Casting call for Duluth film

Paul Lundgren Dec 05, 2012 No Comments

Minneapolis-based director/producer Michael Forstein and his production crew will be in Duluth from Dec. 7-10 to shoot a film written by Duluth East alum Colin Thomsen.

The principle cast is comprised of actors based out of the Twin Cities and Los Angeles, but there is a casting call for Duluthians interested in playing roles that fit the following descriptions:

Very old lady
Mom and small child
Boy age 6-13
Teenage girl
Man age 40-60 with mustache
Middle-aged man
Bartender
Older woman with two small children

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Art

Kids Bicycles and Parts

ericswan Dec 04, 2012 8 Comments

My rapidly growing daughters have outgrown numerous bicycles and I am wondering what to do with the collection of bikes cluttering up our yard.

Any better suggestions than donating to Goodwill etc? Wasn’t there a bike shop in the Hillside at one point that might take this stuff? Or anyone know how these could go to bikeless kids?


Random

Matt O., Brian P. and Brad N.

Paul Lundgren Dec 04, 2012 No Comments

I used to think comedian Brian Posehn (center) would be the perfect actor to play the role of local musician/tattoo artist Matt Osterlund (left), but now I’m seeing a resemblance to local musician/restaurant propagandist Brad Nelson (right).


Uncategorized

922 percent tax increase? Really?

Joel Dec 03, 2012 12 Comments

I moved to Duluth 18 months ago to take a great job with a great company and raise my family in a great city. I bought a modest house that sits on three very small lots within the city limits of Duluth. (My three lots would equal one “Hermantown” sized lot).

Well, the city raised the property tax on the two vacant lots by 922.2 percent! I now have to come up with an extra $752.26 per year in taxes.

Now I know why everyone kept telling me not to buy within the city limits of Duluth! Between the insane tax increase and the bizarre school redistricting red plan nonsense, I would have been better off in one of the surrounding suburbs.

Thanks. Rant over.


Uncategorized ,

Duluth Pipe-smoking Trend

Conrad Dec 03, 2012 25 Comments

While my data collection process might be flawed (data gained mostly by conformation bias) there sure seems to be a recent uptick in Duluth pipe smokers.

I am talking about the briar pipe, burley and latakia type of pipe smoker not the glass and green type. While pipes are a distant third to cigs and cigars, I have run into 6-8 pipe smokers just in the past two months and many more over the past year. Usually 35-45 types, all who appear to have penises.

While this might be borderline PDD topic material I am interested if anyone else noticed or is paying attention. Duluth in general has been a pretty bare place for pipe tobacco since the shop on First Avenue West shut down. Buttes in West Duluth is the only shop that sorta has real pipe tobacco that I know of. Maybe add it to your business plan to make a buck or two.

Any smokers the way of the briar out there in PDD land?


Uncategorized

This week: nutcracker, nutcracker and nutcracker

Lawrence Lee Dec 03, 2012 No Comments

  

Here’s a sampling of what you have to look forward to this week on the PDD Calendar.

Today you can hit two art openings (Tom Rauschenfels and the Duluth Entrepreneur Fund) at the Zeitgeist.

If you type in “Nutcracker” into the PDD Calendar search engine you are going to get three different events. The traditional seasonal ballet is being performed this weekend by the Minnesota Ballet at the DECC and by the Reif Dancers at the Myles Reif Center in Grand Rapids. Further, Renegade Theater Company is producing a theatrical production of the story featuring battle over ballet.

Katie McMahon returns to Mitchell Auditorium with her Celtic Christmas show on Friday.

Rubber Chicken Theater offers up its annual sketch comedy revue A Flood of Christmas Cheer, or, What Seal is This? at the Fitger’s Spirit of the North Theater starting Friday and running through New Year’s Eve.

The 10th Annual Rock and Roll Kamikaze, in which bands are formed randomly and each get a 15 minute set, returns to the Pizza Lucé stage on Saturday.

Step back in time with the 1943 USO Canteen Show at the Douglas County Historical Society this Saturday and Sunday.

And don’t forget our Christmas tag which you can click on to find all such happenings on the calendar.

So what are you doing this week? Can we tag along? Any upcoming events that you want to promote? Let us know!


Events

Upper Chester: Not so fast there people!

Dave P Dec 03, 2012 35 Comments

Duluth took a beating this past year. But thanks to everyone pulling together we’ve made a remarkable comeback. For proof, you don’t have to look any further than Chester Park. Thanks to the indefatigable Dan Proctor and others the Lower Chester trails are probably in better shape than they were before the floods of June, and that’s saying a lot considering the scope of the mudflows and washouts that ravaged pretty much every inch of the ravine.

Upper Chester, however, is another story. Despite good intentions, there’s been a lot of jumping the gun to clean up or improve things that one could make the argument has ended up doing more harm than good. I’m not going to run down the list, but the latest chapter seems to have taken place largely under the radar, and I think it deserves a public airing.

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News and Current Affairs, Politics, Sports ,

Harbor City Roller Dames: Results

David Beard Dec 02, 2012 2 Comments

I was out of town: I need the score, I need photos, I need narrative description of the bout; I want a list of media and political celebrities present!


Sports

Lake Superior Debris

quirtep Dec 02, 2012 6 Comments

My wife and I noticed an unusual amount of debris on the shore Saturday morning — lots of shards of glass, clinkers, ceramic, etc. Why now? Was a shipwreck dredged up?


Outdoors, Photos

Duluth and Helsinki forever — and maybe Stockholm too

Kodiak Dec 01, 2012 6 Comments

I attended a screening of Helsinki Forever, a 2008 montage of video clips taken by Finnish documentary and feature film makers over the past 100 years. It opens with this scene from the 1920s.

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History

Duluth Coffee Company

GregBenson Nov 30, 2012 16 Comments

Duluth Coffee Company

Downtown Duluth has recently been bestowed with a new coffee cafe and roasterie on Superior Street. Located at 105 E. Superior St., Duluth Coffee Company is founded by owner and roaster, Eric Faust, whose passion for coffee is obvious upon walking into the elongated cavernous space. For the unprepared, all your senses will be hit with coffee at its finest.

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Recommendations, Restaurants ,

Duluth’s 1937 West End Baseball Team

Paul Lundgren Nov 30, 2012 No Comments

Brian Bécotte of Edgartown, Mass., shared this 1937 photo with PDD on Facebook. His father, John Bécotte is standing, second from the left.

If anyone knows additional names of players on the team or anything about the team in general, well, that’s what blog comments are for.


History, Photos, Sports ,

Berserkon

adam Nov 29, 2012 2 Comments

There is a Kickstarter project running right now to fund “an entirely epic gaming convention taking place in the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center over Memorial Day weekend.” Board games, RPGs, wargames, TCGs, LAN gaming, celebrity guests and contests. Project closes December 22.

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Uncategorized

Low — The Invisible Way album trailer

Paul Lundgren Nov 28, 2012 2 Comments

There’s a new Low album coming out on March 19. It’s not titled Exceptional Peaches, and it’s hard to know how they resisted that urge and went with The Invisible Way, but that’s really no matter.

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Music

Duluth Pest Control Recommendations

sommerrayne Nov 28, 2012 23 Comments

We have a lovely craftsman in Lakeside we are renting out and they just texted telling me they’ve caught nine mice in four days. Yuck! And now I’m anticipating getting screwed over by an exterminator. I’m from Duluth and yet I’m viewed as an outsider because I’m not there to deal with this and I call from an out-of-state number. I need someone to figure out the point of entry and seal it up. Help fellow Duluth folk!


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