Google Fiber experiment over; Duluth spared
Bob Collins reported this week for Minnesota Public Radio that “Duluth dodged Google’s fiber optic bullet.”
Six years after Duluth came up short in its bid to be a test community for ultra-high speed internet connections, the experiment is looking like an expensive boondoggle. After digging up a half-dozen cities to lay fiber-optic cables, the company is now shifting into plans to transmit fast internet through the air.
Duluth Tall Ships 2016 “Parade of Sail” Photos and Video Clip
Duluth’s Tall Ships Festival runs Aug. 18-21. The video above and photos below are from Liftoff Aerials (a/k/a the “PDD Drone”). The music is “Ocean Blue” by Duluth band Glen’s Neighbor from the album Behind the Door.
Duluth’s C.J. Ham looking good in purple
Duluth native C.J. Ham is the Minnesota Vikings leading rusher over the first two preseason contests. He has gained 60 yards on 20 attempts, including a game-winning touchdown against the Cincinnati Bengals in week one. He also has three receptions for 27 yards.
“It’s been a dream come true,” Ham told WCCO-TV. “Just having the opportunity to be in the NFL and be with the team I grew up watching, it’s a dream come true.” (more…)
Selective Focus: Flo Matamoros
Tonight (Friday, August 19) at Prove Gallery, there’s an opening of a collaboration between Flo Matamoros and Brian Ring called “The things they carried.” Flo Matamoros tells how her spontaneous, flowing style came to be.
F.M: My creative background is one that has been shaped by obsessive curiosity through the tool box that Art History is and the amount of creative mentors I have had since a child.
I was fortunate enough to receive around 7 years of classical painting training from age 7 until 14 in El Salvador (thanks mom!). So, I had to paint a lot of what I consider boring shit. Still life, landscape, flowers, etc. My professor said I had to master all that “boring shit” before I was allowed to paint the human form. So it took me until my freshman year at St. Scholastica (I started my higher education as a Chemistry Major because I thought that painting was bogus and Art was meh) to get over myself.
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Culture Through Digital Storytelling: AICHO and In Progress
On Day 2, the kids were sent on a scavenger hunt that encouraged them utilize different camera techniques.
The kids were broken up into teams; they learned not only how to use the cameras, but how to teach each other.
Those who visited Brighton Beach last Thursday might have spotted the group of the kids playing in the waves of Lake Superior. They may have also noticed some touting high-end DSLR cameras and bright colored notebooks, wandering the shoreline with eager faces. That’s because, last week, the American Indian Community Housing Organization partnered with a St. Paul-based nonprofit, In Progress, to host culturally specific photography and storytelling workshops for Native American youth.
Lesson facilitator Kristine Sorenson made the journey up from the cities to the Gimaajii location to teach kids ages 8-12 how to use professional camera equipment (ranging in price from $800 to $6,000 per camera) and document the beauty in their lives. The results of their adventures couldn’t have been more inspiring.
A good number of photos featured here were taken by both myself and the participating youth and volunteers; however, at first glance, I’m willing to bet that no one would be able to distinguish who took which of the images here! (more…)
What is the perfect Duluth-area drinking establishment?
The time is almost upon us for a poll about something most Duluthians are practiced in: drinking. (more…)
Three of Kip’s Dumps
Above is Kip Praslowicz‘s latest memory-card dump video, a retrospective of his life in Duluth (largely spent at local music clubs) during the wet hot summer — July 1 to Aug. 9.
Kip’s dumps have been happening more frequently than we can keep up with at PDD. Below are his two previous dumps, spanning June 3 to July 1 and March 16 to June 3 (minus the Homegrown Music Festival, which was on a separate memory card. (more…)
Low Viz at the Ledges
The consistent rain this summer has made for a cloudy lake. Poor visibility obviates more adventuresome diving than this, so here I am in familiar territory, sticking close to shore in the crenulated shallows of the Ledges.
North Shore Aerials – Summer 2016
Another beautiful aerial video of Lake Superior’s North Shore, this time by Open Window Productions of Minneapolis.
DTA Woodland Windjammer, Crosley Clipper, et. al.
The quest is to settle a bet. Whether there’s enough evidence so far to settle it will have to be up to the wagerers.
Former Duluthian Daniel Heinan, now living in Los Angeles, sent the following email:
My friends don’t believe that there was a DTA bus line called the Woodland Wind Jammer. There was even the Crosley Clipper. They existed in the 1980s and early 1990s. Can you help me prove them wrong?
Duluth and North Shore – Summer 2016 Aerial Video
[This post originally contained an embedded video that is no longer available at its source.]
Seth Butler took a trip to Duluth, and this gorgeous video was the result.
Mystery Photo: New Duluth Bus and Drivers
This photo popped up on Pinterest a while back. It’s dated 1962. Photographer unknown.
Duluth’s first diesel buses began operating in 1957 under the auspices of the Duluth-Superior Transit Company. The Duluth Transit Authority was created in 1969, so one could say the bus in the photo above is a DTA before there was a DTA.
Can anyone name any of the drivers?
Reflectivore – “7 77/March”
Director/DP: Kjell Kvanbeck
Written by: Allen Cragin, Ryan Rusch and Kjell Kvanbeck
“7 77/March” is the second collaboration between Reflectivore and True Norse Films. The first, “Red Looking Glass,” was released in December.
Cast Iron Bar and Grill fills Le Grand Supper Club void
Duluthians don’t typically venture north of Hermantown to eat dinner, but now there’s a reason for the ride. The Cast Iron Bar and Grill opened three months ago in the old Le Grand Supper Club space in the Pike Lake area. (more…)
This Week: ships, Olympics, nerds and more
Here’s a bit of what you’ll find in this week’s PDD Calendar:
The Hoghead Festival begins in Proctor with a golf tournament, North Shore Scenic Railroad presents an onboard murder mystery, it’s the dawn of the Nerdaissance at Teatro Zuccone, Mary Bue brings her Holy Bones to the Chester Creek Concert Series, the latest installment of Take it With You goes live at the Underground, Gaelynn Lea releases her latest EP with a show at the Red Herring and families who have Olympic fever can compete at the Duluth Family YMCA.
It’s the season for kids to run wild in Wednesday Night at the Races, the Tall Ships are back in the harbor, the 4-day Art in Bayfront Park event opens, the punk/hardcore music festival Northern Isolation II runs from August 19 to 21, the Duluth Experience takes people on a Dark History Walking Tour of Duluth, Rich Mattson and the Northstars join Space Carpet at the Red Herring and local fare is celebrated at Farm Fest.
Selling promotional squares for financial remuneration
As a constantly growing media giant, Perfect Duluth Day is once again looking to expand its crew of people who sell those advertisements that are so handsomely stacked on the right column of the pages of this website (or in between the content if you are looking at PDD on a smartphone).
If you are an outgoing and enterprising person who enjoys rubbing elbows with decision makers at local businesses, click here to read the job description.
If you are a reader of PDD who hates advertising and gets nervous when reading something like this, rest assured that although PDD strives to sell more advertising to support its vast infrastructure, ads on the site will continue to be confined to appropriate space and never come in the form of a pop-up or auto-play video. We respect you too much for that.
PDD Quiz: Tall Ships Festival 2016
[This post originally contained an embedded quiz created on the platform Qzzr. It is no longer available at its source.]
The tall ships are coming! How much do you know about the ships coming (or not coming) to this year’s festival? Let’s find out!
Bug Ear
One time, I got a bug stuck in my ear. Which is a funny coincidence, since I have always wanted to never have a bug in my ear.
It happened in early summer, and I was fast asleep. At some point around 4 a.m., I was awakened by the sound of a helicopter crash-landing inside my head. I, like all humans on the planet, have experienced bug fly-bys of my ears on many occasions. Bees, for example, seem to really like my ears. They enjoy repeatedly buzzing up behind me, like fat, airborne playground bullies, chasing me around the swingset. Their dumptrucky buzzing is a nice reminder that a bee is almost in my ear. I like to run around my yard, waving my hands around my head and saying, “You won’t even fit in there! And I’ll probably kill you if you try, which I really don’t want to do because you’re the future! You’re the future!” I bet this is pretty funny to my neighbors.
Generally, I dislike flying insects. It seems like they get an unfair advantage. They are already bitey and stingy and too-many-leggy and wearing chitinous exoskeletal armor over their loathsome, malevolent silhouettes. If any bug were as big as a person, we would all freak the fuck out, even if it had a lovely personality. It would take a lot of paradigm adjustment and acceptance, not to mention furniture and undergarment redesign. Twenty percent of all meditation would be to gain control of involuntary shuddering. (more…)
NorShor Theatre circa 1960s: Recognize these kids?
This photo was found in the Duluth Playhouse‘s archives. The kids, enjoying concessions at the NorShor movie theater in what appears to be the 1960s, are listed as: “Sandy Audio? Atto, Otto, Ottio? 5 years” and “Judy Hanson 8 years.”
Multiple sclerosis as a catalyst from being a burnt out cubicle jockey to self-taught artist and entrepreneur
Perhaps you’ve wondered what it takes to open your own retail space. Here is the formula that worked for one of my neighbors: intense physical pain + $7,200 in startup costs + burnout and restlessness + a debilitating medical diagnosis + a whole lot of elbow grease = one art gallery. And that’s about all it takes.
The story of Lakeside Gallery, Aaron Kloss’s new venture, is incredible. Check it out at Ed’s Big Adventure.