Selective Focus: Aaron Kloss
Aaron Kloss is a Duluth-based landscape painter with a distinctive, contemporary style. He draws inspiration from the natural world, particularly North Shore forests and wildlife. (more…)
PDD Quiz: March 2022
See how many of this month’s headlines you remember with this week’s current events quiz!
The next PDD, coming your way on April 10, will look ahead to the Homegrown Music Festival. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at aklawite@d.umn.edu by April 7. (more…)
Stock Lake Superior with Seals and Orca Whales: A Modest Proposal
To the Mayor of Duluth and the City Council: I propose that the city stock Lake Superior with seals, and a community of orcas to keep the seals in check. This plan increases annual tourist revenue by $300,000,000. I outline my proposal below with expenditures.
Seals can live in freshwater. The only population of exclusively-freshwater seals is native to the ratchet Lake Baikal in Russia, the Baikal seals. But geopolitical issues preclude obtaining breeding pairs. Therefore we need to look closer to home: Quebec has harbor seals in a couple lakes, a subspecies of the common seal called the Ungava seal. But, the Ungava is endangered so if we import them, we should establish a breeding program, increasing expenses.
Fortunately, Iliamna Lake in Alaska has a population of common seals trapped there. I suggest we capture and import specimens from that population to get ours started. Technically saltwater seals, the common seals’ adaptability to freshwater has been proven which will give them a head start in Lake Superior. I’ll throw in a couple Ungavas on the house to increase genetic diversity. Estimated cost of capturing and importing 100 breeding pairs of seals from Lake Iliamna: $3,500,000. (more…)
Cloud Cult – “When You Reach the End”
The new music video from Cloud Cult was made by artist Annabelle Popa. It features sped up footage of handwritten lyrics and accompanying drawings — with band leader Craig Minowa faded into the background. (more…)
Ingeborg von Agassiz – “Every Animal Every Child”
A live performance of a new original song by Duluth-based electro-folk artist Ingeborg von Agassiz.
Postcard from Lookout Point
“Lookout Point” is probably meant in a generic sense in this postcard, as in “a lookout point.” And if the illustration is based on what a specific piece of Lake Superior shoreline looked like roughly a century ago, that shoreline has obviously changed in appearance over time. (more…)
Cloud Cult – “Song from Oblivion,” “Victor,” “Back Into My Arms”
From the woods of Wisconsin, Craig Minowa of Cloud Cult performs three songs from the band’s recently released album Metamorphosis. Shot for the Soundcheck podcast on a balmy 30-degree day, the three clips feature Minowa playing in the snow with an acoustic guitar, with the rest of the band on backing tracks. (more…)
This Tugboat Just Sank at the Slip
Picture from last winter skating at the Slip by the tugboat Lake Superior. Paul Scinocca broke the story with a photo of the wreck on his social media. The boat had been out of service for some time, and will be so yet, I reckon.
Japancakes – “Duluth 7.5”
Twenty years ago today — March 21, 2002 — the band Japancakes released its album Belmondo as volume 19 of Darla Records’ ambient Bliss Out series. The album features the track “Duluth 7.5.” Note, however, that the tune gets second-class status among music that references Duluth because the band is from Athens, Ga., and therefore is almost certainly referring to Duluth, Ga.
Chickenbone George holds court
“Chickbone George” Alan Sparhawk of the Black-eyed Snakes encouraged the crowd to “dance against tyranny” Saturday at Duluth Cider during the “Stand with Ukraine” concert. Charlie Parr opened the show.
Chaotic Good
All names have been changed in this essay, not for each person’s privacy — just for fun.
I’m under the impression, based on the stunning aggregate of books, songs, poems, movies, and even body sprays about the subject, that I’m not the only person who truly was at a crossroads at age 17. By way of possible explanation, for many more years of my life than I’d like to admit, I labored under the very firm and very erroneous impression that I needed to be perfect in order to deserve love. What is even more absurd is the fact that, to preserve this external façade of imperturbable perfection, I believed I had to hide, disguise, or elaborately lie about most of who I was.
But by 17 years old, this had reached something of a fever pitch, the world having grown so much more complex and rife with nefarious but terribly desirable options. For example, I was a newly-minted cigarette smoker, having discovered that cigarettes were the missing piece in my anxiety repertoire. They created a self-reinforcing feedback loop in my neuronal network in which I smoked to relieve anxiety, and then smoking made me more anxious — a glorious oscillation that kept me jangly and on the edge of my seat, but also hiding episodically in the Harbormaster’s bathroom during school lunch to smoke, so no one would know I was a smoker. (more…)
Duluth’s Sadkin release Mirage
Sadkin | Mirage
Mirage, Sadkin’s new single, is out on all major streaming services, including Bandcamp. We cordially invite you to have a listen. (more…)
The Slice: Carl Gawboy
Carl Gawboy’s exhibit “New Paintings, Old Stories” is on view at the American Indian Community Housing Organization’s Dr. Robert Powless Cultural Center on Fridays from 4 to 6 p.m. until May 27. (more…)
Lanue – “Fire in My Mind” (Lyric Video)
Sarah Krueger’s musical project Lanue has a new five-song EP titled Fire in My Mind coming out April 15. The lyric video for the title track was directed by Krueger.
Sacred Heart releases album recorded during lockdown
Sacred Heart Music Center is releasing an album recorded during empty-building, pandemic-lockdown concerts live streamed over its YouTube channel in 2020 and 2021.
A listening party for Live from the Heart: The Sacred Heart Music Center Quarantine Sessions will be held from 4-7 p.m. Sunday, March 20 at Ursa Minor Brewing, 2415 W. Superior St. in Duluth. The free event will feature the first public airing of the album, CDs for sale, drink specials, pizza and more. (more…)
Trampled by Turtles announce grant and Bayfront concert
Bluegrass band Trampled by Turtles has announced its return to Bayfront Festival Park. The Duluth-formed group will perform July 9 with special guest Jenny Lewis.
The band also announced it is partnering with the Homegrown Music Festival on a grant to “battle against artistic mediocrity.” The $5,000 Palomino Grant is available to musicians in, or within 20 miles of, Duluth and Superior and can be used for things like recording, gear and touring. Applications are being taken through Google Forms, which must be submitted by the first day of Homegrown, May 1. The grant winner will play the opening slot of the Bayfront concert.
Postcard from City Loan Company of Duluth
This 90-year-old postcard, published by Curt Teich & Co. of Chicago, promotes the City Loan Company in Duluth’s Providence Building. The card is postmarked March 16, 1932. Jesse Leach of 612 N. 57th Ave. W. was the recipient.
The Providence Building opened in 1895 at 332 W. Superior St. and remains there today. (more…)
Kip found his dating profile in a dos and don’ts article
Duluth’s Kip Praslowicz was used as an example in a guide about taking the perfect dating app profile pic. And he has a few things to say about it.
The Slice: Rick McLean – “Lilies & Cilantro”
Duluth’s Rick McLean has been working on a several new songs, including “Lilies & Cilantro.” He opens the St. Paddy’s Day Bluegrass Blowout at Duluth Cider on Thursday.
In its series The Slice, WDSE-TV presents short “slices of life” that capture the events and experiences that bring people together and speak to what it means to live up north.
Minnesota All Hockey Hair Team 2022: Flowchella
Wind up the flow Ferris wheel, because hockey-hair video maker John King is back with his annual Minnesota High School Hockey Tournament salad reel. Congratulations to Gavin Blomdahl of Hairmantown for topping the charts and letting the game come to him.
PDD Quiz: Notable Duluth Women
In honor of Women’s History Month, this week’s PDD quiz tests your knowledge of Duluth’s women of note.
The next PDD quiz will look back at the headlines and happenings of March 2022; it will be published on March 27. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at aklawite@d.umn.edu by March 23. (more…)
UMD Ombudsperson Position
The University of Minnesota Duluth is seeking an ombudsperson who is a designated neutral or impartial practitioner whose major function is to provide confidential and informal assistance to UMD faculty and staff. (more…)
Ripped at Sanitary Harry’s 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 penned this article for the March 6, 2002 issue of the Ripsaw newspaper. Sanitary Harry’s went out of business not long after.]
St. Louis County Highway 7 is a long, thirsty road. I started tonight’s quest in Twig, figuring there would be some combination bait, liquor and grocery store there, and the proprietor would offer me a stool, creating a bar-enough atmosphere. No such luck. If there is any booze in Twig, I can’t find it. It’s enough of a task for me just to find Twig. Any attempt to retune the radio or pay attention to traffic is enough distraction to completely miss the tiny township so feebly, yet aptly, named.
If I am anything, however, I am determined. True, quite often I am not anything, but tonight I am indeed determined; “determined” being a synonym for “thirsty.” So I keep motoring down Highway 7, and, after mile upon mile of driving through more and more nothing, I start hoping for space aliens or Sasquatch to please abduct and abuse me before I die alone of sobriety. Finally, I find a small shack in Kelsey with a bunch of Arctic Cat jackets mulling around outside it, marking the spot. Aliens, Sasquatch … the Snowmobile Monkeys of Kelsey will be close enough for me. The name of their headquarters is Sanitary Harry’s. (more…)