Cloud Hosting

DULUTH So, how did you spend Barbenheimer weekend?

Did you devote nearly 5 hours to a couple of movies and collapse afterward into a popcorn- and cola-infused coma?

I put about 3 hours in for Barbenheimer (or as I prefer to call it Oppenarbie because thats more fun to say). I watched another Christopher Nolan work of art with Oppenheimer. My Barbie experience will arrive later.

But what a fascinating piece of social media engineering/marketing, huh? Once someone mashed those movie titles together, social media ran with it and the movie marketeers werent far behind. They were probably in cahoots.

But the lexical blend (as its called by some) mostly took flight on the interwebs due to the movies being polar opposites: A historical drama and a comedy. One featured the desert tones of New Mexico and the other pummeled viewers with hordes of pink. A movie about a bomb and another about a bombshell.

Well, neither bombed.

People turned out in droves to see both, though Barbie has raked in the most box office receipts of the two films since they opened.

Much was opined about the order in which moviegoers would attend the two flicks. Most recommended seeing Oppenheimer first and then concluding the day with the lighter fare, Barbie. The thought being that its better to follow up the heady, darker movie with something more accessible and brighter (though, by most accounts, Barbie is a think-piece in its own way).

Indeed, even though I didnt devote another 2 hours to Barbie last Saturday, I still found myself in need of an old-fashioned popcorn movie to wash away all that nuclear imagery.

So I ended the day streaming The Meg and swimming with a giant prehistoric shark in the wonderful waters of cinematic make-believe.

Here are some DNT highlights from the past week:

Clint Austin / Duluth News Tribune

First of all, please accept my apologies for posting a snowplowing photo in late July. I know many of you (including me) are still suffering a bit of trauma from last winters snowpocalypse.

But in a related story, we found out this week just how much it cost the state of Minnesota to clear the myriad miles of highway in the Land of 10,000 Frozen Lakes. No spoilers here, but it was A LOT.

DNT outdoors reporter John Myers shared that lofty price tag with readers this week.

80 years of diagnosing autism

PeopleImages / Getty Images / iStockphoto

One of our summer highlights at the DNT is hosting interns and watching them hone their journalism skills in our newsroom skills that they take back to their college programs in the fall.

One of our interns, Devlin Epding, is a student at the University of Minnesota and has a bright future in our industry.

His latest story for the News Tribune takes a deep dive into the history of autism and how its diagnoses and treatments have changed in the 80 years since its discovery in 1943.

Raiders of the Frost River bags

Jay Gabler / Duluth News Tribune

Harrison Fords iconic character Indiana Jones is fond of telling Nazis and other neer do wells that priceless artifacts of antiquity belong in a museum.

Well, sharp-eyed observers caught Indy carrying a bag during Indiana Jones and the Dial Destiny that belongs in Lincoln Parks Frost River store.

So, Lucasfilm has a lawsuit on its hands. DNT arts and entertainment reporter Jay Gabler broke down the details of this dispute for readers this week.

Here are a few more stories from the past week to check out:

Editor's note: Weekly Wave is a newsletter that I publish every Friday morning. Please consider subscribing it's free and hits your inbox just once a week. You can sign up here.

Weekly Wave logo

Rick Lubbers has been in his role since 2014 and at the News Tribune since 2005. Previous stops include the Superior Telegram (1999-2005) and Budgeteer News (1997-1999). Prior to that, he worked at the St. Cloud Times and Annandale Advocate in Minnesota, and the Greenville Daily News and Grand Rapids Press in Michigan. He received his journalism degree at Central Michigan University.

The rest is here:

Weekly Wave: Social media engineering boosted 'Barbenheimer' to ... - Duluth News Tribune