Duluth band Low released a new Christmas song today. The band is touring the United Kingdom during the first half of December.
To friends who have moved away and friends who have passed on this year. To one and all, especially those who are alone, we wish you a Merry Christmas and new hope for the new year. May we all find ways to lift each other. — With love, Mimi, Alan and Steve
The digital single is available from Sub Pop Records.
Trampled by Turtles frontman Dave Simonett will release a new album with his side project, Dead Man Winter, on Jan. 27. The album is titled Furnace and the first single, “Destroyer,” is embedded above.
“Destroyer is about … well … destroying,” Simonett told American Songwriter magazine. “I wrote it while confronting the feeling that every time I get some stability in my life, career, relationship, artistic, my tendency is to fully tear it apart. I should really stop doing that. Sometimes it honestly feels like I’m allergic to happiness. Or maybe chaos is where I am ultimately most comfortable. Though, to be honest, I’d hesitate to ever call myself comfortable. Life’s a funny little devil, ain’t it?”
Dead Man Winter will perform in Duluth on Feb. 18 at Pizza Lucé.
The Duluth Police Department issued a news release today notifying the public of six drug-related overdoses occurring since Thanksgiving as result of the use of opioids. There have been no deaths, but the overdoses have prompted an investigation.
Opioids are substances that act on brain receptors to produce morphine-like effects. They come in tablets, capsules or liquid and are typically used to treat pain. Common opioids include heroin and prescription drugs like oxycodone, hydrocodone and fentanyl.
The DPD warns against using these drugs — particularly synthetic derivatives — because their content and purity is often unknown and can cause overdose deaths.
The Nov. 14 issue of The New Yorker magazine features an article (clearly written before Election Day) on “the Democrats’ fight over finance.” The focus of the piece is on Thomas R. Nides, “who is seen as a contender for a prominent position in a Clinton Administration.”
Nides is a Duluth native and 1979 graduate of East High School. From 2011 to 2013, he served under Hillary Clinton as deputy U.S. secretary of state for management and resources.
The Wall Street Journal reports the Minneapolis-based and Duluth-founded Bellisio Foods company is being sold “for nearly $1.1 billion.” The business started by Duluth’s wealthiest man will soon be owned by Thailand’s wealthiest man.
Jeno Paulucci founded the company in 1985 as Luigino’s, producing frozen food brands such as Michelina’s. The corporate name changed to Bellisio Foods in 2007. Paulucci died in 2011. He sold Bellisio Foods to Centre Partners the day before he died. Charoen Pokphand Foods in Bangkok, owned by Dhanin Chearavanont, expects to close on its purchase of the company within 180 days.
Russell Prather’s “Rope.” Photo by Tim White.
Russell Prather’s “Rope,” a hanging piece made with acrylic on layers of polyester film, took the $1,000 first-place prize at the Duluth Art Institute’s 61st Arrowhead Regional Biennial last week. Prather is a professor at Northern Michigan University who teaches British literary and visual culture of the 18th through 20th centuries.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources announced in a news release today it will close a 1970s-era fish hatchery in Duluth Township.
The French River Cold Water Hatchery, located on Lake Superior two miles north of Duluth, needs $8 million in capital investment to address failing equipment, according to the DNR. It also consumes 10 percent of the energy used by the agency statewide.
A hatchery was first established at the location in 1919, originally known as the Lake Superior State Fish Hatchery. The French River Cold Water Hatchery was built in 1975 to conduct the majority of fish propagation. Since 1962, the DNR and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have planted about 300,000 six-inch lake trout along the North Shore each year, resulting in a 250 percent increase in lake trout netted during surveys, according to the DNR.
Donald Trump wins the presidency nationwide. Hillary Clinton takes Minnesota, barely; in Duluth she nearly doubles Trump’s vote total.
Rick Nolan holds his congressional seat by just over 1,000 votes. Democrats and incumbents fare well in Duluth overall.
With 4,120 of 4,120 Minnesota precincts reporting, below are the unofficial statewide results in races relevant to Duluth.
President and Vice President of the United States
Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine – 1,363,704 | 46.41%
Donald J. Trump and Michael R. Pence – 1,320,895 | 44.96%
Gary Johnson and William Weld – 112,767 | 3.84%
Evan McMullin and Nathan Johnson – 53,021 | 1.8%
Jill Stein and Howie Hawkins – 36,916 | 1.26%
Write in – 27,095 | 0.92%
Dan R. Vacek and Mark Elworth, Jr. – 11,275 | 0.38%
Darrell Castle and Scott Bradley – 9,454 | 0.32%
Alyson Kennedy and Osborne Hart – 1,668 | 0.06%
“Rocky” Roque De La Fuente and Mic – 1,428 | 0.05%
Classically trained violinist and songwriter Gaelynn Lea‘s holiday album Deepest Darkness, Brightest Dawn will be released Friday, Nov. 11, and she performs Saturday at Beaner’s Central with the Brothers Burn Mountain. Click above to hear the full album.
Duluth Barrel Works owners Jon and Erin Otis are the subjects of a new profile story in The Growler magazine. The story details how Duluth Barrel Works buys, sells and repurposes solid oak barrels from wineries in California and bourbon distilleries in Kentucky. Jon converts some into rain barrels and breaks others down to create unique tables, benches, stools, candle holders and more.
Former Fitger’s Brewhouse master brewer and current Bev-Craft lead consultant Dave Hoops will open a beer hall in the Waterfront Plaza building in Duluth’s Canal Park business district. Hoops Brewing will occupy the former Timber Lodge Steakhouse space at 325 S. Lake Ave., opening in spring 2017.
“I’ve always wanted to build a boutique brewery and I’m doing this the way I dreamed of doing it,” Hoops told The Growler magazine, which broke the story before Hoops Brewing issued a news release. “I don’t have any aspirations of being real large. I want to be a destination beer hall, really servicing local, very limited distribution.”
The news release from Hoops Brewing notes the brewery will operate a small system geared toward serving the on-site 250-seat beer hall. In total, Hoops will occupy a 9,000-square-foot space inside a historic brick-and-exposed-timber space on the water’s edge of the Duluth Harbor.
The Waterfront Plaza, also known as the Meierhoff Building, was designed in two sections and constructed in 1900 as headquarters for the Marshall-Wells Hardware Company, one of the world’s largest hardware wholesalers. In its prime, Marshall-Wells produced 40,000 products and had annual sales of nearly $100 million. The company liquidated in 1958 and the building sat vacant until the Meierhoff family bought it in 1966.
Hoops Brewing will share the first floor with Suites Hotel, which also occupies the second, third and fourth floors. The sixth floor and part of the seventh floor are condominiums. The Duluth branch of Barr Engineering occupies the fifth floor and parts of the seventh floor.
Prohibition has finally ended. Amity Coffee became the Lakeside neighborhood’s first seller of over-the-counter alcohol today. In June the Duluth City Council repealed a more than 125-year-old neighborhood liquor ban.
At left, barista Nate Pykkonen pours a Bent Hop Golden IPA, one of two Paddle Paddle Brewing tap beers at Amity. Bottled and canned beers are also available, as well as wine.
The Duluth News Tribune reports the Hermantown Zen House restaurant in the ICO convenience store at Maple Grove and Haines roads is moving to Duluth’s Woodland neighborhood. Zen House manager Joe Shortino told the paper ICO sold the property and the rumored buyer is Kwik Trip. An ICO official told the News Tribune a sale is pending, but would not disclose the buyer.
Zen House’s new location will be 4023 Woodland Ave. Sala Thai occupied that building before moving to 114 W. First St. in 2015.
Frank Kaszuba announced recently on Facebook he is leaving his position as head brewer at Fitger’s Brewhouse. His new employment is with Bev-Craft, a Superior-based consulting firm that helps new breweries by providing “development assistance, brewhouse planning, recipe formulation, ingredient selection, brand creation, and sales planning and assistance.”
