Time Travel
Have you ever wanted to travel back in time? Not to brag or anything, but I have figured out a way to time travel. I can usually manage to go back a few decades, maybe a couple hundred years at most. I can’t stay for long, and I’ve yet to taste or actually touch a cup of tea from 1915, despite a fervent desire. I’m more like a traveler passing through, a tourist in a world different than mine, peering in from the side, presuming to understand what is going on around me.
This world can only be reached through research and imagination, and with the determination of a detective piecing together scraps of evidence. It also depends on helpful archivists, online databases and the support of public grant money and fellow dedicated history nerds. The path is sometimes long and slow, a little bit dusty, but sometimes it pulls us along with the thrill of the hunt and a spectacular find, like a full-on glimpse of faces, journals, conversations and the insides of shops. Tracking down history mysteries is an addicting little hobby.
The recent purchase of a 102-year-old building at 1917 W. Superior St. by the Duluth Folk School led to an off-hand request for more information about the building’s history. I found myself drawn into this request, spending free time browsing 1915 online editions of the Duluth Herald from the comfort of my computer desk, no dusty pages required courtesy of public access grants and diligent scanners. The new owners and I knew some facts, and now we wanted to see what that place had looked like when it was built. I had a hunch some pretty good time travel was possible. (more…)
Missing Person: Kenneth Gordon
The Duluth Police Department is seeking the public’s assistance in locating Kenneth Jay Gordon. He was last seen on July 18 at approximately 9 p.m. in a small red or brown vehicle leaving the area of the 2500 block of Rice Lake Road in Duluth’s Kenwood neighborhood.
Gordon is described as a 63-year-old Native American male, 5-foot 10-inches tall, 180 lbs., black hair in a pony-tail, facial hair and no teeth. He has a tattoo on his left forearm, uses a two-handed silver walker, and was last seen wearing a cream-colored long-sleeve shirt, grey sweatpants and a worn out baseball cap.
The Duluth Police Department would like to check Gordon’S health and welfare based upon medical health concerns. Anyone having information as to his whereabouts is asked to contact the Duluth Police Department by calling 911.
Perfect New Restaurant: OMC Smokehouse
OMC Smokehouse is the winner of Perfect Duluth Day’s best new restaurant poll. The popular barbecue joint smoked the competition, garnering 82 percent of the vote among the two finalists. The Boat Club Restaurant and Bar was runner up with 18 percent; 14 other nominees were eliminated in early voting.
OMC (which stands for oink, moo, cluck) opened in February. For more than two years, area residents eagerly anticipated the restaurant’s arrival. (more…)
Selective Focus: Atelier & Stone
Louise Payjack-Guillou came to Duluth via London, where she studied jewelry making. She currently works in a studio in the Duluth Maker Space, and sells her work through an elegant e-commerce website.
L. P. G.: I’m a jeweler working primarily in sterling silver and gold. My current work picks up on intricate and ornate details from found and collected objects. Often choosing antiques which have been beautifully worked with fine engraving, embossing etc. and distilling elements of these into modern clean forms to be worn as everyday luxury. Recently I’ve been having fun playing with larger precious and semi-precious stones such as natural emeralds, sapphires, turquoise and labradorite. The inclusion of more stone setting in my work has really opened new creative outlets for me, plus it’s a lot of fun sourcing colourful stones; they’re like candy to me! (more…)
Sweat Equity – “Hot Shower”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CloeOW37WlM
Duluth’s Paul Broman and Kevin Craig started reviving the Minneapolis funk, soul and synth-pop sound with their band Sweat Equity in 2013. Finally, the video for their single “Hot Shower” has arrived.
Inside the old Duluth Central High School bell tower
In this video, Kenneth Newhams of Duluth Shipping News visits the bell tower of the old Duluth Central High School, now the Duluth School District’s Central Administration Building.
Park Point Fairfield Inn Construction
I’ve been watching the new hotel go up at the marina on about 10th Street and Minnesota Ave. and have noticed that a few weeks ago all construction suddenly stopped! Rumor has it that the city building inspector has put a stop to the construction. Anybody know what has really happened?
Human Fabric of Duluth
Trudy Vrieze has started a fascinating project documenting what it means to live in Duluth, who we are and why we are here. The Human Fabric of Duluth is a street-photography and storytelling project. (more…)
Martha’s Daughter to transform Original Coney Island
Duluth’s Original Coney Island restaurant. Image via Trip Advisor.
After several years of pleasing late-night palates with her pop-up restaurant, chef Nyanyika Banda is opening Martha’s Daughter, a brick and mortar eatery. She hopes to have the Original Coney Island space at 107 E. Superior St. transformed to fit her vision by summer’s end. (more…)
RoofTop Fable – “It’s All So Complicated”
Duluth band Rooftop Fable will be hosting a release party for their album “Nuanced” on Saturday, July 22 at Blacklist Brewing. The event will also feature Emily Jayne & The Blue Plate Fella’s, Honest Maude, The True Malarkey and cabaret performances by The Duluth Dolls.
The video above is from the album and features aerial acrobat and contortionist, Cheryl Birch, and was filmed at Ignite Studio in downtown Duluth by Brian Barber.
Duluth 2017 Primary Election Primer
Below are the offices up for grabs this fall and the names of those who filed to run before the July 18 deadline. The Primary Election will be held Sept. 12. The General Election is Nov. 7. (more…)
Actual Wolf – “Baby Please”
“Baby Please” is the first single off the Actual Wolf album Faded Days, available now digitally and on cassette. The record release is scheduled for Sept. 15.
Eric Pollard, aka Actual Wolf, splits time between Duluth, Grand Rapids, Nashville and so on.
The video is directed by Erik Nelson.
Joni Jurek – Great! Lakes Candy Kitchen
The Duluth Art Institute‘s Plein Air Duluth Paint du Nord exhibition opening last week featured a first-prize painting of the Great! Lakes Candy Kitchen storefront in Knife River. In the video above, Frank Sander interviews painter Joni Jurek while she works on the piece.
Jurek has exhibited work throughout Wisconsin and Minnesota, including at the Outdoor Painters of Minnesota in St. Paul and at the Red Wing plein air event. She has also shown statewide in Texas, Vermont, Colorado and New Mexico, and abroad in Italy. (more…)
City Girl Coffee in Forbes
Duluth’s City Girl Coffee was featured yesterday in the online version of nationally circulated business magazine Forbes. In the Q-and-A article, City Girl founder Alyza Bohbot shares how her coffee business aims to source from women-owned and managed farms while working to raise consumer awareness of gender inequality in the world’s coffee-producing communities. She also details how she approaches the challenges of small business ownership and explains why social missions should be more than just a marketing tool.
Article link: Small Company, Mighty Mission
Poll: Best New Restaurant in Duluth Area
It’s time for the 2017 edition of Perfect Duluth Day’s “Perfect New Restaurant” poll. In 2016, Northern Waters Restaurant won by a landslide. Since then, a variety of new eating establishments have emerged. Which one is perfect? That will be determined by the good ol’ democratic process. Now is the chance to give your stomach a voice, whether your tastes are frugal or fancy.
It’s a runoff ballot, so if your favorite drops out of the running you can vote again from the remaining pool of contenders. At this stage in the voting, it’s down to the final two: Boat Club Restaurant and Bar and OMC Smokehouse.
[poll id=”91″]
This poll is now closed. The results were:
OMC Smokehouse: 82 percent
Boat Club Restaurant and Bar: 18 percent
PDD Quiz: Breakfast Diners of the Twin Ports
[This post originally contained an embedded quiz created on the platform Qzzr. It is no longer available at its source.]
Inspired by a now six-year-old PDD post, we’re serving up a heaping platter of breakfast diner trivia. How well do you know your Twin Ports breakfast diners? Can you identify them using only a photograph of the counter and a unique menu item? Dig in and find out.
I Wonder
Long it’s been known the galaxy is a big place, but until 1922 it was thought the Milky Way was all there was. Then Edwin Hubble climbed Mount Wilson and had a look-see through the Hooker Telescope and realized those cloudy objects in the sky called “nebulae” were actually galaxies unto themselves. Later, a telescope named for Edwin himself beamed back the Deep Field images of a polkadot infinity. Ten thousand galaxies in a patch of sky one tenth the size of a full moon. Why weren’t people jumping up and down when we went from a hundred billion stars (no paltry sum) to a hundred billion visible galaxies, as far as the Hubble can see? From a distance you could mistake the Deep Field photos for a sky full of stars, but squint and see galaxy after galaxy shimmering in the void. When I notice one swirling down the drain of time, just like ours, I think, “hey — spiral galaxy — my people!”
Aldous Huxley considered the brain and nervous system a necessary reducing valve providing a “measly trickle of consciousness” shunted from “Mind at Large.” Necessary because you can’t go around immersed in Mind at Large while trying to pay the bills. So we float like croutons on the bottomless deeps, and notice what we can. (more…)
Video Archive: KDLH-TV News Promo from 1997
in this 30-second news promo from July 14, 1997, KDLH-TV anchor Liz Brummond reports the Duluth City Council is set to vote on a living-wage ordinance requiring employers that receive taxpayer assistance to pay 90 percent of workers a minimum of $7.25 per hour or $6.50 per hour with benefits.
Councilors voted 5-4 in favor of the measure, putting Minnesota’s first living-wage ordinance into Duluth’s City Code.
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts at Head of the Lakes Fair 1987
With the Head of the Lakes Fair underway this week in Superior, it’s fitting to take a look back 30 years ago when Joan Jett and Blackhearts graced the fairgrounds stage. Fortunately, a bootleg recording exists of the Aug. 15, 1987 show. (more…)
Selective Focus: Linda Naughton
Linda Naughton just opened a show of her intensely bright and beautiful watercolors at Lakeside Gallery. The show will be up through July, and Linda talks about the work.
L.N.: For painting, I start out with transparent watercolors. But I want my work ultimately to express the joy of exuberant color. If I’m happy with the initial result, then I don’t add anything else. But if the painting isn’t as dynamic as I want, then I might add India ink or alcohol ink or both. If I still think it needs more oomph, I will add acrylic ink, colored pencil and/ or oil pastels. Finally, if all else fails to thrill, I have a large supply of hand painted collage papers, handcut stamps, and stencil designs!
(more…)
Nominees for Best New Restaurant Poll – 2017
It’s been more than a year since Perfect Duluth Day’s most recent “Perfect New Restaurant” poll. Northern Waters Restaurant was the overwhelming victor in 2016, with 67 percent of the vote.
Since then, a fresh crop of contenders has sprouted up to feed hungry Twin Ports residents. What makes a restaurant great? That’s totally subjective and will be determined by popular vote. Whether it’s a greasy spoon or an upscale eatery, each nominee is on equal footing.
We’ve compiled a list of new restaurants below. To qualify, a nominee simply has to serve food, have opened since February 2016 and be located within 10 miles of Duluth. This means eateries in Superior, Hermantown, Proctor or other area townships are eligible but those farther away (Two Harbors, Cloquet, etc.) don’t meet the criteria. (more…)
Three Downtown Duluth avenues will switch to two-way traffic
Three avenues in Downtown Duluth will convert from one-way to two-way traffic as part of the city’s plans to improve transit and access to businesses. The changes will be made to First, Second and Third avenues west from Superior Street to Fourth Street and intersections between Lake Avenue and Fourth Avenue West. (more…)