News and Current Affairs Posts

Minnesota 2016 Caucus Results

Minnesota Republican Party
Marco Rubio – 41,397 | 36%
Ted Cruz – 33,181 | 29%
Donald J. Trump – 24,473 | 21%
Dr. Ben Carson – 8,422 | 7%
John R. Kasich – 6,565 | 6%
Write in – 207 | 0.18%

Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party
Bernie Sanders – 125,635 | 61%
Hillary Clinton – 78,317 | 38%
Uncommitted – 1,067 | 0.52%
Write in – 213 | .1%
Martin O’Malley – 153 | 0.07%
Rocque “Rocky” de la Fuente – 53 | 0.03%

Behind the Curtain at Duluth.com

Duluth.com got a pretty sweet write-up today by the Duluth News Tribune.

Duluth.com is dedicated to celebrating all things Duluth. Duluth.com highlights sustenance, adventure, fun, and the people of our community because each business, person and activity contributes to Duluth’s unique brand.

Whatever you do: Duluth.com

PDD Quiz: February 2016

Duluth GoatFebruary 2016 is almost over and it’s time to see if you were paying attention! Take the quiz about events in and around Duluth over the last month.

Our next quiz will be on March 13 and, since that’s near the ides of March, we’ll be looking at the history of disasters in the Duluth area.

Send your suggested quiz questions (and answers) to lawrence @ perfectduluthday.com by noon on Wednesday, Mar. 9.

2016 MN State High School Hockey Brackets

Minnesota Boys Hockey Brackets

The AA and A boys hockey tournament seeds and brackets are set.  #1 seed Hermantown plays its quarter final game Wed. at 6 p.m. vs #8 seed Dassel-Cokato. Grand Rapids seeded #4 and will play #5 seed Bemidji in the AA quarterfinal game at the X at 8 p.m. Thursday. Good luck to all the teams!

Class AA MN High Sshool Hockey Bracket    Class A MN High Sshool Hockey Bracket

2016 Duluth-area Beer Festival Primer

Beer-FestAs craft beer continues to explode in popularity in the Twin Ports and beyond, local beer tastings and beer-centered festivals proliferate. Below are some highlights of beery upcoming events in the region. The name of each event links to the PDD Calendar entry for that event; the links in the event descriptions link to the official event webpages.

gcbrewfestSMFebruary 27 – Grand Minnesota Taste-Together
Grand Casino, Hinckley

The sixth annual Grand Minnesota Taste-Together features over 160 different craft beers from local, regional and national breweries. The event culminates with a concert featuring The Voice’s Madi Davis and English folk-punk group Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls. Twin Ports Nightlife organizes the festival.

bockfestMarch 10-12 – Bockfest
Fitger’s Courtyard, Duluth

Bockfest is an annual German celebration of spring that has been taking place at the Fitger’s Complex since 1995. This family-friendly, outdoor event runs from Thursday evening through Saturday night and includes fun games and traditions like the black forest torte-eating contest and the big dip into Lake Superior. There will be music, food, a campfire and Split Rock Bock, a seasonal beer made by Lake Superior Brewing.

GGBBrewfest2016LogoApril 16 – Gitchee Gumee Brewfest
Wessman Arena, Superior

Sample over 100 beers from 25 different breweries from the Midwest and beyond at the area’s longest running beer-tasting event, the Gitchee Gumee Brewfest. VIP and regular admission tickets are available. The event is in its 19th year and typically sells out.

Duluth couple tackling historic hotel renovation

Mitchells

A Duluth couple building upscale housing space into an abandoned 19th Century hotel expects buyers will be interested in Downtown Duluth living.

Zenith City Revival LLC owners Mitchell and Michelle Holmes plan to build 12 loft-style condominiums inside the former Gardner Hotel at 12 N. Lake Ave. in Duluth’s Historic Arts and Theater District. The couple is calling it Building No. 12 Lofts on Lake, and said units will list for between $225,000 to $370,000 each. A storefront, street-level sales space is scheduled to open this spring.

Over the past two years, the Holmes’ have removed trash bins full of debris, installed new floors, repaired ceilings and sandblasted brick walls. The city of Duluth authorized permits for $835,000 in heating, ventilation and air-conditioning work in February 2015.

“We’re going slow, just making sure we get everything right,” said Mitchell Holmes. “They’re going to be very nice, upscale, smaller-size condominiums so people can afford them.”

Review: Ken Bloom’s Public Domain

Zushi fishmonger, January 1977

Should we think about these photographs or their subjects? Yes. Do we consider the art of them or the culture they depict?  Yes, both.  And perhaps composition or feeling?  Again, yes.

Ken Bloom’s exhibition Public Domain: Street Photographs of Japan 1976-78 at the Duluth Art Institute shows three years of his work from the mid-1970s in city areas of Japan. Most are black and white; a few later ones are in color. The compositions are tight. The subject is people in their time and environment. Movement (striding, shopping, riding, jumping, talking, gazing) and waiting (for the ferries, for the trains, for the kids, for the work day to begin) are the subjects of many.

Old Eighth Street Market building’s days are numbered

Eighth Street Market 2016

The former Eighth Street Market building at 5702 W. Eighth St. is slated for demolition.

Bent Paddle launches new seasonal: Hop Forest Double IPA

Bent Paddle Hop ForestBent Paddle Brewing adds another seasonal beer to its rotation this week. Hop Forest Double India Pale Ale, weighing it at 8.9 percent alcohol-by-volume, will be on tap at Bent Paddle on Wednesday, available in 750-milliliter bottles on Friday and later find its way into liquor stores in 4-pack cans.

Hop Harvest will also be available at Beaner’s Central in time for Friday’s first-of-three CD release parties for the latest One Week Live compilation.

The text on the can reads: “Standing in a hop field brings forth a sense of solitude and wonder one can find in a forest. Hop Forest Double IPA provides full hop coverage with a tremendous load of tropical citrus and piney hop aromatics. Malt sweetness intertwines with the American hop varieties to create a balanced shade of flavor that invites one to sit down and enjoy the view.”

Updated concept plan for Lake Superior Zoo

Click the image to view a PDF of the full plan.

Click the image to view a PDF of the full plan.

The latest concept plan for improvements to Fairmount Park and the Lake Superior Zoo was presented by a consultant last night at the Duluth Parks Commission meeting. The concept envisions a renewed zoo in a roughly 10-acre footprint that includes ADA accessible pathways, renewed and repurposed exhibits damaged by the 2012 flood, enhanced visitor services, and converts a portion of the existing zoo into public park space. The plan is estimated at $15 million and has $2.7 million of half-and-half funding allotted to it.

Comments can be submitted to Duluth’s Parks and Recreation Division until Feb. 15 to allow the consultants to analyze them for the upcoming Feb. 22 presentation and public hearing at 5:15 p.m. in the Duluth City Council Chambers, to be followed by a Parks Commission public hearing in room 303.

Northern Waters restaurant open on Woodland Avenue

Northern Waters

Fans of all things cured and smoked will rejoice in knowing Northern Waters Smokehaus has opened its much-anticipated Woodland Avenue location in the Chester Park – UMD neighborhood. While the new restaurant offers some familiar lunch items from the Smokehaus, the menu is more expansive and includes alcoholic beverages.

Epicurean and Loll represent Duluth in The Atlantic

How America is Putting Itself Back Together
In the March issue of The Atlantic, James Fallows once more talks up Duluth while town-hopping across the country, this time as an example of “hopeless” places reinventing themselves (full article). Scroll down to the subheading “Despite the ‘Big Short,’ Talent Dispersal is Under Way,” where he uses Epicurean/Loll to illustrate the same kind of deliberate migration that Lucie Amundsen so elegantly described in her Saturday essay.

Blacklist brewery expanding to downtown Duluth

Blacklist Artisan Ales partners

Jon Loss, Brian Schanzenbach and TJ Estabrook, the partners behind Blacklist Artisan Ales

One of the smaller Twin Ports breweries, Blacklist Artisan Ales, is earning big media attention this week after its announced expansion into the building that previously housed the infamous Last Place on Earth head shop.

PDD Quiz: January 2016

danSince next week is the Super Bowl, our theme will be football in Duluth, so expect some Duluth Eskimo trivia. Send your suggested quiz questions (and answers) to lawrence @ perfectduluthday.com by noon on Wednesday, Jan. 27.

Spirit Mountain Winter Downhill Fatbiking

Last weekend Spirit Mountain became (as far as we know) the first ski resort in North America to offer lift access fat-tire biking. Break out the fatbikes this Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and come ride with us!

Video by Max Fierek.

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!