A post from Feb. 3 about the Ripsaw’s history featured some comments about the NorShor Theatre’s history, which led to an interesting point:

The NorShor Theater turns 100 this year.

And so I put this question to PDD’s history detectives: What is the exact date the NorShor–then the Orpheum Theatre–first opened its doors?

UPDATE: As Gea reports, the magic date is Aug. 22, 1910.

Continue Reading

Share this post:

Imagine < 2% of Duluth in a snowmobile-suit-and-moon-boots epic throwdown.

Share this post:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/panoramic_photo/pnpics.html

Check out more at the Library of Congress site.

Share this post:

Hi PDD people. I teach journalism at UMD where a group of students is working on creating a news web site that will focus on telling community-focused stories from around Duluth. We’re brainstorming for the right name and I thought I’d throw it out there and see what ideas this group might come up with. In the past it’s been called Duluth Community News, but the students think that is weak. Suggestions? Once we’re up and running we’ll share our stories here on PDD and hopefully invite this community to help us discover other stories to tell.

Share this post:

Referring back to an earlier PDD post on Supreme Court decision related to “Corporate Free Speech.”

So, they say they’re doing it ironically, but a liberal PR corporation is now running for Congress. Here’s a NY Times brief news, and funny-scary first campaign video. How long before a corporation actually does run for Congress? Any Duluth bookies making odds on that?

Thanks, mevdev, for sending me this one.

Share this post:

Multimedia performance art in the Venue at Mohaupt Block – Feb. 26-28

Continue Reading

Share this post:

School faculty must have thought this was a major pain, but I think in the long run it proves worthwhile to drag an entire student body out to pose for a photo in front of the building.

A little more info about Adams School here.

Share this post:

The V-day Calendar for this year has been finalized! V-day is a global movement to end violence against women and girls. Money raised by these events will be donated to PAVSA (Program of Aid to Victims of Sexual Assault) who provides survivor-centered services to people of Southern St. Louis County.

V-day 2010 Calendar of Events

Events Co-sponsored by The UMD Women’s Resource & Action Center and The Kirby Program Board

Any One of Us: Women’s Words from Prison

Presented by   V-day UMD 2010

Monday, February 15th 6PM

$2 with one non-perishable food item, or $3 without

UMD Kirby Student Center Rafters

“Any One of Us: Words From Prison” evolved from a decade long writing group with Eve Ensler and 15 women at Bedford Hill’s Correctional Facility. This piece is a collection of stories from the raw voices of fierceness and honesty written by the original 15 women combined with writing from women in prisons across the nation moving forward toward healing, understanding, and change with the ultimate goal of using their writing and voices to impact policy, laws and treatment of incarcerated women. Together these writings reveal the deep connection between women in prison and the violence that often brings them there. Performed by UMD students.

Continue Reading

Share this post:

only $3. so for $8 you will have to opportunity to stroll from RTs to Luce and see a ton of local music while prepping your calves for Homegrown. Todd Gremmels will also be filling in for Jason Wussow in “Pillow Talk”.

Share this post:

Rudy Carlson’s show opens tonight at the Carnegie Center for Visual Arts (ye olde library, 2nd St & 1st Ave W), 5-8 p.m.  Rudy’s sense of humor is the connecting thread across the wide range of his work, from intimate portraits to absurd political sculpture.   The Duluth-based artist is also a teacher in a Duluth Heights one-room schoolhouse and father to three smokin’ hot ladies.

(Photo swiped from here)

Share this post:

Uptown Boys * The Acceleratii * Anthony Bennett
Humanoid (Solonoid) and DJ Horsefist
Friday, Feb. 5, 10 p.m.
Pizza Luce, $5
Proceeds benefit Clubhouse Studios

Share this post:

It’s been 10 years since the Ripsaw published the last of its monthly scandal sheets and converted to an “alternative newsweekly” format. Here’s a look back at the old monthly editions of Duluth’s most infamous rag.

Continue Reading

Share this post:

I am not a huge sports watcher. I like the Vikings, I appreciate the Twins and once in awhile I will watch a bit of the NCAA Men’s BB Tournament in March. But I do enjoy the Olympics. Especially the Winter Olympics. And I think part of the reason that I appreciate the winter games so much is that there are so many local athletes. I’ll admit, my favorite aspect of the “Miracle on Ice” game from (ouch) 30 years ago now is that so many Minnesotans played a role in that underdog-david-vs-goliath-come-from-behind-victory.

Here are a few lists of Minnesotans that are in the Winter Olympics in Vancouver from Bob Collins MPR NewsCut blog, and the Star Tribune, plus a cursory search of the NBC Winter Olympics web page.
Continue Reading

Share this post:

Monday, Feb. 8, 2010
Noon – 1:15 p.m.
Duluth Technology Village, Center for Economic Development
Brown Bag Lunch
Or
4 – 5:30 p.m.
University of Minnesota Duluth
The Rafters, Kirby Center

The Program will include:
- introduction of immigration issues
- moderated panel with Latino immigrants from our community
- dialog to promote mutual understanding
- action steps to move forward in immigration reforms

Share this post:

Previously unseen amateur video of Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

Share this post:

The local Duluth Area Family YMCA is in the running for a grant offered by Pepsi in their “Pepsi Refresh Project” (Learn more here) to build a high ropes course at Camp Miller. They are current ranked #2 and need your help by voting for them.  It is easy, click, signup and vote. Vote now here — >: http://www.refresheverything.com/YMCACampMiller

Share this post:

Sheila Packa and Kathy McTavish
Feb. 20, 8 p.m.
Red Mug Coffeehouse, Superior, WI

“These poems are the story of following one’s own instincts to, in one way or another, migrate. They bring us to the exact moment when we surrender to our truest selves, when we allow ourselves to be transported, transformed, and resurrected. In these poems this occurs with the ease and necessity of taking one breath, letting it go and then receiving another. These are ecstatic poems. They are at once ethereal and profoundly grounded in the body. This has always been one of Packa’s greatest strengths and every piece in this collection is an awe-inspiring testament to that gift. These poems can help us find our way to the places we most need to go, to where ‘…music you haven’t heard/didn’t know you needed/opens deep.’” –review by Ellie Schoenfeld.

Sheila Packa is the author of The Mother Tongue (Calyx Press Duluth, 2007) and she has had her work read by Garrison Keillor on Writers Almanac (NPR). She has had her work featured in Finnish-North American Literature in English: A Concise Anthology (Mellen Press 2009), Beloved of the Earth: Poems of Grief and Gratitude (Holy Cow Press, 2008), and To Sing Along the Way: Minnesota Women Poets from Pre-territorial Times to the Present (New Rivers Press, 2006)

Kathy McTavish is a recipient of an American Composers Forum / Jerome Foundation Commission for new solo work premiering Oct. 2010. She also received an Arrowhead Regional Arts Council grant.

Share this post:

I may be wrong (since I was busy inhaling my delicious popcorn), but I think there was an Olympic-team curler on Jay Leno who said he was a part-time bartender at the Duluth Curling Club.

This is a fascinating bit of locally-relevant information that needs to be followed up by confirmatory videos. And I’m not sure if “confirmatory” is an actual word, but it sounds good.

Share this post:

YMCA Camp Miller is up for a grant opportunity through Pepsi Refresh Project.

Go to www.refresheverything.com/YMCACampMiller and vote once a day (once per e-mail address) for the month of February and Camp Miller could win this grant!

Any and all who help the camp by voting daily will get a chance to come try out a high ropes course if the camp receives the grant!

Share this post:

You know you’ve always wanted to see somebody go off those jumps at Chester Bowl, now you can.
Just in time for the Olympics, learn about Duluth’s world-class ski jumping history, and support both Chester Bowl and WDSE public television at the same time. Come take in a movie and hear some stories from Chester’s ski jumping legends. Kid-friendly early and late showings, conveniently overlapping the Paul Lundgren Happy Hour right upstairs.

The Ski Flyers: a Jumping Tradition, including additional archival footage of ski jumpers
Wed Feb 10, 5:30 and 7:00 pm Zinema2
Tickets: $3 for 5:30 show, $5 for 7:00 show. Seating is limited; advance tickets and more info are available at this link. Remaining tickets will be available at the door.

Share this post:

Please remember to comment on the toxic PolyMet metal-sulfide mine Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) if you haven’t done so already.

The deadline is this is 4:30 p.m. this Wednesday, February 3, 2010.

We can’t allow Minnesota’s rivers to be damaged by acid mine drainage like rivers have been throughout Montana, Pennsylvania, and Ontario. Making comments creates an important public record for future lawsuits.

Comment:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/642/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=2051

More Info:
http://waterlegacy.org/sulfide_mining

Please pass this allow to any friends who might be interested.

Share this post:

Have any of you noticed Duluth has a new broadcast TV station? Is anyone able to get decent reception of it?

Candace Renalls has the details (or lack thereof, though clearly not her fault) on the Duluth News Tribune’s Twin Ports Business Blog.

The station runs programming from the My Family TV network, which features “programming to entertain, educate and edify,” including “uplifting spiritual” shows. In other words, a bunch of preaching and paid programming with some Andy Griffith and Bonanza mixed in.

Share this post:

Via Secrets of the City.

Share this post:

Precinct Caucus Information
February 2, 2010

Precinct caucuses are meetings organized by Minnesota’s political parties to begin the process of selecting candidates for the 2010 election and policy positions to shape the party platform. Caucuses are held in locations across Minnesota, are open to the public, and participation is encouraged.

To find your precinct caucus, go to www.sos.state.mn.us (MN Secretary of State).

Continue Reading

Share this post:

February 20, 2010
2-4 p.m.
Incline Station, Duluth MN
$8 per child
$10 per adult

Tickets include: 2 hours of bowling, shoes and automatic scoring.  Food and beverages available for purchase. All proceeds benefit the Autism Association of Northern MN.

www.autismassociationofnorthernmn.org

Share this post:

I thought that the “1000 foot shitters” was great but she may have topped it with “I am still stuck on the beaver!”

Good luck in Haiti. Miss you on the news!!

Share this post:

Laskiainen Finnish Sliding Festival
Feb. 6 & 7 (Sat.Sun.) at the Loon Lake Community Center in Palo MN

Celebrating the ethnic heritage of customs, crafts, music, sports,
marketplace, foods and of course sliding! Free and super family-friendly. Featuring the infamous vipukelkka or whipsled! An excellent opportunity to generate your own exclamation points!

http://www.ironrange.org

816 Highway 100 Palo
Aurora, MN 55705

Laskiainen

Share this post:

I’m looking for two seasonal foods:

1. Any stores with Mountain Dew Throwback still in stock… a gas station, a grocer — anything. This is number 1 priority.

2. Pepsi Throwback. Same deal. The no-HFCs is attractive to me.

3. I’m looking for “poonchskis” or “paczki” — a donut common among Polish folks. A pączek is a deep-fried piece of dough shaped into a flattened sphere and filled with confiture or other sweet filling. Pączki are usually covered with powdered sugar, icing or bits of dried orange zest. A small amount of grain alcohol (traditionally, Spiritus) is added to the dough before cooking; as it evaporates, it prevents the absorption of oil deep into the dough.[2]
Although they look like bismarcks or jelly doughnuts, pączki are made from especially rich dough containing eggs, fats, sugar and sometimes milk. They feature a variety of fruit and creme fillings and can be glazed, or covered with granulated or powdered sugar. Powidła (stewed plum jam) and wild rose hip jam[2][3] are traditional fillings, but many others are used as well, including strawberry, Bavarian cream, blueberry, custard, raspberry and apple.[4]

Share this post:

Don’t forget to watch one of the Northland’s most amazing tributes to our cultural heritage (in my opinion, at least): The John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon!

The “Meet the Mushers” event starts at noon, the race starts at 1:00. It is really a majestic sight. If you’ve never seen a sled dog race, I’d put it at the top of your to-do list for tomorrow!

Lake Park Soccer Complex
Race Start: 1 p.m.
Jean Duluth Road & Riley Road
Duluth, MN

www.beargrease.com

Today my boyfriend and I had our own sled dog adventure on the Munger Trail! Makes the winter more tolerable, that’s for sure.

Share this post: