June 2015 Posts

This Week: books, Bridges, buses and more

Jun 08, 2015 No Comments

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Here’s a bit of what you’ll find on this week’s PDD Calendar:

The Friends of the Library Used Book Sale is underway June 8 to 11, the Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank perform in Chester Bowl, the Three Bridges International Chamber Music Festival gets underway, there’s a bus tour that aims to depict Duluth as a work of art and the Renegade play Title of Show opens.

Master watercolorist Cheng Khee-Chee does a live painting demonstration at the Tweed, the Albert Maysles documentary Iris opens at the Zinema, the big Park Point Rummage Sale is happening, there’s a rap festival in Sturgeon Lake (yeah, you read that right), the North Coast Creative Alliance Community Fair is at Greysolon Plaza and there’s a live-read of the movie Clue at the Underground.


Events

Tischer Creek Whirlpool Revisited

Jun 07, 2015 No Comments

Went back the next day when the sun was higher in the sky and got this additional footage, which I set to music.


Outdoors, Videos

Souvenir Folder from the 1920s

Jun 07, 2015 1 Comment

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History, Photos

Perfect Duluth Day Outdoor Summer Concert Primer 2015

Jun 06, 2015 3 Comments

Summer will soon be upon us, and with summer comes live music galore. Venues like Bayfront Festival Park and Big Top Chautauqua host major touring acts throughout summer, along with a number of smaller summer concert series put on by Lucius Woods Performing Arts Center, Bayside Sounds, Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College and Chester Creek Concert Series. There are also a handful of weekend festivals around the region, from Sturgeon Lake on over to Rhinelander and Cadotte. Here’s a look at some of the summer 2015 highlights.
 

Hobo Nephews of Uncle FrankJune 9
The Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank
Chester Bowl Park
The Chester Creek Concert Series continues with brothers Ian and Teague Alexy playing songs from their new album American Shuffle.

MystikalJune 12
Hip Hop Fest SJ1
Embassy Bar
A weekend long hip-hop festival will take place in Sturgeon Lake, with artists such as Prof, Rittz, Twista and Mystikal performing throughout the weekend. On-site camping is available.

michael frantiJune 13
Michael Franti & Spearhead
Big Top Chautauqua
Michael Franti & Spearhead hits the stage under the Big Top with hits such as “The Sound of Sunshine” and “Say Hey (I Love You).”

glorianaJune 19
Grandma’s Marathon Big Top Opening Night
Canal Park
County band Gloriana comes to Duluth to kick-off opening night of Grandma’s Marathon weekend. Fellow country act Hitchville is also on the bill.

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Events, Music

Jackass Falls, Duluth

Jun 05, 2015 1 Comment

Outdoors, Videos

Tischer Creek Whirlpool

Jun 05, 2015 No Comments

Outdoors, Videos ,

Selective Focus: Bloom

Jun 05, 2015 2 Comments
Aaron Reichow, "Trees in Bloom, East Hillside"

Aaron Reichow, “Trees in Bloom, East Hillside”

Though this past Winter wasn’t meteorologically devastating, it was personally; so I needed a keen reminder that “there is a time to every purpose,” as the homily goes. This Spring in my new home has been that sermon, as greige gives way to hues of lilac, cherry, and peach, and all becomes fructive, damp, and pliant again. We grow, we ready, we labor in hope of Summer rest, and a coming harvest.

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Photos

Our very own “odd couple” produces food and art organically

Jun 04, 2015 No Comments

Annie and Janaki

Annie Dugan and Janaki Fisher-Merritt are two of the most fascinating individuals I’ve ever met. When considering that they are forged together in the partnership of marriage, farming, and as catalysts of unique art, the combined effect is like lightning captured in a bottle. Duluth is beyond fortunate to have them influencing our lives in unique and whimsical ways. Learn about the masterminds behind the Food Farm, Free Range Film Festival, the Duluth Art Institute, and more, here.


Art , , , , ,

Select Images from the 1930 Denfeld Oracle

Jun 04, 2015 No Comments

The Oracle 1930 Denfeld High SchoolWith graduation ceremonies taking place this week, we look back 85 years ago to see what the Denfeld class of 1930 looked like. That year the school’s Oracle strove to inspire students “with a steadfast purpose to build well upon the foundations of the past,” and was dedicated to “the spirit of industry and progress which has existed in the hearts and minds of the citizens of Western Duluth.” The inside folds of the book feature a “Decorative Map of Western Duluth, with which we begin this post.

The senior class held two successful paper sales, a Christmas card sale and a class play to fund the yearbook in 1930. The organizations that typically funded the Oracle instead gave money to the pipe organ fund; Denfeld’s pipe organ had been purchased in 1926 for $25,000.

Decorative Map of Western Duluth

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History, Photos ,

Rich Mattson and the Northstars album out

Jun 03, 2015 1 Comment

Rich Mattson and the Northstars 2015

Youa Vang has the story for City Pages: Rich Mattson & the Northstars channel Iron Range on new LP

Here is the iTunes link and the CD Baby link for the album.

Duluth release party is Friday, June 5, at the Red Herring.

Here is the link to PDD’s list of local albums released in 2015.


Music , ,

I hadn’t heard there was a boulevard scavenger hunt going on in West Duluth, but clearly I am the winner

Jun 03, 2015 2 Comments

Tim Conway is Dorf


Photos ,

Duluth Food Truck, Cart and Trailer Guide for 2015

Jun 02, 2015 7 Comments

PDD Food Truck Guide 2015

As Duluth residents and tourists head outdoors, it’s time for the food trucks, carts and trailers to hit the streets, offering up fast and easy food on the run. To keep up with these restaurants on wheels, we present PDD’s 2015 rundown of who’s cooking what and where.

Listed below are the mobile food services licensed to operate on the streets of Duluth. Not listed are the various vendors who serve exclusively at events or specific locations, such as the Green Mill pizza trailer or various purveyors of mini donuts. Also, we should note Duluth has at least one pop-up restaurant — Izakaya 218 — which recently resumed its weekly Taco Tuesdays at the Red Herring Lounge.

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Restaurants

Charlie Parr – “Over the Red Cedar” (Live in MPR studios)

Jun 01, 2015 No Comments


Music, Videos

Great Lakes Trail

Jun 01, 2015 2 Comments

Trailblazing

If all the existing trails, trails under construction and trails in the planning phases in Duluth aren’t quite enough, here’s a rather ambitious plan that would upset a few local backyards. The Detroit Free Press reports of a plan for the “Great Lakes Trail” — a 10,900-mile trail spanning at least eight states and two Canadian provinces, following the shores of the five Great Lakes.

World’s longest marked trail proposed around Great Lakes

As the Great Lakes states were admitted into the Union, the federal government granted them the lake beds and waters of the Great Lakes up to the ordinary high-water mark — from the point on the bank or shore where continuous wave action has made a distinct mark, to the water.

This was affirmed by a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1894, in the Shively v. Bowlby case. The justices found that lands below the high-water mark were “for the benefit of the whole people.” (This may come as news to owners of $750,000 lakefront homes whose deed tells them the shoreline is theirs.)


News and Current Affairs, Outdoors

This Week: flicks, beer, the zoo and more

Jun 01, 2015 No Comments

Untitled design
Here’s a bit of what you’ll find on this week’s PDD Calendar:

The Tweed Museum’s offering up another of its Tweevenings, the Chester Creek Concert Series is back in action with the North Shore Big Band, the Duluth Superior Film Festival gets underway with its five days of free programming and the watercentric Reel Paddling Film Festival also joins the film fray.

The Duluth Playhouse opens the play Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Fitger’s Brewhouse serves up its 4000th (!) batch of beer, Duluth’s Parks and Rec department holds a public meeting on what the future might hold for the zoo, a shop is popping up at the Depot, Pete from Beaner’s is throwing his big ole music festival again and Rich Mattson is releasing a new album with his band the Northstars.


Events