This YouTube video has gotten a decent amount of traffic recently. Check out the icy hills of Duluth from the saddle of a fixed-gear bicycle.

Don’t ask me why, because I don’t know. I just thought I’d pass along the information. And oh, yeah, the ticket price has been reduced too.

Cracker, with opener Brandy Shearer
Beaner’s Central
324 N. Central Avenue
Sunday, Feb. 21
7pm
$10

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

The following quote is also from the DPL blog, with much more information here.

The first Duluth Winter Frolic was so popular that planning for the 1927 Frolic began in April of 1926. E.P. Kreimer was named chairman of the executive committee.

The 1927 Frolic actually kicked off on Sunday, Feb. 13, with a ski-jumping tournament and Olympic trials at the Chester Park ski slide. A crowd of 5,000 watched Duluthian Tommy Clark make a jump of 154 feet, the longest of the tournament.

The main event on Monday was the coronation of Winter Frolic Queen Helia Nauha, which took place in the ice palace which had been constructed in Lake Shore Park (now Leif Erikson Park), followed by the Coronation Ball at the Armory. On Tuesday night, the biggest event of the week took place. A parade including 6,000 people, more than 140 floats and decorated cars, 125 horses, and ten bands assembled at Superior Street and Second Avenue West and marched to Fifteenth Avenue East and London Road. An estimated 70,000 people lined the parade route. Additional parades took place on Wednesday (West Duluth Day) and Thursday (West End Day). Altogether, five parades were held during the week, in addition to numerous luncheons, dinners, hockey games, skating and skiing races, a baseball game on ice at Wheeler Field, Frolic balls, and a costume contest.

Speed Day races scheduled for Friday afternoon on the ice off Lake Shore Park were postponed until Saturday because of cold temperatures. On Saturday afternoon, a crowd estimated at 15,000 watched various racing events held on a half-mile track on the lake ice from Fifth Avenue East to Eleventh Avenue East. Harness-horse, skating, and motorcycle ski-joring races were held throughout the afternoon. The Frolic ended Saturday night with the Carnival Ball at the Armory.

This is the aforementioned ice palace in what is now Leif Erickson Park.

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?

• 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

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?

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.

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.

Zinema 2
•    Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (silent film)
•    Tim Kaiser (performing an original score for Haxan)
9pm | $7.50 $10
• Paranormal Activity
1pm, 3pm, 5:10pm, 7:30pm, 9:50pm | $7.50

Fitger’s Brewhouse
•    Charlie Parr w/the Devil’s Flying Machine
10pm | Free

Pizza Lucé
•    Trampled By Turtles
•    White Iron Band
•    Two Many Banjos
11pm | $10

North Star Pub
•    The Rocky Horror Picture Show (looped continuously on five screens)
8pm | Free

The Venue at Mohaupt Block
•    Evil Dead: The Musical
7pm & 12am | $15 ($25 for the “splatter zone”)

Rex Bar
•    Doctor Salty
•    Bryan Olds & the Soulen Brothers
10pm | $?

PLUS!

Emerson School
• Hotel Coral Essex
• Total Freedom Rock
• Coal Car Caboose
• Jamie Ness & Brad Nelson
Time? | $15

Carmody Irish Pub
• Tangier 57
• Kathy McTavish
9pm | Free

Hillside Community Church | Fallfest & Winter Clothing Giveaway
• Games
• Contests
• Candy & trinkets
• “Scary” costumes discouraged
• Gigantic all-beef monster wienies
• Brats
• Kiddie-sized “mystery meat” wienies
4-7 pm | All Free

The Main Club
• More weirdness than usual
Open-close | Freeish

Lakeview Castle
• Dirty Ol’ Soul
8:30pm | $?

I’ll also mention the following show, even though it goes against my policy of celebrating Halloween on any day other than October 31. I’ll break that rule just because this one should prove to be awesome.

This FRIDAY, October 30
RT Quinlan’s | The Devil’s Night Celebration
• The Funeral and the Twilight
• Zombie Season
• Cars & Trucks
• Bratwurst
9pm | $5 ($3 if you’re in costume)

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