Homegrown in Memorium
Today marks the passing of Stella the Dog, a Staffordshire Terrier/Australian Shepherd mix and my great companion, just two-days shy of her 15th birthday. Stella is noted in Homegrown lore as the dog who, in 2000, destroyed one of the first two official Homegrown kickballs roughly 30 seconds after Starfire arrived at Chester Park and tossed the newly purchased balls onto the field. She spent most of the rest of the day carrying its carcass, occasionally thrashing it about. (more…)
Wild Turkeys in the Snow
Wrenshall’s Mark “Sparky” Stensaas has had up to 19 wild turkeys at his feeder. He tells the full story on his Photonaturalist blog.
This week: Homegrown and everything else
Here’s a sampling of what you have to look forward to this week on the PDD Calendar.
Well, let’s address the 800 lb. chicken in the room. It’s Homegrown week with lots of shows in lots of venues all week long. And, this year, Perfect Duluth Day is providing a handy guide on your smartphone. Admit it. You love us.
Love your Lakewalk? You have opportunities to show your love this week with clean-up days on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday. There’s also a volunteer day at the Rose Garden on Tuesday.
Thursday is Pancake Day down at the DECC, an annual fundraiser for the Lion’s Club.
In the world of theater:
- Marshall is steampunking Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream this weekend.
- Motherhood Out Loud, a Rubber Chicken production, opens at Fitger’s and runs this weekend only.
- Oh, Coward, a revue of Noel Coward tunes in a cabaret setting, opens at the new Underground venue Thursday and runs two weekends.
- Last chance to see Coriolana at UMD, Godspell at the Playhouse and The Three Musketeers at Harbor City as they end their runs this weekend.
Saturday is May the Fourth (aka International Star Wars Day) and so, of course, the DSSO is doing a concert dedicated to music from the James Bond films. Bring a lightsaber anyway.
So what are you doing this week? Can we tag along? Any upcoming events that you want to promote? Let us know.
Homegrown Music Festival 2013: The Chicken App for your mobile phone, other schedule formats and social media crap
The URL for PDD’s Homegrown Chicken App is calendar.perfectduluthday.com/homegrown, if you want to check out the Homegrown schedule on the fly from your mobile device. (more…)
Homegrown Music Fest 2013 – Live Tweets #hgmf13
The “official” Twitter hashtag of this year’s Homegrown Music Festival is #hgmf13. So tweet away!
Nerd Nite Lite
Nerd Nite Lite was an Abridged Nerd Nite to celebrate the grand opening of the Underground performance space in the Depot (in the former Children’s Museum space). Images below. (more…)
Sustainability Event at UMD: One World, One Environment
OWOE was a collaborative event bringing together UMD students, faculty, staff, and community members to explore and discuss issues connected to our plantet. Photos below. (more…)
Rollerdames!
The Rollerdames crushed Fargo! (Those ND gals skate with their shoulders instead of their feet!) (more…)
Copper and Nickel Mining in Minnesota
[This post originally contained an embedded video that is no longer available at its source.]
Here’s a video from a UMD Center for Ethics and Public Policy discussion about mining in our region.
Congrats to Shane Courtland, the director, for creating a space for this important dialogue.
This week in LakeVoice: Community photography project
This week, LakeVoice released its first all-photo issue. The LakeVoice reporting team teamed up with community members to go out into Duluth and chronicle the faces of our diverse community. Check out our photo stories of a day in the life of a florist, a West Duluth mechanic, Lakeside business owners and the faces of Canal Park and the Lakewalk along with many other photos, including many submitted by community members. (more…)
Daredevils @ World Championship
The Duluth East Daredevils are at the FIRST World Championship in St. Louis, and are ranked 5th going into the second day of qualification matches. Robots!
Homegrown Banjo Breakdown
If you hang out on PDD or Facebook or the corner of Lake Avenue and Superior Street long enough, you’ll hear a Duluth musician complain about how many banjos there are in the local music scene. Personally, I’ve heard Duluth referred to as “the banjo capital of the world,” and I’ve heard people say — not even jokingly — that it’s almost impossible to spend a night in the local music venues without hearing a banjo. On one hand, I understand what they are saying, but on the other hand, it seems like tremendous hyperbole.
The purpose of this post is to try and figure out, as accurately as possible, the percentage of bands playing Homegrown that feature a banjo, and to discuss whether or not that percentage is an excessive amount of banjos. (more…)
Fix One, Another Shows Up
At this point, we may need someone named “Martini” to open their own chain of bars in order to make this trend legit.
Pollard pulls in two 2013 Best of the Twin Cities Arts & Entertainment awards
Duluth got two nods from City Pages in its Best of the Twin Cities issue, and musician Eric Pollard was part of both. He’s the drummer for Retribution Gospel Choir and front man of Actual Wolf, bands that won for Best Live Artist and Best Songwriter, respectively.
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Minnesota Aurora
Timelapse video and photography by Mark Ellis. Shot April 14 in northern Minnesota.
Honour, jail and consensual sex
The 2014 race for Minnesota Governor is already underway. Republican Scott Honour, a businessman from Orono, has launched his campaign website. (Amusing sidenote: The announcement page is at “/splash/#prettyPhoto.” Well, it is a pretty photo.)
Zenith City Online launched a redesign today and has delved into the history of the Tycoons Alehouse building, formerly Duluth’s City Hall, answering the question, “Was Tycoons Alehouse ever a jail?” Spoiler: For one year the Rathskeller was home to a holding cell, not an official jail.
There will be a full moon tonight for the Take Back the Night march and I Heart Consensual Sex Party. Sexual Assault Awareness Month will be recognized in Superior as well, with the Speak Out Superior march. Howl like a wolf; hump like a civilized person.
Cloud Cult on Minnesota Original
The Cloud Cult movie No One Said it Would be Easy screens tonight at Zinema 2, and the band will play the Twin Ports Bridge Festival in Duluth on July 6.
Fever Dream – “Think I’m in Love with You”
Presenting the fifth music video from Marc Gartman’s Fever Dream.
Rockridge Elementary Rezoning
The Rockridge Elementary school property’s proposed rezoning reminds me of the age-old phase “you sleep in the bed you made.” The school district knew from the get go what building zones the schools are in. It also knew the market has its ups and downs. We are now in a down cycle. Why didn’t the district’s budget include a more conservative estimate just in case the market went down?
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