In Defense of Duluth Poets
The arts and culture review website Partisan namedrops Holy Cow! Press of Duluth in an article by Harvard English Professor Stephen Burt titled “In Defence of Minor Poets,” published today. The namedrop occurs without actually mentioning Holy Cow! by name, but instead referencing Duluth with a hyperlink to Consortium Book Sales & Distribution’s page about the Duluth publishing company. (more…)
Duluth/Superior Interstate Bridge: “We are all well”
This card traveled from Buffalo N.Y. to Mrs. W.J. Morrison of Lindsay, Ont. in 1906.
The Interstate Bridge opened in 1897. At the time it was pretty much the only way to get back and forth between Duluth and Superior — other than by boat or swimming, or going the long way around by land, or maybe jumping a train across the Grassy Point Railroad Bridge.
In 1906, the steamer Troy knocked the draw span of the Interstate Bridge into St. Louis Bay. Ferry service connected the cities for two years until repairs were completed. (more…)
Commerce on the River: Symphony Boat Company
Marcel LaFond grew up on Kraemer Lake, about 10 miles west of St. Cloud, where he spent nearly all his time around water and boating. His childhood home was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, which he believes inspired a love of timeless design at an early age. Those influences led him to found Symphony Boat Company three years ago in Duluth’s Riverside neighborhood, where he builds attractive and unique boats from aluminum, marine plywood, foam and epoxy.
“When the economy tanked five or six years ago I found that, like many other people, I was looking to reinvent myself,” he says. Ready to take a risk and follow through with ideas he’d had stewing in his mind for years, LaFond let fate steer him to the St. Louis River. (more…)
Hockey Day Minnesota 2016 Videos
Waiting Room Collective produced this short documentary of the Lakeville North boys hockey team traveling to Duluth to play the East Greyhounds during Hockey Day Minnesota at Bayfront Park. The Panthers edged the Greyhounds 3-2. Below is the Fox Sports North video spotlighting the Greyhounds. (more…)
Duluth Band Profile: Ingeborg Von Agassiz
Ingeborg Von Agassiz mixes electronic soundscapes with folk undertones. She explains how her solo project began with a 1990s Yamaha keyboard and audience feedback. Click on the image above to hear the interview.
New Alakef CEO launches City Girl Coffee
Alyza Bohbot poses in front of Alakef’s original roaster with City Girl Coffee schwag
Alyza Bohbot never intended to take over Alakef Coffee Roasters, her family’s wholesale coffee roasting business. She was living on the East Coast and had just finished a master’s degree in school counseling when her parents, Nessim and Deborah, told Alyza, their only child, of their retirement plans.
Alyza says she had a “gut check moment.” She realized she didn’t want to see the business her parents worked so hard to build leave the family. She agreed to move back to Minnesota for a six-month trial period to determine if it was a good fit. Three years later, with her parents’ guidance and the help of veteran Alakef staff, Alyza is running the company and taking it in an interesting new direction. (more…)
Under the Bridge
I have always loved these buildings, but I never knew so much about them before.
Twohy and Osborn Blocks: Superior’s (Almost) Lost Mercantile Blocks
The PlayList: Virginia City Limits
WDSE-TV’s The PlayList launched its seventh season last week with a special episode shot outside the 218 Taphouse in Virginia. The show features live music by the Christopher David Hanson Band and Rich Mattson & the Northstars.
This Week: sex, sunken ships, Shakespeare and more
Here’s a bit of what you’ll find on this week’s PDD Calendar:
One River, Many Stories gets underway at the DAI with photos and maps and music and more, kids can try a bunch of non-traditional sports at the Heritage Center, the 7th Annual Northland Job Fair returns to help people find work, the Duluth Public Library is the place to learn about Minnesota’s connections to the famously-doomed Titanic (and it’s a swell place for kids to play Minecraft, too) and Shakespeare’s First Folio is celebrated at The Underground.
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer John Mellencamp brings his bag of hits to the DECC, the latest chapter in the Star Wars saga screens for free in Superior, it’s time for clowning around at the DECC with the AAD Shrine Circus, Caroline Smith returns to Duluth to play a show at the Red Herring, the weekly PDD photo feature “Selective Focus” is celebrated, mad science is being dropped at UWS, it’s once again time to celebrate consensual sex with rock music and several local musicians play to fund a greenhouse in West Duluth.
Steamer Columbia on St. Louis River near Fond du Lac
This postcard, mailed in July 1914, depicts the steel excursion steamer Columbia cruising the St. Louis River. The best synopsis of the ol’ picnic cruise experience of yesteryear is perhaps the one on the back of the card, where “Aunt Carrie” writes to Miss Virginia Stanbridge of Westminster, Mass. If the message and penmanship seem a little too perfect, take a closer look. It’s a fill-in-the-blank card. (more…)
Duluth White Sox Team Photos
In a previous post on PDD it was speculated that photos of pitching great Hooks Dauss in a Duluth uniform are “seemingly nonexistent.” Well, there’s ol’ George wearing #4 in the 1909 team photo above. Search completed. (more…)
Price Check: Frigidaire Dishwasher
Are you sick of arguing with your spouse and children about whose turn it is to wash the dishes by hand? Do you despise the smell and texture of greasy, pruney phalanges? Perfect Duluth Day’s Price Check series has a solution for your loathing: The Frigidaire 24-inch Built-in Dishwasher in Stainless Steel.
This model # FFBD2411NS dishwasher features a spacious, removable silverware basket, a delay start option so it runs on your schedule, a removable, stainless steel filter, five wash cycle options, and a control lock option. (more…)
Dalles of the St. Louis River
The illustration above is from William Cullen Bryant‘s classic book Picturesque America, published by D. Appleton & Company of New York in 1872 and 1874. Bryant was editor of the book; the illustration is by Alfred R. Waud.
Taking it Outside
I’ve overbooked myself lately.
A common problem and in this case, it’s completely my fault — taking on more foolishness than hours in the day. So, like most of us, I cut corners by eliminating “extra” stuff, like exercise and staring into middle space.
My near daily walk in Chester Bowl or less frequent craning-of-neck views of the bluffs at Tischer Creek has been put on hiatus. (Even though I live near one park and drive past the other daily.) I’ll ’fess up to only one, maybe two visits to Canal Park and Park Point beach this winter. I mean, I’ll be back, you know, just after the due date passes, that class ends, oh – and, that other thing.
I’m embarrassed to say that recently I’ve seen more Duluth landscape on Perfect Duluth Day and Destination Duluth these days than actually experienced.
And I’m worse for it.
I need to take a Sharpie and write, “I’m happier when I play outside” backward, then slap it on my forehead so I can read it in the mirror in the morning. Plan accordingly. (more…)
Welcome to Our City (and the National Regatta of 1916)
The song “Welcome to Our City” appeared in the magazine section of the April 2, 1916, Duluth News Tribune. It was written by two Duluthians — Donald Wade and D.J. Michaud — as a “contribution to the city’s welcome to the visiting oarsmen who will come to the Head of the Lakes next August.”
Duluth hosted the 44th annual regatta of the National Association of Amateur Oarsmen on Aug. 11 and 12, 1916, winning nine of the 12 events entered.
(more…)The Best Case Scenario
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE5hxnXivxI
Samuel T. Weston has a goal to shoot 20 short videos in 2016. Three down, 17 to go.
In this short, shot at the Zeitgeist Arts Center and edited by Josh Bolen, Weston does a little Trump bashing.
Swim Creative rebrands
Duluth-based marketing agency Swim Creative has at times been confused with swimwear companies and pool manufacturers, so today it changed its name and launched a rebranding effort. Check it out at DesignsByPatrice.net.
History Unearthed: The Du Luth Stone
A stone that bears the marking “Du Luth 1679” has been found in Pine County, one hour southwest of Duluth. A prominent geologist says the discovery could be one of the oldest carved artifacts ever found in Minnesota, potentially carved by the French explorer Daniel de Gresolon, the Sieur du Lhut.
Forensic geologist Scott Wolter, developer of archaeopetrography, a scientific process used to date the origins of stone artifacts, says the stone is “absolutely authentic.”
History texts indicate Gresolon landed his canoe on Minnesota Point on June 27, 1679, with the mission to meet with natives and persuade them to trade fur with the French instead of the British. Five days later he took possession, in the name of the King of France, of the Dakota territories at the village of Izatys, attaching the coat of arms of King Louis XIV to a tree on the shore of Mille Lacs Lake, just west of Pine County. (more…)
Selective Focus: The St. Louis River, Contemplative Space
Sharon Mollerus, “Water Lillies”
I was fortunate to spend my first Arrowhead New Years Eve in a cabin in Jay Cooke State Park; bird watching, snow-shoeing, and far from the inebriates (though I did bring a flask). Even photographed a ghost buck (pictured below), warmed by a cedar and oak fire as a soft snow fell to welcome 2016. It was a grand introduction to the St. Louis River.
For the next two weeks Selective Focus will take part in the “One River, Many Stories” project which asks for tales of your relationship to this unique watershed. This week we’re concentrating on the river’s abundant natural beauty; a place for restive contemplation, and awe. Be sure to see the Duluth Art Institute’s kick-off the project on Monday, April 4, with a photo essay by Ivy Vainio, Tom Hollenhorst’s interactive maps, live drumming, and a video booth with PBS’s Karen Sunderman who’ll record your stories. (more…)
Marshall-Wells Paint
It’s unclear whether someone brought this sign to the Western Waterfront Trail and propped it up for public display for some reason or if it was dredged out of the St. Louis River.
Epic Beach Game of Foot Stomp
Starts with a long hug, ends with a brutal footstomp for my definitive win against a 7-year old. I am new to footstomp but it seems traditional in this family (my fiancee, her daughter, and her niece). This is one long clip of this game, which contains many different acts and little dramas, on the shore of Lake Superior.
Michael Novitzki will host The Duluth Local Show on the Current
The Current announced in a news release today that Michael Novitzki will host its revamped version of The Duluth Local Show, which will launch May 1 on the low-power 90.9 FM and air every Sunday at 8 p.m. Also announced in the release: Cecilia Johnson has been named Local Current blogger. (more…)