Duluth Grill expands into West Duluth with new chicken eatery
Mural artists Kevin Ballecer, left, and Mela Nguyen are painting the exterior of Chicken n’ Whaaat?! on Central Avenue in West Duluth. The pair also painted murals for Burger Paradox on Superior Street. (Photos by Mark Nicklawske).
A family-owned restaurant group that helped revitalize Lincoln Park will expand outside the neighborhood for the first time with a new fast-casual chicken eatery attached to a West Duluth gas station. (more…)
Is this man still in Duluth?
Yesterday my uncle was in Cafe Coco in Washburn, Wisconsin, and saw this poster on the wall. If I had to guess, I would say the person shown is a founding member of Colder by the Lake Comedy Theater. But does somebody know for sure?
PDD Geoguessr #28: Haunted Duluth
When I developed the image, two specters became visible behind me (Photo by David James with Photoshop Generative Fill)
With Halloween approaching, this post takes a close look at the tales of hauntings around Duluth, presenting a classification system for the four different types of haunted Duluth locations. It concludes with a Geoguessr challenge made up of five spooky Duluth photospheres. (more…)
Football
Since early September I’ve been really wanting to throw a football around with someone. It makes sense given the season, but until a few weeks ago I bet it had been 25 years since I’d even thought about it. After the last throw or catch on some early-’90s day I’ll never remember, after throwing and catching footballs every autumn day and a lot of others from elementary school until college, I just didn’t do it anymore. I don’t even know the last time I picked up a football before recently. And now, for no reason I can discern, I’m lost in thoughts of throwing a soft, arcing spiral to someone, watching the ball into my hands after they throw it back to me, and repeating that process over and over and over.
I played organized football from elementary school until college. Fourth grade until sophomore year. Age nine to age 20. Eleven years. I’m 53 and the 11 years from here back to 42 feel like a blip. Nothing. Pretty sure I turn 64 next month. I’ll be 75 a week or two after that. But when I was 20 those 11 years were half of forever and Football Player was most of what I had known myself to be. Elementary school, junior high, high school, and the first two years of college. Each an eon that feels more heavy and definitive the older I get. The past won’t stop being present. Those 11 years have lasted so much longer than their actual length. (more…)
Big Into – “A Werewolf’s Journey”
Iron Range nerd-rock band Big Into marks the full moon and the spooky season with the release of a werewolf-themed song and video.
DNT: Sarah Krueger leaving Duluth
According to this lavish article in the Duluth News-Tribune, Sarah Krueger (aka Lanue) is leaving town for Eau Claire, Wisconsin. She has provided our city with one of its most unforgettable stage performers and recording artists. Her music videos are pure celebrations of Duluth. (more…)
Northeastern Minnesota Book Award Winners for 2024
Nine books have been recognized for this year’s Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards, which celebrate books that substantially represent the history, culture, heritage or lifestyle of northeastern Minnesota. (more…)
Photography Tutorials from John Gregor
When I served on the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, I was lucky enough to meet photographer and photography instructor John Gregor. John, through his company Coldsnap in Two Harbors, reviews equipment, leads classes and photography tours around North America, and of course takes amazing photos.
He has recently posted a video sharing his insights into taking night panoramas. It’s a great complement to his video introducing panoramic photography. (more…)
Illustrating Hunger and Homelessness: Noah Chen
Art by Nelle Rhicard at reframeideas.com.
A group of University of Minnesota Duluth faculty, students and community artists came together to explore strategies to communicate the stories of frontline workers in housing and food insecurity.
UMD students met Noah Chan, community engagement coordinator at Agate Community Services in Downtown Minneapolis. Learn more about the Agate Housing at agatemn.org. (more…)
Ursa Minor earns bronze at Great American Beer Festival
Duluth’s Ursa Minor Brewing won a bronze medal for its Equanimity Irish Style Red Ale at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver on Oct. 12. It’s the brewery’s second bronze medal at the festival; the first came in 2019 for Thistle Dew in the Scottish-Style Ale category.
Equanimity also won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival in 2022 and another gold at the World Beer Cup in 2023. (more…)
EmbalmingEva – “Scared of Me?”
Galalee Wright and Jesse Hatten take to the sand dunes of Minnesota Point in their latest EmbalmingEva music video.
PDD Quiz: Halloween Happenings 2024
Map out your Halloween high jinks with this week’s quiz, which spotlights a few of the many spooky season events happening over the next few weeks. And don’t forget the PDD Calendar has a Halloween tag that filters in the creepiest stuff.
The next PDD quiz will review the month’s headlines; it will be published on Oct. 27. Please send question suggestions to at aklawite@d.umn.edu by Oct. 24. (more…)
Synchronicity in Action: How I Met the Late Ralph Abraham
Among the mind-blowing coincidences of my life is how I met the countercultural chaos mathematician Ralph Abraham, who died on September 19. He was a huge influence on me and the moment we met was extraordinary.
Coincidence is not technically the same thing as synchronicity. To believe in synchronicity, you must believe in meaning. And I did.
It was the 1990s and I was a young hippie newlywed in Bonny Doon, the backwoods of Santa Cruz, California. Like a lot of folks, my wife and I lived at the end of a long winding dirt road at the end of another long winding road. It was like a miles-long driveway. People with land out there had sprinkled the place with trailers and shacks, and they let people rent them cheap on the down low. One of those shacks was home sweet home. You could hear the ocean in the distance. The outhouse had no walls or roof, it was just … out. (more…)
Boxcar – “For Madmen Only”
Duluth band Boxcar is releasing its second album, For Madmen Only, on Oct. 18. The video release for the title track is directed by Lance Lindahl.
Postcard from Lake View Tea and Dining Room
This undated postcard shows the Lake View Tea and Dining Room at 730 E. Superior St., “on the shore of Lake Superior where you can view the large steamers coming and going.” (more…)
New book looks at America on the eve of war
In the late 1930s, the world was on the brink of war. In 2024, Alexis Pogorelskin is well aware that the threat has returned.
Her book Hollywood and the Nazis on the Eve of War: The Case of The Mortal Storm details the events preceding World War II. It was released in August by Bloomsbury Press. (more…)
Duluth Traverse Bike Ride Time Lapse
Lane Ellis presents this GoPro 10 time-lapse video showing most of his recent 43-mile west-to-east mountain bike ride on the Duluth Traverse, ending at Lester Park during the Lester River Rendezvous.
Selective Focus: Fall Colors 2024
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118 likes, 4 comments - bdahrens on September 27, 2024: "The maples have changed into their autumn clothes.
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#autumn #autumnvibes #fall #fallcolors #minnesota #northshore #autumncolors #maple #onlyinmn #befromduluth #destinationduluth #upnorth #lakesuperior #moodyminnesota #photography #aov #visitminnesota #duluth #lutsen #grandmarais #twoharbors #boreal".
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For a few weeks starting mid September, the fall leaves in Duluth are at their most vibrant. Maples turn around Labor Day and birch and poplar closer to Lake Superior begin to turn in early October. Hike the North Shore or head to the top of the hill for a marvelous show of red, burgundy, orange, yellow and gold.
Featured here is Perfect Duluth Day’s annual collection of select images from Instagram showcasing nature’s palette. (more…)
Making Chili with Lane
How to make Lane Ellis’ time-tested vegan chili.
PDD Geoguessr #27: Duluth’s Former Telephone Exchanges
Photo of the Hemlock Exchange in 1920 by Hugh McKenzie. (Photo from the Northeast Minnesota Collections of the Kathryn A. Martin Library)
A year after Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, George W. Coy set up the first telephone exchange. Making a call to a specific phone required plugging the right cord into the right socket, and that required a person working out of an exchange building. Photos from the Minnesota Digital Library show the Duluth neighborhood exchanges that were operated by the Northwestern Bell Telephone Company in 1920. This post discusses the role of telephone exchanges as a source of employment for women in Duluth with a Geoguessr challenge that reveals what those telephone exchanges look like now. (more…)
Thoughts on Caesarean Section
Until recently, my vision of childbirth was driven by television. Situation comedies taught me to imagine a woman reclined in a bed. The husband stands slightly behind her and to the left, holding her hand, which is squeezed every time the birthing mom hears “push!” from the doctor.
Nearly every part of that picture was fabricated for television.
I have only recently come to understand that, while we imagine the mother or birthing person to be the center of the picture of birth in the United States, in fact, she is sometimes pushed to the side while the doctor takes over. (more…)
Mary Bue – “Right Now”
Mary Bue frolics her way across Minnesota in her new music video “Right Now.” The track is from her ninth album, The Wildness of Living and Dying, due out in early 2025. The video was directed by Jon Herchert of Deck Night Productions.
Envisioning Threats to Great Lakes Shorelines
Duluth features prominently in this segment from the latest episode of Great Lakes Now, a monthly program focused on developments affecting the lakes. The show is produced by Detroit PBS in partnership with a network of PBS affiliates around the region.
Inside the Leif Erikson Park Amphitheater
The latest video from Duluth Urbex explores the space under the stage at Leif Erikson Park‘s outdoor amphitheater. The structure, completed in 1928, was designed by Abraham Holstead and William Sullivan.
Illustrating Hunger and Homelessness: Chelsea Froemke
Art by Nelle Rhicard at reframeideas.com.
Food insecurity, housing insecurity, poverty and social justice are intertwined, a knot of problems facing our community. Thirteen percent of Duluthians face food insecurity, and more than 54% of renter-households are rent burdened. Often these difficult social problems are addressed by nonprofit organizations that run food pantries or housing shelters. They build affordable housing and support people living on the street. While these workers are heroes, they are also human, and their stories are also intertwined with larger issues like poverty and social justice. These frontline workers are also often former college students who enter the job market with the consequential task of supporting those who others have left behind. (more…)