Jake Specht skateboards across Duluth
Footage shot Oct. 19 by Jesse Covington. Music by Atmosphere – “Let Me Know That You Know What You Want Now.”
Halloween Banner Contest winner
The winner of the PDD Halloween Banner Contest of 2014 is Mark Ryan with this entry.
Honorable mention goes out to the submissions below. Thanks to everyone who sent photos, all of the submissions are now in the rotation along with photos from past years.
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This Week: Halloween, plays, gigs and more
Here’s a bit of what you’ll find on this week’s PDD Calendar:
Halloween week is upon us, and there are lots of frights to be found. Both Glensheen and Fairlawn mansions are doing flashlight tours, the Buffalo House is in the home stretch of its Haunted Shack, Renegade is throwing a Halloween Dance Party, Bridgeman’s is having a kids’ costume party, the Duluth Heritage Center is putting on a Boo Bash, Evil Dead: The Musical is still in action, and the Haunted Ship is still haunted.
Non-spooktacular events include an in-studio PlayList taping, an Adam Sippola/Rachael Kilgour gig, Dirty Knobs’ Zeitgeist Experiments continue, Shakespeare’s Tempest is brewing, and Mark Mallman brings his brand of pop to Pizza Luce with Wolf Blood and The Social Disaster.
Mystery Photo #21: What was Cook’s Place?
For sale on a couple websites are tokens for Cook’s Place, 527 W. Michigan St., Duluth. What was Cook’s Place? The address puts it on the western end of where the Duluth Public Library stands today.
A listing on tokencatalog.com offers what appears to be a list of various names the business may have gone by over the years: “Moses S. Cook Saloon 1898-1912; Mayer J. Cook Saloon 1912-1916, Beverages & Restaurant 1920; Homer L. Cook Restaurant 1937-1942; J. Earl Cook Confectionery 1947-1958.”
That seems to raise some questions, though, like: How did so many different Cooks carry out 60 or more years of business in one spot? When was it called Cook’s Place? Is Mayer a first name? There was no “mayor” of Duluth named J. Cook, although Jay Cooke played a big part in Duluth’s history in the late 1800s.
What’s the deal with Cook’s Place?
Goin’ Postal 2014 Fall Art Show
I was going to write about the Goin’ Postal show in Superior. (Goin’ Postal is one of the major hubs of the art community in Superior.) But Ed Newman does it better, with pictures.
Ghosts of the French River
This summer Erin Renee and I released a video trilogy of a collaboration at the French River. Here is the final, fourth installment, a coda if you will. (more…)
Recognize any of these?
The Bike Cave is a little crowded these days with half-finished projects, if you left a bike here please claim it before the end of the month. Open shops are coming to an end for the season: the last two are Saturday, Oct. 25, 1 to 5 p.m., and Wednesday, Oct. 29, 3 to 6 p.m. After that the Bike Cave will only be open by appointment. We are not accepting donations at this time.
It’s been a great year, with more than 150 people of all ages building and going home with their own bikes. Join us for our third annual Halloween ride to celebrate.
14-31DS
A few fundamental questions on the on the Chester Ski Jump Memorial Plan City of Duluth RFP.
Is not art, true art — spoken, written, painted, sung, or mixed media — an expression of that which comes from places that are intangible or elusive? i.e.: from within, a collaborative, the Netherlands, the proverbial Vibe?
Yes, the history of a place, lived out by a people is vital — I get that (and the real magic still is to have been there and lived it out) — however, most of us probably don’t have that benefit.
But a request put out on an RFP – a bid – along with city hall upgrades and roofing repairs not only diminishes the call, but is the antithesis of artistic inspiration. Just my opining.
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Video Archive: Low – “Fear”
Ten years ago Starfire posted this video he made for the Low song “Fear,” from the 1994 album I Could Live in Hope. The video was produced as part of the Crash Ballet Contest put on by Coudal Partners, a design, advertising and interactive studio in Chicago. Participants were asked to edit original NASA footage to music. Starfire’s video was named a runner up in the contest.
Geek Prom on hiatus
Note to fellow nerdwads:
We have reached an era of unprecedented technological advancement and far-reaching anti-bullying campaigns. The mission of Geek Prom is complete. The prom committee is disbanding.
We now enter a state of complacency, no longer planning our defenses against the hideous Fleckuloids of the Mineculon, though our strategies remain in tact should we need to summon our forces due to reemerging threats.
May you all live long and prosper, be you dill-weeds, spazzes, dorks, doofuses, dweebs, Einsteins, pizza faces, brainiacs, space cadets, mathletes, meteorologists, gamers, Trekkies, disc jockeys, zeros, gaywads, hobbyists, greenies, weaklings or any other form of misfit.
Do you remember Fox Night?
In Great Britain, Nov. 4 is Fawkes Night, but in Duluth in the 1970s and ’80s, the night before Halloween was “Fox Night.” It was a warm-up for Halloween, with no costumes and no candy — instead it focused entirely on vandalism and mischief.
I’ve talked to plenty of people about this, and for the most part, people don’t know what I’m talking about. But people who grew up in a certain time in a certain place know it all too well. And it’s interesting to think about how this happened. How did Guy Fawkes Night make its way to the Midwest, change its date, and alter its name for this brief period of time?
Duluth was not alone in the celebration, if you can call it that. Wikipedia calls it Mischief Night, and pins it down as a primarily East Coast phenomenon with roots reaching back to the 18th century. It lists many alternative names, but does not mention Fox Night.
- Hackers Night
- Goosey Night
- Cabbage Night
- Gate Night
- Mat Night
- Devil’s Night
- Mischievous Night
- Miggy Night
- Tick-Tack Night
- Corn Night
- Trick Night
- Micky Night
- Cabbage Stalk Night
- Mizzy Night
In 2003, a bunch of PDDers brought back an adult version of Fox Night, which was basically barhopping while acting like a jerk. If memory serves, it involved a lot of duct tape and firecrackers.
So what are your memories of Fox Night? Did you participate? Were you ever toilet papered, egged, or soaped? When did it originate here? When did it end?
Winter is coming … how about a Duluth Street Store?
We’ve got a lot of poor, if not homeless people in Duluth. And winter is mighty cold. I’d sure love for there to be a way to give directly to those who need, not funneled through a nonprofit. Maybe something following the Street Store model.
Help searching Duluth addresses for old businesses
I’m a bit of a armchair history buff, especially when it comes to Duluth and the surrounding area. I love absorbing historic information, but one thing has eluded me: finding out information about old businesses and such. I just want to be able to type in an address and see old directories, find out the history, but I’ve had zero luck.
I tried Ancestry.com, which is close, but you can only search the old city directories by a person’s name, which does not help at all if I don’t know who to look for. I know there must be something out there. I know people on PDD seemingly have this very ability as they’ve contributed information on past posts, like “(insert business)” was listed at such address in 1985,” etc. So how is it done? Is there any online resource that can feed my history needs? Your suggestions and assistance would be greatly appreciated by this curious minded fellow.
A Different Argument for the Trees
On the topic of removing the trees that line the two-mile stretch of Fourth Street from Sixth Avenue East to Wallace Avenue during the street reconstruction and upgrading of water and sewer lines in 2016:
Keeping the Fourth Street trees is not just a matter of esthetics, sentimentality or environmentalism. It seems to me that although all of these arguments should save the trees, they are emotionally based. We need an argument to save the trees that is going to stand up to science.
The memory of a study came to me today while I was driving down Fourth. There is less crime in areas with trees. And with the center of dodginess on one end of Fourth, it seems to me that criminal activity could very easily expand outward, taking up another portion of our fair city.
So yeah, there is more criminal activity in areas without trees. I don’t think we want more of that.
This Week: scares galore, meatballs, lectures, flicks and more
Here’s a little bit of what you’ll find on this week’s PDD Calendar:
Ghosties and ghoulies are in abundance, this week, as the scares get ramped up in anticipation of Halloween. Evil Dead: The Musical is in action at the Underground, Glensheen has a few days worth of chills planned for its Jack O’Lantern Spooktacular, and Gooseberry Falls is offering creepy campfire tales.
Saturday’s the biggest day for frights, with a Terror Train, a Field of Screams, a Corn Maze, and a Haunted Shack, among other terrifying delights. (And don’t forget about the Haunted Ship, of course.)
Not everything this week is of the scary variety, though: get some Swedish meatballs on Tuesday, hear Egyptian scholar Dalia Basiouny perform her one-woman show on Tuesday and lecture on Wednesday, celebrate five years of Zeitgeist Arts with a flick, and see the District 7A State Representative candidates square off on Tuesday.
New calendar editor and a 2004 flashback
We threw all the résumés up in the air and one of them landed on top. Tony Bennett is the new editor of the PDD Calendar. His credentials include writing for nearly every publication in town, fronting the band Cars & Trucks, working a camera for TV shows such as Almanac North and The PlayList and for dissecting the work of “positive bros” as the Duluth News Tribune‘s music critic.
Tony can be reached via e-mail at tony @ perfectduluthday.com or calendar @ perfectduluthday.com.
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Mouse Season from Wildwoods
A few weeks ago, a kind customer at a local store noticed a mouse caught in a glue trap (Wildwoods hates glue traps!), picked her and the trap up, and brought them both in to us. (more…)
Happy UMD Homecoming!
UMD Chancellor Lendley Black had a busy homecoming week, but with a nod to Jimmy Fallon and a cameo from our favorite shark-attack-preventing mayor, he’s taking some time to write out his thank you notes.
Don’t miss the Bulldog football game Saturday at 1 p.m. Tailgating starts at 11 a.m.
Home dressed as the White house for Halloween
Be wary of any loose wall outlets, and don’t mind the smell of gasoline in the carpet.
My wife and I decided to turn our front window into a Breaking Bad themed display so our house could dress up for the holidays as a meth kingpin’s abandoned home.
Work providing services to people with disabilities
Residential Services, Inc. is a nonprofit organization that provides services to adults, children and families with disabilities. RSI has part- and full-time direct-support positions open in Duluth working with adults and children with varying levels of ability. No previous experience is required, and all training is done on site.
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Perfect Brewery: Bent Paddle Brewing
Since launching in May 2013, Bent Paddle Brewing has quickly become a dominant force in the region. The company seems to have everything right, from perfect beer to perfect packaging to perfect branding and distribution. From a 10,600-square-foot warehouse in Duluth’s Friendly West End, Bent Paddle already produces twice as many barrels of beer as any other local company — making it the most macro of the area’s microbreweries and brewpubs.
In the final round of Perfect Duluth Day’s poll, Bent Paddle went head-to-head with Fitger’s Brewhouse, a 19-year-old jauggernaut brewpub that supplies beer to five restaurants and a beer store owned by parent company Just Take Action. While the two companies have quite different operations and histories, both are well-known beyond Duluth for producing an array of outstanding craft brews. The nod to Bent Paddle, which amassed 60 percent of the vote, is perhaps due to its reach. Though the company is still fairly new, it’s beer is available in a majority of bar, restaurant and liquor stores in the Duluth market — and the territory has already begun to expand into the Twin Cities metro area.
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Duluth Maker Space
There has been talk on PDD before about getting a Maker Space going, now it looks like there is some real progress. The Duluth Maker Space has a website with info, a building near Clyde Iron, and announced a public open house this Saturday, October 18. You can sign up as an informal member on their website.