Rawkers win unsanctioned Homegrown slap-together kickball
Scott “Starfire” Lunt surveys the kickball field in his Homegown jumpsuit.
Ryan Nelson was barking all game from his first base post for the Friday Rawkers. In the eighth inning, he actually uttered something that had a grain of truth: “It almost feels like Homegrown.”
He and 50 other people were in synch Saturday afternoon as an unsanctioned Homegrown Music Festival Kickball Classic broke out at the field in the back of Chester Park. Those who were there will call it good, and witnessed a win by the Rawkers over the Saturday Rollers that now puts Friday ahead in the all-time series, 11 wins to 10. (more…)
City Bottling Company?
Found this bottle while cleaning out the old dump by our house. It’s an annual event where I commune with our forbears — white folks scratching out a living decades ago on stolen land and tossing all their garbage into the wetland.* (more…)
Videos: Homegrown 2021 Day Six
A bit more than two hours of local rawk and/or roll comprise the Homegrown Music Festival‘s Friday content. (more…)
Help raise donations for the pets of CHUM
A group of citizens is raising money for the local pets who find their way to CHUM. We’re looking to provide CHUM with donations of dog and cat food, as well as cat litter, to help them out. We have multiple ways to donate: PayPal, GoFundMe, an Amazon shopping list, or just having us swing by and pick something up from you!
If you are willing to send us some cash to help provide food and litter for the cats and dogs who find their way to CHUM, please visit northlandcritters.org
Video Archive: The Black-eyed Snakes – “Chickenbone George”
From the days when digital video quality was horrific, we present the Black-eyed Snakes at the Red Lion Lounge during the Homegrown Music Festival … two amazing decades ago.
Shot by Chris Bacigalupo on May 4, 2001.
Lake Inferior: The Underground Lake Beneath Lake Superior
Exploration Timeline
June 1679
I have lost the reference, but I read somewhere that when the French explorer Sir Duluth heard rumors of an underground lake beneath Lake Superior, he quipped in his native tongue, “Lac d’Enfer” (literally: “Lake of Hell”). This nomenclature was mistranslated by English-speakers, becoming anglicized as “Lake Inferior” — an insidious malapropism that replaced the original meaning.
Sept. 8, 1870
Copper-helmet diver William Bitter found an entrance to Lake Inferior. He was working by the breakwater wall for the city of Duluth, offshore of what is now the Lakewalk. A large storm had damaged the wall, and he was conducting an underwater survey at the end of a 20-foot lifeline.
Working the winch and the air pump, his support team on the wall heard Bitter cry out through the speaking tube, then noticed a whirlpool opening up. They winched Bitter out as loose boulders and timbers were sucked into it. (more…)
Videos: Homegrown 2021 Day Five
Thursday’s Homegrown Music Festival content is three and a half hours of livestreamed music from 2104. (more…)
Video Archive: Fred Tyson & the Tysonettes – “Pop that Thang!”
May 7, 2011 — Freddie Tyson and his beautiful backup singers perform “Pop that Thang” at Pizza Lucé during the Homegrown Music Festival.
Videos: Homegrown 2021 Day Four
The stream of video goods from the Homegrown Music Festival continued on Wednesday with an encore presentation of the Winter Fiasco, originally released in January. This version is about half the length of the original, eliminating the interview segments to make it a full two-hours-plus of music. (more…)
Dave Mehling – “Will Bloom”
Duluth native Dave Mehling has a new ambient album, Tired Fruit, out tomorrow, May 7. “Will Bloom” is one of five tracks on the digital release.
Bandcamp waives its revenue share on the first Fridays of the month during the pandemic to help support artists who have seen their livelihoods disrupted by the pandemic.
Videos: Homegrown 2021 Day Three
Video of the Homegrown Music Festival‘s DJ livestream from the Embassy does not appear to be available in an embeddable format to show here, but it can be viewed on twitch.tv. (more…)
Superior Siren’s “Kill Your Darlings” solo EP out Friday
Laura Sellner of Superior Siren is releasing a solo EP — Kill Your Darlings — with a performance at 7:15 p.m. Friday at Earth Rider Brewery in Superior. (more…)
Postcard from the Duluth Shipping Canal and Aerial Lift Bridge
This undated postcard, published by Harry Wolf and P. T. Olson of Detroit, Mich., features a photo taken by Wolf of the Duluth shipping canal and Aerial Lift Bridge. (more…)
Frog Songs in the North Woods
The frogs have been incredible this spring. Here’s something recorded with three mics (for best listening, try putting on headphones — you will be engulfed in the tri-stereophonic bliss of creatures singing in the woods! Trust me, computer speakers won’t provide the embodied sense of being in the midst of it all!) Minimalist guitars included, but the frogs are worth it!
Videos: Homegrown 2021 Day Two
Monday’s Homegrown Music Festival video content includes the annual showcases of poetry, photos and music videos … along with a short movie starring Teague Alexy. (more…)
Mayor Snively welcomes Blackfeet chiefs to Duluth in 1921
On May 4, 1921 — one hundred years ago today — newly elected Duluth Mayor Samuel Snively welcomed to the city five chiefs from the Blackfeet Tribe of Montana. (more…)
Video Archive: Movie “White Palace” too racy for Duluth
This clip from The Tonight Show features guest host Jay Leno showing the evolution of an ad in the Duluth News Tribune for the 1990 film White Palace at Superior’s Mariner 4 Theatres. Watch as Susan Sarandon’s dress expands up her torso. (more…)
Dave Simonett – “Central Hillside Blues”
Dave Simonette has a new EP out titled Orion. The first single, “Central Hillside Blues,” of course references the neighborhood in the middle of Duluth.
The EP is available via multiple internet platforms.
Videos: Homegrown 2021 Day One
The Homegrown Music Festival is underway, with video releases and livestreams throughout the week. (more…)
Elliot Silberman: Duluth’s Five-minute Sketch Artist
He’s a one-man band and a five-minute sketch artist. Presenting Elliot Silberman.
Homegrown Music Festival 2021 Primer
The Homegrown Music Festival is pretty much all online again this year, but things are a bit more organized this time around, with planned video releases and livestreams every day, May 2-9. (more…)
Your Team!
My aunt Meda died and I felt nothing. I was completely numb. Probably shell shocked, to be honest. I flew to New Jersey to be with her widow — aunt Maren — and my grandma, who lived with them at the time. I tried to help around the house, feeling nothing more than a dull ache that seemed wrong for the situation. I thought I was a sociopath, the pain not substantial enough for the tragedy.
The hurt hit me like a tidal wave when I stood in the TGI Fridays bar where Meda worked. I was helping to prepare the celebration of life when the realization set in that I would never see my fun, erratic, loving aunt again. The woman who welcomed her wife’s weird niece into her home for the summer months. The woman who loved pugs more than anything. The woman who was called “sir” at drive-throughs on multiple occasions when lowering her voice to try to sound cooler.
I cried when I heard Adele’s 21 for the first time after she died, knowing Meda had cultivated my love for the album.
Grief is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad time. (more…)
Seaway in Song
News that the Esmond building in the Lincoln Park Craft District might soon be demolished leads Perfect Duluth Day to note that the structure once known as the Seaway Hotel in Duluth’s Friendly West End has at least twice been referenced in music. (more…)
Demolition, apartments is new plan for Esmond building
The Esmond Building – formerly the Seaway Hotel – at 2001 W. Superior St. in Lincoln Park. The now vacant, city-owned building would be demolished and replaced with a mixed use housing project under a new redevelopment proposal. (Photo by Mark Nicklawske)
A historic but blighted building in the heart of the Lincoln Park craft district could be headed for demolition after plans to renovate the city-owned property fell through and officials started working with a new developer. (more…)
Duluth record labels boosted the scene, but are going extinct
Compact discs and cassettes of releases from Duluth record labels fill a plastic bin at the Perfect Duluth Day headquarters. (Photo by Paul Lundgren)
Mark Lindquist, the chief purveyor of local albums at the turn of the millennium, thinks he can succinctly describe the difference between the best-known Duluth record labels.
“Chair Kickers’ put out the most gorgeous records,” he said. “Spinout had the most professional. Chaperone had the coolest. And Shaky Ray had … the most.” (more…)