I don’t believe in God, yet she is always with me
I was on a trail run the other day in the woods near my house when God spoke to me. He said, “Who cooks for you?” When I didn’t respond he said it again, “Who cooks for you?” So I replied, “We eat out a lot.” Yes, on that particular occasion God was a Barred Owl. (more…)
Map of the Day: Duluth’s Canal Parking
After a ridiculously warm weekend, it seems like spring has arrived early. Before you know it, thousands of Minneapolis-types like myself will be driving up Interstate 35 to the cool shores of Gitche Gumee.
Since its post-industrial low point a few decades ago, Duluth has built Canal Park into one of the top-drawing tourist spots in the state. It’s definitely a great place, but I continue to be amazed by how much prime Canal Park real estate is occupied by pavement for storing cars. After a visit last fall, I made this map and found there are 21 acres of surface parking in Canal Park. (more…)
PDD Quiz: February 2016
[This post originally contained an embedded quiz created on the platform Qzzr. It is no longer available at its source.]
February 2016 is almost over and it’s time to see if you were paying attention! Take the quiz about events in and around Duluth over the last month.
Our next quiz will be on March 13 and, since that’s near the ides of March, we’ll be looking at the history of disasters in the Duluth area.
Send your suggested quiz questions (and answers) to lawrence @ perfectduluthday.com by noon on Wednesday, Mar. 9.
2016 MN State High School Hockey Brackets
The AA and A boys hockey tournament seeds and brackets are set. #1 seed Hermantown plays its quarter final game Wed. at 6 p.m. vs #8 seed Dassel-Cokato. Grand Rapids seeded #4 and will play #5 seed Bemidji in the AA quarterfinal game at the X at 8 p.m. Thursday. Good luck to all the teams!
Creep. Weirdo.
I can’t remember ever knowing who I am or believing I belong.
Moving story, bro, but what’s your point? A lot of people occasionally wonder who they are. We all sometimes feel out of place.
Right. But I mean I have no idea who I am. I mean I have never (literally not ever) felt like I belong among other humans. Oh, and sometimes when I’m trying to figure out that stuff I feel like part of me was from Duluth — from this place — long before I started living here. That’s pretty weird.
I come from people who lived in Duluth for a while and loved it and contributed to it and died and are buried in dirt here. My maternal great-grandpa, George Beck, was Duluth Central principal for about 30 years, then helped found WDSE-TV. Mom grew up in McGregor and often came over on the train to visit him and great-grandma (Leila) Beck. Mom got a Duluth Business University degree and worked at the air base for a while. Dad graduated from UMD in 1970, the same year I was conceived at 927 West Fifth Street. Great-grandma died in ’81; Great-grandpa went in ’91; their bodies are at Forest Hill Cemetery. (more…)
Fat Tire Biking in Duluth
Duluth is known for being cold and dreary in the winter. The locals disagree. Duluthians ride their fatbikes as a way to get out and have fun in the winter.
From urban to groomed singletrack to downhill riding at the local ski hill, this is the future of fatbiking and Duluth is leading the way.
Selective Focus: Simple
Paul McIntyre, untitled
Who would have that thought simplicity should be so difficult? What we leave out of a picture says volumes over that which we cram into one, at least according to my aesthetic principles. Given the visual clutter I’m daily exposed to, my preferences would seem to be in the minority, so it was gratifying to see some consonant souls this week. (more…)
Price Check: Women’s Columbia Fleece
Stores are shifting from winter to spring gear and this means one of many things: clearance coats everywhere. The most common women’s Columbia Sportswear Company product is the Columbia Benton Springs Full Zip Fleece. This fleece features two zipping pockets so there is a slim chance of your precious iPhone falling to its death. It can also be dressed-up with a scarf and heels or dressed-down with sweatpants and your favorite hoodie.
Here lies the second feature for the Price Check series where we compare prices on basic, practical products and services around Duluth and Superior.
The prices below reflect the rate the establishment charges with tax included. Clothing is exempt from Minnesota’s sales tax. Wisconsin and Douglas County sales tax total 5.5%. (more…)
2016 Duluth-area Beer Festival Primer
As craft beer continues to explode in popularity in the Twin Ports and beyond, local beer tastings and beer-centered festivals proliferate. Below are some highlights of beery upcoming events in the region. The name of each event links to the PDD Calendar entry for that event; the links in the event descriptions link to the official event webpages. (more…)
Minnesota Caucuses 2016
The St. Paul Pioneer Press has put together a (relatively) quick overview of how the caucuses work in Minnesota. (more…)
More Lake Superior Plate Ice Tectonics
This one was shot by Jacob Selander on Feb. 13 along the North Shore.
Duluth couple tackling historic hotel renovation
A Duluth couple building upscale housing space into an abandoned 19th Century hotel expects buyers will be interested in Downtown Duluth living.
Zenith City Revival LLC owners Mitchell and Michelle Holmes plan to build 12 loft-style condominiums inside the former Gardner Hotel at 12 N. Lake Ave. in Duluth’s Historic Arts and Theater District. The couple is calling it Building No. 12 Lofts on Lake, and said units will list for between $225,000 to $370,000 each. A storefront, street-level sales space is scheduled to open this spring.
Over the past two years, the Holmes’ have removed trash bins full of debris, installed new floors, repaired ceilings and sandblasted brick walls. The city of Duluth authorized permits for $835,000 in heating, ventilation and air-conditioning work in February 2015.
“We’re going slow, just making sure we get everything right,” said Mitchell Holmes. “They’re going to be very nice, upscale, smaller-size condominiums so people can afford them.” (more…)
Erik Koskinen – “Nothing Without You”
Michigan native Erik Koskinen has called Minneapolis home for the past eight years, but he has a long-running relationship with Duluth, having performed here frequently for nearly 20 years. He returns March 5 for a concert at Sacred Heart Music Center. The video above was shot live at the Turf Club in St. Paul on Dec. 15.
More Icy Fun
Since the previous ice-stacking video posted on PDD is nearing one-million views, here are two more. These were shot by Ryan Tischer.
Holy Hootenanners – “It’s Time to Let it Go”
Check out the new video from the title track of the Holy Hootenaners album It’s Time to Let it Go. The song was written by Colleen Myhre and the video was produced by Paul Marvin Arts.
This Week: Climbing, jamming, skiing and stick handling
This week is a big one for sports enthusiasts. Hermantown faces off against Hibbing-Chisholm on Wednesday for the Section 7A boys hockey title, and Duluth East battles Grand Rapids on Thursday for the Section 7AA championship. The Duluth Climbers Coalition celebrates West Duluth’s newest parcel of parkland — Quarry Park — with three events: the kickoff is at Bent Paddle on Friday, the actual ice climbing is on Saturday at Quarry Park, and evening programs at Clyde Iron Works wrap it all up. Also on Saturday are the Tour du Luth cross-country ski event and the Harbor City Roller Dames Winter Wonder Jam Double Header.
In the realm of music, the Dotys perform a Matinee Musicale concert at the Depot on Tuesday, Bill Staines plays his annual Amazing Grace show on Friday, Frank Turner & the Sleeping Souls play the Grand Minnesota Taste-Together in Hinckley on Saturday, and that show’s opener, 16-year-old singer Madi Davis, performs at Mitchell Auditorium on Sunday.
There are also numerous literary events this week, and a slew of seminars about everything from the textile community in Telemark, Norway, to the Northern Lights Express.
Duluth’s Sunbeam Theatre
At the top of the “theaters just about no living person has heard of” category is Duluth’s Sunbeam Theatre, located at 109 W. Superior St. from 1908 to 1922. The Minnesota Reflections website notes “the silent film Highbrow Love was out in 1913. In 1922 the motion picture theater the Astor took that address, and the Sunbeam moved to 103 W. Superior St., where it remained until 1930.” (more…)
PDD Quiz: Presidents in Duluth
[This post originally contained an embedded quiz created on the platform Qzzr. It is no longer available at its source.]
Next week the quiz will be a review of Duluth happenings in February 2016. Send your suggested quiz questions (and answers) to lawrence @ perfectduluthday.com by noon on Wednesday, Feb. 24.
The Adjustments – “North Shore Sinner” Parts III and IV
The Adjustments are releasing their second studio album, At North Shore, with two concerts in the region. The Iron Range release party is tonight at Tommy’s Rainy Lake Saloon & Deli. The Duluth release party is March 11 at Carmody Irish Pub. (more…)
Abortion Contest
In 2003, George W. Bush was running for re-election. (I don’t want to talk about whether or not this was a re-election campaign or an election campaign, after the Florida funny business. I’m just glad he’s not the president now.) The campaign was ugly. The issues were suddenly intensely divisive and personal — particularly where Roe v. Wade was concerned. You couldn’t turn the radio on without hearing ferocious, fervent diatribes surrounding the issue of legal abortion. I was accustomed to avoiding the conversation, and, hopefully, allowing each person to reconcile their own reproductive decisions between themselves and God or whomever they like to reconcile themselves to.
But it was all over the radio and television, in conversation overheard in bank teller lines and grocery stores, and, it turns out, on the playground. My son was only 9 years old. I’m not sure how the political pogwank wove itself into playground diatribe — perhaps between games of four-square and soggy rectangle pizza slices, the little ones polarized and debated the benefits and disadvantages of prison reform and estate tax in hissed, lispy whispers. Anyway. I think it was sometime around October? The campaign rhetoric was bitter, loud, and everywhere. I fielded ten kabillion questions from my son about everything from homosexuality to terrorism, providing spanky PBS answers, neatly avoiding genitals, hate, and murder. Then, one day, as I drove us to the grocery store, my son piped up, “Mom, what’s an abortion?” (more…)
Ethnographic Study of Indigenous Contributions to Duluth
Last night at Gimajii, the Design Duluth meeting sponsored by the DAI shared copies of An Ethnographic Study of Indigenous Contributions to the City of Duluth — a fascinating document that invites us to think about the erasure of indigenous participation and contributions to Duluth culture — and to appreciate those contributions and participation even more heartily. (more…)
Selective Focus: Elders
Christine Dean, “Shuffleboard”
Last year my folks moved into senior housing. While it must have been traumatic to leave a home of 45 years, to abandon treasures from a lifetime of travels, and to part with thousands of photographs, they’ve created a miniature version of the life they knew, and found friends who were similarly diminished — but not lain low. (more…)
Video Archive: 1986 Denfeld Hockey
Denfeld High School’s first trip to the Minnesota State High School Hockey Tournament was in 1986. The video above includes TV news clips of the team’s Section 2 playoff wins — 2-1 over Duluth East, 8-2 over St. Cloud Apollo and 6-2 over Anoka. (more…)
Low – “Into You”
New video for a song from the 2015 release Ones and Sixes. Directed by Jim Burns and Beth Chalmers.