Month: November 2023
Making connections. Even small, brief ones.
A lot of people say today’s college students are indifferent and want nothing to do with the older generation. I disagree! (more…)
Cub Cadet
Ma’iingan came by to look at the snowblower, a 2001 Cub Cadet 926 SWE 8-horse, at noon on an early November Saturday a year ago. The last backyard maple, birch, and popple leaves had fallen overnight. Around 11:45 I brushed a few from the engine with my hardware-store work gloves before starting the machine and testing the controls. After he got there we crunched around in an ankle-deep layer of leaves while discussing the blower’s features and flaws.
I was selling the Cub Cadet for Frasier’s Mom. She and he (a nifty brindle pit-bull-mix with sweet chocolate eyes) lived next-door to us for about five years. They moved to southern Wisconsin last October after an unexpected decision by her landlord. Frasier’s Mom had bought the snowblower new. While showing me how it worked she recalled how the rural sales guy had treated her better — just talked to her like an actual equal human being — than she had been treated by any other man while buying power equipment. She also told a couple stories about hard work she and the machine had done during winters in small cities and tiny towns and out in the sticks. I don’t think she wanted to sell it or leave Duluth. I do know she and Frasier seemed to be having a blast every time they left for and returned from Chester Bowl trail walks. (more…)
Selective Focus: Masha Conner’s Character Drawings & Pro-Choice Art
When Masha Conner isn’t working as a nurse at WE Health clinic, she can be found pouring her passion for abortion access, drag shows and cosplay into her character designs. A collection of her drawings and a recent interview can be read below: (more…)
Mystery Photo: Thiel’s Art Gallery in Duluth
Who is the handsome gentleman in this cabinet card photo? That information might be lost to history, but we know from the printing on the card that the image was shot at Carl Thiel’s Art Gallery in Duluth. Handwritten on the back of the card is the date: “Jan. 1896.” (more…)
Rafe Carlson – “Bound to Get Burned”
Hermantown native Rafe Carlson has a new single, captured in this video from Bo Allen Productions.
Duluth 2023 General Election Results
With 34 of 34 precincts reporting, here are the results of Duluth’s municipal election.
Duluth Mayor
Roger Reinert – 17,518
Emily Larson – 11,716
Write in – 61 (more…)
Burning Down the House
Duluth’s Jean Kirwan compiled this montage of “catastrophe, calamity and chaos from classic comedies.”
Duluth Broadcast Television Station Guide
The Duluth market has seven broadcast television stations producing 29 channels of digital programming. Here’s a look at what’s available to those willing to jostle an antenna. (more…)
Tour of Superior’s Roosevelt Terrace offered Nov. 18
The Superior Telegram reports that a tour of three of the historic townhouses that make up Roosevelt Terrace in Superior will be held on Nov. 18. The event is a fundraiser for the Douglas County Historical Society and a school project for two Glenwood City High School students.
Roosevelt Terrace was designed by Carl Wirth and built in 1890.
Ripped at Keyport Lounge in 2003
[Editor’s note: For this week’s essay we’ve once again pulled out a relic from the archive of Slim Goodbuzz, who served as Duluth’s “booze connoisseur” from 1999 to 2009. Twenty years ago the Sultan of Sot paid a visit to Keyport Lounge in Superior and composed this article for the Nov. 12, 2003 issue of the Ripsaw newspaper.]
It’s Vikings vs. Packers, and the place where I want to be is the Keyport Lounge. It’s right at the foot of the Bong Bridge, so you know it’s where all the cheapskate Viking fans are gonna be, swilling Wisconsin-priced booze and risking life and limb among the inbred Packer Backers.
Sure enough, when I walk in, the amount of purple and green in the room is enough to violate some kind of health code. At least it should.
Anyway, this is a big night for me, because I like watching Viking and Packer fans interact. Personally, I don’t care who wins the game. Drink specials and free food at halftime make us all winners (at least in a loser sort of way). See, I’m a natural-born border straddler. My mother is a Viking fan who lives in Wisconsin. My stepfather is a Packer fan who actually worked as a meat packer years ago. My real father didn’t watch football at all, but he acted a lot like a Viking. You can see how it’s hard for me to develop a clear allegiance. (more…)
A lot of work to do before I can find joy on Thursday
I want to take a second to talk about an event some friends of mine are putting together. It’s being done entirely on volunteer energy (except for some food provided by UMD catering), it includes music and writing and community discussion, and I’ve never been so excited for an event that I think will make me sad. (more…)
Postcard from West Superior Street
This undated postcard, published by W. G. MacFarlane, shows Superior Street in Downtown Duluth with the Lyceum Theatre at left and Spalding Hotel at right marking the intersection of Fifth Avenue West. The Maurices headquarters and Ordean building and plaza occupy those corners today. (more…)
Arty Duluth Concert Ticket Stubs
In general, concert tickets are not attractively designed. These days people show up at the gate with a computer printout as evidence of admission purchased online, or more often just hold up their phone to display a code. When there are physical tickets involved, they tend to be nothing more than a faded Ticketmaster logo with the show details in grey, all-caps print. And that’s just in the case of mainstream traveling artists.
When it comes to shows featuring local bands, there often are no tickets involved at all. Admission is frequently free or it’s a cash-at-the-door affair. But there are a few occasions where tickets to local shows get arty. (more…)
Duluth sidewalk collapses under weight of boom lift
A building maintenance worker on a telescoping boom lift was pinned to the exterior of the Winthrop Building at 325 W. First St. in Downtown Duluth today. The brick sidewalk in front of the building collapsed under two of the boom lift’s four tires, causing the boom to shift, pinning the worker to the building under the weight of the boom. The lift tipped into a vault that extends under the sidewalk. (more…)
Selective Focus: Maelo Cruz’s Comics and Paintings
Photo by Jess Morgan
A few years after moving to Minnesota, Maelo Cruz self-published a 64-page comic called “Part Timer,” about a character who “dreams of being a full time artist while working a regular job that sucks the life right out of them.” His artwork is primarily autobiographical and self-reflective, giving viewers a glimpse of his experience living and growing up in Puerto Rico and fatherhood. View and learn more about his comics, below. (more…)