Just A Peck 0009 // LEGO, Whiskey Flights, First Day of School

Just A Peck

Welcome to the latest issue of Just A Peck. I’m glad you’re here! New issues come out most Sundays. Unsubscribe at any time.

WHAT I'M EXCITED ABOUT THIS WEEK

Holy smokes, just look at the details of this thing! Clocking in at over 9000 pieces (5th largest ever) and chock full of fantastic scene-specific details, this new LEGO Death Star set looks like a thousand-dollar, moon-shaped hole in my wallet.
Million Dollar Quartet opens at the Duluth Playhouse this week. A musical about a real-life impromptu jam session involving Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. Tickets are available here!
Duluth 101 is a new, free lecture series from regional experts on the fascinating threads that make up the Zenith City. This week's presentation is about the Aerial Transfer Bridge.
Steve Grove, the CEO of the Star Tribune (and a former commissioner of employment and economic development, and the founding director of the Google News Lab, the co-founder of Silicon North Stars, etc., etc.) will be at Ursa Minor this week to discuss his new book, How I Found Myself in the Midwest, with Emily Larson.
This looks a little saccharine, but somehow that feels exactly right for a documentary about John Candy.

JOURNAL

A friend and I went to a movie, played pinball, checked out the new Whiskey Project (where we ill-advisedly had whiskey flights and a Top-the-Tater chip tray), and then barely missed placing in pub trivia (possibly due to the whiskey flight).

This week was the first day of school for both Jody and Kaylee. Year Two for Kaylee and Year Fifteen for Jody!

This rain over Wisconsin looked like a mushroom cloud.

I’m still on track with my 100 Days of stationary biking. A friend sent these awesome socks as a celebratory gift.

And because I was on the road for work this week, that meant some late night bike rides including one in an upsettingly smelly hotel gym.

Twin Portals had their first live show of Season Three (in the old Underground this time). My first time in a live show audience instead of on stage.

What I watched:

  • Caught Stealing (2025). Aronofsky making the kind of movie you'd never expect him to make. Fun, fast, and (perhaps not suprisingly) brutal.
  • Winter Kills (1979). How does this movie exist? A late-70s paranoia thriller that is also a bonkers spoof of paranoia thrillers with a cast that includes Jeff Bridges, John Huston, Anthony Perkins, Eli Wallach, Sterling Hayden, and Elizabeth Taylor (among others).
  • The Parallax View (1974). A classic. Currently in both the 70s Thrillers and Alan J. Pakula's Paranoia Trilogy collections on the Criterion Channel.

What I’m reading:

MEMORIES

Five Years Ago:

Deep in lockdown, Jason, Jody K., and I did a bracket to determine which movie would we watch together (masked and socially distanced) for perhaps the last time in quite a while. Lebowski won.

Ten Years Ago:

We’re often asked what the storms are like here on the shore. (Answer: Incredible until they’re terrifying.) Ten years ago, we got our first taste.

Twenty Years Ago:

“First Day of School” photo for Alex (grade 7), Corey (grade 6), and Spencer (grade 3), plus Kaylee’s first day of preschool.

MY FAVORITE QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn't matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough. Work as hard and as much as you want to on the things you like to do the best. Don't think about what you want to be, but what you want to do. Keep up some kind of a minimum with other things so that society doesn't stop you from doing anything at all.

-- Richard Feynman

That’s it for this week. Stay safe, friends. Thanks for reading!

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