This week: Don Ness vs. Jim Carlson
Here’s a sampling of what you have to look forward to this week on the PDD Calendar.
The public schools are on “spring break” this week and there’s open ice skating, kickball, lacrosse and more at the Duluth Heritage Sports Center and movies (including Catching Fire and 47 Ronin) at the Public Library this week.
Eat Downtown Week, with its prix fixe lunch and dinner menus at participating restaurants, ends this Friday.
Hero/Villain/Savior/Scoundrel is an exhibition of portraits featuring Don Ness and Jim Carlson by various local artists. It opens at the Zeitgeist on Thursday.
Think of it as a catered yoga sing-along. There will be a Kirtan at Beaner’s Central on Friday.
“Inuksuit” is an environmental musical piece in which 66 musicians will be spread over the grounds of Glensheen Mansion and the audience wanders through the piece. This happens on Saturday.
Daniel Tobin performs “An Iliad: A One-Man Odyssey” at Mitchell Auditorium on Sunday.
So what are you doing this week? Can we tag along? Any upcoming events that you want to promote? Let us know.
Enger Tower inside and out
The PDD Drone takes an up-close and faraway look at a Duluth icon.
Duluth Mystery Photo #12: Holt Caterpillar
This week’s mystery photo is an illustration, really, but the small print indicates it’s a “drawing from photograph.” The text of this 1922 advertisement in the Saturday Evening Post refers to Duluth, which leads one to assume the illustration is based on a photo shot in Duluth. Is it? Does anyone recognize this location 92 years later?
Icebox Radio Theater: Acting Internships
The Icebox Radio Theater is searching for performers for a two-week tour of public libraries in Northern Minnesota from June 2 to 13. We are in need of talented individuals willing to learn about a new form of theater while performing for kids and adults in a series of small shows in public libraries from Grand Rapids to Grand Marais. Must have own transportation to general area of events and for long weekend of rehearsals in International Falls. Per-show stipend plus lodging and mileage paid.
2014 Duluth Homegrown Field Guide
Read the 2014 Duluth Homegrown Field Guide online as a flip-through magazine. Band profiles, full schedule and lots of choice Homegrown deets.
2014 Duluth Homegrown Field Guide
Homegrown Field Guide 2014 is out!
The Homegrown Music Festival Field Guide 2014 is lukewarm off the presses. Most of them are in stacks of boxes at the Chicken Shack, 207 E. Superior St., and will be distributed around town in the coming days. As of 2:30 p.m. Friday there was one box at the Electric Fetus, so you might be able to grab a copy there at this very moment.
Duluth Band Profile: Wino, WI
Wino, WI drives hard rock back into Duluth. Greg Conley and Scott Millis explain how the band started as a reaction to folk. Click on the image above to hear the interview.
Three from LakeVoice: Crayon artist Tiona Marco, Mayor Don Ness and Giant Panda
A trio of highlights from the past week in Lake Voice News:
- Whatever happened to Tiona Marco?
- Duluth’s mayor in the eyes of friends and family
- Duluth Giant Panda ground for the rootless
Lake Voice News is a student-run publication focused on bridging the gap between UMD students and the Duluth community.
Ye Olde Duluth: Roller Skating Edition
Duluth's Frank Bryant (right) and Raymond 'King' Kelly after skating 348 miles to set a world distance record for a 24-hour two-man relay, 21-22 January 1915.
I ran across this on the Library of Congress’s Flickr Commons photostream today and got curious. Although the original caption suggests that Bryant and King’s record was set “on ice,” the wheels on the skates the men are wearing make me skeptical–as does the background material on the Frank Bryant collection at the Northeast Minnesota Historical Center.
So, here goes: From 1913-1916, Duluthian Frank Bryant was a dominant competitive roller skater, holding a world championship in speed skating. The photo here depicts the 25 year-old Michigan native with St. Paulite Kelly, with whom he set a world record distance of 348 miles for a 24-hour two-man relay event–the Minnesotan pair’s performance eclipsed the previous 203-mile mark set just two weeks earlier in New York. A knee injury in 1916 apparently ended his high-level skating career, but he continued skating competitively into the late 1920s. Bryant worked for Duluth’s Union Towing and Wrecking Company for 32 years, retiring in 1955; he died in 1961.
Duluth Man on the Street circa 1994
The low quality of this video is not just because it’s 20 years old; it’s also because I was the camera man and I probably neglected to white balance or something.
The low quality of the content is because it’s all made up on the spot. My then-UWS classmate Trent Jameson simply asked me to go shoot some video of people on Superior Street with him. (more…)
Helmet Cam: Shark Pilot, Diorama-rama
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbahU_ClTmw
What the Shark Pilot Helmet Cam saw.
Homegrown Documentary
I’m working on a Homegrown Music Festival documentary I started a few years back. I’m looking at getting some additional footage this year, including live performances and interviews. Anyone interested in being interviewed should let me know. Also does anyone have any pics from previous Homegrowns that I could use for this? Peace and happy Homegrown! Contact me at dandresser @ hotmail.com or Dan Dresser on Facebook.
A Northern Jewel
A Northern Jewel is a blog dedicated to adventures in the beautiful Northwoods and lake shores of Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. Come inside to a Wonderland of creativity, tea parties, wanderlust and mindless banter.
Duluth Band Profile: Hanna Cesario
Hanna Cesario uses the ukulele to play jazz standards. In this clip she plays a live version of “Heavenly,” a track from her forthcoming album. Click on the image above to hear the interview.
Duke of Duluth Revisited
Back in June, 2010, PDD featured a post about the photo above, which was labelled “The Duke of Duluth.”
We have been digging into all things “Duke of Duluth” and “Duluth Duke(s)” over at Zenith City Online. The first of three stories on the topic posts today and discusses two literary dukes of Duluth: a 1905 Broadway play and a 1926 novel. And the story just may shed some light on that photo. You can read it here.
Homegrown Rawk and/or Roll: Eric Swanson’s Mix
Available now for free download on Bandcamp, 106 megabytes of rawk and/or roll selected by Duluth soundman extraordinaire Eric Swanson, brought to you by the Homegrown Music Festival. (more…)
This week: mystery, absurdism and eating
Here’s a sampling of what you have to look forward to this week on the PDD Calendar.
Eat Downtown Week (which actually goes for 12 days) starts today with $10 and $20 prix fixe meals at participating restaurants.
You still have time to get your car ready for the Pinewood Derby at Carmody Irish Pub on Tuesday.
Sam Cook is the keynote speaker at the Duluth Parks and Recreation Annual Meeting at Spirit Mountain on Wednesday.
The Hounds of Baskerville is a staged reading of a Sherlock Holmes mystery at Glensheen Mansion Thursday through Saturday.
Endgame, an absurdist play by Samuel Becket, opens at CSS on Friday and runs two weekends.
Drink beer and support the Jaycees at the Gitchee Gumee Brewfest this Saturday at UWS.
So what are you doing this week? Can we tag along? Any upcoming events that you want to promote? Let us know.
Ice Cutter on Lake Superior
Amazing images by Carl Sauer of an ice cutter takin’ care of business on Lake Superior.
Duluth Mystery Photo #11: 1891 Couple
This photo is dated 1891 and is from the studio of Lars N. Liden, 1619 W. Superior St. in Duluth’s West End, a location that is presently a parking lot. That’s all we’ve got to go on. It’s a long shot, but can anyone name these two 19th Century Duluthians? Or at least write some good fan fiction about them?
Nerd Field Report: Firefly, Nerd Nite, Icebox Radio Theatre, Arts Advocacy
It was a week for several varieties of Nerd for me. (more…)
Select Images from East’s 1974 Birch Log
“Moods” was the theme 40 years ago when Duluth East High School published the 1974 edition of its Birch Log, the school’s yearbook. Some of the many moods were captured by student photographers; we share select images here simply because a copy of the book was sitting in a crate at Globe News in Superior with the meager asking price of $8 on it.
Some of the photos have captions, which you can read by hovering over the image. You can also click on the images to see them larger and read captions, then use the left and right arrow keys to view them as a slide show. If the photo had no caption in the book it is simply titled by the page number it appeared on.
Duluth Band Profile: Duck Duck Punch
Duck Duck Punch uses infectious synthpop on its debut album Human Chemistry. Member Bryan Rudell opens up about the band’s forthcoming EP Take it Like a Man. Click on the image above to hear the interview.
Minnesota Workout: Shoveling Snow in Duluth — March 27, 2014
I decided to put on my boots and go out and get a little workout today as only a Minnesotan can. Here is a video of how to workout in Minnesota … with a little Minnesota accentuation.