Ripped at the NorShor Experience in 2007
[Editor’s note: Duluth’s NorShor Theatre has been closed for more than seven years. It will reopen in February when the new operator, the Duluth Playhouse, launches its production of “Mama Mia.”
The NorShor, of course, has a long and storied history, including a stretch from 2006 to 2010 when it operated as a strip club called the NorShor Experience.
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. Ten years ago he paid a visit to the NorShor and published this bawdy report for Duluth’s weekly Transistor.]
Big Lips has the method down.
Every 10 minutes or so, he rises from where he’s been sitting alone at a table in the corner. Then, with his hands casually in the pockets of his camouflage jacket, he simply takes a little stroll, puckering his big fat lips and whistling as he looks to the left and to the right and behind him, making sure that no one is videotaping him or that his wife isn’t standing behind him ready to clobber him with a frying pan. Eventually, he makes it the 10 or 15 feet to the stage where some naked chick is grinding her life away. “Well,” he appears to suggest, “as long as I’m on my stroll, I might as well tip this stripper.” (more…)
Selective Focus: Natalie Salminen Rude
Natalie Salminen Rude works in a variety of mediums, and recently opened a studio/gallery in the Woodland neighborhood. She tells how her varied interests come together in her work.
NS: I work in a host of mediums which all wonderfully inform each other. Encaustic, oils, photography, haiku — each process shapes the other. There’s this constant hum of cross-pollination that happens in my studio. I think curiosity and a fascination with connection are the forces that propel me to do the work I’m doing. And beauty. Always on the hunt for beauty. (more…)
Zamboni Karaoke: Duluth East Edition
Ian Mageau, Ryder Donovan and Garret Worth of the Duluth East Greyhounds boys hockey team climb into an ice resurfacing machine to sing for the latest Game On! Minnesota hockey-related shenanigans.
Second Duluth Chilly Billy’s will open in March
Miller Hill Mall will be the location of Duluth’s second Chilly Billy’s Frozen Yogurt shop. It will open in the mall’s food court in March. (more…)
Video: Canadian Pacific Holiday Train in Plummer, Minn.
On Tuesday the 19th annual Canadian Pacific Holiday Train rolled through the city of Plummer, about 220 miles northwest of Duluth. Richard Hoeg was there and captured photos and video for his 365 Days of Birds blog. (more…)
Petitioning to Change Duluth in 2017
A look at petitions on change.org shows a pretty good rate of success for people who wanted to change something in Duluth in 2017. As of the morning of Dec. 13, two petitions had more than one thousand supporters and both of those issues appear to be resolved. (more…)
Donating a Car to Community Action Duluth (with Reflection)
Last week, my ex-wife and I planned to get rid of her old car, still stored in my garage for the four years since she moved out. She bought a new car, I bought a new car, her 2002 Hyundai Accent still remained there.
The goal was to donate it to Community Action Duluth to let her get the tax deduction. But because it’s a donation, it needed to go when the towing company could fit the pickup in its schedule. Eventually it arrived. (more…)
Tina Smith is Minnesota’s new U.S. Senator
Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton has selected his lieutenant governor, Tina Smith, to replace Al Franken in the U.S. Senate. Smith said she will run for the seat in 2018.
State Senator Michelle Fischbach of Paynesville will replace Smith as lieutenant governor.
Video Archive: Haus Meeting live at Mr. Movies
Perfect Duluth Day’s Scott Lunt was there to record the action on Dec. 12, 2007, when Haus Meeting performed its famous concert at the Plaza Shopping Center Mr. Movies.
The video stars Luke Holden, Bob Monahan, Rebecca Holden, Jeremy Ehlert and various Mr. Movies customers.
Brewhouse’s pub sauce and salad dressing going retail
Just Take Action, a company that owns and operates several restaurants in Duluth, recently began packaging its Fitger’s Brewhouse Chipotle Pub Sauce and Maple Salad Dressing for retail sale.
The effort, under the name Brewhouse Specialties, is part of a move to focus on developing and marketing products to consumers at home. (more…)
Northern Waters Restaurant will close Dec. 31
Just two years after opening, the Northern Waters Restaurant at Mount Royal Shopping Center will close. A news release from owners Eric and Lynn Goerdt indicates the business has been sold and a new restaurant will replace it in early 2018. (more…)
Because I’m Alive
Drone footage shot by Mike Kenyanya from July to October 2017. Music by Kavulea.
Mystery Photo #58: Steamer Perry G. Walker
Although the date Dec. 11 is recorded on this image, it’s not clear what year it was when the steamer Perry G. Walker arrived in Duluth covered in ice. It’s also not clear if this is a photo or an illustration … or an illustrated photo. (more…)
Hermantown coffee shop changes hands, rebrands
In a swift transition of ownership, the two-year-old Pelican Coffee closed Nov. 12 and the new Yellow Bike Coffee opened Nov. 13. There wasn’t a day without caffeination at 5094 Miller Trunk Highway in Hermantown. (more…)
PDD Quiz: Holiday Traditions
It’s that time of year again: the lights are twinkling, the tourists are flocking, and “Christmas City” plays on a seemingly endless loop. How well do you know your Twin Ports holiday traditions? Whip yourself up a Tom & Jerry and settle in for the quiz!
The next PDD Quiz, reviewing the events of 2017, will be published on Dec. 31. Please send question ideas to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by Dec. 28. (more…)
Video Archive: Damn Yankees 1992 Concert Promo
Television advertisement for a concert at the Duluth Arena held 25 years ago today — Dec. 9, 1992 — featuring Damn Yankees, Slaughter and Jackyl.
Tommy Shaw, formerly of Damn Yankees, will return to Duluth on March 13 for a concert with Styx.
Locker Room Talk
I have never worked a fine-dining kitchen but was a short-order fry cook for many years and absolutely loved the work. It’s the closest I have ever been to becoming a star athlete: the physical challenge, mental focus, and team effort of the average brunch service was a rush no matter how many times I got through it. I would sit eagerly after the line was clean, watching the waitress tally her tickets so I could go home with my head full of fresh stats: 200 covers, 8 hours, no walk-outs, no comps = perfect game.
And I was good. I have no idea why. I walked into the diner of my future as a 21-year-old anthropology student and applied for a part-time job I (falsely) assumed would be as low-accountability as my former pizza kitchen work, where as the only woman in the back of the house I was treated with all the novelty I deserved and none of the (usual) hostility. Like a kitten in a nursing home, my male co-workers gave me just enough to play with in that kitchen so I didn’t run away, all the while relieved to have a distraction from their own tired dynamics. (more…)
Selective Focus: #lutefisk
It’s a Northland tradition. Show your heritage runs deep enough that lutefisk is no big deal, or as a young, hard-driving journalist, prove you’re brave enough to venture into the depths of a Lutheran church basement to try it for the first time.
(more…)
Boutique hotel opening in Lincoln Park
A small and stylish boutique hotel — the first of its kind in Duluth — is set to open this spring in the Lincoln Park craft district.
The husband and wife team of Andy Matson and Chelsy Whittington plan to open the three-suite hotel on the second floor of a historic building they recently purchased at 1923 W. Superior Street. The new accommodations will be called the Hotel Pikku, which means small or odd in Finnish.
Matson and Whittington said travelers who want to experience a trendy, centrally-located neighborhood away from typical Duluth tourist areas will stay at the Pikku Hotel. Clients or patrons of other Lincoln Park businesses are also potential lodgers. The cozy, completely renovated rooms with kitchenettes will rent for between $100 and $150 a night. (more…)
Uncle Harvey’s Pillar, 2007
Tony Rogers posted this photo to Perfect Duluth Day ten years ago today — Dec. 7, 2007. It features the infamous round column from the sand- and gravel-hopper ruins known as “Uncle Harvey’s Mausoleum.” (more…)
Minnesota Point
Year unknown, photographer unknown. Appears to have been shot in the late 1800s.
A peek at what Bent Paddle’s new taproom will look like
Bent Paddle Brewing Company plans to relocate its taproom to a larger, revitalized space in the former Enger & Olson Furniture store building at 1832 W. Michigan St. This new location is directly adjacent to its main production brewery and current taproom in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. (more…)