Month: February 2021
PDD Quiz: February 2021 in Review
Test your memory of February 2021 headlines with this week’s current events quiz!
In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, the next PDD quiz will look at Irish (and Irish-adjacent) things in the Twin Ports; it will be published on March 14. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by March 11. (more…)
Dreams and Themes
Last week I had a series of interconnected dreams over three nights. I was first introduced to the idea of interconnected dreams by the book A Little Course in Dreams: A Basic Handbook of Jungian Dreamwork by Robert Bosnak. The book is pocket-sized which makes the title a self-referential joke. But the book has had an outsized influence on me. I don’t always agree with its interpretations — dream interpretation is a subjective crapshoot — but it helped.
I am blessed with the ability to easily remember and interpret many of my dreams. The revelatory insight from the book was the idea that dreams can come in clusters over many nights. I began noticing themes and symbols evolving over time. I frequently see this across spans of three or four nights. And some symbols have recurred over my entire life and continue working themselves out. As Bosnak writes, “Dreams often group themselves around specific themes that begin to unfold over time. Images go through a continual process of change, and such a process can sometimes be followed in a series of images that have presented themselves to someone as dreams. The insight that emerges when we study a series of dreams is that dream figures are in a constant state of development. Like any living organism, they come into being and decay.” (more…)
Cory Coffman – “Midnight Callin'”
Duluth’s Cory Coffman has released the third music video promoting his 2020 album Canvas and Color.
Videography by Alyssa Johnson of Blind Spot Creatives. Editing by Mason Lehto.
Duluth’s Sharon McMahon on the Daily Show
Former government teacher Sharon McMahon appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah on Monday, sharing why she started her fact-based Instagram account @sharonsaysso and explaining how she separates fact from conspiracy, breaking down the difference between a lie and bias.
The Duluth News Tribune reports McMahon was president of the political science association at the University of Minnesota Duluth. She taught in St. Paul, the San Francisco Bay area and a Maryland suburb of D.C. before returning to Duluth.
Duluth News Tribune: “Duluthian appears on ‘The Daily Show,’ CNN for her viral Instagram account that slays conspiracies, promotes facts”
Selective Focus: The Old West End
Photographer Nik Nerburn (previously on PDD) has just published a book of photos and stories following the last few years of transformation in Duluth’s West End, more recently and commonly known as Lincoln Park. We get a sneek peek at a few of the images in the book.
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John Rudd turning a complete somersault on skis
As documented on this old postcard, Duluthian John Rudd is credited as having performed the first somersault on skies. It happened at Chester Bowl, then known as Chester Creek Hill. (more…)
Riverbend Skate Path in Warroad
About 200 miles northwest of Duluth, the Warroad River connects two ice rinks with a 2.5-mile skating path cleared by local dads.
Also in wild skating news, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is mentioned in the National Geographic online story, “‘It really is like flying.’ Explore wild skating on nature’s ice.” The article “glides across icy geographies, including Minnesota, Colorado, Alaska, and Vermont, where a 4.3-mile skate trail on Lake Morey ranks as the longest in the U.S.,” according to a blurb on the publication’s Travel newsletter.
The Slice: Duluth Lakewalk Reconstruction
Watch reconstruction of the Duluth Lakewalk unfold over the past year in this time-lapse video, compiled from footage via Veit & Company. (more…)
Voyageur Wolves: Cranberry Bay Pack
Four members of the Cranberry Bay Pack of wolves cross the camera in this video from the Voyageurs Wolf Project. The wolf that stands in front of the camera is a pup that was born last spring.
Cranberry Bay is on Rainy Lake, about 125 miles north of Duluth in Voyageurs National Park. The Voyageurs Wolf Project is focused on understanding the summer ecology of wolves in the park.
Fish Frozen in Lake Superior Ice Sheet
Fish of increasing size frozen at various depths in 8 inches of ice or so. Pic #1: 3-inch fish. Pic #2: 6-inch fish. Pic # 3: 12-inch fish.
Postcard from Twin Points Resort
This undated postcard, from Gallagher’s Studio of Photography, shows an aerial view from Lake Superior of Twin Points Resort in the Silver Creek Township northeast of Two Harbors. The area is now known as Iona’s Beach Scientific and Natural Area. (more…)
Duluth is where cool musicians go to retire
Teenage Prayers photo by Orianna Riley from PopMatters.
Teenage Prayers is a band from my days in college radio in Milwaukee. KUMD and KUWS approach the college radio vibe, but in the 1990s, college radio was a thing, and Teenage Prayers was a part of the thing. (more…)
Duluth’s Dirty Secret goes live
One listen to the opening of The Duluth Local Show on the Current and a person gets a sense of the folksy, wholesome veneer the city imparts to its people and out of towners alike when it comes to its cultural musical identity. It’s the birth place of Bob Dylan, in case you didn’t know. But, just beneath the woodsy surface and what hides in so many of the homes in the Hillside above Bob Dylan Way, gulp, are an impressive number of artists plugging in synthesizers, drum machines, samplers … oh my! (more…)
Polar Vortex
Early morning winter cold floods in through the gaps between the sheet and mattress. The cold is so powerful, so penetrating, I imagine it to be as fluid as a rushing river with the ability to seep into minute cracks and crevices. In the chaos of adjusting the comforter and pulling the pillow into my impromptu cocoon, my sleep-hat has gone AWOL. An instinctual desire to escape the cold and fortify the barrier makes me abandon any pursuit of the lost headpiece.
A new form of low temperature has erupted in Minnesota, a reverse volcano maybe. Not a temperature so high it melts rock, but one so powerfully low it could probably fracture silk. This kind of cold, the kind that cracks house rafters, and spiderwebs the smallest chip in a windshield, has blown in from the north. Weather enthusiasts call it a Polar Vortex — something about the North Pole, and cold, and pressure. But at five o’clock in the morning in northern Minnesota, those technical, and normally interesting, scientific truths can crawl into a snowbank as far as I am concerned. Whether it’s a vortex, or cyclone, or Voldemort’s Dementors unleashed, the only truth that encapsulates this moment is something I learned years ago: “cold is the absence of heat.” (more…)
Selective Focus: Icy Blue Gitche Gu
Via Instagram, select images of Lake Superior in wintry blue. (more…)
Trampled by Turtles – “Don’t Look Down” at First Avenue
Check out a little dueling mandolin action from Trampled by Turtles‘ “Trampled by Thursdays” at First Avenue, directed and edited by Charlie Berg. Each Thursday at 8 p.m. during February, TBT is performing online concerts from the famed Minneapolis venue. Each set has full production and behind-the-scenes footage.
Tickets are available at boxoffice.mandolin.com. A portion of each ticket/bundle sold goes toward Save Our Stages to help independent music venues hit hard during the pandemic. Each ticket purchase let viewers watch as many times as they like for 48 hours after the premiere.
Heely Tricks with JamesG: January 2021
Yet another installment of wheeled-sneaker stunts from former Duluthian James Geisler, also known as the hip-hop artist JamesG.
Video: Wolf pack on a beach in northern Minnesota
“Definitely the coolest footage of a wolf pack traveling together that we have ever captured,” begins the YouTube description of this clip from the Voyageurs Wolf Project. Though recently uploaded, the clip is from October. The SD cards on the camera were changed in late January, leading to the recent discovery of the Shoepack Lake Pack footage — seven wolves strolling the beach 120 miles north of Duluth in Voyageurs National Park. The Voyageurs Wolf Project is focused on understanding the summer ecology of wolves in the park.
The Slice: Snow Sculpting in Lincoln Park
The father-and-son team of Steve and Austin Lentz transform a block of snow into a beautiful snow globe scene at Ursa Minor Brewing in Lincoln Park.
In its series The Slice, WDSE-TV presents short “slices of life” that capture the events and experiences that bring people together and speak to what it means to live up north.
Video Archive: Johnny Heartless joins Bone Appetit
Twenty years ago today — Feb. 16, 2001 — a mysterious guitar player emerged from the audience at the NorShor Theatre to join Duluth band Bone Appetit for a rendition of the Judas Priest song “Living After Midnight.”
Sydney Hansen – “Fallin”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzSTe0xvYsg
Duluth’s Sydney Hansen has released this music video for her new single “Fallin.” The video is directed by Jeff Sherman and Vanessa Miles and features Hunter Conrad.
Ye Olde Duluth Train Stations
Random collection of Duluth train station postcards. (more…)
Duluth area map challenges on Geoguessr
Geoguessr is a website that features variations on a rather simple game: you are shown a location through a modified version of Google Streetview. You must guess where you are by marking the location on a map. The labels and location marker normally added by Google have been removed, so you must rely on a compass and clues from the environment. The closer your guess is to the correct location, the more points you get. Each game consists of five rounds. The tops scores appear on the main page for each map, with a tie going to the player who finishes the fastest. (more…)
PDD Quiz: “I Like it in Duluth”
In honor of Valentine’s Day (and this quiz writer’s 100th PDD quiz), we’ll take a deep dive into an oft-covered song that expresses affection (or at least affinity) for the Zenith City: “I Like it in Duluth.” This PDD post may come in handy for cheating studying; those seeking an extra challenge can take the quiz cold!
The next PDD quiz will review this month’s headlines; it will be published on Feb. 28. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by Feb. 24. (more…)
Video: Ice-fishing gear floating away on Lake Superior ice sheets
Marius Anderson of London Road Films shot this aerial footage in Duluth on Tuesday after an ice sheet broke from the shore and took a group of nearly 30 ice anglers out into Lake Superior. The Duluth Fire Department rescued all of the anglers; most of the equipment was lost. (more…)