Puppy Love: East End Dog Park folks need fence help
My dog Nero pleads with you! The Duluth City Council approved the East End Dog Park for Riley Road, and the buyers of Morgan Park Middle School have offered up the chain-link fencing. We just need muscles and some tools to help get that fencing down.
Info can be found at duluthdogparks.com. If you have a few hours and a love of puppies, show up Friday, Sept. 18, and/or Saturday, Sept. 19, both days starting at 9 a.m. Come when you can and stay as long as you are able.
Items needed: People, ladders, socket sets/ratchets, work gloves, people, bolt cutters, crescent wrenches and people!
What was that thing by the old Arrowhead Bridge?
Shortly after the “Postcards from the Arrowhead Bridge” post went up, my distant cousin started calling and emailing with the question, “What was that little thing in St. Louis Bay, on the Superior side of the Arrowhead Bridge, looking north?” So let’s finally get to the bottom of that. (more…)
Duluth 2015 Primary Election Results
With 41 out of 41 precincts reporting, Emily Larson and Chuck Horton are the winning candidates in the mayoral race, advancing to the General Election in November. Jay Fosle and Janet Kennedy advance in the Fifth District City Council race.
Duluth Mayor
(Top two candidates advance to General Election)
Emily Larson – 5,456 | 67.32%
Chuck Horton – 1,505 | 18.57%
Howie Hanson – 732 | 9.03%
James Mattson – 177 | 2.18%
John Socha – 111 | 1.37%
John Howard Evans – 51 | 0.63%
Thomas Cooper – 45 | 0.56%
Robert D. Schieve – 27 | 0.33%
Fifth District Duluth City Councilor
(Top two candidates advance to General Election)
Jay Fosle – 945 | 56.08%
Janet Kennedy – 671 | 39.82%
Allan Beaulier – 44 | 2.61%
Derrick Ellis – 25 | 1.48%
At-large Duluth School Board Member
(Top two candidates advance to General Election)
Renee K. VanNett – 3,351 | 44.70%
Alanna Oswald – 2,437 | 32.51%
Jim H. Unden – 1,708 | 22.79%
District Two Duluth School Board Member
(Top two candidates advance to General Election)
David Kirby – 1,044 | 58.65%
Charles Obije – 461 | 25.9%
Jane Hammerstrom Hoffman – 275 | 15.45%
Duluth Bombardier Hat
Does anyone know where I can purchase a local bombardier-style winter hat, perhaps leather exterior but not a fur interior? I have not been able to find one myself. Thanks in advance.
Duluth-area Theater Primer 2015-2016
Theater season is upon us, and the Duluth/Superior area has you covered. There are a variety of shows happening every month, ranging from comedy to drama and something for the kiddos. (more…)
R.I.P. Norm’s Beer & Brats, Cedar Lounge as it once was and the Loading Zone in all it’s glory
A few notes on Superior bars:
Norm’s Beer & Brats held a “Final Bash” over the weekend. According to its Facebook page, the bar will be moving early next week. “The old building will still be open for business tomorrow for tacos (since last week got all kinds of messed up with the power outage), and all week including Friday and Saturday,” reads a post published today. “Our new home is currently known as the Cedar Lounge. Be sure to check it out!”
Update: It seems the Norm’s / Cedar Lounge deal fell through. (more…)
This Week: voting, rocking, ballooning and more
Here’s a bit of what you’ll find on this week’s PDD Calendar:
It’s primary time, Take it With You returns to the Underground with a Chaperone Records-heavy ep, John Mark Nelson and Mary Bue play the Red Herring, the show The Foreigner opens at the Playhouse, Unplugged XIV gets underway in Grand Marais and John Prine plays the DECC.
Le Festival des Montgolfières à Duluth 2015 — that’s a hot-air balloon festival for the non-French, out there — hits Bayfront Festival Park, R.T. Quinlan’s bar celebrates 25 years in action with a two-day music slate, kids can sleep amongst the animals at the Zoo, Dancing at Lughnasa continues at Teatro Zuccone, the 2015 Chester Bowl Fall Fest happens and so does the NorthShore Inline Marathon.
Something for a rainy day
I’d heard about Rainworks quite a while ago and filed it away in my mind as something awesome that I’d never be lucky enough to see. And then they had a Kickstarter. I’ve already made my pledge, in the hopes that they reach their goal and I can put up some rain activated artwork in my neighborhood but I think the Twin Ports would be a great candidate for lots of this … something to make us look forward to rainy days instead of dread them. However, there are only seven days left in their Kickstarter and there is a ways for them to go!
Teachers and parents, think of the potential for you! Anyone really. If enough of us got this set up, you could have rainy day scavenger hunts all over Duluth or Superior.
“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, but learning to dance in the rain.”
You can’t put a campaign sign there
One of the more clever Facebook pages of recent times has to be “You can’t put a campaign sign there,” which launched on Sept. 9. The candidates probably didn’t place the signs themselves, of course, but it’s still amusing.
After three days, Chuck Horton leads the race with seven allegedly illegal sign placements, followed by Howie Hanson and Karl Spring, who each have just one. (That’s just counting the gallery images; it looks like there are also a few “visitor posts” that aren’t in the gallery.)
That’s quite a lead for Horton, but at this stage Perfect Duluth Day’s prognosticators still think it’s too close to call.
Chatting with Artists
In the past few weeks, I have had too much coffee with artists.
Deer Woman: A Vignette, edited by Allie Vasquez and written by Elizabeth LaPensée featuring art by Jonathan Thunder. Winner of the Awesome Foundation Portland’s Peoples’ Choice Award. (more…)
Missing Person: Sheila Lou St. Clair
The Duluth Police Department is seeking the public’s assistance in locating a missing person — Sheila Lou St. Clair. She is a 48-year-old Native American female, 5’5″ tall, 125 lbs., with black hair and brown eyes. St. Clair has not been seen since sometime before Sept. 1 in the area of the 100 block of West Third Street. If you know St. Clair’s whereabouts call 911.
There’s so much energy in us …
Last night the family unit and I made our way down to Bayfront to the Bridge Festival. As the night went on I started to think about where we live and why we live here. I moved here in 1985 and Duluth was, at that time, pretty much a cultural desert. There were few restaurants, virtually no original music to be found. You never saw people riding bicycles, you did not feel any sort of energy, other than that which came from the natural beauty.
Now you look at where we are. This is a truly special place to be. Is it perfect? No. Will it ever be perfect? I hope not. This community has been on a long journey. We have gone from a “Will the last person to leave, turn out the lights” era to a time when the community is bustling with energy. (more…)
Google Fiber Update
USA Today reports Google Fiber is considering three new cities for its high-speed Internet service: San Diego, Irvine and Louisville.
Don’t worry, Duluth is in line for a new project: Google Chopped Liver.
Selective Focus: Harvest
Annie Dugan, untitled
Harvest is the time to reap what we’ve sewn, and to stow our goods for the difficult days ahead. It’s the time to decide what merits entry into our sod huts, and what is left to the elements. Often this is based on a degree of conformity to norms, on a willingness to fit in, and to play along. We decide what’s suitable to sustain us, cede diversity to the predictable, and leave the rest to wither on the vine. (more…)
New 360° Video – Minnesota in 360
First 30 seconds is from the North Shore. Click and drag to pan the video line-of-sight.
Prize Inside: Cereal Toys and Premiums Through the Decades
Part three of our conversation with Robb Berry, who has been collecting toys from cereal boxes since he was a kid in the 1970s.
See Part One — Honeycomb Hideout: Robb Berry’s Basement Cereal Box Museum
See Part Two — Cereal Brands: The Good, the Bad and the Sugary
Lutsen New Gondola
Lutsen Ski Resort began erecting a new $7-million gondola on June 23. It should be operational by the 2015-16 ski season. Above you can see they are sticking with the iconic red for the new eight-passenger gondola, which will speed up the gondola lines.
Cereal Brands: The Good, the Bad and the Sugary
Part two of a conversation with cereal box collector Robb Berry of Duluth, who fills us in on some of the stories behind the development of cereals that have come and gone through the decades.
See also Part One — Honeycomb Hideout: Robb Berry’s Basement Cereal Box Museum
Part Three — Prize Inside: Cereal Toys and Premiums Through the Decades
Duluth 2015 Primary Election Sample Ballot
Keep in mind:
District candidates will appear on the ballot only in the specified districts. Duluth City Council District 5 represents West Duluth and neighborhoods farther west. Duluth School Board District 2 represents the Endion, Congdon, Chester Park and Kenwood areas.
Honeycomb Hideout: Robb Berry’s Basement Cereal Box Museum
Hidden away in a West Duluth basement is a one-of-a-kind museum — Robb Berry’s cereal box collection. He has been collecting cereal toys and premiums since he was a kid in the 1970s, and started collecting boxes shortly after that.
Unfortunately, Berry’s basement is not open to the public. But if you’re interested in the vast history of cereal, he also manages the Cereal Boxes and Prizes Archives 1900-Present Facebook page, where collectors and enthusiasts share their finds and questions about the hobby.
PDD was granted access to the catacombs that hold Berry’s collections. He is a fountain of information, so we present this special PDD Back-to-School series in three parts this week. Grab the milk, a spoon and a bowl and enjoy.
Part Two — Cereal Brands: The Good, the Bad and the Sugary
Part Three — Prize Inside: Cereal Toys and Premiums Through the Decades
Cloud Cult returns to Bayfront
Cloud Cult comes back to the area for the Twin Ports Bridge Festival at Bayfront Park on Sept. 11. Craig Minowa talks about some big surprises for the group’s return.
Summer Music in Review
The summer is over, and there is so much music I heard that I have not yet written about here.
The most complicated performance of the summer, for me, was watching Tim Kaiser and Robot Rickshaw at Beaners. (All the videos that follow are not the performances I saw, but just tasters.)
It was a study in noise and the relationship between noise and music. (more…)