Remembering America and her life on the water
A post last week of a 1925 photograph of the steamship America led to a tip about this story from the 2nd Quarter 2012 issue of Nor’easter, the journal of the Lake Superior Marine Museum Association. The story, written by Gina Temple-Rhodes and used here with permission from the LSMMA, includes a more complete history of the vessel, including tales from Arthur Wright, a Duluthian whose father was a crew member on America. Wright was 99 at the time of the article; he died a year later at the age of 100. (more…)
Duluth City Council ready for first look at “Uber Ordinance”
It’s been eight months since Duluth City Councilor Noah Hobbs had his first formal meeting with City Attorney Nate LaCoursiere to begin crafting an ordinance to regulate ridesharing businesses like Uber and Lyft.
Both companies have expressed interest in operating in Duluth, and now Hobbs’ ordinance is on the city council’s March 13 agenda for a first reading. The soonest the ordinance could pass is March 27; it would then go into effect 30 days later. (more…)
Masculinity and History in Logan, in International Women’s Day, and in Munchkin
Three events this week made me rethink the past, present, and future of gender roles. The movie Logan draws deep in the past of gender roles, echoing them and updating them (just a bit) for the 21st century. Debates about the wage gap on International Women’s Day make me struggle with the present of gender. Playing Munchkin with some adorable children makes me feel optimistic about the future — of gender and of a better world generally. (more…)
Minnesota All Hockey Hair Team 2017: Flowetry in Motion
John King is back with another roundup of the finest hair styles at the Minnesota High School Boys Hockey Tournament. Though Hermantown and Grand Rapids brought championship trophies north to the Arrowhead region, both teams landed zero players in the All Hockey Hair Team Top Ten this year. Several players and a team manager get shout outs, however.
PDD Quiz: Duluth in Popular Culture
[This post originally contained an embedded quiz created on the platform Qzzr. It is no longer available at its source.]
References to Duluth abound in popular culture; how many are you aware of? Take this quiz to find out! (Hint: you might have an edge if you’ve been paying attention to previous quizzes and the PDD blog.)
Two-Thing Story
I sat with my kids and played “two-thing story” as I tucked them into bed. This was a game where my kid picked two nouns out of the air and I had to come up with a story that included the two things. Then we swapped and I picked the two nouns and the kid would come up with a story. It was simple. Two kids, two things, and lots of laughs.
I like to make complex things simpler. I usually view my fellow man through a simple, digital filter. Ones or zeroes. Happy Shmo or Angry Shmo. Here’s an example: “There are two kinds of people: Those who think there are two kinds of people and those who don’t.” (Aren’t I clever?)
Here are some of the filters I use.
The first is called the Dunning-Kruger effect. David Dunning and Justin Kruger conducted studies and wrote a paper called “Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments (1999).” They published it in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. I gather we live in a post-fact world, but this is science if you still care. This is what it says in the paper’s abstract: “People tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains. The authors suggest that this overestimation occurs, in part, because people who are unskilled in these domains suffer a dual burden: Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it.” (more…)
Things that will Remain the Same, Vol. 1
More video of glorious Lake Superior plate ice stacking itself on the shore and lurching like an upset stomach. This time Troy Rogers is the person behind the camera. Brace yourself for 48 minutes of nature at its finest.
Selective Focus: Paul LaJeunesse
Paul LaJeunesse was recently chosen to be the Duluth Art Institute’s first Lincoln Park Craft District Artist-in-Residence. He talks about his work and his plans for the Lincoln Park project.
P.L.: My easel paintings are tempera and oil on canvas and the mural project will be acrylic on a substrate called PolyTab. The easel painting process is one I learned from Patrick Betaudier at the Atelier Neo Medici, which is often called Technique Mixte, which is just German for Mixed Technique. It’s a description coined by Max Doerner to describe the process used by the Northern European Renaissance painters, particularly in the Van Eyck studio. It uses alternating layers of achromatic, tempera paint with color, oil glazes. This layering can be repeated any number of times to create very luminous paintings that reflect light from within the painting. The mural process is one developed by Mural Arts in Philadelphia where the painting is created on the polytab cloth in a studio and adhered to the wall using acrylic binder, as opposed to creating the painting on site.
(more…)
Public input sought on Duluth Traverse mini-master plan
The city of Duluth is compiling comments for the draft Duluth Traverse Trail Management and Mini-Master Plan and is seeking input on expanded mountain bike trail offerings with a goal of 100 miles of trails, bike skills park construction sites and improved/expanded neighborhood trail access and facilities such as expanded parking, showers and signage. (more…)
Missing Child in West Duluth: Darren Torcotte
Update: Darren Torcotte has been found.
The Duluth Police Department is seeking the public’s assistance in locating missing child Darren John Torcotte. Darren is a 13-year-old white male, 5-foot 8-inches tall, 118 lbs., has brown hair and brown eyes. Darren was last seen wearing a baby blue jacket and light-colored gloves. He was last seen this morning leaving his home in the area of the 300 block of 59th Avenue West. The Duluth Police Department needs the public’s assistance in locating Darren to ensure he returns home safely. Anyone who sees or knows of Darren’s whereabouts is asked to call 911.
Haley Bonar is now simply Haley
Twin Cities musician Haley Bonar, whose career took off during her years living in Duluth, announced today she is changing her surname from her paternal birth name, Bonar, to her maternal family name, McCallum. As a performer, however, she’s shortening it up to simply “Haley.”
Below is the statement from Haley’s Facebook page.
Her European tour begins March 25 with a sold out show in Glasgow, Scotland. (more…)
Hoff and Giuliani selected to develop waterfront parcel
The Duluth Economic Development Authority announced today the recommendation of Sandy Hoff and Alessandro Giuliani to develop Lot D, a 12-acre waterfront parcel that sits between the recently opened Pier B Resort Hotel and Compass Minerals.
The parcel has 12 acres of developable land with 1,500 feet of lake frontage and is zoned as mixed-use waterfront. The preferred concept proposal includes a mixture of commercial use, retail, some housing, and is “meant to be a waterfront destination venue with family friendly attractions,” according to a news release from the city of Duluth.
DEDA issued a request for proposals in spring 2016. A review committee felt the Hoff-Giuliani team best represented the objectives laid out in the RFP.
DEDA Commissioners will be presented with an option agreement at their March 22 meeting for review and approval. The agreement lists milestones and enables temporary property access for the development team to conduct its due diligence over the next year and explore geotechnical issues, site opportunities and challenges to ensure financial feasibility of elements in the proposal. Following this phase, the developer could return to DEDA and pursue a development agreement to officially purchase the property, assuming conditions are met.
Ticonderoga Teaser
A (very tiny) peek at the third Reflectivore visual installment. Past pieces at vimeo.com.
SS America, 1925
The America was a passenger and delivery ship that operated between Duluth and Port Arthur from 1902 to 1928, servicing outposts along the way such as Isle Royale and Split Rock Lighthouse. (more…)
Cars out of control on slippery Lake Avenue
Cars were sliding out of control down an icy Lake Avenue in Duluth this morning. Perfect Duluth Day obtained permission to use some cell phone footage of two different car crashes at Lake and First Street, which originally appeared in this post. Permission to use the footage was later rescinded, so that’s why it’s no longer here. The original clip is shared on Perfect Duluth Day’s Facebook page.
Lake Superior Plate Ice Stacking Video, 2017 Edition
Dawn LaPointe of Radiant Spirit Gallery shot this video in Duluth on March 4.
“This winter has produced minimal ice cover on Lake Superior, so ice stacking events have been few and far between,” she writes in the YouTube description. “We were grateful to have witnessed this anticipated phenomenon come to life from our front row seats at Brighton Beach. … I never tire of these ice stacking events, and each one I have witnessed has had its own unique characteristics.”
Could Prince have taken over Duluth?
An article published in the Daily Beast over the weekend recounts the strange circumstances surrounding the premiere of Prince’s movie Under the Cherry Moon in 1986. A young motel chambermaid in Sheridan, Wyo., won an MTV dream date with Prince in her tiny hometown. “On TV, it seemed like a fairy tale. Behind the scenes, coke-fueled chaos reigned,” the blurb at the top of the story synopsizes. (It’s not Prince or the Chambermaid doing coke, for the record). Deep into the fascinating and lengthy story is a reference to Duluth.
Bobby Z, drummer for Prince’s backing band, the Revolution, reflected on how the Prince premiere was essentially the biggest thing that ever happened to the small farming, ranching and coal-mining town of Sheridan.
“It wouldn’t have been the same if it had been in a bigger place — like, say, Duluth — because you really couldn’t take over the town like this has,” Bobby Z says in a quote attributed to the Minneapolis Star and Tribune. (more…)
Marita Pop Up resumes regular schedule at Red Herring
Nyanyika Banda – photo by Ivy Vainio
Most people wouldn’t dream of creating a taco with ingredients like apple and kabocha squash, much less topping it with micro greens, pepitas, roasted tomatillo crema, pickled mustard and red onion. Then again, most people don’t have chef Nyanyika Banda’s imagination and culinary chops.
Banda is the proprietor of Marita Pop Up, a “globally inspired, locally sourced” pop-up restaurant that travels around the Duluth area, popping up at various locations and events. In March, Marita Pop Up began a regular schedule at the Red Herring Lounge on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 7 p.m. to midnight. (more…)
Old English radio spot from 1943
Via WDSE-TV, enjoy the sounds of this Old English 600 ad. Peoples Brewery in West Duluth developed the recipe for Old English 600 in the 1940s. The company sponsored a radio show with old-time music and several pitches for Regal Supreme Beer and Old English 600 Malt Liquor.
The documentary Brew North follows the boom, bust and rebirth of brewing in the Arrowhead region. The premiere broadcast is on Monday, March 6.
Homegrown Music Festival Field Guide 2017
The 2017 Homegrown Music Festival Field Guide is off the presses. All three tons of the processed wood fibre will be distributed to various shops across the Twin Ports beginning this weekend. This year’s cover art is by Sarah Brokke, who was also the featured artist in yesterday’s “Selective Focus” on PDD. The photo above, shot by Kip Paslowicz, shows Homegrown Assistant Director Adam Guggemos standing atop a portion of the 20,000 copies of the 100-page promotional magazine.
This year’s Homegrown happens April 30 to May 6, with 196 bands performing over the course of the eight days. (more…)
The Greatest Inventions of All Time
It’s difficult to pick one invention to stand out as the greatest of all time. There are so many manmade wonders that enrich our lives every day and make us question how we ever lived without them. For example: the wheel, the flushable toilet, beer, Velcro, eyeglasses, the atomic bomb and plastic storage containers.
The printing press and the Internet are certainly great inventions, but they make it just as easy to spread lies as the truth, so I can’t rate them high on my list. They certainly don’t rate above plastic storage containers, which have brought society nothing but positive outcomes.
It wasn’t long ago when people had to go to grocery stores and beg for flimsy cardboard boxes to package their belongings for a move. It was difficult to get a good grip on those boxes and I never knew when the bottom would fall out and all my Smurf glasses would smash at my feet. But plastic storage containers are lightweight, sturdy and stackable, with easy-to-grip handles on the sides. They are one of the greatest inventions of all time.
There are maybe a dozen inventions I would list ahead of plastic storage containers, and all of them are forms of contraception. I’d even put the withdrawal method near the top of the list. I know it’s not very effective, but it was a good start. (more…)
Selective Focus: Sarah Brokke
Sarah Brokke certainly stays busy making and teaching art, but the past few weeks seem to have been especially busy. She is featured in the documentary “Portrait of an Artist,” which debuted at Zinema 2 last weekend (available online soon) and hosted an opening at the Zeitgeist Arts Cafe on Feb. 27. She has also been collaborating on a mural with Harbor City International School students that will be unveiled in April at the College of St. Scholastica, and she is the cover artist for the upcoming Homegrown Music Festival Field Guide.
S.B.: I am a painter who works primarily in oil, and my style and means of working have been a progression over the past 17 years. I’m a process-oriented artist who responds primarily to my personal experiences through my work, in an attempt to understand the complexities and contradictory nature of life. While entrenched in personal dissection, I hope for my work to also address contemporary socio-political constructs. I often explore this through the utilization of the figure, symbols, and references to art history. (more…)
Fitger’s Beer radio spot from the 1950s
Via WDSE-TV, enjoy the sounds of this old Fitger’s Beer ad. The documentary Brew North follows the boom, bust and rebirth of brewing in the Arrowhead region. The premiere broadcast is on Monday, March 6.
Artist scouting Duluth’s West End for mural location
College of St. Scholastica Assistant Art Professor Paul LaJeunesse was recently selected as the Duluth Art Institutes’s inaugural Lincoln Park Craft District Artist in Residence. LaJeunesse discussed project plans during an Advance Lincoln Park meeting today at the DIA Lincoln Center Arts for Education building. He said he is currently scouting the neighborhood for a mural location. The permanent work will incorporate images of people and places that represent the area. LaJeunesse has created public murals before, including “Confluence” for the North Shore of Chattanooga, Tenn. in 2014.
The aim of the residency program is to support the role of artists as effective community builders and to support and expand the revitalization of the Lincoln Park neighborhood, where the DAI has operated its satellite location for arts education since the early 1990s.
The inaugural year of the residency is scheduled for two terms, with LaJeunesse in residence March to June 2017. A national artist will be selected for the second term, July to September 2017.