Month: September 2018

Video Archive: Illgen Falls Huckamania

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41ex3_9vzHY

Andy McMurray uploaded this video to YouTube ten years ago today — Sept. 5, 2008. It shows a group of Duluth kayakers plunging down Illgen Falls at the Baptism River, about 60 miles northeast of Duluth. The video also details the work a video crew went through to set up shots — rigging highlines, pulleys and ropes.

The video was described on Perfect Duluth Day in 2008 as “tightrope walking meets kayak boating.”

Alex Frecon – “I’m From Minnesota (The Minnesota Anthem)”

This new video from Minneapolis hip-hop artist Alex Frecon features a few scenes shot in Duluth.

BusinessNorth owners purchase Lake Superior Magazine

Left to right above: New Lake Superior Magazine owners Beth Bily and Ron Brochu, former owners Cindy Hayden and Paul Hayden

Two longtime, Duluth-based media organizations with a combined 66 years in existence are now under the same ownership following the Aug. 31 sale of Lake Superior Magazine and its associated books and merchandising operations to the publishers of BusinessNorth and Scenic Range News Forum. The entities announced the sale in a news release today. (more…)

The 4ontheFloor – “Radio Edit [Explicit]”

Minneapolis band the 4ontheFloor, featuring occasional Duluthian Gabriel Douglas, has a new music video out, a new album on the way and a Kickstarter campaign nearly wrapped up. (more…)

Alice Cooper – “Remarkably Insincere”

Alice Cooper drops a reference to Duluth on this song from his 1982 album Zipper Catches Skin. (more…)

Mystery Photo #71: Duluth Eagles Club Summer Home

There doesn’t appear to be much information on the internet about the Duluth Eagles Club in general, much less the summer home shown on this old postcard. When were the Duluth Eagles formed? When did the club disband? Where is Grand View Beach / Aeire Lake? And where was the club’s main lodge in Duluth? (more…)

Congdon Pumphouse highlights historic home tour

A 19th Century Duluth pump house was converted into living space by Elisabeth Congdon in 1937. The property will be open during the Duluth Preservation Alliance Historic Property Tour Sept. 16.

Duluth has dozens of spectacular waterfront properties with amazing Lake Superior views but only one home has a front porch featuring metal wave deflectors and living room windows equipped with hurricane shutters. (more…)

Postcard from the Steamer Thomas F. Cole

This postcard depicts the Thomas F. Cole in the Duluth shipping channel on her maiden trip to Duluth. The message on the back of the card appears to be dated Sept. 1, 1908. (more…)

1,186 Days

It’s been three years since I drank alcohol. More, actually: in fact, for the past three years, two months, 29 days (counting today — I’m feeling optimistic) I have abstained from alcohol. For 1,186 days, I have not had a single drink. Not a single beer, shot of tequila — not one lone glass of wine.

Which is sort of amazing, because during the 20 years before that I drank my face off.

Typically, I drank between three and five beers a night. By the last year I was drinking, most weekend nights, I drank five. I’m not the Incredible Hulk over here, either. I’ve always been a tallish, thinnish lady, and I never had miraculous, superhuman tolerance, like Raiders of the Lost Ark’s Marion in that bar in Nepal. Five beers made me drunk. Which was the whole idea. I was a heavy drinker.

In spite of my volume of alcohol consumption, I’m not an alcoholic. Some of you might be thinking, “So, you just quit drinking for nothingAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH???” And I get that. I’ll give you a moment to shriek into the throw pillows of nearby Barcaloungers for a moment while you assimilate that terrible and inexplicable chunk of information. (more…)