I found this on the now-defunct Duluth Public Library Reference Blog. You think skijoring is fun? Try motorcycle skijoring on the lake ice.

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Harkening back to akjuneau’s post from when the album was first released, here’s Bob Dylan’s video single from his recent “Christmas in the Heart” album. What’s your take on the visuals as well as the audio? Will you be popping this in the rotation during your family mixer?

I just drove from the West End to the East Hillside. Here’s what I observed/experienced:

• Visibility is very poor. This has improved quite a bit since I first set out, since the sun has come up. Mainly your enemies today are wind and blowing snow.
• I-35 is quite clear, but slow going. I had to completely stop twice. I think the top speed was about 45, though it might have reached 50 for a moment.
• Mesaba is a traffic jam. No surprise.
• Second Street has a lot of snow on it. Also people are having difficulty finding their lane. There are three lanes on Second Street, and even in the best conditions it is wise to choose one. Thankfully, no one is doing that thing where you blow through the lights just as they change green. That would be stupid on a day like today.
• Fourth Street is worse than Second Street.
• The avenues are slippery and difficult to negotiate. As you’re spinning your wheels up them or sliding down them sideways, please take a moment to realize that this is why your house with an incredible view is affordable.
• No matter how bad it gets, there’s always someone who is in a big effing hurry and thinks that tailgating will help. You will encounter that person today. Please try not to be that person today.

Please post your experiences and the road conditions for your part of the region in the comments. If you are somewhere that’s warm and doesn’t get snow, and feel the need to point that out in the comments, please realize that the rest of us are rolling our eyes and making the “jerk-off” gesture with our dominant hands

On his Fly High Duluth! blog, Duluth Budgeteer reporter Matt Perrine announced that KHQG-FM 102.5 will be playing uninterrupted vinyl album sides from 9:30am-midnight on Thursday, December 3, 2009. The station is taking requests for album sides to play that day. Perrine himself requested side one of Van Halen’s self-titled 1978 debut album.

While classic rock may or may not be a favorite genre of the PDD crowd, and corporate radio doesn’t get any love here at all, I feel like asking: What’s your favorite album side? Feel free to choose from any musical genre, not just classic rock. If you had 25 minutes or so of public airwaves to fill, which slice of vinyl deliciousness would you send out into the stratosphere?

[image via the DNT]

Here it is, kids. That motorized Lay-Z-Boy involved in last week’s DWI scandal is up for auction on eBay according to the DNT.

Here is the eBay auction for your bidding pleasure.

Bid, and bid well. If you win, please come back here with your story.

Howie Mandell (from St. Elsewhere), as seen at RT Quinlan’s on Halloween of 2008

Once again, Superior Street is coming out in full-force this Halloween night, and will undoubtedly be lined with zombies, sluts, slutty zombies, and probably even a Balloon Boy or two. Every bar in town has a “Halloween bash” and costume contest, of course. But here are a few events I’m aware of that sound like they’ll rise considerably above the average Halloween party, which is something when you consider that even the average Halloween party is pretty choice.

Feel free to leave any events I’ve missed in the comments, and I’ll add them to the list. They don’t have to be in Downtown Duluth or even in Duluth at all for that matter.

Most of all, have fun, be safe, and let’s all hope the lights don’t go out again this year.

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[image via the DNT]

Okay, this one’s bound to go viral.

“According to the criminal complaint, Anderson drove his motorized chair into a vehicle parked near a Proctor bar. Anderson told police he was traveling from the Keyboard Lounge after consuming approximately eight or nine beers. His blood-alcohol content was measured at 0.29 percent, more than three times the legal limit to drive.”

…

“Anderson had to forfeit his motorized chair to Proctor police, who plan to auction it with other forfeited items, Foucault said.”

Duluth News Tribune | La-Z-Boy crash leads to DWI in Proctor

On his DNT blog, Buzz Duluth, Brandon Stahl interviewed St. Scholastica Econ Professor Tony Barrett about the city council’s frequent talk regarding “expanding the tax base,” and what that actually means. In the post, Barrett explains that the only direct way that the council can expand the tax base is to attract new business “through subsidies or TIFs,” or through zoning changes, or “to eliminate steps” involved with business development.

Barrett then goes on to explain that Duluthians are often resistant to this kind of growth.

“Every community has certain groups that oppose growth; environmentalists who don’t want to see trees cut down, or less green space… people who fear that growth is going to require higher taxes,” he said. “Duluth has a strong element of people who just don’t want Duluth to change. They like it the way it is. That’s why they didn’t move away to the Twin Cities, maybe get a better job. Duluth, of all the communities I’ve lived in, has the strongest anti-growth sentiment. And I think it’s really our culture of people liking Duluth just the way it is.”

The comments, of course, blame the DFL and “environmentalists.” But in light of the recent Honking House fiasco, the Lakewalk townhomes, and the debate over the reorganization of Duluth’s schools, it seems that the conflict in opinions is far more complex than some would like to admit.

So what do you think?

Beginning today, the 4-Track Films mockumentary “…And on the 7th Day, God Rocked” is available on Netflix, for any homebodies or expatriates who didn’t get a chance to see it at any of the local screenings or on a purchased DVD. The movie about a Christian battle of the bands was shot in Duluth and features a lot of local talent.

I’ve seen it. You should put it in your queue. It’s funny.

I’m not sure if we’ve ever discussed photos from this site on PDD before, but the vintage photography blog Shorpy just posted some new old shots of Duluth from 1905. There are a few more Duluth photos back in the archives as well, which I dug out for you. Check ‘em out:

• Duluth Incline Railway: 1905 (pictured above)
• Duluth, 1905
• Duluth, cont’d 1905
• Strange Span: 1905 (construction of the Aerial Lift Bridge opening of the Aerial Transfer Bridge)
• Fitger Conetops (circa 1960. This shot is upside-down for some reason)
• Mom, 1956
• When Men Were Men and Moose Were Dead

And the winner of two tickets to Suzanne Vega at Big Top Chautauqua is Sam Haraldson, whose rendition of the Last Supper managed to capture our hearts and minds here at the PDD Headquarters. We have no idea who any of these people are, or what the story behind the photo is, but we like it. Congratulations, Sam. We hope you enjoy the show.

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Ever wonder what happened to all the remains from the old Indian cemetery on Wisconsin Point? According to this YouTube video, over 100 burials were “dumped” along the banks of the Nemadji River at the St. Francis Cemetery in Superior. Their bones and artifacts crop up to this day as the banks continue to erode.

OK, kids, it’s time for another PDD contest. The rules for this one are simple.

1) Take the boring image above and doctor it up. Alter it. Manipulate it. Make it something special. Please feel free to use Adobe Photoshop, GIMP, MS-Paint, ImageBuddy, or whatever software you desire to enhance the photo. Heck – print it out, draw on it with markers, and scan it back in for all we care. Just have fun.

2) E-mail your image to contest@perfectduluthday.com by 11:59pm next Sunday, August 16.

The prize is two tickets to see Suzanne Vega at Big Top Chautauqua on Saturday, August 29, 2009 at 8:15pm.

We’ll post the winner here next Wednesday morning, along with any honorable mentions.

[a higher resolution version of the photo is available here]

All models come equipped with a trailer filled with mufflerless ATVs, shotguns, and chainsaws. Rear- and front-mounted machine guns are available for an extra charge. See your dealer for details.

In what is perhaps a new low for the Duluth News Tribune, the DNT’s website just posted its first-ever “DNTV Special Report” in which Executive Editor Rob Karwath basically reads the paper’s earlier story about last night’s murder in Duluth’s Central Hillside, apparently as an excuse to show what did not run in either the newspaper or on the website’s text version of the story: a photograph of the crime scene with large pools of the victim’s blood.

In the video, Karwath narrates as the photo appears not just once, but over and over again, interspersed with other photos from the crime scene. Apparently, it is unethical to print the victim’s name at this sensitive time for his friends and family. But it is perfectly OK to showcase photos of the blood that came out of his fatally damaged head.

In addition to the DNTV piece, which at least does not allow comments, there is the text story, which unfortunately has comments open. At the time of this posting, there are 43 comments, which vacillate between racist, asinine comments about the type of person who lives in Duluth’s Central Hillside, and commentary about the shocking disrespect which is allowed to run rampant in our hometown’s newspaper of record.

I ask this, openly of everyone involved with the DNT and the news media in general: Is this how you would have handled this story if the victim were one of your own loved ones? Do you actually think that any of this is ethical?

I’d also like to know what the PDD community thinks of this specific issue. People bitch about the DNT on this site frequently, and even sometimes unfairly. But on this specific topic, I’d like to know what people think.

Personally, I think it’s disgusting. I would link to the video for you, but that would only give them exactly what they are transparently after.

I took a walk through downtown Duluth yesterday around 5am and was struck by the ambient smells that a lot of buildings give off when there are no competing smells coming from cars, people, etc.

• The Kozy Bar & Apartments smells like stale booze. This should surprise no one.
• Pizza Lucé smells like stale cigarettes. This isn’t exactly surprising, but disappointing. You want it to smell like their delicious pizza. It’s hard to say which smells worse — the Kozy or Lucé. I guess that’s open to interpretation.
• Angela’s Bella Flora is the best-smelling building in the downtown area.

People are speculating that “Running to the End of the World,” a song off Marilyn Manson’s latest album “The High End of Low,” bears an uncanny resemblance to our beloved hometown heroes’ seminal ballad, “Drive Away.” Stick with this story: Controversy (and hilarity) are bound to ensue.

See the full story and side-by-side comparison at While You Were In…

Watch it in this small form right here, or click here to see a larger version of the slideshow. And if you want to add your photos to the show, by all means post them on Flickr and tag them homegrownmusicfestival2009. They’ll be added automatically.

So Homegrown has begun, and you kids and your crazy cameras will undoubtedly be shooting everything in sight and posting the photos to Flickr. By the power vested in me by being the person who’s declared it without authority in the past (though it seemed to work — 2007 slideshow | 2008 slideshow) I declare the official Homegrown Flickr tag to be homegrownmusicfestival2009. If everyone simply tags their photos, we’ll be able to easily find cool shots of all the stuff we missed. I’ll post a slideshow here on PDD on Sunday so we can all recall the memories.

But the question that’s up for grabs is: What will the official Homegrown Twitter hash-tag be? #duluthhomegrown? #homegrownduluth? Simply #homegrown? Something else? Discuss.

One more thing: I stole this photo from Rich Narum. He’s a kickass photographer.

Can we all please STOP referring to this place as “Carmody’s”? The name of the bar is Carmody. Singular. Or, alternatively, Carmody Irish Pub.

It does not belong to a person named Carmody. Look at the sign. There is no apostrophe. There is no “S.”

Carmody. Plain and simple.

Anything else sounds, well, kind of stupid.

I know it’s a sometimes losing proposition to ask PDDers for their opinions on restaurants (half usually judge food based solely on price, while the other half have such oh-so-sensitive palates that anything served between the two coasts is intolerable and repulsive*) but nonetheless, here I go.

Has anyone eaten at the Bangkok Royal located in the Village Square Mall? What was your experience like?

*Please realize that I’m exaggerating here. And forgive me for coming across like a royal bangkok.

OK, so it’s after 10pm, but I thought I had until midnight. Nonetheless, I’d like to submit these beauties in the Whack Job Yard Art contest.

These signs are located on Highway 53 near Cotton. I took these photos today, but the guy who makes these signs changes them every now and then. I remember back during the whole French Fries/Freedom Fries debate, he had a sign up that said, “Piss on the Poodles” with a picture of a French flag and, of course, a poodle.

When I was a kid, my family had a cabin near Cotton, and these signs always entertained me. Also, back then he had a sign advertising timber wolf pups for sale, which would always stir elaborate Jack London-esque fantasies in my young mind.

Anyway, I know I’m late. But I still wanted to share these pics. Perhaps I can get an honorable mention.

Loiselle Liquor understands, and is there to fill your needs.

I think it’s actually the word “daily” that I find most alarming.

Taking advantage of the nice weather today, I went for a walk in Leif Erickson Park, where I found several of these “installations” for lack of a better word. If you can’t quite make it out, these are eggs stuffed into pantyhose and thrown up into a tree.

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Listen to Final Edition this Friday, March 13 to hear a discussion with Mike Simonson about the current state of blogging and journalism.

Guests:
Barrett Chase of Perfect Duluth Day (that’s me!)
Beth Jett of Fox 21 (their website launched today)
Aaron Brown of Minnesota Brown (who also teaches journalism at Hibbing Community College)

When/Where:
KUWS 91.3 FM
Friday, March 13
5pm

I saw him read a couple of times since I first learned about his writing 15 years ago. Always captivating, always fascinating. Sometimes hilarious. Other times poignant.

He’ll truly be missed.

Details here. [via]

Whenever I’m out on the roads, I always seem to find myself behind people who are expressing themselves. If I’m at a stoplight, or in the passenger seat, or on foot, I always try to take a photo. After the jump are some of the best shots I’ve taken of this sort.

[Potentially NSFW due to language! Consider yourself warned.]

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By now you may have noticed PDD’s Gravatars, the little personalized images that appear next to each of the comments. Some people already have personalized Gravatars, but right now your comments probably display our default image. Want a personalized Gravatar of your own? It’s easy.

How do I get my own Gravatar?

Click here to visit gravatar.com and upload your own image. You will have to sign up for a free account at that site. All you need is an image and an email address.

When you return to PDD, simply use the same email address you used at gravatar.com. Your images should automatically appear whenever you make comments on this or any other site that enables Gravatars.

Should you need this information in the future, we’ve created a page in the help section.