June 2016 Posts

Uber poised to enter Duluth market

Uber logoThe question might not be why Duluth doesn’t have Uber service, but when it will.

“By the end of the year,” said Duluth City Councilor Noah Hobbs. “From my personal end I don’t see anything holding us back from having Uber operating in Duluth.”

Hobbs held the first formal meeting on Tuesday in regard to the ride-hailing web application operating in the city. He met with City Attorney Nate LaCoursiere as a starting point for crafting an ordinance to regulate Uber and other transportation network companies.

Unlike taxicabs, Uber utilizes an online platform to connect drivers in their personal vehicles with riders paying for fares through the touch of a button, no cash. This type of techy transportation is taking place in 476 cities worldwide and counting. Uber started out seven years ago in cities like San Francisco and Chicago, and has recently expanded into smaller communities like Moorhead and Iowa City.

Northern Isolation II

Northern Isolation IIThe three-day Northern Isolation music and art festival returns to Duluth Aug. 19-21 for a second annual showcase of punk, metal and experimental acts. Along with plenty of local talent are several traveling bands like Lumpy & the Dumpers (from Missouri) and Happy Diving (from California).

“Northern Isolation is the product of my frustrations with the overbearing amount of conventional thinking, trends, and egotism in the world,” says promoter Dean Berlinerblau. “It’s a positively manifested ‘fuck you’ to the world’s expectations.”

The fest will be primarily comprised of shows at the Carter Building, a new skatepark, music venue and art gallery at 214-1/2 E. First St. off the alley behind the NorShor Theatre. There will also be two ambient shows in the Red Herring‘s basement Red Room, and two after-party shows at locations to be announced. An art show will be featured at the Carter during the fest and Duluth Coffee Company will be serving free coffee to keep attendees energized.

Tickets to Northern Isolation II can be found online or purchased at the door.

How to support CASDA’s 2016 Golf Scramble

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The Center Against Sexual and Domestic Abuse‘s annual “Socks for Survivors” Golf Scramble is just over a month away. Even if you’re not a golfer, you can help ensure its success.

Norshor Theatre renovations begin

NorShor BarThe deal to restore Duluth’s historic Norshor Theatre has finally come together, and renovation work is underway. Last week, WDSE-TV‘s Almanac North hosts Dennis Anderson and Julie Zenner discussed the project with Duluth Mayor Emily Larson and Duluth Playhouse Executive and Artistic Director Christine Gradl Seitz.

Blacklist’s Brian Schanzenbach profiled in The Growler

Photo by JaneCane Photography / www.janecanephotography.comMinnesota craft-culture magazine The Growler features Brian Schanzenbach of Duluth’s Blacklist Artisan Ales in its latest brewer profile. The article outlines Schanzenbach’s days floating a raft down the Mississippi River, studying biology and microbiology at UMD, interning at Lake Superior Brewing Company, brewing at Fitger’s Brewhouse and launching Blacklist in 2013.

Brewer Profile: Brian Schanzenbach of Blacklist Artisan Ales

Happy Thirteenth Birthday to Us

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Perfect Duluth Day is thirteen years old today — Wednesday, June 29, 2016. The official celebration is at Vikre Distillery in Canal Park. Here’s a link to the Facebook invite. Come on down.

Local casket business dies

Duluth Casket ShopHey, when did Duluth Casket Shop go out of business? Did local media completely fail to produce the kind of headline people get into journalism for in the first place?

Postcards from Cascade Park

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Duluth’s Cascade Park still exists, but it’s nothing compared to what it used to be. In the late 1800s a sandstone pavilion and bell tower overlooked the city, with Clark House Creek running through it and down toward a pond and lush gardens. The bell tower was destroyed during a storm, and Mesaba Avenue eventually ate up part of the park, pushing the creek completely underground. These old postcards offer a look at what was once Duluth’s most extravagant park.

Grandma’s Marathon 2016 Double: A Movement

[This post originally contained an embedded video that is no longer available at its source.]

Eric Strand cranks out the Grandma’s Double for the fifth consecutive year. Amazing feat and another fun video.

This Week: brewmeisters, books, blog birthdays and more

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Here’s a bit of what you’ll find in this week’s PDD Calendar:

Wildwoods will share how it helps animals in need at the Duluth Public Library, the Duluth Transit Authority challenges people across the Northland to ride the bus to and from work during their annual breakfast, Gooseberry Falls is the place to learn about the Civilian Conservation Corps while hiking, local politicians will talk about what they are doing to help provide solutions to poverty in the area, immortal hosers Bob and Doug McKenzie are back up on the big screen to once again free Rosie LaRose from the evil Brewmeister Smith at the Zinema and the nerds are having a Nerd, Hot American Summer.

The Duluth Chamber of Commerce gives Vikre Distillery an opportunity to talk about their marketing strategies, Yoga North offers a six-week-long series of classes to beginners to yoga, Author Brian Freeman comes to Duluth to talk about why he sets his books here, the history of the soon-to-be-revived NorShor Theatre is discussed during the latest Zenith City on Tap event and the Scenic St. Louis River Railroad is again chugging away.

Oh, and your friendly neighborhood blog is celebrating its lucky thirteenth, too.

A Day in Duluth Timelapse

Douglas Feltman starts at the Thomson Hill overlook and tours Lincoln Park, Enger Park, Chester Creek, Congdon Park, Lester Park, Canal Park and finally Park Point during the weekend of the Park Point Rummage Sale.

Images of the amazing June 2016 storm cloud over Duluth

Jesse Wannemacher Cary Schmies Devin Carpenter

Images by three different photographers: Jesse Wannemacher, Cary Schmies and Devin Carpenter. (Click on any thumbnail to see the full image.)

Getting “juiced” at the Red Herring takes on new meaning

Giselle Hernandez

Giselle Hernandez

Most Americans fail miserably at consuming the USDA’s recommended 2 cups of fruit and 2.5-3 cups of vegetables per day. Beginning June 27, Twin Ports residents striving to meet this goal can opt for fruit and veggies in liquid form from the Juice Pharm.

Giselle Hernandez is the certified nutritionist behind the juicery, which will operate out of the Red Herring Lounge at 208 E. First St. Hernandez became interested in nutrition and eating whole foods during a hospital stay after a bad car accident. She soon tired of unhealthy, bland hospital fare and was thankful when a friend’s mother brought her supplements like coconut water and green drinks. She says these healthy options improved her energy and credits them with speeding her healing process.

When Hernandez recovered, she decided to study nutrition. She got her certification from the Natural Healing Institute in California. When she moved to Duluth three years ago, she was surprised the juice bar trend hadn’t reached the city. She says drinking juice has many benefits, one of the primary being illness prevention. She advocates juicing as a way to “get people to eat better and nourish the body with whole foods.”

What is the dawn chorus of birds?

In the West Duluth area we get two choruses — a din of birds sing-talking. It’s annoying. It happens at dawn and also dusk. I am wondering if there is an expert who could tell me what type of bird this might be. I don’t have a recording, but it usually goes something like wa-oh wa-oh wa-oh twitter spike. The song is really varied with each “sentence” or “question.” It happens before the crows start their cawing craziness and the seagulls start piping up.

Wonderful Wandering: Lessons on Love from Steve and Sam

Michelle Rowley - Saturday EssayLearning lessons in love from my parents’ relationship was nearly impossible. They were a couple if ever in love, fell out of love long before the sperm hit the egg that created me.

But my father Steve, a very logical accounting professor, taught me much about love. That it is a force of nature, learned through our adventures in woods and canyons. If you get caught up in a storm, make sure you have a sturdy Hefty trash bag to wear, a flashlight, and wait it out in a cave. Always carry toilet paper because you never know when you will have to clean up the crap you’ve created. In other words, like nature, love is unpredictable; he thought it best to prepare logically.

This brings me to Sam Cooke’s “Wonderful World,” a song which deeply perplexes my father. As I was growing up, every time this song came on the radio my father would begin a conversation. I was unsure if he was speaking to Sam, God, the Universe, or me. My father has a tendency to think aloud, usually the same string of comments or questions sparked by the same stimulus. “Wonderful World” is one of those stimuli that baffle him.

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