New music video from Duluth band the Boomchucks. The ‘Chucks play the free party in the DECC’s Palucci Hall tonight at 9 p.m., after the big mayoral farewell concert.
The Current: Duluth’s musical all-stars to play Don Ness goodbye concert
A new Duluth skateboard video by Cody Paulson, shot entirely on an iPhone and Death Lens. Featuring Stephen Pestalozzi and Colton Maddy with Justice Cameron Simmons, John Schneider, Carter Nguyen, Nicholas Tanski, Andy Pearson and Nate Hynum.
Have you ever wondered how the Food Farm in Wrenshall grows such delicious and wholesome food? In 2016, you’ll get to feast on a bumper crop of incredibly-detailed-but-somehow-mesmerizing-behind-the-scenes videos shot at the farm in the style of Norwegian public television’s Slow TV documentaries. Here’s a small taste.
A box of 8mm home movies discovered at a Piedmont Heights estate sale provides the content for this video mash-up.
President Bill Clinton was in Duluth on Nov. 4, 1994. Eyewitness News’ Colleen Mahoney interviewed three Duluth gawkers who were hanging out across the street from the Downtown Holiday Inn, where the president spent the night. One of the two unnamed UMD students interviewed was future Duluth Mayor Don Ness.
As Duluth weighs the pros and cons of allowing people to keep small farm animals within city limits, I thought it would be appropriate to share this recording. Just think … you could wake up some frosty winter night and be serenaded by your neighbor’s singing goats.
This weekend, Mary Bue held a premiere party for her latest video, “Veal” from her album, Holy Bones. Video by Jon Hain.
The Duluth News Tribune reports Tom and Rachael Hagen opened their second Toasty’s Grilled Cheese Shop on Dec. 11. The new location at 220 W. Superior St. is best known as the former home of Mr. Nick’s Famous Charburger and the short-term location of seven different failed restaurants since 2002. The Downtown Toasty’s will be open weekdays from 11 a.m. to 5 pm., offering a similar menu to the Hillside location — sandwiches, soups and salads.
Story link: Toasty’s opens new downtown Duluth location
Here’s a bit of what you’ll find on this week’s PDD Calendar:
It’s the week before Christmas, so there’s plenty of holiday-themed stuff mixed in with the usual madness. Nerds somehow find time to talk about something other than Star Wars, singing along with the orchestra is encouraged, Don Ness drops the mic with a big ole bash, kids can skate with Santa and Rudolph, TED at Teatro brings the braininess, Poor old George Bailey fights the forces of heartlessness and greed and the Rose Ensemble plays Sacred Heart Music Center.
Sara Thomsen and pals play a winter concert, Duluth’s holiday-themed escape room still needs escaping, Monster Mob releases an album, Rachael Kilgour throws a holiday shindig, Glensheen lets visitors run wild(-ish) and Jim Hall shows ’em how it’s done.
Video by UMD student Heidi French, produced as her college writing final.
Jim Wilferling covers Neil Young’s “Don’t Let it Bring You Down” during open mic night at R.T. Quinlan’s Saloon on Sept. 16, 1995.
Ten years ago today the New York Times ran a story titled “The Next Retirement Time Bomb,” which focused heavily on Duluth. The story opened by noting Duluth’s estimated unfunded healthcare liability in 2002 was $178 million. It concluded by stating the figure had ballooned to $280 million in 2005. Worse yet, though not mentioned by the NYT, the liability was projected to hit $417 million by 2015.
Where does Duluth stand one decade later? A state auditor’s report released last summer shows the liability has dropped to an estimated $129 million.
“The support of city staff, city unions, city councilors, community leaders and the Minnesota Supreme Court were critical to this success,” Duluth Mayor Don Ness said in a June news release. “But the foundation of the effort was a core group of five citizen volunteers serving on a task force (created when I was on the city council) that provided a 15-point road map to solving what was thought to be an unsolvable problem. That volunteer effort is the basis for the significant $288-million reduction in our liability today.”
NPR’s World Cafe has been doing a “Sense of Place Minneapolis” series. Duluth band Low was featured yesterday, Dec. 10.
Somehow, I missed this.
Mary K. Tennis, “Steve, Cranes”
It’s easy to take pristine air for granted while living in this Arcadian spot, but an alarming study of phytoplankton from the University of Leicester posited this week that rising carbon emissions could deplete the planet of breathable air. This brought starkly to mind the homophone err, and deepened my belief that true change can only occur from the ground, up — or in this case, from the micro-organismic.
