, one with one eye, and one “normal,” whatever that means.
    • Shorts Are In | by Amy Weldon
      The Book Doctress Amy Weldon recommends a collection of short stories for your reading pleasure. Weldon teaches creative writing, literature, and Paideia at Luther College. A native Alabamian, she has a Ph.D. in nineteenth-century British lit from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (that’s the “doctress” part) and three cats – one with six toes, one with one eye, and one “normal,” whatever that means.

    The Trails of the Driftless Region


    • Happy Trails: Eventful tromping in the Driftless Area
      Spring is here and you should be too! The squeals of kids playing ice hockey on Decorah?s flooded and frozen 5th Avenue basketball courts have been replaced by chirping birds eagerly greeting the day ahead. Mammoth mounds of snow have disappeared. The Whippy Dip is open. Daylight is staying with us longer and the many miles of trails that weave in and out of the area?s wooded bluffs are beckoning for exploration. This is the first in a series of articles that serves as a tribute and tutorial of our regions amazing hiking, biking, and walking trails.
    • Get Outta Town: More Great Trails to Explore North of Decorah
      The time is better than ever: the weather is inviting and the rugged Driftless Area landscape offers much more beyond the city limits of Decorah. I hope you got a chance to check out a couple, or all, of the tremendous trails accessible in Decorah that I highlighted in the May issue of Inspire(d). Isn?t this town packed with great get-away spots right out our backdoors?
    • Creek Check: Exploring the Backwoods of Winneshiek County?s Bear Creek and Pine
      September has arrived and I can hardly believe it. After the commotion of the June (08) flooding in Decorah, I hope the summer brought relaxation and rejuvenation for everyone. I spent a good portion of my summer traveling to different stretches of the country including Utah?s Lake Powell. This man-made reservoir sits at the bottom of a tall, expansive canyon with several narrow fingers jetting off taking a boater or canoeist deep into sandstone crevasses. After days of dry heat, blue water and red rock, my return to the green Decorah landscape was intoxicating. The dense, lush wooded sprawls never cease to amaze me.
    • Try Drift-more: Taking a Last Look at Why We Love the Driftless Area
      Nature is second nature to me. I don?t even think twice about choosing between watching a movie and going for a hike or a run. Don?t get me wrong ? who doesn?t love a good movie? ? But, being outside keeps me ticking, brings me peace and makes me happy. This is why I have delighted in getting out and exploring several areas of our region here in Northeast Iowa. This land is just awaiting adventurers to trod its trusty ground and relish in spectacular views. I sincerely hope you have enjoyed and gotten good use out of the trail suggestions I have brought to Inspire(d) during the spring and summer months, and check back in the spring for a continuation of the series.
    • Miles of Trekking at Meyer
      The late sunsets, colorful flowers, and green leaves are intoxicating ? you just can?t help but feel happy in the presence of summer! For me, this constant beckoning to be outside means tromping around in the woods and exploring area trails. I am excited to keep surveying the region?s greatness and continue the trail series featured in Inspire(d) last spring, summer, and fall.
    • To the Depths of the Root: Southeast Minnesota’s Root River State Trail & Harmony- Preston Valley State Trail | by Lauren Kraus
      Cruising along, breeze on face, sun on skin under a canopy of large trees next to a sheer rock-face covered in a mossy green blanket, yes, I was reminded that true trail beauty might sometimes include asphalt. The Root River and Harmony-Preston Valley State Trails in Southeastern Minnesota are a great, smooth, easy-flowing example of this.