By Heidi Marsh

In the spirit of Mardi Gras, consider spending this weekend with another New Orleans tradition – jazz music. Our biggest celebration, JazzFest, will be held in Sioux Falls July 17-18. This weekend, you can enjoy live jazz at these locations:

• Augustana College in Sioux Falls is hosting its 35th Annual Jazz on the Upper Great Plains Festival. The two-day festival, March 2-3, features more than 55 high school and middle school bands.


• Dine on East European cuisine and enjoy a live performance from Jazz Portraits (Feb. 28) at Sioux Fall’s favorite jazz club, Touch of Europe . Jazz Portraits is a five-piece ensemble that plays “mainstream” contemporary jazz.


• The University of South Dakota Jazz Ensembles will perform in concert Monday, March 2 at the Warren M. Lee Center for the Fine Arts in Vermillion.


• Randy Royer, a Black Hills State professor, and Dick Rausis, a blackjack dealer in Deadwood, play jazz guitar Friday evenings at the Club Room in Spearfish.

The South Dakota writing community will be saddened to learn that Bill Holm has died in a Sioux Falls hospital. See the story in the Star Tribune. Holm was a frequent visitor and speaker in South Dakota, though he hung out at Southwest State University in Marshall, Minn., just east of our border. He looked and lived like a big Viking; I saw him last at David Allan Evans' retirement festivities at S.D. State University in Brookings about two years ago.

He was in good health and fine spirits that day, reciting poetry and telling stories. Now he's gone, but his creative thoughts are here forever in book form.

By Bernie Hunhoff

Fish Fry Season begins this Friday, because Lent is underway. Bullheads, walleye, perch and cod are the favorites in most of South Dakota's favorite fish joints.

Lutefisk has never ranked high on the list of lenten delicacies, probably because our population of Norwegian Catholics is still small.

Still, since it's Fish Season we thought this would be a good time to share a letter we received a few days ago from Jeanne Wall of Howard, who says the best lutefisk to be found is served at an annual feed in Clark. "It is outstanding. They order the whitest fish and they know how to cook it. They have all the Scandinavian goodies afterwards. We had to write for tickets over a month in advance. Everyone serving you is dressed in Norwegian costumes.

"The second best place," writes Jeanne, "is the Sons of Norway Hall in Soux Falls. And the Sons of Norway in Brookings is very good."

Jeanne says she'd love to expose the worst places, but thought better of it. "The worst one didn't remove the skin. It was a big slab curled up and dark orange. We didn't eat it."

She says, "You have to have old, experienced cooks, for if it's cooked too much it turns into glue or it disappears into the water in little flecks. If cooked too little it stays in its orginal big hunk. Also, you don't dropo it into boiling water. You encase it in cheesecloth and lower it into the salty boiling water.

"It's proven true over and over," she concludes, "when you step inside the door, if you can't smell the lutefisk don't stay as it's not good."

By John Andrews

I'll have another post about South Dakota State University's success next week, but for now everyone should take time to read Mel Antonen's fantastic story in USA Today about State's women's basketball star Jenn Warkenthien.

Mel gives Warkenthien's story a personal touch. Antonen, like myself, is a Lake Norden native. Before they moved to Willow Lake, the Warkenthiens lived in the same house that Mel's parents once lived in. It's also next door to Mel's brother, Rusty.

The story not only features Antonen's fine writing, but great photos from Greg Latza.

Photo by Greg Latza for USA Today.

By John Andrews

Our current photo slideshow has pictures of the Mulehead Ranch north of Bonesteel, and our March/April issue has more on the Mulehead and the town of Bonesteel.

The Gregory County burg is pretty peaceful these days, but it wasn't always that way. When the Rosebud reservation was opened to settlers in 1904, over 100,000 homesteaders flocked to land offices in Chamberlain, Fairfax, Yankton and Bonesteel to await the coming land lottery. Among the 35,000 authentic land seekers who flooded Bonesteel was a crowd of  about 200 outlaws.

The local lawman had recently retired, so town residents volunteered to help run the toughs out of town. As they did a gun battle erupted on Bonesteel's dusty main street. When it was over one thug was dead and two others wounded. Two of the volunteer lawmen were hurt, too. The fracas became known as the "Battle of Bonesteel."

By Katie Hunhoff

This is the first in a series featuring the top places to take photos in the state according to our favorite photographers. We started with Chad Coppess, senior photographer at S.D. Tourism. Chad avoided the obvious choices of the Badlands or Custer State Park and chose 1880 Town near Belvidere.

"Since I was a little kid I've loved cowboys and the Old West. The 1880 Town is just filled with great buildings and antiques. Finding angles that provide that classic Western movie look is a lot of fun there," says Chad.

1880 Town is located 22 miles west of Murdo on I90. It origninated in the early 70s when a movie production company made a deal with Murdo's Clarence Hullinger — Hullinger would provide the antiques and the movie company would build an Old West main street on the Hullinger family property. The movie shoot never happened, but a saloon and shop were left behind. Clarence and his son, Richard, decided to add to the town with authentic prairie structures from across the state. Today 1880 Town features 30-plus historic buildings furnished with authentic antiques.

To see more of Chad's photos and photo tips, visit www.dakotagraph.com

Photo by Chad Coppess

 By Heidi Marsh

The forecast is calling for snow for most of South Dakota this weekend. If you don’t feel like hitting the slopes, why not enjoy our state’s arts and theater? This weekend especially is packed with drama, comedy and mystery on stages all across the state.

• The Town Players Theater in Watertown presents Playing Doctor, a comedy about a struggling writer and college dropout who never became the doctor his parents believe him to be. February 20 and 21 are the last nights to see this performance.


• Black Hills Community Theater presents Everybody Loves Opal in the Rushmore Mall Feb. 13-March 1. John Patrick's comedy follows Opal and the inept criminals who try to kill her.


• The Olde Towne Dinner Theater in Worthing presents Cliffhanger. This thriller by James Yaffe is the story of Henry Lowenthal, a professor of philosophy, who is stuck in the middle of unexpected events. Doors open at 6 p.m. Feb. 19-22, 26-28, March 1, 5-8 and 12-14.


• The Orpheum Theater in Sioux Falls presents Plaza Suite, Neil Simon’s comedy about three couples staying in Suite 719 at New York’s Plaza Hotel. This play will be at the Orpheum Feb. 20-22 and 27-March 1.


• University of Sioux Falls Theatre Department is the first in South Dakota to perform The Producers. This highly popular musical by Mel Brooks can be seen at the Jeschke Fine Arts Center, Feb. 18-22.

Pictured above is the interior of the Olde Towne Dinner Theater in Worthing where you can enjoy a show and a delicious meal as well.

By John Andrews

This week the University of South Dakota in Vermillion opened its new Muenster University Center. The 70,000 square foot student union is named for Ted Muenster, former president of the USD Foundation, and his wife, Karen, a former legislator. It's been under construction for a few years, but students will no doubt enjoy it. The local paper says they've already taken to calling it the "MUC." I'm not sure they'll get any homework done, though, with six 63-inch televisions to watch.

I met Ted when I was in graduate school. I wrote my thesis on Gov. Richard Kneip, and Ted was a wealth of information because he served as Kneip's chief of staff from 1971 through 1974. He later ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate.

In 10 years heading the Foundation he oversaw "Campaign South Dakota," which raised millions for scholarships, so it's a well-deserved honor to have the main gathering point on campus named for him.

Ted went to school at the University of Nebraska, and he told me a couple of times during our interviews that he wanted to move back to Lincoln after his retirement. "Then I'll be that creepy old guy who jogs through campus," he quipped.

Photo by David Lias/Yankton Media, Inc.