Ripped at the Black Cat in 2001
[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. Twenty years ago he filed a report from Ashland, where he visited the Black Cat Coffeehouse, which remains in business. The article appeared in the May 30, 2001 issue of the Ripsaw newspaper.]
So I’m in Ashland visiting my mom, and after three or four days of listening to her rant about some “potato bug infestation” while under the influence of Tequila Rose and Aunt Jenny’s George Jones records, I decide to walk around and discover all that “alternative” Ashland has to offer. Namely, “alternative” Ashland consists of that hippie college, the co-op and the Black Cat Cafe. My instincts tell me that only one of these places is going to serve up any kind of booze, so I skip the first two and jump right to the Black Cat.
The Black Cat is among the growing number of regional coffee shops that have discovered the obvious: Coffee shops that serve booze are some of the most comfortable places in the world. I’ve said this a million times, but here’s all you need to make an outstanding drinking establishment in this area: good beer, great live music, couches and dim lighting. Of course, reasonable prices help, too. The Black Cat has all of this in spades. (more…)
Superior Siren – “Alive” (Live at Sacred Heart Music Center)
Eerie folk band Superior Siren performed a livestream from Sacred Heart Music Center on May 2. Wherehouse Productions has now released this video single from the show, featuring the song “Alive” from the band’s self-titled 2018 release.
The performance was part of the Minnesota Music Coalition‘s Minnesota Music Summit and also was integrated into the Homegrown Music Festival.
Duluth-area beer production holds tight through pandemic
When Perfect Duluth Day last tallied regional craft beer production in 2018, the Twin Ports and surrounding region had tripled output over the previous five years, quenching area thirst with about 57,000 barrels of beer. Suds production has certainly slowed and dipped a bit since the previous audit. This mirrors the national trend, which indicates a 9 percent decline in production by small and independent brewers in 2020. (more…)
Video Archive: Bob Dylan’s childhood home in Hibbing, 1988
WDIO-TV has pulled this relic from its archive to share during Duluth Dylan Fest week. The news clip is from Oct. 10, 1988. Dylan’s boyhood home was on the market at the time. Reporter Leonard Lee went inside the house and into the former bedroom of the music icon where a shrine of sorts had been displayed. Items of note: an autograph from a pre-fame Bobby Zimmerman and a mezuzah shaped like a guitar.
The moments where the video briefly drops out are glitches in the 3/4-inch tape.
Elvis slept here: Radisson opens Legends Suite
Radisson Hotel Duluth Harborview Sales and Marketing Director Nancy Kilpo poses with Duluth musician Todd Eckart, impersonating Elvis Presley, in the hotel’s newly redecorated Legends Suite. Presley stayed in the 15th floor suite following Duluth performances in 1976 and 1977. (Photo by Mark Nicklawske)
Elvis Presley fans who want to live like the king of rock and roll now have a special place to stay in Duluth.
The Radisson Hotel Duluth Harborview, 505 Superior St., has redecorated and renamed its 15th floor suite where Presley stayed following Twin Ports performances in 1976 and 1977. The Legends Suite features concert photos, posters, a ticket stub and other memorabilia recognizing the Presley visit as well as tributes to singer-songwriter Bob Dylan — who was born in Duluth — and country music outlaw Willie Nelson. (more…)
Uh-oh … wait, don’t panic
There are several different species of tent caterpillar. The one’s shown here, photographed in West Duluth, look a tad different than the dreaded forest tent caterpillars that defoliate trees and shrubs in nightmarish fashion. (more…)
Blindfold
From surviving cancer to inspiring others with his beautiful origami creations, Duluth’s Todd Olson has shaped more than just the paper at his fingertips.
Duluth Dukes bus for sale on Facebook Marketplace
An interesting ad for a 1956 Flxible Visicoach popped up May 4 on Facebook. The destination sign on the bus reads “Duluth Dukes.” Apparently, it’s a former team bus. (more…)
Selective Focus: Deep Cuts Hair Salon
Deep Cuts hair salon opened in August 2020. Bee Golding started the salon after five years of working with hair because they “love meeting and connecting with new people.” They work together with their partner Jes Golding, who helped Bee with the mission and aesthetic of the shop. “In fact, I almost quit cutting hair, but Jes encouraged me to create our own environment instead. Barbershops are traditionally very stereotypically masculine places that don’t always feel the most welcoming to LGBTQIA2S+ folks and I wanted to change that.” (more…)
Math, Semantics and the Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic presented a minor math problem for event organizers that seems fairly straightforward and simple to solve. If you promote an annual happening, and it was canceled in 2020, then that year shouldn’t count when you add up how many times the event has occurred. When you announce in 2021 that the whatever annual Whatever Festival is coming up, it should be the same number that it was supposed to be in 2020.
I mean, that’s obvious, right? If I give you an apple every year for 14 years, and last year I didn’t give you one, then the apple I give you this year is the 15th apple, right? It’s not the 16th apple just because I wanted to give you one last year and couldn’t.
The math is fairly straightforward, and for the most part people are getting it right. Take for instance Duluth’s Bayfront Reggae and World Music Festival. The inaugural event was held in 2006. The 2020 event was to be the 15th annual, but it was canceled. Therefore, the promoter is referring to this year’s event as the 15th annual. And that is correct. The 2021 festival will be the 15th in the series.
But I’ve known for quite a while that keeping track of how many times an event has happened in the past isn’t always the top priority of the organizers, who let’s remember have an event to organize with all the tasks that go with it. On one hand, you’d think being willing to get involved in organizing everyone else’s fun might be a thing only math-obsessed nerds do, but that’s just not the case. (more…)
Woodland baseball team of 1921 had grand season
This photo from the May 21, 1921 Duluth Herald shows the baseball team from Duluth’s Woodland neighborhood, which compiled a 7-3 record — a “grand season” by Roaring Twenties standards. According to the photo caption, the team played indoor baseball in the Cobb School gymnasium.
Selective Focus: Carl Gawboy’s Life Well-Painted
A Life Well Painted
This text, taken from the curriculum written by Wendy Savage, serves to introduce Carl Gawboy — a foundational artist in this region.
At Tweed Museum of Art this winter of 2021, Carl Gawboy’s stellar paintings were featured in the exhibition “A Life Well Painted: The Art of Carl Gawboy.” It featured 36 narrative paintings. Carl Gawboy is a highly respected Ojibwe and Finnish artist; he paints the beauty of everyday life of his Ojibwe people. He is an Elder and enrolled member of the Bois Fort Band of Chippewa in Northern Minnesota. Carl has been creating art since he was a child at his Finnish mother’s kitchen table. Carl’s father was a trapper, and his mother was a teacher and farmer. Carl went on to college and studied art and history, and researched the fur trade era. (more…)
The First Howls of a Minnesota Wolf Pup
This four-week-old wolf pup at Voyageurs National Park shared some of its first howls a few weeks ago with one of the Voyageurs Wolf Project‘s trail cameras.
The Assailants of John L. Morrison
One hundred years ago the assailants of Duluth Ripsaw newspaper publisher John L. Morrison appeared in court one week after attacking him in his office. The May 19, 1921 Duluth Herald provides an account of the incident. (more…)
R.I.P. Duluth Electric Fetus
View through the glass door to the Duluth Electric Fetus store on April 13, 2021. (Photo by Paul Lundgren)
Duluth’s Electric Fetus store, 12 E. Superior St., announced today it will not reopen. The store was best known for selling compact discs and other music products, though items like jewelry, clothing and gifts made up a larger chunk of the sales. The company’s Minneapolis location will remain open. (more…)
The Slice: Looking Up from Below
“Looking Up from Below” was a video mural designed by Tom Moriarty and Daniel Benoit that was projected onto the side of Zenith Bookstore in West Duluth during the Homegrown Music Festival. The temporary art installation was meant to showcase whimsy in times of troubles.
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.
Postcard from Stromgren’s Motel
This undated postcard from Gallagher’s Studio of Photography shows Stromgren’s Motel, located on Highway 61 in Duluth Township. (more…)
Cities Never Sleep – “Kokomo”
Duluth band Cities Never Sleep has taken a musical trip off the Florida Keys to the magical fictitious land of Kokomo. Joined by saxophonist John James Ryan Jr. from Keep Flying, the band perfects its chemistry by turning a Beach Boys hit from 1988 into a post-pandemic, pop-punk chroma-key party.
PDD Quiz: Duluth’s Historic Old Central High School
This month’s quiz looks at Duluth’s Historic Old Central High School, a property that has been hitting the headlines recently. Historic photographs come courtesy of the Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections, housed in the Archives and Special Collections of UMD’s Kathryn A. Martin Library. Find these (and additional photos of the school) in the Minnesota Digital Library. As always, the Zenith City website was also a critical source of historic information.
The next PDD quiz will review this month’s news; it will be published on May 30. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at aklawite@d.umn.edu by May 25. (more…)
A Brief Remembrance of George Hovland
I’ve only been in Duluth for 20 years, so in relation to George Hovland’s life, I’m just a newcomer. Even so, as a cross-country skier, my tracks crossed his over and over.
George always ran Snowflake Nordic Ski Center like a charity. The cashbox on the counter just sat there on the honor system. Each year, I signed up my kids for the KidSki program. This was during the window of time each fall where he gave a discount for signing up early. I paid full price because I could afford it. I also did it because, unlike a lot of things, I knew exactly where my money was going. I mean, outside of my family, cross-country skiing is my favorite thing. And each year when he got my check, George called me on the phone and said, “You shouldn’t pay full price. You can pay the discounted price.” And I said, “I know George. It’s me. I told you the exact same thing last year.”
One time, I was skiing classic style in the snow-blessed microclimate at Snowflake and George came up on me the opposite direction and said, “Great technique!” I was a little too pleased, but a comment like that from George, a 1952 Olympian, was like a benediction. (more…)
Blacklist Brewing finds new space downtown
Blacklist Brewing Company will move its taproom and brewing operations from 120 E. Superior St. to the Lange Motors building one block east this summer. (Photos by Mark Nicklawske).
A Downtown Duluth brewery and taproom is moving into a larger, newly renovated space just an axe-toss away from its existing location on East Superior Street.
Blacklist Brewing Company will move its brewing operations, taproom and axe-throwing lanes one block east into the historic Lange Motors building at 206 E. Superior St. The move will almost double its serving and entertainment space and increase its brewing capacity. (more…)
Heely Tricks with JamesG: April 2021
Another monthly dose of wheeled sneaker stunts by former Duluthian James Geisler, also known as the hip-hop artist JamesG.
Hartman tapped for DECC director job
After a national search, the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center announced today that Dan Hartman will serve as its next executive director. Hartman has been director of Glensheen Mansion since 2013 and prior to that was curator at Veterans Memorial Hall. He also served on Duluth’s city council from 2010 to 2014.
As a senior at the University of Minnesota Duluth in 2006, Hartman led the student campaign to build the DECC’s Amsoil Arena. He follows interim executive director Roger Reinert, who has headed the DECC since August. Hartman will start in his new role at the DECC on June 14.