Duluth Band Profile: The Formal Age
The Formal Ages adds surf riffs with synth keyboards to deliver its forthcoming album, 1923-2319. Jake Jonker talks about story behind the band. Click on the image above to hear the interview.
The Formal Ages adds surf riffs with synth keyboards to deliver its forthcoming album, 1923-2319. Jake Jonker talks about story behind the band. Click on the image above to hear the interview.
My trusty old iPhone 4 (with black rubber case) escaped at the Zinema last night, making a clean getaway during the Firefly show from around 9:15 to 11ish. I was camped out in the front of the theater — middle of the second row. If you saw it or heard anyone found it, please let me know.
Thanks a whole bunch,
Christina
Highlight reel of sights and sounds from extreme winter 2014.
The PDD Drone’s latest mission took it to the skies of Grand Marais last week, hovering across the icy shore of Lake Superior. Before the trip, however, the drone and its “pilot,” Cory Fechner, spent some time with the Northland’s NewsCenter’s Kevin Jacobsen for the report below.
Apologies for the commercial before the clip, which we can’t control.
Today in the Duluth News Tribune there is an article about our mayor wanting to bring back a .5 percent tax on our restaurants, hotels, and other amenities. My question is how do we as citizens of Duluth then get exempted from that tax? Should we not go to our local restaurants? Should we not go to Canal Park and support our local businesses?
This just seems unfair to those who live here to have us pay an extra tax to use our own local amenities. I’ve read that we pay very high taxes in our community compared to others, which made me wonder why we don’t get cards to exempt us from “tourist” taxes. This tax would go for the next 15 years and fund development of West Duluth. Well, that’s great, but what about us here in the Endion area? I can see taxing the hotels to get the tourists, but taxing restaurants makes me want to take my local money elsewhere.
I don’t think it is fair to those of us who live here, and if this is a push by our mayor there should be a way to exempt anyone who has a local identification.
Here’s a sampling of what you have to look forward to this week on the PDD Calendar.
What happens when you dial 911? Find out today at the 911 Citizens Academy at the Public Safety Building.
The chattering class is in full force this week. Nerd Nite is back Tuesday at the Teatro Zuccone with presentations on the lack of female leads in video games, British panel shows, and steampunk audio. Chester Chat has a presentation on Women in Leadership at Glensheen Mansion on Wednesday.
Starting this week the Nordic Center has several classes on Scandinavian languages, including Norwegian, Danish and Swedish.
The Cole Porter musical, Anything Goes, opens this Thursday at the Playhouse and runs three weekends. The other musicals running in town, Hairspray at The Underground and Next to Normal at Teatro Zuccone, are playing to sold out houses and getting great reviews.
Dog Sees God is an unauthorized parody of the Peanuts gang in high school and it opens at UWS Experimental Theater on Friday and runs two weekends.
March is Food Shelf Month and you can support your local food bank at Taste at Fitgers on Friday.
The Minnesota Ballet presents A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the DECC on Saturday.
Diorama-rama, the biennial celebration of dioramas minuscule and huge, quaint and odd, is back Saturday night at Sacred Heart.
Think what church needs is more beer? Beer & Hymns, a monthly gathering for beer drinking and hymn singing, returns to Sir Ben’s on Sunday.
So what are you doing this week? Can we tag along? Any upcoming events that you want to promote? Let us know.
Ah, the once-ubiquitous pay telephone. I remember when they could be found on every major street corner, but if I needed one today, I would have no idea where to find one.
Are there any pay phones left in Duluth? If so, where? Confirm their existence by commenting below, but please post only current confirmations. If you have a vague memory of one existing a few years ago, that doesn’t count.
This postcard is for sale on eBay under the headline “MN antique real photo rppc post card Gilmore Comedy Theatre Duluth Minn.” The description reads:
This is an antique real photo postcard captioned “No. Shore Blvd., Paul and Virginia Gilmore Summer Stock, Duluth, Minn.” The sign on the building reads “The Gilmore Comedy Theatre.” Just below the caption in the lower left corner, you can see a road sign for Motorola TV Sales and Service. Printed on Kodak paper (stamp box indicates in use from 1950 and later).
So, who were Paul and Virginia Gilmore and what was the deal with their theater? Well, the internet provides some easy answers this week, so there’s not much mystery in this week’s mystery photo.
Security Jewelers is auctioning one of its sponsor entries to Grandma’s Half Marathon on eBay. One hundred percent of proceeds go to the Duluth Art Institute’s program Art for Ed’s Sake, offering visual and media arts classes in Duluth Public Schools.
It looks like we’re in for another late, cold spring, with delayed ice-out. This means we may be in for another spring full of stranded grebes, loons, and mergansers.
On Friday night I went to the Zinema to see the Veronica Mars movie.
I discovered this online, monthly magazine yesterday and it is positively outstanding. I think it went live in September 2013.
North is a free feature magazine that showcases Duluth and the region — inspirationally to those fortunate enough to live there and aspirationally to those of us who don’t and wish we did.
The magazine is aesthetically a pleasure to read and the abundant photographs enhance the reader experience. North seems to strike a balance of outdoor recreation, culture, dining, leisure, travel and human interest stories about local entrepreneurs that no other local magazines have accomplished.
It is polished and has a metropolitan sophistication without giving the impression that it’s trying. I really feel that it captures the essence of Duluth’s renaissance as I see it.
Check it out if you haven’t seen it.
Harrison Crane uses the pseudonym Timmy Jacks Off to release noise rock. In this interview, he elaborates about his process of stream-of-consciousness songwriting. Crane is currently releasing music freely to the public through Bandcamp. Click on the image above to hear the interview.
Maude Barlow published a report on March 17 about plans to make the Great Lakes a carbon corridor for oil from the tar sands of Alberta and the fracking wells of North Dakota. Mayor Don Ness recently stated his support for more pipelines, saying his previous commitments to lowering carbon emissions were irrelevant because “the pipeline makes no impact on carbon consumption in the city of Duluth.”
I think Mayor Ness is a good mayor with a good heart, but this sounds like sophistry considering the global nature of climate change. And it may show the type of compartmentalization of thought we all indulge in to protect ourselves from larger truths.
Mayor Ness also recently stated on MPR that he was not well-enough informed to have an opinion on shipping oil by tanker across Lake Superior. I hope he will appreciate a lot of respectful pressure from his constituents on this issue, because here’s the deal: On one end is Tar Sands and fracking devastation and on the other end are climate-changing emissions. In the middle is a lot of fresh water we would be absolutely mad to put at risk. Now is the time to stand up for the big lake we all love and depend on.
