Month: January 2012
Duluth Albums from the 1900s
Perfect Duluth Day’s attempt to chronical the works of local musicians begins with this list of 20th century recordings. (more…)
Amazing Aurora!
It’s visible in Finland — as in northern Europe, not Finland, Minn.
(more…)
“Carless in Duluth” Teaser
Carless in Duluth is a short documentary showcasing people in Duluth who walk, bike, or take the bus instead of driving. Notice how easy it is to forget that pedestrians and bicyclists exist when the environment is designed only for cars.
Premiering this March at a local downtown independent cinema near you.
Hometown Heroes – Today’s DNT
Ann Lockwood, who stands outside her home at 627 E. Eighth St., expresses her gratitude Monday for the help she received from Project Save Our Homes in preventing the foreclosure of her house. She’s flanked by Duluth city Councilor Sharla Gardner (left) and County Commissioner Steve O’Neil.
Duluth News Tribune: “Fighting foreclosures, one home at a time: New group helps Duluth woman keep her home.”
Chester Bowl looking for stories
The Chester Bowl Improvement Group wants to hear from people who have been in the ski program.
From Thom Storm:
We are in the process of applying for different grants for our ski program. It was suggested that we have some Chester Bowl stories/testimonials to include with our applications. I would like to take that a step further, and have a Chester Bowl Stories section on our website, chesterbowl.org.
Many parents have told me that the ski program has made a big difference to their families. If you would like to share your story, we would like to post it on our site. Please send any stories/testimonials to:
[email protected]
and include your name for the posting.
If you’ve got any historical stories, photos or artifacts, you could submit them to the Chester Bowl History page.
A Little Help from my Friends
I recently got hosed big time by Go Daddy. My domain was up for renewal and instead of notifying me, they sold it. Now I have a new domain, but I lost my search engine standing (my old site was numbers 1,2 and 3 for a Google search of my name). Anyway, if you have a minute, give my new site a click and help a guy out. Thanks.
The good kind of profiling.
As part of the January in Duluth project, I’ve been working a bit with talented Duluth photographer with Kip Praslowicz, particularly with his awesome Dramatizations of Everyday Life series. Essentially, I’ve been piggybacking photos he’s done, doing an audio/narrative version of his portraits. I just finished one on Anna Affias (which I really enjoyed putting together) and did one last week on Rich Narum (not from the same series, but from the same photographer). These were the exact kinds of stories I hoped I’d be able to do in Duluth, which brings me to a question:
Anybody out there have a specific story they’d like to share? Particularly if it in some way ties into your experiences living here? (If you’ve ever had This American Life aspirations, this might be a good time to give it a shot) I’d love to do the recording and producing, and perhaps Kip might be interested in also doing a portrait. Also, if it’s not a specific story, we could just sit down and chat about your experiences here.
(Also, the clock’s ticking on January, so if this idea at all interests you, get in touch soon!)
Drunken Photos from the 1990s
I’m not sure if “Drunken Photos from the 1990s” is meant to be a series or not, but I happened to come across two images in my attic that fit the category and raised some questions I thought the Internet could answer. (more…)
Midwest Snowboarding
This is not so much a Duluth video, but it will help riders from Duluth get known. This snowboard hill is Granite Peaks, in Wausau, Wis. I highly recommend taking a trip out there, amazing hill.
This week: much music, good eats, interesting tales and more.
Monday, Jan. 23
Minneapolis group Caroline Smith and the Goodnight Sleeps take over Papa Charlie’s at Lutsen Mountains.
Wednesday, Jan. 25
Treat yourself to a seven course dinner courtesy of Chef Bruce Wallis of Sara’s Table.
Friday, Jan. 27
R.T.’s hosts the Equal Xchange Reunion Show also featuring Fearless Moral Inventory and Aaron Gall & the Likely Story. Minneapolis group Machine 22 headlines at the Thirsty Pagan with local talent Excuse Me, Princess and the Thunder Brothers opening.
Saturday, Jan. 28
Some of the areas most talented writers and performers come together for a night of storytelling at Teatro’s Zenith City Tales: Stories of New Beginnings. Silent woods, groomed trails, iced ponds, and snowshoe access to unique areas of Hartley await at the Candlelight Ski, Skate, and Showshoe event at the park.
Giving up on skiing, thinking about skating
Why even listen to the weather forecast? With the fizzle of yet another snow forecast into gray skies and brown ground, I’m about to give up hope on the cross country ski season. Time to pull out the ice skates and hit one of Duluth’s fine outdoor rinks.
Any recommendations about places to rent skates here in town?
Brother Ali at St. Scholastica
Friday, Feb. 17, 6 p.m.
Brother Ali will be playing at the Mitchell auditorium at CSS. Tickets are available at the Electric Fetus for only $15 or email amnesty @ css.edu
Jack Campbell of Excuse Me Princess releases EP
Jack Campbell is working with Nate Rendulich of Blue Water Dance and Keith Yanes of Coal Car Caboose and will be playing around town starting this Spring. Download the EP, Control, for free!
UWS Student Exhibition
The Superior Council for the Arts and North End Arts Gallery are showing University of Wisconsin-Superior student-artist paintings, weaving and sculpture until Feb. 11.
North End Arts Gallery is in the Red Mug Building at 1323 Broadway St. in Superior. Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. T-TH-F-S.
Duluth Art Institute event was very special
View from the balcony down into the Great Hall. Music by Tangier 57 permeated the scene as friends of the arts enjoyed the Member Show below.
Wednesday evening at the Depot there were four art openings in one … including the Member Show, and exhibits by Kathy McTavish, Steve Read and Emerging Photgraphers. Here is my take on the night. The DAI is a gift to our community in so many ways. Check in and check it out.
Duluth Care Package
Let’s say you were sending a care package to someone. You want it to reflect Duluth. The female recipient is in college out of state and isn’t from Duluth (although her parents are recent transplants). What would you send?
Farewell, Newspaper Lady
The Newspaper Lady has died. When I moved here, I stubbornly continued to red MSP papers for a year. At every street festival, at every new student weekend on campus at UMD and LSC, she was there, giving out papers and tempting me with deals. After about four free papers and four smooth pitches, I became a DNT subscriber and never looked back.
Thank you, Newspaper Lady. You helped make Duluth home.
See: “Man held on suspicion of drunken driving in Duluth crash that kills woman, injures grandson” for details.
Fiasco Changes
Just a heads up: Friday night’s Homegrown Winter Fiasco has moved Murder of Crows (featuring Gaelynn Lea & Alan Sparhawk) to Carmody Irish Pub @ 11:30PM, and the Acceleratii to the Rex Bar @ 12:30AM. That’s why it’s called a fiasco, folks.
Dahlberg Appointed to Port Authority
St. Louis County Commissioner Chris Dahlberg has been appointed to the Duluth Seaway Port Authority. This is an excellent move toward economic development in our area. Our state needs to put more business-minded individuals like Dahlberg into theses positions. Better yet, the state needs to get more business oriented across the board.
Google Kansas City: Poles & Tubes
Google Fiber work in KCK is delayed by dispute over how its wires are hung.
Duluth vs. the Midwest
January in Duluth rolls on, including a piece on Rich Narum’s monthly dip in Lake Superior for over 15 years.
I have an invitation to offer — I’m looking for Wisconsinites and other Midwesterners who have relocated to Duluth to talk about their process of adjustment, assimilation, and Duluthification. I was looking to record parts of this conversation, this Saturday, at Anchor Bar in Superior. Any immigrants interested in a drink and chat?
SOPA/PIPA Info
Welcome back to your regularly scheduled Perfect Duluth Day programming. For roughly 24 hours, PDD was blacked out to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Protect IP Act in the U.S. Senate, co-sponsored by senators Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar.
Now that the silence is over, rant and rave all you want in the comments.
Here are some news links:
Fox 21: “Websites Black-Out in Protest of Possible Internet Censorship”
MPR: Delegation responds to Internet piracy bills
AP: Wikipedia editors question site’s SOPA blackout