David Beard
Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #26
Another trivia card from a board game purchased at Savers. (more…)
Countdown to Halloween: Twin Ports Paranormal Society
The Twin Ports Paranormal Society will “investigate the paranormal for people in need of help at no charge. Confidentiality will be respected.” (more…)
Countdown to Halloween: Lady Ocalat’s Paranormal Investigations
I’ve been to Lady Ocalat’s Emporium once, to buy some fake dove blood for purposes of writing with my new fountain pen. I don’t know entirely the relationship between the tarot reading services and the paranormal investigations, but Lady Ocalat’s website maintains a record of past paranormal activity, bigfoot sightings and UFO sightings.
Countdown to Halloween: International Paranormal Society
Gloria Doescher (left) shows Chris Julien (center) and Adrian Lee a photo of what her thermal imaging camera picked up during one of the vigils at Fairlawn Mansion and Museum in Superior. The three investigated the mansion along with other members of the International Paranormal Society, the first time in more than a dozen years that ghost hunters were allowed into the mansion. (Maria Lockwood / Superior Telegram)
The International Paranormal Society has visited Duluth multiple times. One of its visits included time on the SS William A. Irvin, another the mansion at Fairlawn. Adrian Lee, its founder, has a pretty unique gimmick — he talks about working at the intersection of history and paranormal science, spending time in archives to track historical records that help him make sense of the data his heat sensors and ghost boxes find. Triangulation yields truth, apparently. (more…)
Duluth-area “Storage Wars”
I had no idea one could try one’s luck, “Storage Wars” style, in Duluth.
Visit twinportsbid.com if you want to wonder about what sad turn someone’s life took that led them to abandon their locker.
It reminds me of the times I visited Nordic Auction and wondered at the people whose lives were being emptied into boxes for auction. What happened to them? And what will happen to my 9,000 books when I am gone?
Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #25
Another card from the Duluth Trivia game. (more…)
Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #24
Another card from the Duluth Trivia game. (more…)
Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #23
Here’s another in the series of Duluth Trivia cards, from a board game found at Savers. (more…)
Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #22: Bernick’s Edition
The trivia cards featured in this series were purchased at a local thrift store. Accuracy might be off. Note, for example, the spelling of Bernick’s on the header on the card below. Bernick’s, of course, has been the Duluth-area distributor of Pepsi and other beverage products since the 1970s. (more…)
Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #21
Another Duluth Trivia card, from a board game found at Savers, below. (more…)
Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #20
Duluth Trivia cards, from a board game from Savers, below. (more…)
Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #19
Here’s another card from the Duluth Trivia game. (more…)
Iwen wins prize
The Arkansas Democrat Gazette reports that UW-Superior professor Jayson Iwen has won a $5,000 poetry prize. (more…)
Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #18
Here’s another card from the Duluth Trivia game. (more…)
Mind your Business
On my way to see Burning, the Korean movie adaptation of a Haruki Murakami short story, playing at Zeitgeist Zinema in January, I heard a woman yell “Somebody help me!” from the bus stop. I couldn’t see her well; she had made herself small, the way a rabbit might make itself small for fear of a predator who has entered the garden, too.
A man was looming over her while she cowered against the wall of the Greysolon Plaza. From behind, I couldn’t see much of him, either. He wore a jacket that looked not-quite warm enough; his agitated movements were likely keeping him warm. I felt my city instincts kick in.
I’ve lived in a city all my life: Milwaukee until I was 22, St. Paul until I was 32. Duluth is the smallest community I have ever lived in, and most days, it barely feels like a city. In the quarters of a city where poor people live, anytime someone calls “help,” I think, we check it out. We need each other.
Someone called for help. I needed to check it out. I started to cross the street, putting on my most booming voice.
“What’s going on over there?” (more…)
Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #17
Another card from the Duluth Trivia game. (more…)
Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #16
So here is another of the cards from the Duluth Trivia game. I’m hoping that Tony Dierckins might correct any egregious errors. Anyone interested in Duluth history needs to visit his site at Zenith City Press. (more…)
Last of the Gabriel’s [Pop] Vinyl: “My Little Old Shack in Minneapolis, MN” by Yogi Yorgesson
I saved the best, or at least the nearest to local, for last. (more…)
More vinyl from Gabriel’s Used Bookstore
I’m still working my way through the vinyl I grabbed from the bag sale at Gabriel’s Used Bookstore. Most of it is listen once, then dispose or destroy, although I have a mild curiosity about who the owner of these singles was. (more…)
Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #15
Ah hah! Here is maybe a better way to share the cards from the Duluth Trivia game I bought at Savers. I destroyed all the bits that were not Duluth-centric, and I am destroying the cards as I use them here. I own waaaay too much stuff. (more…)
Big changes at Wildwoods rehab facility
Left: New Wildwoods Executive Director Jessica LaBumbard. Right: Outgoing Director Farzad Farr.
Wildwoods, the Duluth-area wildlife rehabber, recently posted its early-season stats: 1,260 animals have been helped by the organization this year, through Aug. 1. Migration season, a busy time for Wildwoods, is still to come.
Meanwhile, Executive Director Farzad Farr will be stepping down on Sept. 21 after 13 years with Wildwoods. He’s going back to California to be close to family. New director Jessica LaBumbard has already began. (more…)
Working through a personal record collection from Gabriel’s
The $5 bag sale happens a few times a year at Gabriel’s Books. I swung by on Saturday and filled a grocery sack with a book on new testament theology by Rudolf Bultmann (what kind of nerd has a favorite theologian, in this case an “existential theologian” committed to “demythologizing” the Bible?), and a book by Frederic Wertham (now that is comic nerd excellence right there) and a stack of 45rpm records. (more…)
Eavesdropping in Britain
Local author Julie Gard has published new poetry in Coldnoon, from a project rooted in eavesdropping called “Eavesdropping in Britain.” (more…)
Movies at West Theater
I wanted to see the new Spider-Man movie, and five dollar night at the Marcus downtown is always tempting … but wait. The West Theater is showing Spider-Man? (more…)