Duluth’s Tall Ships Festival runs Aug. 18-21. The video above and photos below are from Liftoff Aerials (a/k/a the “PDD Drone”). The music is “Ocean Blue” by Duluth band Glen’s Neighbor from the album Behind the Door.
Duluth native C.J. Ham is the Minnesota Vikings leading rusher over the first two preseason contests. He has gained 60 yards on 20 attempts, including a game-winning touchdown against the Cincinnati Bengals in week one. He also has three receptions for 27 yards.
“It’s been a dream come true,” Ham told WCCO-TV. “Just having the opportunity to be in the NFL and be with the team I grew up watching, it’s a dream come true.”
Tonight (Friday, August 19) at Prove Gallery, there’s an opening of a collaboration between Flo Matamoros and Brian Ring called “The things they carried.” Flo Matamoros tells how her spontaneous, flowing style came to be.
F.M: My creative background is one that has been shaped by obsessive curiosity through the tool box that Art History is and the amount of creative mentors I have had since a child.
I was fortunate enough to receive around 7 years of classical painting training from age 7 until 14 in El Salvador (thanks mom!). So, I had to paint a lot of what I consider boring shit. Still life, landscape, flowers, etc. My professor said I had to master all that “boring shit” before I was allowed to paint the human form. So it took me until my freshman year at St. Scholastica (I started my higher education as a Chemistry Major because I thought that painting was bogus and Art was meh) to get over myself.
On Day 2, the kids were sent on a scavenger hunt that encouraged them utilize different camera techniques.
The kids were broken up into teams; they learned not only how to use the cameras, but how to teach each other.
Those who visited Brighton Beach last Thursday might have spotted the group of the kids playing in the waves of Lake Superior. They may have also noticed some touting high-end DSLR cameras and bright colored notebooks, wandering the shoreline with eager faces. That’s because, last week, the American Indian Community Housing Organization partnered with a St. Paul-based nonprofit, In Progress, to host culturally specific photography and storytelling workshops for Native American youth.
Lesson facilitator Kristine Sorenson made the journey up from the cities to the Gimaajii location to teach kids ages 8-12 how to use professional camera equipment (ranging in price from $800 to $6,000 per camera) and document the beauty in their lives. The results of their adventures couldn’t have been more inspiring.
A good number of photos featured here were taken by both myself and the participating youth and volunteers; however, at first glance, I’m willing to bet that no one would be able to distinguish who took which of the images here!
The time is almost upon us for a poll about something most Duluthians are practiced in: drinking.
We know Duluthians like to drink. In fact, St. Louis County rates among the top counties in the country for binge drinking, with a rate of 26.7 percent (though surely some Iron Rangers are skewing the percentage).
Though it’s not a statistic to be proud of, we certainly understand the inclination. And we’d like to pinpoint where the people prefer to imbibe. The poll isn’t scientific. How you choose the “perfect” drinking establishment is purely subjective. You can nominate a craft brewery, a swanky joint with handcrafted cocktails or a crusty dive bar with the cheapest swill and shots of whiskey. It’s up to you. Name your favorite bar, pub, saloon, nightclub, watering hole or whatever you call it in the comments to this post.
Once we compile an ample list of nominees, we’ll post the poll and the people will decide. It will be a runoff vote where the list of options will be whittled down during the voting process as favorites become apparent.
Any drinking establishment in Duluth or 10 miles of its border is eligible for nomination. Bars in Superior, Hermantown, Proctor and the many bordering townships qualify for nomination, but more distant places like Two Harbors and Cloquet do not.
Above is Kip Praslowicz‘s latest memory-card dump video, a retrospective of his life in Duluth (largely spent at local music clubs) during the wet hot summer — July 1 to Aug. 9.
Kip’s dumps have been happening more frequently than we can keep up with at PDD. Below are his two previous dumps, spanning June 3 to July 1 and March 16 to June 3 (minus the Homegrown Music Festival, which was on a separate memory card.
Video compilation of the dead fish I’ve seen.
The consistent rain this summer has made for a cloudy lake. Poor visibility obviates more adventuresome diving than this, so here I am in familiar territory, sticking close to shore in the crenulated shallows of the Ledges.
Another beautiful aerial video of Lake Superior’s North Shore, this time by Open Window Productions of Minneapolis.
The quest is to settle a bet. Whether there’s enough evidence so far to settle it will have to be up to the wagerers.
Former Duluthian Daniel Heinan, now living in Los Angeles, sent the following email:
My friends don’t believe that there was a DTA bus line called the Woodland Wind Jammer. There was even the Crosley Clipper. They existed in the 1980s and early 1990s. Can you help me prove them wrong?
What an inside source at the Duluth Transit Authority reports:
A long-time employee and former driver tells the tale of not just the Woodland Wind Jammer and the Crosley Clipper, but also the Proctor Pacer and the Superior Streaker. These were all express routes, designed to get people downtown as soon as possible. He thought there might have even been a contest to name them.
Alas, a search through the DTA library resulted in no physical proof, but I trust my source.
So there we have it. Anyone with hard evidence should obviously come forward, but so far the jury would have to lean heavily in favor of the Windjammer and Clipper being actual former DTA bus route names.
Seth Butler took a trip to Duluth, and this gorgeous video was the result.
This photo popped up on Pinterest a while back. It’s dated 1962. Photographer unknown.
Duluth’s first diesel buses began operating in 1957 under the auspices of the Duluth-Superior Transit Company. The Duluth Transit Authority was created in 1969, so one could say the bus in the photo above is a DTA before there was a DTA.
Can anyone name any of the drivers?
