DAY 18: Granny Panties

They call soda "pop" here. I tried something called Mello Yello. It tastes like the result of a lemon & Mountain Dew having sex.

An hour or so ago, I had a drink with Alex Gutterman. He's directing the feature film in town, "In Winter." Nice guy and I appreciate him cutting the small talk and go straight for the philosophical discussion about why we do what we do. I said there was obviously something wrong with us to devote our lives to this medium. He projects a Nov/Dec 2013 release date on his film. Both films deal with similar topics - love, lost, animal songs - well, maybe I'm just doing the animal songs. It might be neat for my film to be the short subject before his feature. A whole film program of depressed cold people!

Got a few more random shots of Duluth today and made my ex-apartment clean & tidy. A few hours were devoted to figuring out how the hell I got my microphone stand in my suitcase. Traveling today was sponsored by the good samaritans who rescued my car from the snow fort that developed in the recent blizzard. This niceness continues to astound & upset. With my last day here, I figured it's finally time to get some souvenirs. Therefore, a trip to the store "I Love Duluth" seemed promising. While the word Duluth was everywhere, I was highly disappointed in your regional merch. It seems Duluth is in denial about its winter. Not a damn thing featuring snow or cold or anything. The store made Duluth look like a Hawaiian resort. The beer openers & magnets all had Amazonian frogs & Aborigine figurines. I finally settled on the two least lame mugs they had. And seriously, why even bother with Superior merchandise. That mansion ain't all that.

Well folks, this completes my Duluthian experience. Tomorrow morning, I'm driving back to Minneapolis on a plane back to Orlando San Francisco. I truly had a great time here and I certainly will remember it always. It was a small adventure but an adventure nonetheless and I hope to have a kick-ass film as the result. Stay tuned folks. The story's not over, just inconsistent. I hope you've enjoyed reading. I've enjoyed being an unreliable narrator. See ya round Duluth!

"Duluth is....I don't know" Lisa Luokkala