Video Archive: Homegrown 2017 Movie
Sam Tuthill put together this documentary from select performances during the 2017 Homegrown Music Festival. (more…)
Homegrown on Almanac North
The Homegrown Music Festival returns to in-person concerts this year, running May 1-8. WDSE-TV‘s Almanac North program reports on what the Twin Ports has been missing the past two years. (more…)
New Season of Intersections on WDSE
These stories highlight community members from across northern Minnesota with inspiring and enriching stories about overcoming adversity. This celebration of the human spirit will showcase the amazing, and often untold, stories of our fellow community members.
Great Lakes Now episode “Mushrooms and Mobsters”
Regional news from Great Lakes Now, an initiative of Detroit Public Television. At 21:00 there is a blurb about a proposal in Congress for a Federal Great Lakes Authority, envisioned as a “one-stop shop” for Great Lakes promotion, education, and environmental restoration.
Postcard from Fifth Avenue West and Superior Street
One of the more common postcard views of Duluth in the early 1900s was the scene looking east down Superior Street from Fifth Avenue West, showing off the Spalding Hotel (right) and Lyceum Theatre (left).
The Spalding was demolished in 1963, and the Lyceum came down in 1966. The Ordean building now stands in the Spalding location; the Maurices headquarters in the Lyceum spot.
Ian Alexy – “Teardrops in the Rain”
Ian Alexy‘s new video is for a track from the album Troubadour 21st Century. The clip uses video footage and photos that go back to his childhood in New Jersey and also documents time touring with his band the Deserters and also Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank.
Selective Focus: Joya by Hand
Photo by Menique Koos (@meniquekoosphoto)
Mari Doffin is a polymer clay artist from Duluth who loves to play with shapes, colors and themes. She primarily creates earrings, which are sold online and at a number of local boutiques. (more…)
Minnesota Historia: Duluth’s Doomed Olympics Bid
WDSE-TV presents the story of an Olympics that never happened in a city that never stopped dreaming.
Minnesota Historia is a six-part web series dedicated to Minnesota’s quirky past. It is hosted by Hailey Eidenschink and produced/edited/written by Mike Scholtz.
Wolves, Otter, Beaver and a Red Fox
This scene, recorded late in the fall from a beaver dam at Voyageurs National Park, features all four of the critters in the headline. Of particular note are the otters and their delightful belly slides across the ice.
The footage is from the Voyageurs Wolf Project, focused on understanding the summer ecology of wolves in the park. At the end of the clip, one of the wolves becomes interested in the trail camera and takes it down to chew on.
When Blossom went to Hibbing and got bad directions
Actress and Jeopardy! host Mayim Bialik was a guest on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on April 4. At about the 4:50 mark in the clip above she tells the story of traveling with her father to the Iron Range to visit their “personal Mecca, which is Hibbing, Minn., the birthplace of Robert Zimmerman — also known as Bob Dylan.”
Of course, the Jeopardy! question that would lead one to the place where Robert Zimmerman was born is “What is Duluth?” The Zimmerman family moved to Hibbing when Robert was 6 years old. (more…)
PDD Quiz: April 2022
Review this month’s happenings and headlines in this current events quiz!
The next PDD quiz will be the third installment in the series on Duluth parks. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at aklawite@d.umn.edu by May 11. (more…)
Postcard from Arch Street in Cloquet, 1912
Sidney Dahl of St. Cloud was the recipient of this postcard mailed 110 years ago today — April 23, 1912. The sender’s name was Ingga. (more…)
LineCheck: Nat Harvie
Duluth native Nat Harvie recently performed for the Current’s video series LineCheck. Above is “Waiting Song” and below is “No Ash.” Both tracks are from Harvie’s new EP, Married in Song. (more…)
Trampled by Turtles and Elizabeth Cook – “Old Shoes”
Trampled by Turtles were joined by country singer Elizabeth Cook for a cover of Tom Waits‘ “Old Shoes (& Picture Postcards)” on March 26 during a concert at GLC Live at 20 Monroe, a concert hall in Grand Rapids, Mich.
The video was shot by Justin Razmus, Heather Kanig and Cooper Baumgartner, and edited by 616 Media. The sound was mixed by Adam Krinsky.
It’s LTD Duluth!
This Twin Cities Public Television documentary, broadcast circa 1980, has a brief but kind-of-sexy Duluth moment. A clip from a Northland Ford commercial at the 12:12 mark of the video shows actors playing a Duluth couple standing in front of the Ford product chosen to represent the Zenith City — an LTD Country Squire station wagon with simulated woodgrain siding. (more…)
MMA Squirrel Fighting: Rat Face Ricky vs. Scum Bag Mac
Another mixed martial arts backyard battle in Duluth. In this edition Rat Face Ricky and Scum Bag Mac show off some of their Kung Fu moves. Video by Brian Luoma of Wild Cam North.
Nelson Family Music
This documentary about the musical Nelson family was produced at the end of 2021 as part of the North by North Film School‘s Documentary Film Production class. It was directed by Carolyn Nelson-Kavajecz (more…)
Thoughts about the new ad campaign
The new campaign to increase tourism for Duluth had, I guess, a “soft open” this week, covered in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and on Fox 21. (more…)
Ripped at Shooter’s Saloon in 2002
[Editor’s note: For this week’s essay we’ve once again pulled out a relic from the archive of Slim Goodbuzz, who served as Duluth’s “booze connoisseur” from 1999 to 2009. The Sultan of Sot visited Shooter’s Saloon, 624 Tower Ave. in Superior, and composed this article for the April 3, 2002 issue of the Ripsaw newspaper. Shooter’s went out of business circa 2009.]
Shooter’s Saloon is a really nice place. The people who work there are efficient and friendly. The drinks are reasonably priced. The room is large and there are pool tables and a video hunting game with a big orange shotgun. Every time I go to Shooter’s, a live band is performing for no cover charge. Yet, it’s still the kind of a scene a judgmental guy like me looks at and says to himself, “How can I wreck this by weaponizing my prejudice?”
See, Shooter’s is a country-western line-dancing bar, and country-western line-dancing people love to go there. This is the one, only and perfectly acceptable reason why I’m bothered by Shooter’s and want to wreck it. I want to go up to any of the ridiculous posers there and say, “Howdy pardner. Nice belt buckle. You look like Nick Bockwinkel. Is that the AWA belt or World Class? Say, I have a question for you. I was just thinking about how Halloween was five months ago, yet you are still dressed up like you’re in a gay bar in Nashville, which got me to wondering, have you ever once milked, roped or gutted anything? Have you even shot a BB gun at a beer can? I mean, come on Hoss, we’re on the boozebelt of Superior, Wis. Who are you kidding?” (more…)
Seeking information on late local musician Lew Orsoni
I recently opened up an old binder of burned CDs and came across a much loved recording I had forgotten about attributed to Lew Orsoni. It sounds like a live recording. Wonderful ballad about Lake Superior, among other great tunes. I believe I got it from Lew’s son, who used to bartend at the old Twin Ports Brewing Company (predecessor of Thirty Pagan) 20 years ago. I recall Lew had passed away recently at that time. Just looking for info on the CD, Lew Orsoni’s music, and if others have memories of his performances around here.
Postcard from the Opening of Navigation Season
This undated postcard shows a freighter entering the Duluth Shipping Canal at some point in the early 1900s. (more…)
Sydney Hansen – “Somebody’s Nobody”
Duluth’s Sydney Hansen released this music video today, shot at Spurs on First and directed by Bo Allen of Bopro Video. Hansen cowrote the song with Nashville’s Bill DiLuigi.
Lake Superior College Wolf Fair
I attended the wolf event at Lake Superior College. It was awesome, a blending of art, science, and indigenous cultures, with representatives from the International Wolf Center, the Wildlife Science Center, Timber Wolf Alliance, Wildwoods, and the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission. (more…)
Graffiti Graveyard
The video by Shawn Donovan that previously was embedded here is no longer available.