David Bazan Living Room Show

Indie rock superhero David Bazan is playing two shows in Duluth on his current living room tour.  [EDIT: Both shows are sold out! No tickets will be available at the door. Thanks!]

Skunk removal advice, anecodotes, etc.

So, apparently, if you see a skunk scurry under your porch and want to know when it has left, so that you can create a better barricade while its not in there, one method is to put a little flour near the escape and see if the skunk messes it up on its way out.

Unfortunately, if the skunk waits until you are asleep to make its nightly rounds of digging in garbage cans and whatnot, you have to figure in the morning that it’s back in there. (more…)

Seeking health/wellness therapist to share space — prime location, affordable rent

This is a really great deal for the right person. I am looking to share my space. I have a prime location in Canal Park. Looking for health and wellness practitioner who is comfortable to share my cozy studio!  If interested, please reply with references and/or questions to yourholisticpath @ gmail.com.

This week: blues, farm fresh food and kids making art

  

Here’s a sampling of what you have to look forward to this week on the PDD Calendar.

The Duluth Area Chamber of Commerce is hosting a DFL Congressional Candidate Forum on Tuesday morning at the Play Ground with all three candidates — Jeff Anderson, Tarryl Clark and Rick Nolan — in attendance.

The Duluth Playhouse Youth Repertory Theatre has not one, not two, but three shows in production starting this week! They will be performing William Shakespeare’s As You Like It starting Wednesday, Little Women: The Musical starting Thursday, and Rent: School Edition starting Friday.

Chaperone Records, Duluth’s newest record label, has its launch party in the Zeitgeist Arts Building on Friday.

The Bayfront Blues Festival runs Friday through Sunday, with a special tribute on Saturday to the recently departed Big Walter Smith, featuring Jimi “Prime Time” Smith & the Groove Merchants.

The first of two Table to Farm events sponsored by Chester Creek Cafe is being held this Saturday at Birch Point Gardens in Saginaw. It’s a prix fixe meal with food from the farm to your plate served al fresco.

The Art in Me arts festival in Lester Park is Sunday with a variety of art projects available for your budding artists.

So what are you doing this week? Can we tag along? Any upcoming events that you want to promote? Let us know!`

Cast iron skillets don’t go in the dishwasher

… and thus I am in the market for housekeeping services.  We have tried two cleaning services since moving to the area and they were [ahem] sub-par.  Can anyone refer me to a solid housekeeper?

Twin Ports Bridge Festival 2012 Documentary

July 7-8, 2012
Bayfront Park

New Darin Bergsven video is quite sappy

[This post originally contained an embedded video that is no longer available at its source.]

… and that’s just how I like it. I hope you do, too. This cover of the Pixies’ “Ana” is on my CD Out of Nowhere. The video was made by Brian Barber; many thanks to him.

North Shore Sands

My wedding is coming up soon and at my finance’s request we will be having a sand ceremony, where you pour two different kinds of sand in a jar. I remember seeing black sand on the North Shore, however, my frequent trips up there have blurred my memory on the exact location. I am thinking somewhere near Knife River, but don’t want to pay for the gas to get there and be wrong.

Minneapolis Fundraisers Haven’t Learned the Duluth Trick: Not Paying Artists

Fundraisers cost money?

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Onion A.V. Club in Hibbing

The Onion A.V. Club’s Sean O’Neal traveled to Hibbing for a video that soaks up the Bob Dylan experience for the series Pop Pilgrims. There’s a nice look inside the Hibbing High School Auditorium — Minnesota’s second-nicest high-school auditorium.

[This post originally linked to the video, which no longer exists on the Onion’s site.]

New Standard Encyclopedia 1933

Duluth activist & cohorts shut down high-security nuke plant

Today on the Reuters newswire:

The U.S. government’s only facility for handling, processing and storing weapons-grade uranium has been temporarily shut after anti-nuclear activists, including an 82-year-old nun, breached security fences, government officials said on Thursday.

(more…)

Where’s the dill?

The cukes are growing like mad, but the dill is doing diddly. Whole Foods, Cub, Super One don’t have any dill on hand — apparently shipments are coming in at the end of the week … maybe, no guarantees. Any suggestions where I can find fresh dill?

What’s a geek to do in town?

I’m going to be moving to Duluth in the next couple months and was wondering what kind of nerdy stuff is around town.

What’s the best computer store in town for components? Somewhere where they’ll know what a GTX680 is. Are there any hacker/maker clubs? I’m also interested in volunteering; does anyone know of a computer refurbishing program? Are there any local tech websites or handouts?

I know there are more nerds like me; what are you up to?

McPants on Fire?

I’ve been watching that god-awful fortress of a retaining wall around the London Road McDonald’s slowly bulge outward over the past months with a mixture of bemused amazement and horror. Now comes word via the News Tribune that the wall is being knocked down and rebuilt … as part of a cosmetic enhancement? (more…)

“Strongman” a melancholy Tuesday

I went to see the story of Stanless Steel, the strongman. He’s an old-school strongman, the kind that I would have seen on That’s Incredible growing up in the 1980s. (more…)

Rocket, man.

So if anyone in the Chester Creek Cafe neighborhood finds a model rocket in their tree / backyard / roof, I know who it belongs to. Orange parachute, dark rocket with Ryan T written on it. Launched from the baseball fields, ended up somewhere S SW of there tonight. Thanks.

Duluth Jalapeno Express: Closed

Walt Dizzo reports via Facebook today: “So bummed, best restaurant in town. RIP Jalapeno Express.”

Remember all the ranting and raving about the greatness of this place? What happened?

Moving Day Group

We’re in the middle of moving, and all of the trips up and down the stairs got me thinking about something that actually seems viable. I was imagining the best possible scenario for moving and I came up with the Duluth Moving Consortium, a gigantic group of people that could help each other move. Imaging how quickly and easily you could move your stuff if a group of 100-200 people all came to help. In a perfect world, enough would show up that each person could take one load down the stairs and the work would be done.

Sure, you might draw a bad load and end up with half a couch or mattress, but the next move might be a shoebox of CDs or a trashcan. And if you help, then others come to your aid when you need to move.

I just thought that with all of the moving going on in this town, this sort of cooperative just might have legs.

It’s so crazy, it might work.

New newsletter for Lakeside and Lester Park neighborhoods

The first issue of the Look at Lakeside newsletter is out. It will come out every two months (on the even-numbered months). If you have article topics, Lakeside photos, news, even history, or even want to share why you live in or what you like about Lakeside-Lester Park, send me an email. The issues are being distributed at Lakeside-Lester Park businesses and online. You can subscribe (free) to get a notice when the next issue is out online.

Thomas Angelo Dougherty, World War II U.S. Naval Aviator

Video by George Knowles.

Duluth Album Releases in 2007

Trampled by Turtles
Trouble
(March 19)
Available on iTunes

Low
Drums and Guns
Sub Pop Records (March 20)
Available on Bandcamp

The Hotel Coral Essex
Glisten
(April 27)
Available on Bandcamp

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Video Archive: Robert Bly in 1976, interpreting Rumi’s poem “Feeling and Thinking”

This is an excerpt of the short film “From the Museroom: A Sampler of Minnesota Poets,” shot during a Poetry Collective benefit at the Firehouse in Minneapolis, Minn.

“Feeling and Thinking” by Rumi

Someone struck Zayd a hard blow from behind. He was about to retaliate, when his assailant cried, “Let me ask you a question: first answer it, then strike me. I struck the nape of your neck, and there was the sound of a slap. Now I ask you in a friendly way — ‘Was the sound caused by my hand or by your neck, O pride of the noble?'”

Zayd said, “The pain I am suffering leaves me no time to reflect on this problem. Ponder it yourself: he who feels the pain cannot think of things like this.”

Wildwoods New Facility

Wildwoods Rehabilitation has a new orphan shed. (more…)

This week: street dancing, kayaking, chess and banjo picking

  

Here’s a sampling of what you have to look forward to this week on the PDD Calendar.

If you haven’t seen a Huskies game yet this season in beautiful Wade Stadium you are running out of chances. Fortunately the Huskies are hosting the Waterloo Bucks at the Wade tonight, tomorrow, and Wednesday. Go Huskies!

Spirit Valley Days kick off this Wednesday with a parade on Thursday and a street dance on Friday featuring Hairball.

Mary Bue launches her new album with a concert at the Teatro Zuccone on Thursday.

Chess is in the air. Can you feel it? Grand Master and two time U.S. Champion Alex Yermolinsky is coming to town for a lecture on Friday to be followed by a tournament on Saturday and Sunday.

Next weekend is a good time to be up the shore in Two Harbors with BradFest and the Kayak Festival going on, not to mention their spiffy City Band.

And, the cherry on the sundae of this coming week, Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers hit the Bayfront Stage on Sunday capping off the Bayfront Jam Music Festival.

So what are you doing this week? Can we tag along? Any upcoming events that you want to promote? Let us know!`