Upset Duluth: Vikings Fans at Mr. D’s
This is perhaps the most painful addition to PDD’s ongoing “Upset Duluth” series, in which we feature Duluth News Tribune photos of people who are upset.
Story link: “Vikings fans’ optimism turns to disappointment“
Video: Duluth East Sweethearts
Brynn Milburn put together this iPhone video to capture memories of the moments before her sister’s first formal dance over the weekend. Ah, precious memories.
Shakespeare in Motion: Romeo and Juliet
In this remix video, Duluth artist Joellyn Rock collaborates with dancer/choreographer Rebecca Katz Harwood and adds music by Low, while layering in book textures and historical references from the Folger Library’s Shakespeare collection. (more…)
Selective Focus: Duluth Women’s March
Hundreds marched down First Street in Downtown Duluth today during the second annual Twin Ports Women’s March. Featured here are a few select images from Instagram. (more…)
Video Archive: Harry Welty’s 1993 Bill Clinton Snow Sculpture
Twenty-five years ago today — Jan. 20, 1993 — William Jefferson Clinton was sworn in as the 42nd President of the United States. That winter, Duluth’s Harry Welty created a snow sculpture of the new president, and KDLH-TV’s Paul Guggenheimer was there to report.
Welty is still creating snow art on his front lawn, as covered in detail in a PDD “Selective Focus” piece last winter.
William A. Irvin on the move?
I walked by the Irvin yesterday as workers were cutting and smashing the ice around it. Rumor has it that it will be moved soon to accommodate the new sea wall construction which will start soon.
Cabin Fever: Reconciling with -2
I’ve spent the past few weeks obsessively feeding the fire, clearing out ashes, hauling more wood in, and worrying the dogs might have cabin fever. I know they crave the chase of scents that waft over tracks in the snow. They crave the adrenaline rush during the run, the explosion of speed after paws dig into resistance, and the freedom of the wilds. Fifteen acres of land in Lakewood, just north of Duluth, awaits them, they know this. Two fenced in acres seems like a prison in comparison. But they don’t think about frozen paws and hidden sticks looming under the snowline.
I however, with extreme abnormality, do not desire my usual trek amongst the trees where I walk into peace, clarity, and the calmness that mingles between the earth and stars. My feet are solid on the hardwood floor that covers a cold cement slab over frozen ground. It’s been cold for too long. A cold not worthy of dressing in layers: wicking socks, Smartwool socks, fleece leggings … only to capture a fractional moment of meditative silence amongst the freeze.
I admit it, I’m tired. I’m tired of putting on my left glove, tucking it into the jacket cuff, then attempting to do the same to the right with a thick awkward moving gloved hand. Only to unglove when I figure out I forgot to start the zip of the jacket and can’t achieve the initial detailed alignment of zippered teeth. Try and try again, the glove inevitably will be poutingly removed, zipper aligned, and the uncoordinated procedure of glove replacement aggressively completed, again. (more…)
Selective Focus: Samantha Nielsen
This week, we hear from watercolor artist and urban sketcher Samantha Nielsen. Also, this week we have a first, a Selective Focus artist teaching on Skillshare. Read on to hear her story and get the preview for her Skillshare class.
SN: I work in watercolor and ink with a style that many describe as ‘whimsical’. My artistic journey started after my third year of college, when I switched my major from music education to art education. I went into some of my first art classes feeling as though I didn’t have my own artistic voice, and I had very little experience, so all of the mediums were new to me. The first year was spent experimenting and learning the basics, but the following year a project for my illustration class is really what made me feel at home with watercolor and ink. We were instructed to completely fill a sketchbook throughout the semester, but we could only use permanent materials (so no pencils or erasers). This is where my love for watercolor and ink began, and this project really challenged me to step out of my comfort zone. (more…)
Pants-on-Pants Kickstarter
Two weeks ago the Duluth News Tribune told the story of Jeffrey Xu, an engineer designing a new airplane for Cirrus Aircraft … and also designing a “jacket for the legs.” Now there’s a week left in Xu’s Kickstarter campaign, and he’s got $15,000 to go to fund his “Pants-on-Pants” enterprise. (more…)
Postcard from Duluth’s Skyline Parkway
This postcard image of Duluth from Gallagher’s Studio of Photography appears to be circa 1970. The card is not dated and was never mailed. (more…)
Sarah Seidelmann on Focus TV
Duluth author Sarah Seidelmann chats with life coach Michelle Gillette in this Focus TV segment. Focus is a magazine in West Los Angeles.
In the interview, Dr. Seidelmann talks about her latest book, Swimming With Elephants, and her previous book, Born to Freak.
Fitger’s Brewhouse hires new head brewer
Alex “Coke” Chocholousek – Photo by Lissa Maki
The new year ushered in some changes at Fitger’s Brewhouse. Alex “Coke” Chocholousek stepped into the role of head brewer on Jan. 1. Chocholousek is the fifth brewer to head up operations at the Brewhouse and says he looks forward to continuing the brewpub’s legacy of quality and innovation. (more…)
Video Archive: Plugging the hole of the thousand-foot shitter
It was ten years ago that KBJR-TV news reporter Julie Pierce made her famous slip-of-the-tongue while referring to the 1,000-foot motor vessel Walter J. McCarthy Jr. The video clip above, viewed more than 200,000 times in the past decade, also shows KBJR misspelling “McCarthy” on its graphic; so it goes. (more…)
Irving Fairmount Brownfields Revitalization Plan
The Duluth City Council adopted the Irving Fairmount Brownfields Revitalization Plan on Dec. 11. Irving and Fairmount are sub-neighborhoods of West Duluth.
The video above shows clips from a gathering on Oct. 18 at Loll Designs headquarters marking the completion of the plan.
The planning effort focused on redevelopment of post-industrial sites, infrastructure improvements, creating better connections to the Spirit Valley commercial area and increasing walkability.
Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #5
From the Duluth trivia deck scored at Savers. Thanks to those who have corrected the previous entries and discussed them with vigor. I learned a lot.
1. Who was Duluth’s first mayor?
2. What was the name of the first ship to pass through the Duluth Ship Canal?
3. In what year was the Duluth Bethel Society founded?
4. In what year did the Duluth Board of Trade organize? (The link is about the building, not the organization.)
5. Who developed the Lake Vermilion Iron Fields?
6. When the Duluth Street Railway opened in 1881, how much did it cost to ride in one of its mule-drawn cars?
7. What part of Duluth was known as a “Hay Fever Haven“?
8. What did the City of Duluth do when it was found that its Lake Superior water had asbestiform particles which are linked to cancer?
9. What was Soroptimist International?
10. This one feels like it might be suspect: What was the first church in the Village of West Duluth?
11. True or False: Duluth once had a Duluth Toboggan and Snowshoe Association?
(more…)
Sonofmel & the Slideman – “Kissing Eve”
Sometimes it takes traveling far from home to find out where you come from. Sonofmel & the Slideman have farmed decades of life into a harvest of sounds, growing rows of song and spoken word around dreamscapes rich enough to farm. They’ve just begun an album together at Sacred Heart Studio and will debut one or two during a Jan. 17 performance at Bent Paddle Brewing.
Video recorded at Driftless Books & Music in Viroqua, Wis.
PDD Quiz: History of the NorShor Theatre
In anticipation of the NorShor Theatre re-opening in February, this month’s PDD Quiz looks back at the colorful history of this Duluth landmark. (more…)
Poo, of the Non-Winnie Variety
I’ve really grown a lot, since turning 40. Particularly in relationship to my willingness to talk about poop.
Let me back up. (Have you noticed how, when you lead with poo, everything that follows becomes a double-entendre?) Anyway. Up until my late 30s, it was a well-known and oft-ridiculed fact that all things concerning defecation made me wildly, morbidly uncomfortable. I knew it was a natural, essential, healthy bodily function. I also realized that everyone (including me, heaven forgive me) did it. But it was so disgusting, so private and feral and ghastly, that I could not acknowledge it in anyone else’s company.
I did a lot of very silly things to avoid mutual recognition of poop situations.
I famously repaired a toilet while pregnant to avoid calling anyone else into the vestibule, lest they deduce what might have caused the trouble in the first place. For five full years, I used a restroom in a gas station next door to the building in which I worked because the bathroom at my job was right next to the lunchroom, and that was monstrous. I have had entire business trips in which my body mysteriously began apparently absorbing my waste, rather than eliminating it, until I returned home, lest I be forced to do any pooping on an airplane, or, for the love of all that remains holy, in a stall next to a client. I have left a lover’s house and driven home and back again, under the ruse of requiring medicine I did not need, take or have in my possession to avoid any implication of my defecatory habits. (more…)
Lake Superior Aquaman’s Duluth
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Explore this interactive map for the bounty of our Northlandic Atlantis. Containing hundreds of photos, video and links, this is a virtual tour of the area with a focus on water, wildlife, history, and recreation.
Selective Focus: Alison Aune
Alison Aune is an award-winning painter and educator who paints large-scale works that combine intricate Nordic-style patterns, portraits and mixed-media techniques. This week Alison goes in-depth about her style, her inspirations and even her favorite paint brush.
AA: I studied painting as an undergrad and graduate student. In 1984 I received a BFA in painting and a teaching license in art education from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst where I am from, my dad was a professor of philosophy at UMASS and is currently emeritus, and I received a masters degree in painting from UMD (1987) and a PhD in Comparative Arts from Ohio University in Athens (2000). In graduate school I changed from oil paint to acrylics because I needed the paint to dry quickly! (more…)
Open Skating at Duluth Heritage Sports Center
Image from the Heritage Center website
For New Year’s, I never make resolutions. But I do point myself toward new things that feed me.
Ice skating.
I went to the Heritage Center for City of Duluth Open Skate. (more…)
Torture by Numbers: The Past Quarter-Century of Pro Sports in Minnesota
Duluth’s Luke Moravec presents on Minnesota’s run of sports misery. (more…)
Low Versus the Volcano
It started as a Twitter feud between Mt. St. Helens and Lake Superior, then Duluth band Low got involved. Soon Glacier Peak, Mt. Baker, Cahaba River and the Grand Canyon were in on the action. (more…)