The Playlist Presents: Seyi Oyinloye

WDSE-TV‘s The PlayList Presents is a series of 5-minute segments featuring emerging musicians, including interview clips and a live performance. The Feb. 13 episode focused on rapper/storyteller Seyi Oyinloye, with footage from the 2019 Catalyst Content Festival.

The PlayList Presents airs Thursday nights at around 8:20 p.m., after Making it Up North.

The Elements – “Losers Make Better Youths”

Video by Bodhi Werner for a new song from Duluth band the Elements.

Selective Focus: Josh Rude

Josh Rude’s work through his company Glørud Design (his family’s original Norwegian name), is probably most visible in the stylish paddles he’s been making and selling at various locations around the area. He also works that style and attention to detail into larger and smaller-scale pieces such as cabinets, tables and vases. This week, we look at some other pieces that he has made, and a brief history of his path as a woodworker.

JR: Glørud Design is a wood shop in Duluth’s harbor front that focuses on custom woodwork and furniture, as well as paddles for canoe, kayak and stand up paddlers. I’ve been doing this for five years.

I grew up in a small town in northwest Minnesota, where working with your hands was a way of life. I always found great joy in being outdoors, spending time on my grandparents farm or being in the woods. The natural environment was always a draw, setting the stage for my work.

There is not a single route that led me to this work. While in university and graduate school I worked with a small construction company owned by my uncle, giving me an understanding of the use of tools. In the summers I would work as a canoe guide on the Gunflint Trail, setting the stage for paddle making. The first summer I guided is where I also met my wife, Natalie (Studio Haiku), for whom the first paddle was made.

Electric Fetus, Juice Pharm and More

I visited the Juice Pharm in the last days of its Skywalk location yesterday.  It is moving to 208 E. First St., the former Red Herring Lounge location. The beverages are always tasty, and feel more like a meal than a drink. I will miss the Skywalk location, though I admit I don’t get there as often as I would like.

UMD considering sale of KUMD radio station to WDSE-TV

KUMD has entered into a nonbinding letter of intent with Duluth-Superior Area Educational Television Corporation that could lead to the station being acquired and operated by WDSE-WRPT.

After months lying in wait, Boreal House open in West Duluth

Katie Fast, left, and Julie LaTourelle stand outside their new drinking establishment last summer, before remodeling work began. (Photo by Mark Nicklawske)

Duluthians Katie Fast and Julie LaTourelle will open the doors to West Duluth’s newest drinking establishment at 3 p.m. today. The Boreal House at 330 N. 57th Ave. W. sits adjacent to the neighborhood’s oldest drinking establishment, the Kom-on-Inn.

Video Archive: Attempting to save UMD’s Old Main

During WDIO-TV’s annual March of Dimes Telethon circa 1990, Dennis Anderson introduced a Colder by the Lake Comedy Theatre slide presentation by Bruce Ojard featuring old Duluth buildings as a plea to convince the city to preserve the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Old Main building instead of tearing it down.

The building was destroyed by fire on Feb. 23, 1993.

Postcard from the Ski Tournament at Duluth in 1910

This postcard was mailed to Mrs. May Hagberg two years after the ski tournament shown in the image. The postmark is Feb. 15, 1912.

Lake Superior Magazine 2020 Photo Contest Winners

Duluth photos took first and second place in the Artsy/Altered category of Lake Superior Magazine‘s 25th Annual Photo Contest. Lou Nicksic of Bellingham, Wash., shot the first-place ship image in Canal Park. Dan Lee Vander Ark of Duluth shot the second-place image with the Bong Bridge in the background. Numerous Duluth photos received honorable mention in various categories.

Galleries of all the winning photos and runners up can be seen on lakesuperior.com. The winners are featured in the magazine’s February/March issue.

The overall grand prize went to Shannon Hart of Williamston, Mich. for an image of Lake Superior at Miners Castle in Munising.

Beijing reopens; Valentini’s on the move to Hermantown

The restaurant options on London Road in Duluth are changing: Beijing Restaurant is reopening this week after a fire kept it shuttered for more than a year. Valentini’s Vicino Lago Italian Restaurant will close later this year as the business transitions to a new Hermantown location.

Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #40

Another trivia card from a board game purchased at Savers.

The Playlist Presents: Ingeborg von Agassiz

WDSE-TV‘s The PlayList Presents is a series of 5-minute segments featuring emerging musicians, including interview clips and a live performance. The Feb. 6 episode focused on electro-folk artist Ingeborg von Agassiz, with footage from the 2019 Catalyst Content Festival.

Ingeborg von Agassiz is playing acoustic brunch sets at Pizza Luce on Saturdays throughout February.

The PlayList Presents airs Thursday nights at around 8:20 p.m., after Making it Up North.

PDD Quiz: Dear John

Ascend the trivia throne with this week’s quiz on notable Northland bathrooms!

The next PDD quiz, reviewing February headlines and happenings, will be published on Feb. 23. Please submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by Feb. 20.

Ursa Minor offers Duluth’s first non-alcoholic craft beer

Ben Hugus with Ursa Minor's new NA beer

Ben Hugus with Ursa Minor’s new NA beer – Photo by Lissa Maki

Ursa Minor Brewing quietly became the first Duluth-area craft brewery to offer a non-alcoholic beer option back in December. The brewery’s Constellation Cream Ale, is now available sans intoxicants.

I Demand a Lakewalk

I demand a Lakewalk.

Retired engineer and geologist David Hoag wrote in a Jan. 22 Duluth News Tribune op-ed piece that he feels, “It would be much better to retreat,” than to “shore up, harden, and improve the lakeshore in areas near the Lakewalk and Brighton Beach that were battered by recent storms.”

Retreat to where? Are we going to let the lake have the rail line, and Fitger’s? Are we going to cede Canal Park to the lake? Are we going to abandon all infrastructure because it needs fixing? Are we going to tear down the bridge and the canal and move them to higher ground? Set fire to the ports? Should we flood the highway and designate it “boats only”? Is Leif Erikson Park to be abandoned to the waves, and we’ll just watch as it crumbles? Should we watch as Lake Superior undermines and claims the Rose Garden? Are our Park Point citizens to be forgotten?

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