This video intertwines a March 13 performance by the Duluth East Symphony Orchestra of Gioachino Rossini’s 1816 opera buffa The Barber of Seville with cartoon footage from the 1950 Looney Tunes short Rabbit of Seville.
Transcript of interview with former co-op volunteer / FBI confidential informant
Interviewer: How did you become an FBI informant during the Minnesota food co-op wars of 1975?
Name redacted: Well, when co-ops started forming in the late ‘60s, the FBI thought it was a communist plot. That theory got a lot of traction because many early co-op’ers were actual, literal Communists, mimeographing typewritten Leninist newsletters. You would’ve thought downtown Minneapolis was the Red Square. So it was a case of “let’s just keep an eye on these people.” But since there was a cooperative warehouse in Wisconsin serving as a distribution hub, when co-op-related violence broke out, it crossed state lines. So the FBI went from passive surveillance to active infiltration. When the Minneapolis co-op wars spread to the North Shore in ’75, I was on the short list to infiltrate the Duluth one. A native Duluthian, I had worked undercover before, and I was already a Co-op shopper. I was not a member, but knew some of the early Co-op’ers from church. I wasn’t on the anarcho-communist continuum, and I wasn’t a hippie — I just wanted better food. This made my handlers a little nervous. They started thinking I was a pinko. But I told them, “You couldn’t find a loaf of whole wheat bread in Duluth until the Co-op opened in 1970.” They were eating Wonder Bread baloney sandwiches with mayonnaise, but that convinced them. So the FBI paid for my Co-op membership. Then I signed up for member volunteer work shifts to get on the inside. I stirred buckets of nut butter with a drill attachment, but I heard stuff. I wasn’t the only one, the Feds had an informant in Grand Marais too, and some as far south as Iowa. Minneapolis was the hub, of course; the co-ops down there were popping off like popcorn.
The Seed AfFAIR is a meetup for people interested in crop art, the environmental art practice of using plants and seeds to create images, usually by gluing them to a background. The AfFAIR part of the name references the goal of entering pieces in the Minnesota State Fair’s juried competition.
The group began meeting at the start of 2024 and has been featured twice on The Slice; the 2025 part-two video is above, and the original 2024 video is below.
An explainer: “Break It, Then Take It“
Voyageur Lakewalk Inn was a Downtown Duluth lodging staple for about 60 years. It was demolished in 2022, along with the Hacienda del Sol and First Oriental Grocery buildings, to make way for the 15-story Lakeview 333 apartment building.
Alan Sparhawk‘s second solo album is not so solo. The title, With Trampled by Turtles, explains that. It releases May 30 on Sub Pop Records.
The theme behind the fourth annual Minnesota Film Festival might not seem obvious when looking through the lineup. The selections represent a variety of genres and were submitted and scouted from local, national and international filmmakers. Still, there’s a certain something that connects them.
“The goal, to put it simply, is to inspire difficult conversations and find that common ground between groups of people, where they may not have realized there is that common ground,” said Vera Bianchini, the festival’s director.
Press your luck and celebrate the season with this week’s (vaguely) Irish-themed PDD quiz!
The next PDD quiz, coming your way on March 30, will review the month in headlines. Please submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at alisonlinnaemoffat @ gmail.com by March 26.
Big Into‘s most ambitious video yet was shot over the course of four months. It is a companion video to the short film Patterns of the Heart, directed by Connor Mayne.
One hundred years ago today — March 14, 1925 — Chester Park Pharmacy opened at 1328 E. Fourth St. Chester Park Garage was already open next door in the new building. The previous day’s Duluth Herald reported that preparations had been underway for months for the pharmacy at 1328 E. Fourth St., noting that the “last yard of linoleum” had just been laid on the floor.
In addition to imposing 25% retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, Canada is boycotting “vacation hubs like Oshkosh and Duluth.” That’s according to the satirical news website The Onion.
MN Moder celebrates life and rides a scooter around Duluth in his latest music video, shot by Jaxon “JayGee” Gardner.
The new Trampled by Turtles EP, Always Now, is set for release on Sept. 20. The band’s annual Bayfront Park show is July 5.
March 11 is Wanda Gág’s birthday. After Charles Schulz and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Wanda Gag is my favorite Minnesota author.
Former Duluthian James Geisler, aka JamesG, spits truth about his bald head and big body.
