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iPhone owners rejoice!

This may be old news but I noticed yesterday as I was rolling down Tower Ave in Superior that my iPhone was showing a 3G connection, I thought it was for fake but it was for real!

Homegrown Hate

This is where I will take my frustration out against the Duluth Homegrown Festival Committee. It seems that my musical endeavors are not ready to be displayed amongst the Duluth scene.

Now I’m not trying to sound pompous, but there are plenty of musical acts in Duluth, that probably shouldn’t have been accepted. Mark Gartman for one is a talented musician, but I’m sure that at least one of his 9 bands could have been taken off the roster. Not saying that I would have been a good replacement, but COME ON!

Isn’t this festival about showcasing new music in the Duluth scene? I have never played a show in Duluth (and maybe that was what hurt me) but now would have been the time.

This city has great potential for new artists, but none of the venues want to lay their money on the table for a chance. I’m sorry I didn’t enlist a washboard player into my music. Really, I am, because if I had, you might have been able to see me play at Luce or the Red Star.

Shoot, I would have been somewhat pleased if they had stuck me in Soup Town. But nope, I’m not even worth that to them.

Anyways, I’m done (for now) with committee hate. Maybe next year I’ll have more rage when they once again reject me from their Homegrown Happen’n List.

-D A N E C D O T E

Nerd Nite 1.2 – The Ultimate Doctor Who Showdown – Round 1

Ten go in! One comes out!

For Nerd Nite 1.2 I am going to settle once and for all who the best Doctor is, at least until Matt Smith becomes the Doctor starting April 4. In the spirit of March Madness I have constructed a bracket and have seeded the Doctors based on how many stories aired in their reign.
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What the F-Bomb happened in front of my house yesterday?

My son and I were sitting in the front room and heard the common yelling fight there usually is on our Armpit-of-Duluth-Corner-of-Doom. It was 5 p.m., the time the kid got off the bus last Friday, when all the chaos happened. Yesterday, Pirate was sick sans bus.

At the first “gun-shot,” I told Pirate to duck, then covered him. I counted seven gun shots; the sound was not “together” like a firecracker. And it was LOUD!
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The latest on Google Fiber in Duluth

Report by Minnesota Public Radio’s Bob Kelleher

Newspaper Guild Pickets the DNT

(The article below was originally posted to the Northern Worker blog at www.northernworker.wordpress.com)

by Adam Ritscher

On Thursday, February 25 about 80 members and supporters of the Lake Superior Newspaper Guild gathered in front of the Duluth News-Tribune offices for an informational picket. The Newspaper Guild represents the reporters and other workers at the DNT.


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Daily Duluth Photo vs. Duluth Daily Photo

It struck me as a little odd a few days ago when a post on PDD announced the creation of Daily Duluth Photo. “Hasn’t that been around for a while?” I thought to myself.

Now the situation has been cleared up in the comments to that post. The previously existing site I was thinking of is Duluth Daily Photo, not Daily Duluth Photo.

Goodness gracious. I don’t think I can handle two photos a day.

Daily Duluth Photo

A new photo-a-day website has been launched, showcasing images from Duluth, MN. All images are submitted by people who visit the site.

Basically, by using the entry form, you are put into a pool for the current month. Your image may or may not be picked as the Photo of the Day for any given day of the month in which you submitted.
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DNT Resorts to Interviewing its Publisher to Produce Content?

So I know that the whole ripping on the Duluth News Tribune theme gets a bit tiresome. Yet this article compels some response from anyone who knows better than to accept as journalism a story about the New Tribune’s publisher speaking before the Duluth Chamber. Ironically, in this story, the reporter quotes the DNT’s publisher stating that “What we don’t have is less local news content.” Well, I suppose if this article and advertisements qualify, that may be the case. But the newspaper is not even close to being “better than it was a year ago.” Read the story and you might understand my utter confusion at how anyone could possibly consider this story to be newsworthy.

Threaded Comments – This is only a test

Those of you who are regular PDD readers may have noticed that the comments have changed to allow threading — so you can respond directly to one comment rather than having it appear several comments below the one it is relevant to.

PDD administrators turned this function on today to see if it works good or crappy. We might get rid of it right away. We might keep it and tweak it to work better. So try not to fall in love with it or hate it too much.

Trivia weekend

Do any PDD regulars do KVSC Trivia weekend in St. Cloud? It begins Friday. Care to be a source? Don’t know what the hell I’m talking about? See kvsc.org. You can listen online and then bug the station into getting a Twin Ports simulcast in 2011. Then we form the PDD trivia team and take home the honors: A beat up trophy and your team name in the paper.

Google Fiber – Let’s Bring it to Duluth!

Google just announced that it will be choosing one or more locations to put in a ultra high-speed broadband service to a community to serve as a test bed.

This could potentially bring millions of dollars to our area as well as spark a lot of new business to be formed on the back of this service.

Help promote Duluth as the test site for Google’s new 1 GB fiber.  Here is the nomination form.

There is also a Facebook group that has been started to try and promote this idea across the Northland.

Jitterbug

Jitterbug Julie Pearce is leaving the Northland’s NewsCenter. She says this will be her last weekend anchoring the newscasts.

Hello all, yes, the rumors are true… this weekend will be my last weekend as a news anchor for the NewsCenter. This has been a hard decision for me. I’ve been with the NewsCenter now for about 4 years. I work with some amazing people and have truly enjoyed my time there. The big bright studio lights, the cameras, and… deep connection to our community have been extremely rewarding and exciting.

from her facebook page.

After a couple of weeks doing nursing and helping people in Belize she came back and bought a one-way ticket to Haiti to do medical support for people there who have been devastated. (more…)

Bridge to Heaven

I heard that Japanese tourists visit Enger Park to view the “Bridge to Heaven,” as Park Point resembles a famous pine-tree covered sand bar in Japan. Both are viewed upside down, by bending over and looking between your legs. Here

250px-Amanohashidate_2008-8-13 3990_02

boulevard-drive_1b160px-Hiroshige_A_strech_of_land_overgrown_with_pines

DNT Attic is Back!

I noticed last week that the DNT Attic has returned to the Duluth News Tribune site. After Andrew K. was let go the site was never quite as good, but I appreciated that they were at least updating it with new posts from time to time. They just started updating it again after four months of silence. However the posting from January 18th looks strangely familiar to something I’d read before. Coincidence?

Tiny Belly?

Is anyone else tired enough of this ad to throw in a few bucks and pay the proprietors to get rid of it?

From the Photo Archive: One Man Gang wrestling in Duluth on Oct. 8, 1987

OneManGangFU2

This photo by Barrett Chase is from a World Wrestling Federation card at the Duluth Arena. The badass in the foreground is George Gray, wrestling that night as the One Man Gang. In the match he defeated Koko B. Ware via count-out.

The show is clearly being stolen here by the guy in the Pabst hat and the middle-finger sign in the background. And that’s what makes professional wrestling so special.

More Duluth wrestling photos can be seen in the post: “Duluth Arena Pro Wrestling Photos from the 1980s – Killer Khan and so on.”

Below is a shot of the One Man Gang as he enters the ring. Later in his career, by the way, Gray changed his gimmick and became Akeem the African Dream.

Julie Moravchik

I’m surprised there isn’t a conversation going on here about the firing of Fox 21 News Director Julie Moravchik. Is this just inside baseball media stuff? It seems there are a lot of people who have strong opinions about this. How much does TV journalism or journalists matter?

Speaking of Winter Coats

What do you do with your winter coat if you go to a crowded bar to celebrate the New Year? Pile it onto the coat rack that’s built to hold six coats but is loaded up with twenty and ready to fall at any moment? Throw it on the floor in the corner and hope for the best? Keep it on and sweat like crazy? Leave it in the car and suffer through the walk?

PDD Tracks Santa

Hey man, just because Frosty’s got eyes made of coal doesn’t mean you should taunt him.

SquirrelAndFrosty2

Can I just say that things got a little weird last night at Grandma’s Grand Avenue Cafe and then we’ll just leave it at that?

RallyHead2

Evidence of dark matter on the Range?

DarkMatter

A physics lab deep below Minnesota’s Iron Range may have uncovered the first terrestrial evidence of dark matter.

What’s wrong with this picture?

What's Wrong-copy

I took this picture at about noon yesterday … What’s wrong with this picture? I noticed about 5 things right away, maybe there are more.

Trying to pay for my local paper

I called the Duluth News Tribune a couple of weeks ago to ask if I could give them some money. They said no.

Since then I’ve sent a couple of emails and made more phone calls. The poor folks in the circulation department think I’m a crank. I’m not. I just want to pay for the local news I consume.

I told them I don’t want a paper edition of the News Tribune any more. I told them I’m no longer willing to stuff pounds and pounds of newsprint and glossy ads into paper bags each week.

I don’t want you to bring the paper to my door, I told them, because I read the paper online now. I want to pay you for that, I said.

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