A group of local artists opened Pineapple Art and Supply Center last month. They bought the inventory from Bohemia Arts, which is out of business.

The new store is at 124 W. First St. in Downtown Duluth. The grand opening is Saturday, March 20, from 4 to 8 p.m.
(more…)

The Iron Range Tourism Bureau has a new website called ComeHomeBob.com.

Check out a few river shots from this past weekend.
(more…)

The Meat Puppets are scheduled to play Pizza Luce again. Con Queso and the DTs will open.

Wednesday, April 7 | 10 p.m.
$10 tickets; cash only; available at the Looch

I’m not sure if these are junior high students from Oneota School or if they are high school kids and this is a community team for the Oneota neighborhood (part of West Duluth). Denfeld didn’t have an official football team until 1917.

I don’t know the names of any of the players, except the guy sitting cross-legged in the middle — he’s my great uncle, Sam Brassard. (Yep, Uncle Sam.)
(more…)

(This video is from the Rochester Civic Theatre. On stage with Martin Zellar are Brandon Sampson and G.B. Leighton.)

Martin Zellar will be in Duluth for a gig at Beaner’s Central Thursday night with Charlie Parr. Show starts at 8 p.m.

Anyone planning to portage a canoe through Beaner’s during the performance?

Anyway, two free tickets will be given to the first person to leave a comment with the word that joins these two song titles:

“Statue of “_ _ _ _ _” at the Kenmore”

In a Feb. 18 post the maps for the proposed Cross City Trail — which will connect the Munger Trail to the Lakewalk — were laid out, with photos showing the various route options for the westernmost section shown in the comments. A Feb. 28 post showed a photo tour of the middle section of the proposed trail.

In this post, the route options for connecting Clyde Park to the Duluth Lakewalk are shown. Here are the maps to follow along with:

29th Avenue West to 18th Avenue West
18th Avenue West to Mesaba Avenue
Mesaba Avenue to the Lakewalk

(more…)

Colder by the Lake’s “Older by the Lake,” a comedy about aging, opens this Thursday night at Teatro Zuccone.

In the pic: Cathy Podeszwa, John Schmidt, Christa Schulz, Jack Setterlund and Gary Kruchowski. They guarantee the show will be “more fun than a barrel of reading glasses.”

This post is being published early on Sunday morning for a reason. The first person to write a comment on this wins two tickets to the opening night show (Thursday, March 11, 7:30 p.m.). It’s a reward for being up early on a Sunday and reading about oldness.

Oh, and don’t worry, the playbill is in large print.

Taviette Film Productions: Trailer 2009

Taviette Film Productions | MySpace Video

Duluth native Nathan Ness appears in the new film The Process, which premieres March 20 at the Suburban World Theatre in Minneapolis.

Taviette Film Productions

“Thieves Like Us” is a feature-length action comedy (Jackie Chan style) made for about $3,200. There are two screenings at the Duluth Playground — March 5 and 6 at 7:30 pm.

The screenings will be followed by a Q&A with the director, Jarrod Crooks, and actor/producer Daniel Quaile of St. Paul-based Film Under 5, a production company with the goal of showing “that if you get creative, write a good story, and work your butt off, you can make a feature film for under $5,000.”

Duluth indie band Low is trying something very new about a very old subject as band members are collaborating with Minneapolis choreographer Morgan Thorson on “Heaven,” a dance exploring religious ritual.

Minnesota Public Radio’s Euan Kerr reports …

And here’s video from Minnesota Original, Twin Cities Public Television’s new half-hour program dedicated to showcasing the creative community of Minnesota.

Discussing “Heaven”: Morgan Thorson + Alan Sparkhawk from mn original on Vimeo.

In a Feb. 18 post the maps for the proposed Cross City Trail — which will connect the Munger Trail to the Lakewalk — were laid out. In the comments I included photos of the various route options for the westernmost section.

The middle section of the trail — from Ramsey Street to Clyde Park — has only one option, so there’s not a lot to seek feedback on, but I thought I’d shoot some photos anyway.

This bridge is actually NOT part of the proposed trail; I just like that a tree is growing through it.

(more…)

I noticed last week that the sign is up outside the Fitger’s Brewery Complex for the Mexico Lindo restaurant. Any word on an opening date? Anyone?

In other Mexico Lindo related news, don’t go to the Cloquet location on Friday. I’m predicting the place will be packed like never before. Denfeld plays Hermantown for the Section 5A hockey championship at the Cloquet Area Recreation Center at 7 p.m. I’m sure I’m not the only one planning a pregame meal.

Personally, I didn’t care much about the accuracy of Jeff Tweedy quotes in various media, but I believe I’ve found a media issue of the utmost importance to our society.

In the Duluth News Tribune’s report about Superior High School wrestler Nikola Bogojevic winning the state championship in his weight class, this paragraph jumped out at me:

Moments later he grabbed Superior coach Bill Gedde and put him in an airplane spin — made famous by professional wrestler “Rowdy” Roddy Piper — to celebrate the title.

Since when did Roddy Piper make the airplane spin famous? I remember Mike Rotunda using it as his signature maneuver in the 1980s, but I don’t remember ever seeing Piper do it. I mean, I suppose it happened, but I just don’t associate that move with Piper.

Am I right here?

By the way, congratulations to Bogojevic for his victory, his awesome season, and most of all putting his coach in an airplane spin. That’s epic.

PDD is working normally for me and pretty much everyone else I’ve asked, but at least one person says it’s been enormously slow for a few days now. Is anyone else experiencing this? If you are, it should take two minutes for the page to load allowing you to comment, so thanks for taking the time to let us know.

Right now we’re assuming everything is fine and one person’s computer hates this site for some reason.

The Spirit Lake Poetry Series presents its 14th annual St. David’s Day Open Reading.

Saturday, Feb. 27, 7:30 p.m., at Somers Lounge, College of St. Scholastica

Anyone is welcome to participate. Readers must limit themselves to three minutes.

Become a fan of Spirit Lake on Facebook.

Report by Minnesota Public Radio’s Bob Kelleher

It struck me as a little odd a few days ago when a post on PDD announced the creation of Daily Duluth Photo. “Hasn’t that been around for a while?” I thought to myself.

Now the situation has been cleared up in the comments to that post. The previously existing site I was thinking of is Duluth Daily Photo, not Daily Duluth Photo.

Goodness gracious. I don’t think I can handle two photos a day.

As the outdoor ice melts on another hockey season, I’d like to take a moment to honor my Cooper SK-100 helmet. We’ve been through a lot together.

(more…)

Topic #1: According to a story from the Associated Press, a Minnesota House panel will consider a bill today that would make it legal to brew beer in basements. The story specifically references home brewers. Personally, I have brewed beer in at least two different Minnesota basements, and I had no idea it was illegal to do so.

Reading what I think is the overview of the bill, however, it seems to have nothing to do with home brewing. It’s about producing “beer or other beverages for commercial sale.” Am I missing something?

Topic #2: The local micro brewing industry sure seems to be taking off. In addition to Lake Superior Brewing Co., Fitger’s Brewhouse and Thirsty Pagan Brewing, Carmody Irish Pub began brewing beer recently and a brewpub is in the works at Clyde Park. Further into the future, another brewpub could be popping up in Canal Park at the old Duluth Spring Co. location. I wonder how the total gallons produced in the area will compare to 50 years ago.

Check out 21 photos from Gooseberry Falls State Park and the north shore of Lake Superior in this slide show by MPR photographer Nate Minor.

As you can see, this picture is dated 1919, so it’s about 90 years old. The girls look to be of elementary school age, so maybe one of them is still around today.

The location of the picture is the old Denfeld High School on Central Avenue, which is now Laura MacArthur Elementary School. There must have been elementary classes in the old Denfeld, or these are just random kids from the neighborhood, because none of them look old enough to be in high school.

The old Denfeld/MacArthur building will likely be torn down after the new MacArthur is built, but hopefully the old house in the background will keep on keepin’ on.

The links below are to PDF files of maps showing proposed routes for the Cross City Trail, connecting the Willard Munger State Trail with the Duluth Lakewalk.

Page 1 – 75th Avenue West to 66th Avenue West area
Page 2 – 66th Avenue West to Central Avenue area
Page 3 – Central Avenue to Ramsey Street area
Page 4 – Ramsey Street to 40th Avenue West area
Page 5 – 40th Avenue West to 29th Avenue West area
Page 6 – 29th Avenue West to 18th Avenue West area
Page 7 – 18th Avenue West to Mesaba Avenue area
Page 8 – Mesaba Avenue to the Lakewalk area

(more…)

Monday, Feb. 22, 7:30 p.m.
Teatro Zuccone

I’ve been enjoying the latest addition to the Songs with “Duluth” in the Lyrics or Title list. It’s called “Duluth Minnesnowta” by the hip hop act Good Knight (Alex Knight on vocals; Mike Ward is DJ).

Visit the group’s MySpace page to listen to the Duluth song and three other tracks.

Has anyone found video online of Duluth’s Chad Salmela at the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games calling the exciting finish to Sunday’s race? For the first time in 86 years, an American won an Olympic medal in Nordic combined.

There’s a transcript on SportsFeatures.com.

So, which are you most excited about?

* Duluth being in the running for ultra-high speed Internet access.
* Duluth being in the running for a plant making wind turbine tower tops.
* Plans to finally connect the Munger Trail and the Lakewalk.
* The recent interest by developers in creating student housing at the old Armory on London Road.

What are the odds-makers saying? Can Duluth nail down all four of these? Even one would be awesome. I’ll bet we get at least two.

The mayor of Duluth is ready to throw his city’s hat in the ring for a new Google experiment to test ultra-high speed Internet access.

MPR’s Steven John talks to Don Ness about his city’s plan.