March 2014 Posts

Candy Done Here: Sweeden Sweets

Tyomies Building - Superior

The Agen Block at 601 Tower Avenue — better known as the Tyomies building — is now home to a candy store. Sweeden Sweets opened on Jan. 24, serving up home-made chocolates, fudge and candy. An ice cream “jerk bar” is under construction in the other half of the ground floor, and is expected to open this summer.

Cabin Fever

Sound design created by Bryce Kastning.

Native tree and shrub sale order deadline

Friday, April 18, is the deadline for ordering bare-root seedlings from the South St. Louis County Soil and Water Conservation District. The native trees and shrubs come in bundles of 10 and 25 plants. Pickup is May 15-17. Visit southstlouisswcd.org/treeshrub for info and order forms or call 218-723-4867.

Survey: Bike Parking in Duluth’s Multimodal Transit Center

Building on the popularity of its on-bus bike carriers, the DTA wants to gauge local demand for both secure (key fob-access) bike-parking areas and regular bike racks as part of its design for the new multi-modal transit center in downtown Duluth.
Please take a moment to fill out this short survey if you would be interested in using this type of bike storage.

Duluth Band Profile: The Formal Age

The Formal Ages adds surf riffs with synth keyboards to deliver its forthcoming album, 1923-2319. Jake Jonker talks about story behind the band. Click on the image above to hear the interview.

What snowboarding looks like for non-Olympian adults

iPhone lost at Firefly last night

My trusty old iPhone 4 (with black rubber case) escaped at the Zinema last night, making a clean getaway during the Firefly show from around 9:15 to 11ish. I was camped out in the front of the theater — middle of the second row. If you saw it or heard anyone found it, please let me know.

Thanks a whole bunch,
Christina

Winter Ruled

Highlight reel of sights and sounds from extreme winter 2014.

PDD Drone over the ice … and on the news

The PDD Drone’s latest mission took it to the skies of Grand Marais last week, hovering across the icy shore of Lake Superior. Before the trip, however, the drone and its “pilot,” Cory Fechner, spent some time with the Northland’s NewsCenter’s Kevin Jacobsen for the report below.

Apologies for the commercial before the clip, which we can’t control.

Does Mayor Ness realize that the tourism tax is taxing the residents of Duluth?

Today in the Duluth News Tribune there is an article about our mayor wanting to bring back a .5 percent tax on our restaurants, hotels, and other amenities. My question is how do we as citizens of Duluth then get exempted from that tax? Should we not go to our local restaurants? Should we not go to Canal Park and support our local businesses?

This just seems unfair to those who live here to have us pay an extra tax to use our own local amenities. I’ve read that we pay very high taxes in our community compared to others, which made me wonder why we don’t get cards to exempt us from “tourist” taxes. This tax would go for the next 15 years and fund development of West Duluth. Well, that’s great, but what about us here in the Endion area? I can see taxing the hotels to get the tourists, but taxing restaurants makes me want to take my local money elsewhere.

I don’t think it is fair to those of us who live here, and if this is a push by our mayor there should be a way to exempt anyone who has a local identification.

This week: emergencies, dioramas and nordic tongues

  

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

What happens when you dial 911? Find out today at the 911 Citizens Academy at the Public Safety Building.

The chattering class is in full force this week. Nerd Nite is back Tuesday at the Teatro Zuccone with presentations on the lack of female leads in video games, British panel shows, and steampunk audio. Chester Chat has a presentation on Women in Leadership at Glensheen Mansion on Wednesday.

Starting this week the Nordic Center has several classes on Scandinavian languages, including Norwegian, Danish and Swedish.

The Cole Porter musical, Anything Goes, opens this Thursday at the Playhouse and runs three weekends. The other musicals running in town, Hairspray at The Underground and Next to Normal at Teatro Zuccone, are playing to sold out houses and getting great reviews.

Dog Sees God is an unauthorized parody of the Peanuts gang in high school and it opens at UWS Experimental Theater on Friday and runs two weekends.

March is Food Shelf Month and you can support your local food bank at Taste at Fitgers on Friday.

The Minnesota Ballet presents A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the DECC on Saturday.

Diorama-rama, the biennial celebration of dioramas minuscule and huge, quaint and odd, is back Saturday night at Sacred Heart.

Think what church needs is more beer? Beer & Hymns, a monthly gathering for beer drinking and hymn singing, returns to Sir Ben’s on Sunday.

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

How many pay phones are left in Duluth?

pay telephone

Ah, the once-ubiquitous pay telephone. I remember when they could be found on every major street corner, but if I needed one today, I would have no idea where to find one.

Are there any pay phones left in Duluth? If so, where? Confirm their existence by commenting below, but please post only current confirmations. If you have a vague memory of one existing a few years ago, that doesn’t count.

Duluth Mystery Photo #10: Paul and Virginia Gilmore – Gilmore Comedy Theatre

This postcard is for sale on eBay under the headline “MN antique real photo rppc post card Gilmore Comedy Theatre Duluth Minn.” The description reads:

This is an antique real photo postcard captioned “No. Shore Blvd., Paul and Virginia Gilmore Summer Stock, Duluth, Minn.” The sign on the building reads “The Gilmore Comedy Theatre.” Just below the caption in the lower left corner, you can see a road sign for Motorola TV Sales and Service. Printed on Kodak paper (stamp box indicates in use from 1950 and later).

So, who were Paul and Virginia Gilmore and what was the deal with their theater? Well, the internet provides some easy answers this week, so there’s not much mystery in this week’s mystery photo.

Second chance for entry into 2014 Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon

Security Jewelers is auctioning one of its sponsor entries to Grandma’s Half Marathon on eBay. One hundred percent of proceeds go to the Duluth Art Institute’s program Art for Ed’s Sake, offering visual and media arts classes in Duluth Public Schools.

Stranded grebes, loons and mergansers

It looks like we’re in for another late, cold spring, with delayed ice-out. This means we may be in for another spring full of stranded grebes, loons, and mergansers.