This week: smelt, bowls and vinyl
Here’s a sampling of what you have to look forward to this week on the PDD Calendar.
This week is Eat Downtown Week with $10 and $20 prix fixe menus in participating downtown restaurants.
The annual Empty Bowl fundraiser for Second Harvest Food Bank is Tuesday with a silent auction today at the Depot.
The Duluth Public Library is unloading all of its vinyl on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Godspell, a modern musical based on the stories and teachings of Jesus, goes up at the Duluth Playhouse on Thursday and runs for three weekends. It will be performed in the round.
Wise Fool Shakespeare presents James DeVita performing In Acting Shakespeare at the Fitger’s Spirit of the North Theater on Thursday and Saturday.
You have a choice of Vagina Monologues on Friday at AICHO and UMD.
You can sing along with the Sound of Music at CSS on Saturday.
Saturday is Bat Appreciation Day at Gooseberry Falls.
The second annual Run Smelt Run Parade is Sunday starting at the Lift Bridge in Canal Park.
So what are you doing this week? Can we tag along? Any upcoming events that you want to promote? Let us know.
More on the Publishing Conference that Wasn’t
Mitch Ogden had arranged for an army of undergrads from UW-Stout’s Journalism and Digital Humanities programs to attend the UMD Conference on Publishing. At 6 a.m. we called the bus dispatcher to tell them to turn around. But the dispatcher crossed wires with the bus, and so three hours later, the students were here.
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Cooking on the Car: Beer Cheese Soup Finale
Cooking on the Car serves up Beer Cheese Soup in Washburn, Wis.
Minnesota withdraws from mercury pollution project
The Duluth News Tribune reports the state of Minnesota is withdrawing from a research project regarding mercury pollution in the St. Louis River, even though much of the river’s fish are inedible to women and children, and despite the fact that 1 out of 10 North Shore infants have unsafe levels of mercury in their blood.
The article states that sources of mercury in the environment are well known. They include power plants, taconite plants and sulfate pollution (like the pollution from sulfide mining).
Officials from the MPCA said the state first needs more research on how mercury behaves in nature, but later in the article the proposed study is said to have included new research on how mercury behaves in the environment. Huh? It seems this research would be especially timely due to proposed copper-sulfide mining in Northern Minnesota.
The Publishing Conference that Wasn’t
Yesterday, were the weather to have cooperated more, there would have been a Publishing Conference at UMD. But it all started badly. It ended amazingly, though, and it’s worth some reflection. Parts of it (including an awesome talk or two by Roy Booth and by David Wong) are still to come, if you can join us. (more…)
Poetry Motel’s Don’t Know Shit
Patrick McKinnon’s Poetry Motel released Don’t Know Shit on Bandcamp the other day.
Good used-car dealerships for unfortunate souls with bad credit?
My husband and I currently own a beat-up 2002 Aztek. The car is a piece: bad wiring, broken speedometer, and endless dinging from a malfunctioning brake monitor. It wasn’t a problem when my job provided a fleet of cars to me for my travels as a social worker, I just drove the hunk of junk to work and used their car to transport clients. At my new job I’m required to use my own car for this while driving about 30 miles one way to work every day. I really need to get a new car before this one dies on me completely and leaves me high and dry.
I was wondering where one might find a reliable used car dealership in town. Our credit isn’t the greatest from old hospital bills and the like, but we make good payments and have improved our budgeting skills since getting out of college and realizing hey … bills don’t disappear if you ignore them like an idiot.
If the kind people of PDD have any ideas I’d be extremely grateful!
Miigwech.
This Week in LakeVoice
This week, LakeVoice releases its fifth spring issue, featuring stories on Mentor Duluth and its search for volunteers, the Re-Leaf Duluth program and its plan to replenish the city’s landscape, the Duluth Transit Authority’s plans for a new station and the changes that are coming to next year’s Bentleyville season.
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Captain’s Salutes
For shipping nerds.
Sh-Boom no more
https://youtu.be/H0gnO8LPy9w
The Duluth band is retiring after 24 years.
Rivulets – “How, Who”
Directed and edited by Adam Barnick.
Second chance for entry to the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon
Security Jewelers is auctioning one of its sponsor entries to Grandma’s Half Marathon on eBay. One hundred percent of proceeds go to the Salvation Army.
Blustery out at the Congdon’s today
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x12THpgHgg0&feature=youtu.be
Be careful out there
DTA buses are sliding all over the place and bus service might be stopped before the end of the work day.
The Duluth Police Dept. reports that slippery conditions and poor visibility have contributed to over 20 crashes within the past two hours. The department is asking that residents stay home and only travel if necessary.
The zoo is closed. Goodwill is closed. Open skating at the Heritage Center is cancelled. The Duluth Parks and Rec clean up event at Chambers Grove Park is cancelled. Assume most things aren’t happening.
Homegrown Music Festival Field Guide 2013
Word has leaked out via Instagram that 17,500 copies of the Homegrown Music Festival Field Guide 2013 have arrived. Distribution might be slowed by the storm that is supposedly happening today, but — hot tip — the Electric Fetus is usually one of the first places you can find it.
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Duluth librarian/author on Slate
Article on slate.com, part of a series on camp. Shout out to Paul Roen, Duluth librarian, for his book High Camp.
Homegrown Band Publicity Photo Showdown: Semifinals (part two)
With the Homegrown Music Festival coming up PDD launched a series of polls nine weeks ago, tournament style, to determine which Duluth-area band has the sweetest pic. Last week Breanne Marie and Tangier 57 advanced to the quarterfinals. This week we present the third and fourth semifinal matchups. (Click on any image to see it larger.)
Semifinal #3:
Left: The Tisdales (photo by Ray Reigstad)
Right: Southwire (photo by Rich Narum)
[poll id=”32″]
This poll is now closed. The results were:
Southwire – 75.0 percent
The Tisdales – 25.0 percent
Semifinal #4:
Left: Charlie Parr (photo by Peter Lee)
Right: Snöbarn (photo by Shawn Stigstill)
[poll id=”33″]
This poll is now closed. The results were:
Charlie Parr – 71.0 percent
Sn̦barn Р29.0 percent
Next week’s Quarterfinals:
Breanne Marie vs. Tangier 57
Southwire vs. Charlie Parr
Note: Only people who are logged in to their Perfect Duluth Day blogging account are allowed to vote (to prevent people from voting multiple times). To create an account, click here. If you need help figuring it out, click here.
Twin Ports Bridge Festival Pre-Sale for Accessibility
httpv://youtu.be/4OwfrgMrDf0
The Twin Ports Bridge Festival is hoping to meet a goal of selling 2,000 tickets at a reduced rate by May 31 to allow free access to area organizations and their constituents who could benefit from the inspiring messages and events at the festival, but would otherwise not be able to attend. These groups may include, but certainly won’t be limited to, those that help folks with mental illness, disabilities, and/or underserved youth. With this year’s date only two days after Independence Day, we are also hoping to be able to allow free access to all veterans.
Duluth Roofers
Does anyone have any recommendations for a really good roofer who can troubleshoot tricky leaks on old houses?
Segway tours on the Lakewalk?
Is this a new thing, or have I just not noticed it before? I just saw on Craigslist they were hiring tour guides. I do already try to avoid the Canal Park/Downtown portion of the Lakewalk in the summer because it’s so crowded, and those doublewide pedal-mobile things are impossible to get around when I’m on a bike, but if I’m going to have to be dodging Segways now, too, well, one more reason to stay off the Lakewalk.
(I wish the business owners the best of luck and yay for tourism dollars and all that. I’m just selfishly grumping about crowds and am wanting my own private Lakewalk.)
Where in Duluth: Buzzfeed edition
I was reading through this list of things Minnesotans are [allegedly] too nice to brag about and I saw this picture, figured it was from Duluth, and it is.
Minnesotans do brag about all of this stuff all the time, but it’s fun to see it on Buzzfeed. Several items in the article have a Duluth connection.
Geek Prom 2013: Talk Nerdy to Me
[Some images in the slideshow are by Shannon Kinley; others were gathered from Geek Prom’s Facebook group page.]
This past Saturday, April 6, adults were given the chance to blast into their pasts and attend prom. This was no regular prom though. Instead of people being dressed up in expensive gowns and tuxes they got to wear costumes such as Han Solo, Princess Leia or Dr. Zoidberg. (more…)