Venus DeMars embraces Sacred Heart
Venus DeMars has been busy. After finishing a national your with Against Me!, DeMars returns to her hometown on Saturday for a concert at Sacred Heart, where she will record her first acoustic album. In this interview, she explains how her new album will be a culmination of her musical experiences.
Wildlife News
Some updates from Wildwoods Rehabilitation:
There are three window-strike bird victims in residence — a northern flicker, a juvenile cedar waxwing, and a flycatcher. The flicker came in with a spinal bruise, and was unable to use his legs for several days. Fortunately, he’s made a full recovery after rest and anti-swelling meds, and is ready for release. In the meantime, he’s been pigging out on the mealworms, and has plumped out, just in time for migration, when he’ll need the energy!
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Toasty’s on East Ninth now open
The sign on the building has been up since last Spring, and now Toasty’s is open.
Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily
Address: 1032 E. Ninth St.
Owners: Rachael and Tom Hagen
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Best Coffee Shop in the Duluth Area Poll (Final Ballot)
In our elimination round poll we pitted 11 coffee shops against each other. The top three now do battle in this contest to answer the question …
[poll id=”68″]
This poll is now closed. There results were:
Beaner’s Central Concert Coffeehouse – 50.4 percent
Jefferson People’s House – 27.8 percent
Duluth Coffee Co. – 21.8
Duluth Sunrise Silhouette
Photo by Manny Villanueva, shot this morning.
News about the arts from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council
Various bits for local artists, arts consumers, and art organizations:
- The next ARAC grant deadline is Oct. 31. The grant programs included in this deadline are: Two-year Operating Support for organizations, Rural and Community Art Grants for organizations and Career Development Grants for individual artists. Online applications for these grant programs will be available Sept. 19. ARAC will also be holding grant writing workshops on these programs in the weeks prior to the deadline.
- ARAC is accepting nominations for the 17th annual Arrowhead Arts Awards. The awards were developed to recognize individuals who have made important contributions to the arts in the region. ARAC gives out two awards each year: The George Morrison Artist Award and the Maddie Simons Advocate Award. The purpose of the awards is to recognize the work and contributions of individual artists and arts administrators, as well as raise the profile of arts in their communities. Nominations must be postmarked by Nov. 14.
- View the calendar of ARAC-funded events at aracouncil.org.
This week: birding, chili and trout fishing
Here’s a sampling of what you have to look forward to this week on the PDD Calendar.
It’s harvest time and that means a lot of action in area farmers’ markets (Downtown, UMD, East Hillside, Lincoln Park, West Duluth, and Two Harbors) and this week the Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank is looking for volunteers to help pick fresh produce.
On Tuesday there is a trifecta of business presentations with David Jaffe, CEO of the company that controls Maurices, speaking at Weber, Brian Hanson, CEO of APEX, at Clyde Iron, and Danielle Thralow, creator of binoculars.com, peepers.com and telescope.com, at WITC.
They say it’s going to get chilly this week by Wednesday, and we’re going to get chili on Thursday with the United Way Chili Cook-Off at the DECC. Yeah, I went for the obvious pun. Sue me.
Starting this Friday Clinton Nienhaus will be leading early morning birding strolls starting at Duluth Sky Harbor. These weekly walks will go through the end of October.
Venus DeMars (after a prolonged struggle with the Minnesota Department of Revenue over whether or not she’s an artist) performs as court-sanctioned, bona fide artist at Sacred Heart on Saturday.
The Red Herring Lounge celebrates the life and works of Richard Brautigan on Sunday with Trout Fishing in Duluth.
So what are you doing this week? Can we tag along? Any upcoming events that you want to promote? Let us know.
Amity Coffee is open in Lakeside
Amity Coffee opened on Sept. 6 at 4429 E. Superior St., serving up java from Duluth Coffee Co. The owners are Adam Swank and Patti Chuang.
The artwork on the walls is a selection of landscape paintings by Aaron Kloss.
Hours are 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursdays, 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Fridays and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
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Duluth Artist in the Black Hills
Duluth Artist Catherine Meier is back from an installation project in the Badlands.
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Diving the Breakwater Wall Ruins, 9/6/14
Duluth’s outer harbor, between the Vietnam Memorial and the red buoy, hides the submerged ruins of a hundred-plus-year-old wall (essentially stacked wooden cribbing filled with rocks) that predates the lift bridge and the canal. This is what they used to park ships behind for safe harbor — before its destruction in a gale. Been waiting to return here since last summer, finally got my window. Tried early in the day but the water was too cold. So I spent the day on Park Point beach, then hit it on my way back — water had warmed several degrees. Sun was going down so I had to act quickly. Similar imagery may be seen in my video of last year, “Freediving the Ruins of Duluth’s Outer Harbor.”
This current video represents going farther from shore (maybe halfway to the buoy?), and deeper than before (up to 15 feet or so as opposed to ~10). Next year maybe I will dive the buoy chain to the bottom (30 feet). It would have been nice to do this series of dives when I was fresher earlier in the day with more direct overhead sunlight (the water was clearer too), but it was simply too cold. By the time I got to it, I had walked several miles, was hungry, and had been given a beer and a couple slugs of wine (don’t ask). So I wasn’t as hardcore as I wanted to be — had to swim out far, then deep too, without benefit of a raft or anything, so I was pooped and not willing to risk any further depth. Next time!
Diving Among the Boulders and What I Found There
A series of dives one afternoon exploring a field of boulders.
One Book, One Community … One Local Author
Visit Duluth Public Library’s One Book, One Community page and cast your vote for a book to be selected for this reading program. My suggestion: Support, Linda Grover’s The Dance Boots. Grover is the only local author on the shortlist, and this award-winning set of stories is perfect for this honor. (You might also check out Grover’s hot-of-the-press novel The Road Back to Sweetgrass.)
Chocolate Lab mix found in Lakewood
An old, somewhat overweight Chocolate Lab mix adopted us on Thursday, Sept. 3, during the thunderstorms. We call him Grizzly because his fur has a grizzly bear look to it. He has a shock collar on him. It’s red. His other collar is light blue. He has no tags. I’ve checked Animal Allies and the pound for any report of a lost dog matching this description. No luck. If you recognize this description please e-mail me at madewithaview @ gmail.com.
Duluth Lawn-care Services
Does anyone know of a good lawn-care person/service in Duluth? We have a small yard, just outside of downtown. We just need a quick mow/trim because the battery in our mower is dead. As such, a mower must be supplied. We can supply a trimmer.
Any recommendations? Do you have a friend who likes to make extra cash? We called the lawn-care companies that showed up on Google maps, and none answered. Help!
Best Coffee Shop in the Duluth Area Poll (Elimination Round)
Through our usual highly scientific means, a list of nominees for best Duluth-area coffee shop has been developed. Now it’s time to narrow down the choices with a round of voting.
[poll id=”67″]
This poll is now closed. The top three, advancing to the final ballot are:
Beaner’s Central Concert Coffeehouse
Duluth Coffee Co.
Jefferson People’s House
Diving at Lester River and Uncle Harvey’s Mausoleum
Video by Nathan Myers.
Grounded Eagle on Rice Lake Road
This afternoon I was driving back from the dump when I saw a car with its flashers on on Rice Lake Road. I slowed to … basically to rubberneck, but, you know, to see if everything was OK. They were looking at this bald eagle that was staggering along the narrow green space between the highway and the wetland that it passes through.
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Skyline Parkway Corridor Management Plan
Does anyone have any word on building restrictions on Skyline Parkway? I’m asking because someone built a house on the lower side of Skyline a block above my house. Someone is working on a plot of land to the east which is also directly above my house and they need a variance (for which there is a meeting at City Hall on Tuesday next week).
My street has had a drainage issue ever since I moved in, but the first house to be built up there caused the issue to escalate. With more housing being built directly above, I fear that the problem will get increasingly worse. If anyone has any info on the corridor management plan or building on Skyline in general please let me know, and if you think this issue might directly affect you, let me know so I can forward the meeting info on to you.
I love Duluth and hope that we can work together to make things better. Above is a panoramic picture of ice taking up half the street due to water running down it.
Preston Gunderson with Jillian Rae – “Night”
Video by Peter Jamus and David Kasyanyuk
Shot at East Medicine Lake, Lake Calhoun and Lake of the Isles — all near Minneapolis
Actors: Laura Blak and Vinny Balbo
Preston Gunderson is a singer/songwriter from the Iron Range. His album While I was Gone cracked the top 200 on the iTunes pop charts, and his EP The Recluse peaked at no. 25 on the iTunes Singer Songwriter Music Chart. He was a casting finalist on NBCs The Voice, but did not appear on the TV show. He was also named the 2014 Bob Dylan Singer-Songwriter Grand Champion during Dylan Days.
Jillian Rae is known in Duluth for her days lending fiddle skills to the band Two Many Banjos. She performs solo shows and in a number of bands in Minnesota.
Duluth Trip
Video by Jon Atwell.
Nominees for Best Coffee Shop in the Duluth area
It’s been a few months since we’ve done a poll on PDD, but we trust that with all the “Vote Duluth the best outdoor city in the galaxy or whatever” hype that most of you thought a break was for the better. Now it’s time to return to our quest to decide what the best city’s best things are.
Before we launch our poll to name the best coffee shop, we have to establish a list of nominees by asking you to rant in the comments. The ground rules are fairly simple:
- As usual, the territory we are covering encompasses Duluth and anywhere within 10 miles of Duluth’s border – so coffee shops in Superior, Hermantown, Proctor and the various bordering townships all qualify; Two Harbors and Cloquet are out of bounds.
- The criteria for what defines a coffee shop or what makes one “the best” is pretty open. Certain bakeries and restaurants kind of double as coffee shops, and that’s fine. Some places have a focus on live music or a kick-ass record collection, others sink a fortune into furniture or double as a place of worship. Feel free to consider those things along with the coffee itself, or don’t. In the end, voters will decide what’s important to the masses.
- It’s fine to nominate a corporate giant like Starbucks, Caribou or Dunn Bros., but be specific if you do. Pick a particular location; don’t nominate the franchise as a whole.
- Keep in mind that we are not issuing a challenge here to name every coffee shop that exists in the area. We’re just asking you to tell us which ones you think have a reasonable chance of winning a poll.
That’s about it. Make your thoughts known and we’ll launch the poll on Friday.
Lost Benchmaker Knife on Superior Hiking Trail
I lost a blue Benchmade pocket knife just off of the parking lot on the Superior Hiking Trail at Penn Boulevard in Silver Bay on Aug. 29. I believe it was on the four-wheeler trail just before hooking up to the hiking trail. Will pay reward and shipping to get it back.