March 2021 Posts

Gretings from Daluth

Selective Focus: March Aurora

This past weekend’s aurora did not disappoint. Gathered here are some of the best shots, culled from Instagram.

Duluth Soo Line Depot

Duluth’s Soo Line passenger depot opened at 602 W. Superior St. in 1910. It was designed by C. E. Bell, Tyrie and Chapman of Minneapolis in the Romanesque style. The depot closed in the 1960s and was torn down in 1972.

Community Action Duluth’s Mobile Market

Community Action Duluth launched its Community Mobile Market in February. A sort of “grocery store on wheels,” the refrigerated truck is stocked with fresh produce and staples like grains, dairy products and canned goods.

In the video above, Karl Becker and Even Flom talk about the program. Becker is master of social work student interning with Seeds of Success, Community Action Duluth’s food justice program. Flom is the Seeds of Success program coordinator.

Leif Brush – “Terraplane Chorography I”

Artist Leif Brush, who taught at the University of Minnesota Duluth from 1976 to 2002, died on March 15 at the age of 88. His obituary can be found on cremationsocietyofmn.com.

The video “Terraplane Chorography I,” embedded above, is a performance with audio tape and live piano, shot at the Tweed Museum of Art in 1979 and digitized from videocassette in 2011.

I Don’t Want to See Another Naked Woman as Long as I Live

“All you sweet girls with all of your sweet talk, you can all go take a walk” – The Velvet Underground, “Heroin”

I am not on heroin, I’m expressing freedom from love and sex. I’m celibate as a monk from here on out. Retire my jersey, I’m out of the game. You can leave your hat on — and all the rest of it too. Quoth the bard, “Love stinks.” If you ever wonder if I want to get in your pants: I don’t.

The title of this piece is an actual quote. I heard someone say it while they were having really remarkable romantic troubles. You can switch the genders up in this essay to suit your tastes. The sentiment works any which way. I am not advocating a lifestyle. This is not an aspirational document. It’s just that I’ve been thinking: I’ve approached love like the depraved addict in “Heroin.”

Love and sex have always been indistinguishable to me. I loved everyone I ever made it with, or I wanted to love them, or I tried to love them. Whatever it takes to pick up strangers and have casual sex, I never had it. My game was serial monogamy. I was good at that for many years, traipsing from relationship to relationship. But I started living like I needed a partner to make me whole. I am not a sex addict, but I behaved like a love addict. And isn’t that what addicts are supposed to do: quit?

Glitteratti – “I Don’t Always”

A new album by Duluth band Glitteratti is in the works, titled Rectify!

But the most important thing to know is that the first video is comprised entirely of footage from Marc Gartman’s bar mitzvah in 1987.

PDD on KUMD’s “The Local”

KUMD’s DJ Marvin Themix interviews Perfect Duluth Day’s Paul Lundgren, talking about how PDD started and how the pandemic has affected it, and also discussing the evolution of the local music scene and previewing the Homegrown Music Festival.

Former UMD student behind viral Bryant Lake Bowl video

The drone operator who flew the crazy stunts in the Bryant Lake Bowl viral video has a Duluth connection. Jay Christensen attended the University of Minnesota Duluth.

Duluthian’s film starring Bob Saget in production

Duluth’s Matthew Dressel is in the Cayman Islands working on a feature-length film starring Bob Saget, the Duluth News Tribune reports.

Dressel was featured on Perfect Duluth Day in a 2019 Selective Focus post and his short movie Just Coffee appeared on PDD in 2018.

Postcard from Little Two Harbors

This undated postcard from Duluth Photo Engraving Company shows Ellingson Island at Little Two Harbors, the bay best known for its views of Split Rock Lighthouse.

Duluth Concert Archive: Blue Oyster Cult in 1977

From the archives. Were you in attendance? Also, does anyone know where/what Samahdi Sound was in Ashland?

The Slice: Moira Villiard’s “Madweyaashkaa”

Duluth visual artist and Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa descendant Moira Villiard reflects on her latest project: “Illuminate the Lock: Madweyaashkaa – Waves Can Be Heard,” featured in February on the St. Anthony Falls lock wall in Minneapolis.

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.

Call for Performers: Welcome Home {Grown} | Live {Stream}

We miss live music! We all miss live music … right?

This will be the 11th year of 2104’s Soup Social, dubbed #SoupB4Supe. Last year we were forced into the Live Stream gig … and now Bryce Kastning and I, also with support from a few others, have been producing Music Live Stream’s since April 2020. If you haven’t listened to our streams … you can pick them up as often as you want, they are at youtube.com/duluthiscool or 2104.us. As of this writing, we have created 22 streams from 2104.

Frosted Flakes in Duluth

Duluth gets a quick and silly mention in the March 13 episode of Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!, a weekly radio show produced by WBEZ in Chicago and National Public Radio. At the tail end of the clip embedded above, the panel talks about the virtues of pizza for breakfast instead cereal and jokes that people never argue about which city has the best cereal, resulting in the crack, “You haven’t had Frosted Flakes until you’ve had Frosted Flakes in Duluth.”