The Minnesota State Arts Board has released the names of the funded programs for 2013. Over the next few days, I’ll post the programs which name Duluth as a site or location. Most of this funding comes from the Legacy Amendment, the sales tax that supports environment, arts and cultural heritage activities.
A new restaurant on Tower Avenue in Superior has been generating some new energy along a strip that is struggling through major road reconstruction.
So much fun to swim here. Go to Perkins on London Road, cut down to lake, go 50 yards to the right.
West Duluth had never seen the likes of schnitzel or poutine, much less a pad thai burrito, until Pak Williams converted the former China Station restaurant into Pak’s Green Corner in summer 2012. The friendly and funky little Asian-fusion joint — located across the avenue from a long-shuttered auto lube — was the clear-cut winner of Perfect Duluth Day’s Best New Restaurant poll.
Above: Pak Williams with the fancy Perfect New Restaurant plaque, flanked by cook Hieng Wilaiphan (left) and waitress Vicki Boynton (right).
Pak’s got off to a rocky start following its opening day, when word of the new restaurant leaked out and a positive recommendation on PDD led to a full-house showing up for lunch on day two. With one server out sick and no one around with a strong command of how the cash register or credit-card machine worked, it was a rough day to say the least.
Now, with a full year of working out the kinks behind it, Pak’s Green Corner can claim the title of Duluth’s Perfect New Restaurant, having captured 51.9 percent of the vote. Honorable mentions go out to Tycoons Alehouse and Eatery (second place, 32.5 percent) and 7 West Tap House (third place, 15.6 percent).
[This post originally contained an embedded video that is no longer available at its source.]
Over the summer, I shot my first feature-length film. I made sure to feature some shots of the city in the trailer. I hope you enjoy it!
The Ramp Riders vs. The Thrashers.
On Saturday evening at the Prøve Gallery, Duluth was treated to a special acoustic performance by Duluth native Venus DeMars along with wife Lynette Reini-Grandell, who read from her poetry as part of the Duluth-Superior Pride Festival.
Because it’s fun to write about crime if it’s more than a hundred years old, I submit for your reading pleasure an article on Duluth’s first murder.
Writing it made me think of this a lot:
I lost one childs Merrell shoe on Saturday when walking on the Lakewalk. It is about a size 3 and is blue and orange with a Velcro strap. I would really like to get this shoe back, please let me know if you happen to have picked it up or have seen it. Thanks!
Here’s a sampling of what you have to look forward to this week on the PDD Calendar.
Happy Labor Day! Celebrate work by taking a day off of work. Today may be the unofficial end of summer, but it’s the official end of beach house season. No more lifeguards on duty on Park Point until next year.
Buzzed Up Spelling Bee is a new Tuesday night event at Red Star hosted by a variety of local celebs, because watching drunk people spell is funny.
Two new shows open on Thursday. Collected Stories, a two woman show starring Julie Ahasay and Sarah Ruth Diener, is at The Underground. Thom Pain (Based on Nothing), a one man show featuring John Pokrzywinski, is at the Teatro Zuccone and runs through Sunday.
Friday marks the beginning of high school football with the Denfeld Hunters taking on the Chisago Lakes Wildcats at the Public Schools Stadium and the East Greyhounds hosting the Cambridge-Isanti Bluejackets at Ordean Stadium.
The Lake Superior Harvest Festival is a celebration of locally produced food. It’s at Bayfront this Saturday.
So what are you doing this week? Can we tag along? Any upcoming events that you want to promote? Let us know.
I saw broken bottles underwater at a popular Lake Superior swimming spot in Duluth. A few days later I was able to return and used my powers for good to clean up after the bad guys. You can either wade in at the shallow end of this spot, or rock-jump in at the deep end, either way there was broken glass within reach of innocent bare feet. It was the remains of at least five separate beer bottles, probably from one douchebag at a party of cowards.
I spent about three hours collecting all the glass I could in dives lasting 30-45 seconds each with rests to catch my breath in between. I couldn’t get it all, there were many shards too small to pick up, but they will wash away most easily into the deep. All of it would have turned into smooth beach glass sooner or later, or been sucked out to sea by the next storm, but in the meantime this mess sat there for several days and could have easily lacerated someone. I was very careful picking it up, but obviously it was a little risky and the wave action was moving me around quite a bit (good thing my Atlantean physiology is adapted to the pressure at great depths, so my skin can even resist machine gun fire).
Be warned: I protect this lake, and those who come here. If I catch anyone breaking glass at the beach I will not hesitate to call the police. Either that or I will telepathically summon a giant catfish to eat you.
Local news spot here.
NSFW weekly episode.
Wildwoods received what we believe to be a poisoned pigeon (this post is a downer; read at your own risk). From the staff at Wildwoods:
Amy & Freddy performed at the Duluth-Superior GLBTAQI Pride Festival Saturday, and they were hilarious. An Ethel Merman-style showtunes lounge act interrupted with crowd observations and gags – and once Amy engaged with the ASL interpreter on stage, the vaudeville was on:
“Wait a minute – you sign whatever I say??”
