Lake Superior’s North Shore Witch Tree
“Manido Gizhigans” to the Ojibwe people, the Spirit Little Cedar Tree (known as the “Witch Tree”) has been keeping a keen eye over the shores of Lake Superior in Grand Portage for an estimated 300-400 years. CBS Minnesota did a “Finding Minnesota” story on the Witch Tree. Travis Novitsky was interviewed for the story and said “You’ve got this tree that’s growing out of the rock for at least 400 or 500 years. And just to stand in the presence of something that’s living, that’s that old, to me is mind-boggling.” Sorry for the brief commercial before the video starts.
See the full story by clicking here.
Copyright for the above photo belongs to Travis Novitsky. www.travisnovitsky.com
This Week: scares and chills and frights and all that
Here’s a bit of what you’ll find in this week’s ghoulish PDD Calendar:
They’re coming to get you, Barbara, UMD tackles zombies and hands out candy to kids, writer Wendy Webb talks ghosts in the Rathskellar, pleasure-skating gets a Halloween makeover, the William A. Irvin is still haunted, there’s a scary bus tour going on and Samhain (not the Glenn Danzig vehicle) is at Teatro Zuccone.
Beaner’s Central is throwing a costume party, Frank N. Furter and the gang are at the Underground, there’s a Masquerade Ball at the DECC, Studio 15 is having a Halloween party, R.T. Quinlan’s is putting on a Spookshow, the fifth annual Corn-i-ville is underway at Engwall’s Corn Maze and both the Red Herring and Pizza Luce have bills full of bands for Halloween, too.
Video Archive: Mel Sando gets his mojo working
Mel Sando, best known for his days with the Delta Resonators circa 1997-1999, performs the blues classic “Got My Mojo Working” at R.T. Quinlan’s Saloon during an open mic on Sept. 16, 1995.
How to see Duluth and Superior on electric cars
The date on this bad boy is 1909. The cover image seems to suggest there was a floating railway perpendicular to the shipping canal where people could watch flaming ships torch the city. (more…)
Cloud Cult – “No Hell” (Homemade Lyric Video)
“No Hell” is the first single from Cloud Cult’s forthcoming album The Seeker, scheduled for release in February. The official music video will be released in December. For now, the band put together this “quick homemade behind-the-scenes lyric video, shot lo-fi on a phone” in the “woods where most of these songs are written.”
Selective Focus: Black and White
Brian Barber, “Bandit”
Black and white photography is most often anything but. Degrees of tone exist in a broad spectrum within what we reductively deem either/or. I’ve argued before that its use as an aesthetic device is antiquarian, retrogressive- that the medium has grown past the limitation, yet there remains an appeal in seeing images pared to their essence, without the ersatz mediation of hdr and hyper-saturation. (more…)
Looking for local authors
The Duluth Public Library is looking for local authors for Author Day on Nov. 21. In order to participate, an author must have published at least one book and have copies of the book(s) available for sale. (Self-publishing qualifies.) Preference is given to Minnesota authors or to authors with books set in northeastern Minnesota, especially Duluth.
The library will provide table space: each 2.5′ x 6′ table will be shared by two authors. Tables will be located throughout the library, in the nonfiction/reference area, in the fiction area, and in Youth Services. The transport and arrangement of book promotional materials, displays, books to sell and payment options are the responsibility of the author.
If you are interested in participating please fill out an application on the Duluth Public Library website. Please submit this application form by Nov. 13 in order to participate. Space is limited so tables will be assigned on a first-come basis. Once all tables are reserved, applications will be placed on a waiting list.
The “Portrait of an Artist” Art Opening at the Duluth Art Institute
This is the Oct. 15 art opening of Sarah Brokke’s show, “Portrait of an Artist.”
PDD Video Lab: Halloween Edition
Happy Halloween, PDDers. Press play on the video above and select your favorite soundtrack below.
And don’t forget, we’re looking for your Halloween banners. Send them to banners@perfectduluthday.com
Artificial trailer
Some familiar locations in this preview clip by Lance Karasti.
Question 3: Method for setting fee paid to Duluth city councilors
After publishing the Duluth 2015 General Election Sample Ballot, a question arose. We’ve been hearing a lot about ranked-choice voting and Lakeside liquor sales, but what’s the deal with question #3? (more…)
Still curious?
What’s the deal with Curious Goods in Superior?
If you’ve driven by 1717-1/2 Winter St. and wondered if the store ever opens, well, it doesn’t … but in a way it’s always open, on the Internet. For the past decade or so Curious Goods has basically been a warehouse for eBay items from the seller Curious-g.
Project manager wanted for 10-month media collaboration
The journalism program at the University of Minnesota Duluth is looking for a part-time project manager to assist in coordinating the “One River, Many Stories” media collaboration project.
Funded through a Knight Foundation Fund grant from the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation, the project will test ways media collaboration can inspire innovation and nurture engagement among professional journalists, educators and citizen storytellers in the Duluth-Superior community. In April 2016, the media in northern Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin will give special attention to one topic: The St. Louis River. Newspapers, television and radio stations, local bloggers, photographers, videographers, university, college and high school journalism programs, and citizen storytellers will produce news articles, documentaries, podcasts and other media about the historic St. Louis River corridor.
This Week: pumpkins, curling, Bach and more
Here’s a bit of what you’ll find on this week’s PDD Calendar:
Glensheen Mansion needs pumpkin carvers, Duluth Curling Club is giving a free lesson to curling newbs, the new Lake Superior Ojibwe Gallery is dedicated, the Twin Ports live radio soap opera continues, candidates for Duluth city offices discuss poverty and Bachmaster Angela Hewitt performs.
Duluth extreme metallers Vitamin Death release an album, DanceWorks hits Marshall Performing Arts Center, Glensheen’s pumpkin-carvers (see above) display their work, One Roof Community Housing throws a fundraiser, the Minnesota Ballet celebrates a half-century in operation and a fundraiser for violence victim Matthew Rewald is happening at Mr. D’s in West Duluth.
Perspectives on a Rainbow
After Mary Lou Williams’‘ rainbow photo was shared last Monday on the PDD Facebook page, three other perspectives emerged. From left to right below are photos by Paul Gudmundson, Laurie Newland and Tyler Day. (Click to view larger.)
Why are there so many photos of rainbows, and what’s on the other side? Well, according to reports from Kermit the Frog, rainbows are visions, but only illusions, and rainbows have nothing to hide.
Video Archive: Chainsaw Artist John Gage
Video produced by Margo Devich and Nathan Steigman for UWS Studio 2; shot in Two Harbors on Sept. 17, 1995.
Duluth’s Mark Sertich on CBS Evening News
Tonight Mark Sertich became the second Duluthian to be featured on the CBS Evening News in the past month. Just 18 days after St. Scholastica Saints kicking coach Sister Lisa Maurer was profiled on the program, Sertich was featured in a segment with “On the Road” correspondent Steve Hartman.
Sertich is a 1939 Denfeld graduate and World War II veteran who, at age 94, still plays hockey with a group of Duluth firefighters.
Unnur Andrea – “Walking on Nails”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcxcDfpsRBY
Back by popular demand, Unnur Andrea’s video shot at the Duluth Owls Club. It was originally posted on PDD on Jan. 15, 2013, but was mysteriously suspended by YouTube.
R.I.P. Mr. Richard H. Gastler
Longtime Denfeld High School economics teacher Dick Gastler died on Thursday, Oct. 15, at the age of 79. Among many great teachers at Denfeld, Mr. Gastler would have to be considered the most famous of his era. He was a ham. He broke into song all the time. He frequently digressed into stories about growing up in Chaska. He wore cheesy leisure suits, famously sporting the same one every day during a stretch of 1984 when he was raising money to fight hunger — a stunt that landed him on Good Morning America. The suit was burned when Mr. Gastler reached his fundraising goal. The ashes are still in a trophy case at the school. (more…)
Old Casino Signs
I noticed these in the alley behind Fond-du-Luth Casino yesterday. Anyone got a pickup truck and a nice loft space?
Selective Focus: Coming Home
Paul McIntyre, untitled
The idea of “coming home” propels nearly all our endeavors, knowing we are tethered to other people, to familiar, comforting things. For anyone lacking a stable, sane place, or those exiled by circumstance, the capacity to venture is stunted while the desire to find moorings never leaves us. Emily Norton’s “Family Motto” (below) states well this simple, not easily-attained aspiration. (more…)
North Country Trail nears connection to Superior Hiking Trail
A new 4-mile section of the North Country National Scenic Trail, located 17 miles southwest of Superior, opens Saturday, bringing the trail another step closer to connecting to Minnesota’s Superior Hiking Trail.
The new segment crosses the University of Wisconsin-Superior’s MacQuarrie Wetlands in western Douglas County and features scenic overlooks of the Nemadji River Valley and the basin of Glacial Lake Duluth. It also crosses a section of Douglas County Forest and Wisconsin DNR lands.
