Recommendations
Rural Recording Studio Suggestions?
Musical artist Zola Jesus made this request on Twitter today. Any suggestions? Tweet back to @ZOLAJESUS.
I replied with Sacred Heart but there must be more.
Price Check: Ames 26-inch Poly Leaf Rake
It’s that time of year again when T-shirts become long sleeves, cups of coffee become pumpkin spice lattes, and the emerald and sage colored leaves become sandstone orange and rosewood red.
Breathe in the crisp morning air, take pictures of the vibrant Midwestern colors, and maybe toss a puppy or a child into that pile of dead leaves. After you have finished having your fall fun, those leaves will not rake themselves.
An Ames 26-inch Poly Leaf Rake could be the tool that helps you through the dreaded yearly task. The handle has a cushion grip to deter blisters and all the tines touch the ground simultaneously.
Whether you are a first-rake, first-home buyer or a second mortgage home remodeler, this product could liven up your yard again.
Here lies the tenth feature for the Price Check series where we compare prices of products and services in Duluth. The prices below reflect the rate the establishment charges with tax included. The combined tax in Duluth is 8.375 percent. This is the summation of Minnesota sales tax (6.875 percent), St. Louis County transit sales/use tax (0.5 percent) and Duluth general sales tax (1.0 percent). Hermantown’s general sales tax is the same as Duluth, and the same state and county taxes apply. (more…)
Reporting Burnt Out Streetlights in Duluth
Is there a website or phone number for Duluth where one can report burnt out street lights? There are three burnt out in a row on the eastern end of Pittsburg Avenue, making it very dark at night and I know of many more, too. Would it be through Minnesota Power or the city of Duluth itself?
Thank you.
Duluth Mountain Biking for Beginners and Kids
A friend asked me last week where beginners should go for a good first-time mountain biking experience in Duluth.
“I want good views — not afraid of some hills — but nothing crazy where I would have to be an expert,” she said.
I don’t mountain bike, so I can’t answer the question … or maybe that makes me the perfect guinea pig for an experiment. Anyway, a quick search of the internet seems to suggest Lester Park has a good “easiest” trail. Is there a middle-aged klutz out there who can endorse the Lester experience as a good trail for a first-time mountain biker? Or is there somewhere better suited to persons of limited balance?
DuluthiLeaks: 87 Places to Drink ’em Up
Haven’t you always wanted a checklist for places to get soused in Duluth? Well, fortunately the city’s Alcohol, Gambling and Tobacco Commission provides that very list. For the second edition of DuluthiLeaks — Perfect Duluth Day’s new feature in which public documents are released as if they contain secret information leaked from an anonymous whistle blower — we take a look at the list of on-sale liquor licenses issued in Duluth. The list breaks down which places can be open on Sunday, have more than one bar, permit dancing, stay open past 2 a.m. without serving alcohol, or serve alcohol between 1 and 2 a.m. (more…)
Gathering of the Juggalos – Northern Edition
Make it happen, people. (more…)
Multiple sclerosis as a catalyst from being a burnt out cubicle jockey to self-taught artist and entrepreneur
Perhaps you’ve wondered what it takes to open your own retail space. Here is the formula that worked for one of my neighbors: intense physical pain + $7,200 in startup costs + burnout and restlessness + a debilitating medical diagnosis + a whole lot of elbow grease = one art gallery. And that’s about all it takes.
The story of Lakeside Gallery, Aaron Kloss’s new venture, is incredible. Check it out at Ed’s Big Adventure.
Price Check: Off! Deep Woods Insect Repellent
It does not matter if you are eating at a restaurant with a lakeside seat, boating on Lake Superior, or strolling on the Lake Superior Hiking Trail, you are bound to encounter the force of the squitos.
Saying “avoid the outdoors at dusk and dawn” to protect yourself from mosquito bites is like saying “stay indoors to avoid sunburn.”
Purchasing a 6 oz. can of Off! Deep Woods is more practical than avoiding the outdoors for a third of the day. The aerosol spray contains 25 percent DEET, which is an active ingredient to repel mosquitoes, ticks, biting flies, gnats and chiggers.
The stench of insect repellent may “bug” you even after a few showers, but it beats the days of putting Xs on squito bites with your longest fingernail (or scratching with the nearest sharp object).
Here lies the ninth feature for the Price Check series where we compare prices of products and services in Duluth. The prices below reflect the rate the establishment charges with tax included. The combined tax in Duluth is 8.375 percent. This is the summation of Minnesota sales tax (6.875 percent), St. Louis County transit sales/use tax (0.5 percent) and Duluth general sales tax (1.0 percent). Hermantown’s general sales tax is the same as Duluth, and the same state and county taxes apply. (more…)
The Loop
Looking for an article about “The Loop.”
Recommendations For Alligator Removal Service?
Can anyone recommend a good alligator removal service? My brother and I own Duluth’s Best Bread and have had quite a few guests and workers eaten in the past month. I think they are coming in through the pipes or something.
I was planning on ignoring it but OSHA says if we don’t get the gators out in 90 days we have to pay like a $200 fine.
Wrestling with a $90 turkey
Ninety dollars for a pastured turkey. Are you kidding me??? When I agreed to take the extra bird off the farmer’s hands, I assumed it might cost about half that. At the time I was working minimum wage as a part-time farmhand. I traded nearly two days of work for this bird, and probably half that in bike time just to get to and from the Food Farm. Take a peek at Ed’s Big Adventure to find out if the final product was worth all the blood, sweat, and tears. You just might wind up planning your Thanksgiving celebration today.
The Last Singles Night (for now)
I attended the final Singles Night … for June. I promised I would not write about it (because when I am thinking about writing I am no longer “present”) and there was disappointment among some folks. So a final post about the final Singles Night (for June). It will go on, in August, if there is desire and support. (more…)
Shopping Alternative Ways of Thinking
I went shopping in the most unusual shops in Downtown Duluth. (more…)
Funding Sources for Low Income Families in Duluth
I’m hosting the first ever Teen Zine Camp at Duluth Art Institute in August.
My concern as the instructor is multiple families have asked me about funding assistance for their children to attend. The camp is $90 (DAI members) and $110 (non-members) for the week. I would like to make this camp more accessible to all community members so I’m wondering if anyone has ideas of camp assistance or programs in Duluth for low-income families?
Thanks for any tips or ideas of local resources! I’m going to do whatever I can to promote zines and youth zines in our community. You’re help is much appreciated to keep young artists inspired.
Price Check: Duluth Coffee Company’s Peru Cajamarca Norte
Duluth Coffee Company launched as a boutique wholesale roaster in 2011 and expanded to open a retail café in Downtown Duluth in 2012. The café sells roasted coffees, brewing devices, grinders and coffee brewed by the cup to order.
Peru Cajamarca Norte is a full-city roast grown in Cajamarca, Peru. There is some oil on the surface of the bean, whereas light roasts have no oil and dark roasts are oily. Other characteristics of this coffee are heavy body and bitterness, with a rich and dark color. Duluth Coffee Company roasts beans onsite in a 3-kilo roaster, exposing the beans to higher temperatures for a darker roast. (more…)
Tanks a lot
Anybody know who might remove an old pretty-much-empty oil tank from my basement?
Volunteers needed for local film festival
The seventh annual Duluth Superior Film Festival delivers film, music and art to the Twin Ports region June 1-5. In its short history, the festival has presented a distinctively imaginative and diverse lineup of international, American independent and regional films.
To help maintain the merriment, volunteers are needed. (more…)
You probably haven’t heard of KTWH-FM of Two Harbors
There’s something amazing going on at a little community radio station in Two Harbors. If you haven’t heard of KTWH it is most likely due to its recent arrival upon the airwaves and its status as a low-power community radio station. If you live outside of its broadcast range, streaming online will be your only recourse, but it is well worth the effort. It is something I haven’t heard since the advent of FM in the early 1970s. DJs playing music that has merit and meaning rather than having the potential for being the opening theme song for the new CSI, set in Bugtussle, KY. (more…)
Duluth Home Inspector Recommendations
Looking for recommendations for the best home inspector in the area … thanks in advance!
Price Check: Pint of Bent Hop
Bent Hop is a golden India pale ale brewed in Duluth’s friendly West End by Bent Paddle Brewing, a 30-barrel production brewery and taproom that uses water from Lake Superior. Bent Hop has a big citrus bitterness with a medium malt support. The alcohol by volume is 6.2 percent. Compare that to the domestics with an average ABV of 4.2%, and you have yourself a craft beer that’ll bend you over during hoppy hour.
For the purposes of this price check, we compared prices of Bent Hop on tap rather than in a can.
Here lies the sixth feature for the Price Check series where we compare prices of products — from bars and restaurants in this case — in Duluth and Superior. The prices below reflect the rate the establishment charges with tax included. For the most part, bars factor the tax into a flat, rounded off price. Many restaurants, however, don’t mind picking up pocket change. Duluth establishments charge 13.125 percent tax on alcoholic beverages; Superior establishments charge 5.5 percent tax. Since the taxes are extra complicated on this Price Check, we break them down at the end of the list. (more…)
Price Check: Frigidaire Dishwasher
Are you sick of arguing with your spouse and children about whose turn it is to wash the dishes by hand? Do you despise the smell and texture of greasy, pruney phalanges? Perfect Duluth Day’s Price Check series has a solution for your loathing: The Frigidaire 24-inch Built-in Dishwasher in Stainless Steel.
This model # FFBD2411NS dishwasher features a spacious, removable silverware basket, a delay start option so it runs on your schedule, a removable, stainless steel filter, five wash cycle options, and a control lock option. (more…)
Perfect Duluth Stargazing Spots
Can anyone recommend good spots for stargazing in and around Duluth? I’m sure there are many places out of town along the shore, but which spots do you recommend and why? Thank you.
Perfect Duluth Easter Brunch?
So, being of a mindset that doesn’t lean particularly religious, the wife and I tend to sleep in on Easter Sunday. I had always been under the impression that Easter brunch was sort of a big thing, so a few years back we ventured out seeking a leisurely breakfast/lunch combo with bloodies and mimosas, only to discover all the usual downtown brunch suspects were closed!
We probably gave up a bit too early in our search since we ended up at the bar at Tycoons, but there were surprisingly few open places. To save me from that situation again, what does PDD suggest as the best place in the area to get a proper Easter brunch?
Not your typical cookbook review
Once upon a time we stopped caring about where our food came from, and had no knowledge of the people who grew it. We stopped cooking, ate out of boxes, and tore cellophane wrappers off microwaved “TV dinners.” We even ate fast food meals in our cars without stepping foot outside. Sounds crazy, but it’s actually true! Americans across the socioeconomic spectrum came to rely solely upon international corporations to feed us, even though they’ve proven time and again that their only care is for profits.
Slowly, surely, relentlessly, we are waking up. There is another way. The Duluth Grill Cook Book II is the latest contribution toward our community’s drive to create a sustainable local food system. I lingered over a scratch-made pie and perused the book for a couple hours while taking in the atmosphere. Read my thoughts on Ed’s Big Adventure.
Price Check: Iggy Pop and Gwen Stefani
On Friday, March 18, two solo artists released their newest albums. As usual with Perfect Duluth Day’s Price Check, the cost of purchasing said albums varies — in this case not just from store to store but by format and artist. Odd as it might seem, Iggy Pop tends to be a tad more expensive than Gwen Stefani. (more…)