A 61 YEAR old, retired corrections officer from Ishpeming has gone viral on Facebook in the last ten days.
His name’s Wayne Oien. He plays the drums.
Specifically what’s gone viral is an informal drumming session he conducted at Al Qual about five years ago.
How viral? Well, try 17 million views and counting, and most of these have occurred over the last week or two. Crazy.
Especially weird because for almost five years, that same video had been on Youtube and had picked up maybe 2000 views–from friends, family, and a few drumming aficionados. No big deal.
And then through a couple of sites, we all suddenly discovered Oien’s magical hands on the snare drum, we loved the video, and we started sharing it, hundreds of times. Thousands.
You can watch the original video here, taken by Larry Hammond:
How’s Wayne feel about it? He chuckles about it. He wasn’t aware there were so many drumming fans out there. He’s been playing drums all his life, he co-founded Superior Pipes and Drums, he plays in various bands around the U.P., he teaches drums, and he shows up almost every Wednesday night at the old Roosevelt Bar on Division Street in Ishpeming to jam with other musicians.
A closed jam, no audience, no cameras, just invited musicians.
But now, thanks to the Internet, they’ve got a star in their midst, an Ishpeming snare-drummer who’s become an international sensation (you’ll also find him all over YouTube). These are crazy, but fun, times.
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NOT SO MUCH fun at Cliffs Natural Resources, which seems to be stumbling from one crisis into another.
The latest is a lawsuit the company just settled with shareholders and the government for $84 million, over allegedly circulating false financial information about its disastrous Bloom Lake mine in Canada.
The lawsuits were filed in 2014.
A few things need to be said about the settlement. 1) Cliffs admits no wrongdoing in the case. It just wants the lawsuits to go away. 2) The problems occurred with the previous management of Cliffs, before Casablanca Capital took control of the mining company. 3) The $84 million settlement, Cliffs says, is covered by insurance and will not affect its operations.
So that’s a wee bit of good news.
How big of a disaster was the Bloom Lake acquisition? Well, Cliffs bought it for $5 billion (with a “b”), and sold it for $10 million (with an “m”). So yeah, it was probably not the wisest investment.
No wonder the shareholders were ticked off.
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SMARTZONE PIONEER JEFF Nyqvist looks like he’s about to take a major step forward in making his new business Neuro Trainer viable.
He’s in talks with with NMU in hopes of enlisting the university’s 500 intercollegiate athletes in his new, one-of-a-kind Brain Gym. Some of the teams’ coaches have already “worked out” at the gym and have expressed interest in getting the athletes in.
Neuro Trainer provides virtual reality software designed to enhance athletic prowess and, possibly, help athletes minimize the risk of concussion.
A collaboration between NMU and Neuro Trainer would be huge. Not only that, but other colleges are already inquiring about the Brain Gym.
In the not-too-distant future, Nyqvist is hoping to assemble a mobile Brain Gym that would visit tournaments and competitions around the nation where thousands of athletes would be exposed to brain-training.
You gotta dream big.
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WHO DOESN’T LOVE the downtown Farmers Market? Problem is, when winter comes, the market goes away.
Until now.
Two of the Farmers Market vendors, Lorri Smith and Wendy Johnson, have worked out a deal with the Masonic Center on Washington Street, to conduct a wintertime Farmers Market, indoors. Actually, it’s more crafts and such, but you get the idea.
It’s every Saturday, from 10-2, on the lower floor of the Masonic Square building. Fourteen vendors have signed up for this weekend, and there’s hopes that the number will grow in the weeks ahead.
They’re offering some meats, eggs, maybe a vegetable or two, along with the the crafts. And music, and some food. And a weekend gathering place for the community when it’s 10 degrees outside and the snow’s falling.
It’s a work in progress. You start small and dream big, kinda like Jeff Nyquist.
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NOW TO AN expression that most of us have probably never heard: “Cash Mob!!”
Well, we’re having one on Saturday, blizzard or not, and you’re invited.
Here’s the deal. The mob is going to gather at Michigan Works in the Econo parking on Saturday morning, before 11 am, at which time they’ll be told which local store to storm with wads of cash in their hands.
They’ll then descend on that store (nobody knows which one it’ll be yet) and spend their wads of cash ($20 or so) with that grateful and unsuspecting merchant.
Cute. Fun. A way to promote local businesses.
It’s all been put together by Accelerate UP, the nonprofit that helps young businesses get their feet under them.
You know, the kinds of businesses that would really appreciate wads of twenties.
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