Month: April 2021
2104 announces livestream schedule for week of Homegrown
Sunday, May 2
• 6pm Kaylee Matuszak
• 7pm Bill Flannagan
• 8pm Sugar on the Roof (more…)
Glitteratti – Joseah!
Duluth band Glitteratti has released the second video promoting its forthcoming album Rectify! Like the previous video, it is comprised entirely of footage from Marc Gartman’s bar mitzvah in 1987.
Flight 3247 to Duluth
In what must be the most trivial Duluth reference ever reported on Perfect Duluth Day, we note that season 6, episode 4 of the animated television show Archer includes a scene at a Chicago airport where the flight information display system shows a scheduled Duluth departure as “on time.”
Monthly Grovel: April 2021
As pokes in the arm are liberally distributed and people move from six feet apart to four or five, the PDD Calendar continues to catalog local events — some in person, many online. Each month we reach out with one beggarly blog post to remind everyone that human beings and not machines are at work editing and publishing calendar events. So if you appreciate it, drop a few bucks in the PayPal account. (more…)
CNN: Duluth is becoming a safe haven for climate refugees
“People are moving to Duluth, Minnesota, for one particularly big reason,” CNN reports in a new video for its Project Planet series. “Is anywhere safe from the climate crisis?” the story asks, answering that some say Duluth is “the new ‘climate refuge.'” (more…)
Robot Rickshaw’s Spring Rite
The Embassy wrapped up its first season of “plaguestreams” earlier this month, and now Robot Rickshaw has released this excerpt of a spring rite. (more…)
UMD literary magazine Roaring Muse reactivated
Cover of Roaring Muse.
From the story on UMD’s website:
UMD’s literary magazine Roaring Muse is a student-led magazine that was started in 1997 by UMD’s Literary Guild. Often including poetry, prose, and artwork, and edited by students, Roaring Muse sought to highlight the great work by UMD’s community, and at one point solicited submissions from community members outside the campus. Since its beginnings in ’97, the magazine has been published on and off and is currently back up and running. (more…)
Douglas County Historical Society Museum circa 1949
The postcards shown here were sold at the Douglas County Historical Museum circa 1949. Above is the pioneer kitchen display at the museum. (more…)
R.I.P. Robert’s Home Furnishings building
The former Robert’s Home Furnishings building at 2102 W. Superior St. in Lincoln Park was torn down last week. Robert Rothenberger launched furniture retail business in 1987 and closed its doors in October 2018 upon retirement. Roberts was part of the “big three” furniture stores that anchored the West End for decades. The building was constructed 1890 as a lumber warehouse. Rachel Development, based in St. Michael, Minn., plans to build a four-story, 74-unit housing project on the site. Rothenberger died in November. Photo by Mark Nicklawske.
Last Rites of John Defoe
One hundred years ago today the Duluth Herald reported on military honors given to John Defoe, who the paper credits as “the first American Indian who fell in the World war to be returned to his native land for burial.” (more…)
Heely Tricks with JamesG: March 2021
Another quick selection of wheeled sneaker stunts by former Duluthian James Geisler, also known as the hip-hop artist JamesG.
PDD Quiz: Duluth Parks II
Test your knowledge of Duluth’s western parks in this week’s quiz! As with the previous quiz on Duluth parks, Tony Dierckins’ and Nancy S. Nelson’s Duluth’s Historical Parks: Their First 160 Years was an indispensible resource. Historical images from the Kathryn A. Martin Library’s Northeast Minnesota Historical Collection were accessed through the Minnesota Digital Library, another excellent resource for local history buffs.
The next PDD quiz, reviewing this month’s headlines, will be published on April 25. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by April 21. (more…)
Aerial Video: St. Louis River in Spring at Sunset
Adam Jagunich takes his Yuneec Typhoon H Plus on it’s maiden flight over the St. Louis River as the sun sets in western Duluth.
Homegrown Music Festival Field Guide 2021 out this weekend
The 23rd annual Homegrown Music Festival is less than a month away. A 60-page Field Guide is off the presses and will be available at local bars, restaurants and other businesses over the course of the next few days. (more…)
The Floating Island of Fremont, Duluth’s Breakaway Township
As documented in the book Duluth: An Illustrated History: “The opening of the Duluth canal proved to have a beneficial effect which its promoters had not anticipated. Currents flowing through the channel carried away a considerable amount of rotting timber and mucky islets which had infested the harbor. In fact, one of Duluth’s original townsites — Fremont — was thus swept out into Lake Superior and lost forever.”
The Zenith City Press website confirms the account: new currents swept several floating bogs in the harbor out to sea. The largest of these islands was 1,200 feet long and 400 feet wide — larger than the largest lake vessel — and it contained the township of Fremont. It began where Rice’s Point is today, and on May 10, 1873, it passed through the canal to the open sea.
I must correct the error, often propagated, that Fremont broke up that night in rough water. The truth is, Fremont is still out there, population 299, comprised of 20 families that each own a business. I know because I have been to Fremont. I have hiked its marshes and shopped its cute, bustling downtown. I have fished off its docks. I have traded stories, dreams, and fears with Fremonters around beach campfires.
Many people have. Lake Superior is dotted with cities that Fremont has visited. I highly recommend, next time Fremont is visible on the horizon, try to get there. The Fremont music scene is a delight. And of course anyone who loves lake culture and the outdoors probably already knows about it. (more…)
Sam Ali’s “artistic interpretation” of UMD hockey highlights
So as some of you know, we're not allowed to show highlights of games on ESPN. So with the UMD-UMass game only in the second intermission, I had to improvise with the "highlights": pic.twitter.com/BnXnNwaAU9
— Sam Ali (@SamAliSports) April 9, 2021
The UMD Bulldogs hockey season came to an end last night with a 3-2 loss in overtime to the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Before it was over, Sam Ali had to report on the game without using ESPN footage. He figured it out.
Selective Focus: Look at the Birdy
Recent photos of local birds via Instagram. (more…)
Video: Levi LaVallee’s Duluth Snowmobile Stunts
Snowmobile stunt rider and Minnesota native Levi LaVallee was in Duluth during the first week of March filming this stunt video. Watch him defy gravity at Spirit Mountain, Lake Avenue, Rice’s Point and more. (more…)
Postcard from the Passenger Steamer South American
This undated postcard, published by Zenith Interstate News Company, shows the Steamer South American on Lake Superior. It was built for the Chicago, Duluth & Georgian Bay Transit Company and launched as an overnight passenger ship on Feb. 21, 1914. A fire in 1924 required the upper works of the vessel to be rebuilt, resulting in the addition of a second smokestack, which is shown on the postcard. (more…)
Syd & the Boys – “Sweet Jane”
Duluth band Syd & the Boys, featuring Sydney Hansen, have a new music video shot on the fishing dock on Rice Point that was once part of the Duluth-Superior Interstate Bridge. The video was edited by Grent Ellis Cañete, who plays guitar in the band. Other band members are drummer Ian Hopp and bassist Calvin Lund.
The song is a cover of the 1970 Velvet Underground classic “Sweet Jane,” styled after the 1988 Cowboy Junkies version.
Video: Duluth State of the City Address 2021
Via WDIO-TV, Duluth Mayor Emily Larson outlines priorities for Duluth with her State of the City address.
Duluth’s longest mayoral term started in 1921
On April 5, 1921 — one hundred years ago today — Samuel Frisby Snively was elected mayor of Duluth. He held the office for four terms spanning 16 years. Duluth has had two three-term mayors who served for 12 years, John Fedo and Gary Doty. (more…)
Minnesota All Hockey Hair Team 2021: Go with the Flow
Masks, a global pandemic and no cameras on the ice for intros. Hockey hair video maker John King did the only thing he could do this year — go with the flow.
Hairmentown gets a brief mention at the 2:30 mark for it’s junior varsity hockey hair, with King noting JV should stand for “juicy vinaigrette” when referencing the salad of the Hawks.