The Symptones, a five-piece rock, soul, punk and folk-influenced band from Minneapolis, was in Duluth for a pair of gigs last month. The group’s first video, directed by Steven George, features some Duluthy scenes.
The song “Rosetta” is from the band’s upcoming album Irrational Fears / Overactive Imagination, due out April 26.
Another item at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is this item donated by Julie Nunull Marshall of Duluth. (I can’t find any records about her easily, beyond the record of generosity and taste.)
In the 1970s she donated Arcana II, 1969, by Worden Day to the Metropolitan.
Worden Day is now deceased, but immortalized by the generosity of a Duluthian.
Duluth is once again in the dateline of a story on the satirical news website The Onion. According to the article, nephews and nieces of Janine Harrison have confirmed she “managed to somehow both marry and divorce two separate times since the last time they had seen her.”
It’s the 15th time Duluth has been the location of an Onion story, by Perfect Duluth Day’s count. Just 33 days ago Moose Lake was featured.
Photo by Wolfskull Creative
On the same day reconstruction of East Superior Street begins in Duluth, the strip’s hottest new restaurant has announced its run is over. After a little more than a year in business as a brick-and-mortar establishment, Martha’s Daughter is reverting to popup status.
A huge collection of world art is available online at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This “charger” (which won’t do anything for my cell phone) was owned by Winifred E. Higgins, who lived at 2401 E. Second St. in Duluth.
The charger was manufactured by the Kalo Shops, which Wikipedia calls “the leading maker of Arts and Crafts movement silver in Chicago.”
(I didn’t know either — a “charger” is a plate that sits under the other plates. Your server places your salad plate atop your charger, then your soup bowl atop your charger, then your dinner plate atop your charger, before the charger is removed for dessert.)
Nudecolors uses tight harmonies with catchy melodies on Paradise. Yet, Steve Hamlin and Nic Hanson explain the deceptive nature of the record. Click on the image above to hear the podcast.
Upcoming gig:
May 3 at Rex Bar at Fitger’s during Homegrown Music Festival
The city of Duluth is holding an initiative to redesign the city flag. All members of the public are encouraged to participate regardless of skill. The purpose of the project is to create a new symbol that all Duluthians can identify with. Submit ideas for the flag contest before Friday, April 12, at 5 p.m.
This is the official music video for Gaelynn Lea‘s original poem, “Breathe, You are Alive!” from her 2016 EP The Songs We Sing Along the Way. The video was shot in 2018 and was released earlier this week.
It’s a bit of a tradition on Perfect Duluth Day to note the discovery of the first tick of the season. PDD’s tech director, Cory Fechner, supplied the video above of a wood tick he discovered today in far western Minnesota. We should be hearing soon about the first Duluth tick of the season.
Some years they show up as early as March. And sometimes they stick around into October. Mostly it’s a May/June problem.
The middle of Donald Trump’s presidency might be a strange time to make a pitch for establishing a new cabinet position. Or it might be the perfect time. Either way, I have little to lose by suggesting the new job is needed and insisting I’m the best person to fill it. A more rational and reputation-conscious president might not give my ideas serious consideration. The Trump Administration is likely the best hope I have for acquiring short-term autocratic power.
I’m not interested in any of the existing cabinet positions. Those jobs are pretty much filled anyway, although some are “acting” cabinet members — and it’s understood the door is figuratively revolving at the White House and heavily treated with WD-40.
The various secretaries, directors, ambassadors and administrators who serve at the pleasure of the president are already busy at work to make America as great as it was at some undefined point in the past, and they aren’t really clamouring for my help, but I do have a few simple ideas that could improve America and the whole planet Earth for that matter, and I feel like it would really only take me until noon on my first day at work to sort those things out. That would leave plenty of time for cleaning out my already empty desk after hearing on the news about the tweet announcing the termination of my employment.
Sparky Stensaas had a rare Canada Lynx encounter in the Superior National Forest in northeastern Minnesota on March 21.
“As I came over a rise, there it was,” Stensaas wrote on his blog, the Photonaturalist. “It saw me and bounded off the road and into the 3-foot deep snow. I stayed put thinking that it might come my way via the pine woods. And after a few tense minutes of me second-guessing my intuition, it did!”
Andrew Price and Adam Ruhland – Photo by Lissa Maki
Cider seekers will soon have another Duluth option to swoon over. Owners of Wild State Cider say opening day will be April 16. A grand opening event is planned for the weekend of April 26-27.
Duluth’s Parks and Recreation Division has put forth its annual reminder that all natural-surface trails are closed until further notice due to wet soil conditions from the annual spring thaw.
So, where should people hike in April?
Duluth politicians can keep bragging about keeping Lake Superior free of sharks, but what about the “enigmatic lake monster”?
What about the “giant and ferocious serpent”? The “underwater panther”? The “lizard like fish around 10 feet long” with “a head like a turtle”? The “hideous” thing “cruising through the water with a 15-foot long neck and a huge jaw”? The “immense humped creature” with “huge horse shaped head and large dark left eye” with a nose bearing “a visible catfish type whisker, maybe two feet in length and wiggling”? The “gigantic serpent with 3 to 5 humps” rising out of the water?
Well, for those into myths, legends and stories short on attribution but with the words “supposedly” and “apparently” repeated throughout, there’s a new article that has it all.
We all know living on Lake Superior is epic, but these images from @fathersfigures take landscape photography to a whole other galaxy. Be sure to check out the behind-the-scenes Instagram stories.
