Gaelynn Lea – “Watch the World Unfold”
Melanie Schantz, a musician and visual artist from New Jersey, produced this music video for Duluth musician Gaelynn Lea. The song “Watch the World Unfold” features Al Church on guitar and is from the 2016 EP The Songs We Sing Along the Way.
Zenith Bread Project takes baking to a new level
Like many young entrepreneurs creating their own opportunities in Duluth, Amanda Belcher hasn’t had a straightforward career trajectory. She started studying exercise physiology at the College of St. Scholastica. Instead of continuing on to graduate school, she decided to become a professional baker.
Her Zenith Bread Project produces sweet treats sold at Amity Coffee, Duluth Coffee Company and Snooty Fox Tea Shop. Bagels and English muffins are also available at Whole Foods Co-op. Bent Paddle Brewing‘s taproom occasionally serves Belcher’s soft pretzels with beer, and Blacklist Artisan Ales features her doughnuts and pastries on Saturdays. (more…)
The Hoot Owls – “Scandinavian Hot Rod”
Ray Pirkola’s 1936 Ford Coupe debuted at the Million Dollar Motorcade car show at the Duluth Armory in 1955. Featuring 1940 Ford fenders and a hood grafted to a chopped and channeled 1936 five-window body, it was the first “full custom” car in the region. The song “Scandanavian Hot Rod” by the Hoot Owls celebrates the car and the self-determination of Ray Pirkola, father of the Hoot Owls singer and guitar player Barry Pirkola. The song is from the band’s 2010 album Alien Scrapyard.
Show off your Homegrown photos
As we do each year, PDD is putting out the call for some super skinny horizontal images to put in the banner at the top of the page during Homegrown.All the regular guidelines apply.
If you have your sights set beyond the PDD banner, the Homegrown committee and the Duluth Art Institute are currently accepting submissions for the show that will hang at the Red Herring. (more…)
Duluth’s Ten Most Endangered Properties in 2017
From a hidden stairway to the original rail line servicing the city, Duluth is not “anyplace, USA,” the Duluth Preservation Alliance announced in a news release. “It is home to an abundance of historic buildings and sites.”
To bring awareness to some of the city’s most threatened properties, the DPA put out its list of “Duluth’s Ten Most Endangered Properties in 2017.”
1. Pastoret Terrace
131 E. First St.
What began as luxury townhouses in 1887 has since been divided into multiple apartments. In 2010, the Terrace experienced a devastating fire and currently sits as a fraction of its former glory. Now owned by the city, it could be razed, or it could be renovated and be a catalyst that helps revive First Street. (more…)
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.