MARCH 10, 2010 — Minnesota Sen. Al Franken has joined The Google Twin Ports Fiber Initiative by resurrecting his Duluth Answer Man clips.
Duluth’s campaign combines a fun and creative grassroots campaign with a very serious effort to build a strong business case for bringing Google Fiber to the Twin Ports.
The Duluth Answer Man campaign was produced in the mid 80s by the Duluth Convention and Visitors Bureau, known today as Visit Duluth. The series ran in the Twin Cites market as the summer tourism campaign for Duluth.
My earlier local Winter Olympics connections post here on PDD didn’t exactly catch fire, what with Wilco coming to town, people waving pitchforks at the DNT, and new doorknobs or cheaper beer or fill-in-the-blank down at Luce. However, I’m gonna take another crack at the local Olympics connection with these two items.
a) The USA Men are in the Medal Game Sunday afternoon vs the Canada/Slovakia winner (that game is tonight). Captain of Team USA is Cloquet Native Jamie Langenbrunner
b) According to the Wall Street Journal, UMD has produced more Vancouver Olympians than any other college in the World besides the University of Calgary. Full story is here. Naturally, not all of the UMD Olympians are Americans, which is also impressive to me. UMD is a magnet for many of the world’s finest women’s hockey players, including 6 from my ancestral homeland Sweden.
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. (more…)
Jitterbug Julie Pearce is leaving the Northland’s NewsCenter. She says this will be her last weekend anchoring the newscasts.
Hello all, yes, the rumors are true… this weekend will be my last weekend as a news anchor for the NewsCenter. This has been a hard decision for me. I’ve been with the NewsCenter now for about 4 years. I work with some amazing people and have truly enjoyed my time there. The big bright studio lights, the cameras, and… deep connection to our community have been extremely rewarding and exciting.
from her facebook page.
After a couple of weeks doing nursing and helping people in Belize she came back and bought a one-way ticket to Haiti to do medical support for people there who have been devastated. (more…)
This was interesting to me. On the Plane Conversations blog, author Alan Howell reviews a 2001 book by Atlantic contributor James Fallows called “Free Flight: From Airline Hell to a New Age of Travel.” In the book, according to Howell, Fallows says that the Klapmeier brothers of Duluth’s own Cirrus Design created the first of three major innovations that would change the way people travel. How did the prediction stack up?
In the last nine years, how did James Fallows’ case studies fare?
To date, Cirrus has manufactured and sold more than 5000 aircraft and has been the number one, best selling aircraft in the past decade – not bad for a start-up company with a non-conventional design. Like other aviation companies, Cirrus has been severely impacted by the economy but will survive in some form. The aircraft has been too successful and the market will continue to demand new models with improved technology.
On Monday, Jan. 18 there is a free breakfast at 7 a.m. at Holy Family Catholic Church, 2430 W. Third St., followed by a march, which starts at the Washington Center at Lake Avenue and Fourth Street at 11 a.m. The march goes through downtown and the skywalk to arrive at the rally at the DECC at 11:45 a.m. The featured speaker will be Rep. Jeff Hayden. (more…)
A couple of items that struck me today. People apparently just dump their old trees in the Mount Royal Shopping center parking lot. And this sign didn’t seem to be doing much to stop them.
I also have been seeing a lot of construction equipment out clearing sidewalks. Near as I can tell about 2/3 of the city is covered in 2 inches of ice. Beneath the snow, that is.
I put several more pictures and some initial impressions here.
It will be open from 7 am to 9 pm daily. This is going to remain a family-owned business, as it has been since I can remember. But like every small business, they have almost overwhelming competition from [insert-name-of-big-box-chain-retailer here] so, they need all the support they can to make it, or better yet, to prosper.
This is a good opportunity for people who are boosters of small, family-owned businesses to engage their mouths along with their wallets. So, if you count yourself in that group, please stop in make a purchase as soon as you can, and thank them for making a commitment to our city’s economy. Then … keep coming back, whenever you can.
Not sure why I feel like the resident apologist for Lake Superior Brewery especially since I’ve never tasted the stuff but … somehow I am a big booster of this gem of a Duluth business and I was very glad to see them get some recognition. Who knows? Maybe this is a stepping stone to better and better things for them and our fair Lincoln Park. Congratulations Dale and boys.
Forecasters are calling for some big time Christmas Eve snow so this could be a classic opportunity to snowshoe downtown, get a great meal, celebrate the original meaning of Christmas and maybe even walk away with a gift or two for the kiddies. My favorite part? After years of being part of all kinds of spiritual traditions around the world, finally at this party I see people of all shapes, stripes and shades joining together as one. That is truly a beautiful very Duluthy thing for me and I’d love to see some of my PDD pals there, too.
I thought this was intended as a temporary winter seawall.
But Duluth Daily photo (above) and later the Duluth News Tribune had some good coverage of this that straightened me out, apparently these coal cars are just being stored on those tracks, even though they do sit in a storm prone spot. Now, DNT’s Brandon Stahl writes that the train will be moved to Leif Ericson Park. (more…)
A few months ago in this post about Bob Dylan’s Christmas CD someone remembered an old radio show that I did called “A North Country Holiday” it was never released as a CD but it was distributed to stations and a few other media outlets using CDs since neither of the stations I did it for (KAXE-Grand Rapids and KUMD-Duluth) had a satellite uplink.
— UPDATE —
I have the entire show online now at my new Vox page. I am hoping to have a downloadable version eventually, but this is what we have for now.
There are 10 parts and it is designed to be experienced in sequence but you can pick and choose. The bottom line is some extremely talented people gave these songs, stories and poems to be shared at this time of year. I am glad to get them back out there again after a long absence from the interweb. Allow me to name drop: Barton Sutter, Father Hennepin, Louis Jenkins, Linda Beaty, Willowgreen, Robert Bly, Paul Imholte, Ellie Schoenfeld, Leo LaFrenier, Philip Myzel, The Temple Israel Singers, Sam Cook, Marty Weintraub f/ Michael Johnson, Strikepoint f/ the Lake Superior Youth Chorus, Alan Sparhawk & Low, Connie Wanek, and Irene McKay
My wife got this in a mass forwarded email today. I’m still trying to figure out who took the picture, someone at SMDC was the first to forward it as far as I can tell. Anyone who knows anything else please post it here or contact me so I can credit the intrepid photographer. I’d really love to congratulate the intrepid ATV-or-bust-redneck who managed to strap the vehicle to his car car, (and yes, I know it was a he) but that might be asking too much. I think this image has got some real PDD banner potential …
I’d be interested in hearing PDDs thoughts on this discussion about KBJR from one of my twitter pals, media insider gossip muckraker Red and Nater:
Last week, they had to pull a story about murderer Donald Blom after a Facebook protest. Then they claimed the promo they had aired about the story was wrong.
Tonight (Tuesday), they had to do a live four-minute interview with a Cirrus executive off the top of their 10:00 news to make up for a story they ran at 5 in which they claimed the company was “in crisis.” Their 5:00 report was based on the fact that Cirrus hasn’t paid rent for using a city-owned facility, but that had been widely reported by other media a month or more ago.
This is on top of the the constant day-behind news and bad video. When will Granite (or NBC or CBS) realize what’s going on in Duluth?
In 2008 Pro Video Productions in Duluth, in cooperation with a number of big employers and VisitDuluth.com produced a slick documentary “Fresh Duluth.” It was posted and discussed by many of us here on Perfect Duluth Day
I liked the film just fine and from my lay person’s perspective it was well done. The idea was to use it to lure employees to the city and maybe some businesses or conventions or whatever … It features great action shots of the outdoors, culture and business and interviews with a number of well-lit, Ken Burns style “expert” interviews with prominent folks talking about how great the city was including …
–Ann Klefstad DNT arts and culture reporter who was laid off in one of several mass lay offs that the DNT did that same year. Just a few months after the video premiered
–A Cirrus Design Exec (Alan Klapmeier, I think) who was fired/quit/demoted from the organization earlier this year.
And rounding out the list …
–Rod Raymond a prominent local businessman, endurance athlete, and (somehow he also finds time to be a) fitness professor at UMD whose name and reputation are now bound up in allegations of Sexual Harassment at UMD, plus lots and lots and lots of rumors and allegations, that may never end, regardless of the truth.
Paul Lundgren kind of stole my thunder on this with his excellent photo-essay on the North Shore earlier this week, but I was out in the same neighborhood for a work project last week myself. Truly I was in a big hurry and swamped with about a dozen things, but I just couldn’t help but stop for half an hour and snap some photos on the way back. It was the same day as the big Vikings-Packers game and I thought if they turned out it might make a good PDD post/tip for armchair quarterbacks on a great (brief) weekend road trip, but … that didn’t happen and now we may be past peak colors up in those woods. Still its a great drive anytime of year. And it’s fun going through the tunnel, too.
Chip Stewart has passed away after a long battle with cancer. Thousands of people knew Chip and his wife Marcie as proprietors of the amazing Amazing Grace Bakery & Cafe in the DeWitt-Seitz Building in Canal Park.
I don’t have any more details right now, but hopefully those will materialize as is possible. But what I can tell you is that Chip was a very great man who I first met in 1997 when I was working on a story as a freelance reporter. Amazing Grace was hosting a counter-rally when anti-gay freakshow activist Fr*d Ph*lps was coming to Duluth. And that was the beginning of many, many conversations. In 2004 he gave me the biggest business break that I never deserved when (despite owning a successful food service operation of his own) he allowed my little food stand to come in and sling some wienies during events at the Historic NorShor Theater, which he was hoping to revive at the time. Chip was a friend to many, many people. The bread, coffee and all the food at Amazing Grace is fantastic, he provided a great venue for live folk music in Duluth, and he also provided a great place for people to sit in a non-rushed atmosphere. One of his least heralded but possibly most important gifts to all of us was providing a safe and fun place for young people (and sober people) to gather, play cards, surf the net and socialize, there was nothing quite like it in Duluth before it opened, and it remains a one-of-a-kind institution with Chip’s fingerprints all over it. He gave big breaks to many more musicians, artists, waitresses, bakers, baristas and entrepreneurs than just me, dozens, maybe hundreds of people’s lives and careers were enhanced by contact with this man. I feel safe in saying that his impact on our community will reverberate not just for days and weeks, but for generations.
My heartfelt prayers go out to his wife Marcie and all of his family, and to the rest of us, his chosen family. May you rest in peace, my brother.
If someone has a good photo or two of Chip, please post it here or provide a link to where we can all see them.
Tonight the Duluth City Council will consider suspending the Norshor “Experience” liquor license.
Here’s a picture of among other things, future Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Link Wray who had one of his last public performances in the United States at the NorShor before he died a few months later. He played with a number of Duluth rockers, some of you were there, it was pretty amazing.
Sale this weekend at my brother’s old Babbitt-esque house at 1616 Jefferson St (lower endion, in the Loaves and Fishes zone if that helps anyone to place it). The kids and their friends have nicknamed it the “haunted house” because it’s one of those creeky old, not-quite-a-mansion-places that is just creepy enough to be fun, but not outright scary, and it is very popular with sleepovers for our kids, their friends and more.
I am selling stuff I can’t even believe I’m selling … (more…)
I had given up on much Duluth art being discussed ever on MPR, after forever of hearing the Pioneer Press’ Dominic Papatola’s eye-rolling, painfully self-conscious weekly host chats, (yes, “host chat” a la Regis and Kelly, only if you added a condescending air to their blather). But then they added this interesting feature “Art Hounds” which is a great step in the right direction, only they’re very Twin Cities centric, as is standard for “the Network.” THEN, today I heard a familiar voice: Lucie Amundson, who is (if I’m not mistaken) a PDD and/or Park Point regular. Haven’t heard her on the “network” since election day. They should use her more. Good work, Lucie. Would love to hear you do stories in person sometime!
This man has had an enormous impact on my life, I’m a little speechless so won’t even try. We’re playing 16 Candles tomorrow at MITP, just so you know. Wanna come down and celebrate that life/grieve a little with us?
