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.
Photos of the Great Whiteout of 2007
Above are photos from the PDD archives of the blizzard conditions in Duluth over March 1 and 2, 2007. (more…)
Lady Aurora at Boulder Lake in Winter
Lady Aurora danced at midnight last night, Rich Hoeg reports on his 365 Days of Birds blog. Hoeg was shooting from frozen Boulder Lake, about 20 miles north of Duluth.
“The Northern Lights display last night was not a ‘classic’ rays shooting skyward,” Hoeg wrote. “Instead bands of color turned on and off, sometimes blinking to appear only for a few seconds, followed by the lights flashing on in a totally different part of the sky. Totally cool … just different.”
Hydrologists say they’ve solved the Devil’s Kettle mystery
Where does the water go? That’s the question that has puzzled scientists and random hikers along the Brule River for decades.
Upstream from the Devil’s Kettle waterfall at Judge C.R. Magney State Park, the river splits in two at a rock outcropping. “The east side of the river plummets 50 feet into a pool, in typical waterfall fashion,” according to Minnesota Department of Natural Resources “Field Notes” in the March/April 2017 issue of Minnesota Conservation Volunteer magazine. “But on the west side, the water plunges into a cavernous hole in the rock and vanishes.”
Where does it go? (more…)
Old Tokens to Existing Duluth Establishments
Consider this a companion post to “Tokens to Long-gone Duluth Establishments.”
Camp Gecko
[This post originally contained an embedded video that is no longer available at its source.]
Keegan Burckhard directed this video, which took first place at the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Yeti Film Festival.
Leaving Duluth: June 30, 1916
Another photo from the “Leaving Duluth” collection; Arcade Camera Shop/Studio, 110 West Superior St., Duluth.
Kip’s Memory Card Dump #11
Another collection of photos in rapid succession by Kip Praslowicz, covering the time span of September to November 2016, featuring the usual stuff — rock shows at the Red Herring Lounge, cribbage, canoeing, kitty cat sprawls, etc.
Breanne Marie & the Front Porch Sinners launch Kickstarter
Breanne Marie & the Front Porch Sinners have plans to record the full-length album Wildflowers & Tumbleweeds in 2017. A Kickstarter campaign is underway to raise $7,500 to cover the costs.
Brian Barber donated his videography skills for the Kickstarter video. Katlyn Kretzschmar donated her photography for updated band photos, shot at the Spirit Room. Bent Paddle has donated a $50 gift card. Back the Kickstarter campaign at $50 or more between now and Feb. 26 at midnight to be entered to win.
PDD Quiz: February 2017
[This post originally contained an embedded quiz created on the platform Qzzr. It is no longer available at its source.]
Despite being the shortest month, February was full of stuff and things. How much do you remember? Take the PDD Quiz to find out.
What’s in the box? A gift I’ll never open
Someday, hopefully years from now, someone will face the task of going through all the “stuff” in my office and will find a box.
It is postmarked April 2, 2010. It has an address label on the side:
From: John Hatcher
To: Sam Cook
Here’s my request: Don’t open it.
Here’s why.
If you simply have to know what’s in it, I can just tell you that part: It’s one of those sporty Nalgene water bottles. I can’t honestly remember what color or what style, but I do know it has a University of Minnesota Duluth logo on it. What the box contains isn’t why I’ve kept it unopened for nearly seven years now.
The water bottle was a gift, not to me but from me. The intended recipient was Sam Cook, longtime (that’s polite for old) journalist and columnist for the Duluth News Tribune. It was a way of thanking him for coming to my journalism class. (more…)
Veggies by Subscription: CSA signup season underway in Duluth
It might seem too early to be thinking about fresh local vegetables. The growing season around Lake Superior doesn’t generally start until May, but area farmers are already busy planning their crops and ordering seeds. The signup period has begun for most farms offering community supported agriculture subscriptions. The online CSA Signup Day is today, Feb. 24; Duluth’s CSA open house is March 19.
Farm shares offer a direct method for consumers to access fresh food from local growers. Members buy a seasonal “share” from the farm. During harvest time, which is generally mid-June to mid-December, members go to a designated spot each week to pick up a box of mixed seasonal produce. (more…)
Selective Focus: Stack Prints
Please tell us about the medium you work in, and how you came to work in your style.
Stack Prints is a pizza-eating boy band of four Duluth-based graphic designers, Cody, Taylor, Stephen, & Tyler. We run an online store, pull squeegees in our screen print shop, and advocate for art & design education. We’re kinda like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. (more…)
Dong Dot Surgery – “Computing 4eva!”
[This post originally contained an embedded video that is no longer available at its source.]
More spoken word by John Holden with electronic weirdness by Matt Norby.
Duluth Album Releases in 2017
Matt Ray
Minnesota Moon
(Jan. 1)
Available on CDBaby
IW/M/DK
Ghostship
Xero Music (Jan. 12)
Available on Bandcamp
The Farsights
Traffic
(Jan. 17)
Available on Bandcamp
Video Archive: Umbrella ice sailing on Lake Superior
As the failing winter of 2016-’17 continues, we take another look back to a decade ago and the amazing freeze over Lake Superior. In this video from Feb. 22, 2007, “Duluthom” skates the big lake, accelerated by wind power and a simple umbrella.
Escape
[This post originally contained an embedded video that is no longer available at its source.]
Keegan Burckhard directed this video as a part of his senior exhibition as a digital art and photography student at the University of Minnesota Duluth. It was projected in the Tweed Museum of Art Feb. 14-19.
Overhaul of USS Duluth at Swan Island, 1985
Sept. 29, 1985 — Dawn Kee, with daughter Melissa, 4, and holding son, Jeremiah, 2, shouts to husband, Chief Signalman Rick Kee, who is among crew arriving at Swan Island for overhaul of USS Duluth. She said she was living in a motel until the family found housing but was “excited” about living in Portland.
Photo by Joel Davis of The Oregonian.
USS Duluth was a Navy ship named for the city of Duluth. It was launched in 1965 and was scrapped in 2014. Its anchor was salvaged and installed along Duluth’s Lakewalk.
Dong Dot Surgery – “Flo Juice”
[This post originally contained an embedded video that is no longer available at its source.]
Spoken word by John Holden with electronic weirdness by Matt Norby.
Duluth art scene finds place in Lincoln Park craft district
Duluth Pottery co-owners Tom Hollenhorst and Karin Kraemer pose in the loft of their new art studio with partner artist Luke Krisak. Duluth Pottery is remodeling the former P&J Paint building in the West End.
The art world is quickly carving out space for itself in an ambitious neighborhood revitalization project in Duluth’s West End neighborhood.
An established Twin Ports potter, a new gallery and retail store with studio space and an arts arm of an American Indian social service organization have all recently announced plans to renovate and open buildings on West Superior Street. All three projects fall within the boundaries of the Lincoln Park Craft District, a rebranding and redevelopment effort organized by neighborhood businesses last year. (more…)