Duluth author Sarah Seidelmann chats with life coach Michelle Gillette in this Focus TV segment. Focus is a magazine in West Los Angeles.
In the interview, Dr. Seidelmann talks about her latest book, Swimming With Elephants, and her previous book, Born to Freak.
Alex “Coke” Chocholousek – Photo by Lissa Maki
The new year ushered in some changes at Fitger’s Brewhouse. Alex “Coke” Chocholousek stepped into the role of head brewer on Jan. 1. Chocholousek is the fifth brewer to head up operations at the Brewhouse and says he looks forward to continuing the brewpub’s legacy of quality and innovation.
It was ten years ago that KBJR-TV news reporter Julie Pierce made her famous slip-of-the-tongue while referring to the 1,000-foot motor vessel Walter J. McCarthy Jr. The video clip above, viewed more than 200,000 times in the past decade, also shows KBJR misspelling “McCarthy” on its graphic; so it goes.
The Duluth City Council adopted the Irving Fairmount Brownfields Revitalization Plan on Dec. 11. Irving and Fairmount are sub-neighborhoods of West Duluth.
The video above shows clips from a gathering on Oct. 18 at Loll Designs headquarters marking the completion of the plan.
The planning effort focused on redevelopment of post-industrial sites, infrastructure improvements, creating better connections to the Spirit Valley commercial area and increasing walkability.
From the Duluth trivia deck scored at Savers. Thanks to those who have corrected the previous entries and discussed them with vigor. I learned a lot.
1. Who was Duluth’s first mayor?
2. What was the name of the first ship to pass through the Duluth Ship Canal?
3. In what year was the Duluth Bethel Society founded?
4. In what year did the Duluth Board of Trade organize? (The link is about the building, not the organization.)
5. Who developed the Lake Vermilion Iron Fields?
6. When the Duluth Street Railway opened in 1881, how much did it cost to ride in one of its mule-drawn cars?
7. What part of Duluth was known as a “Hay Fever Haven“?
8. What did the City of Duluth do when it was found that its Lake Superior water had asbestiform particles which are linked to cancer?
9. What was Soroptimist International?
10. This one feels like it might be suspect: What was the first church in the Village of West Duluth?
11. True or False: Duluth once had a Duluth Toboggan and Snowshoe Association?
Sometimes it takes traveling far from home to find out where you come from. Sonofmel & the Slideman have farmed decades of life into a harvest of sounds, growing rows of song and spoken word around dreamscapes rich enough to farm. They’ve just begun an album together at Sacred Heart Studio and will debut one or two during a Jan. 17 performance at Bent Paddle Brewing.
Video recorded at Driftless Books & Music in Viroqua, Wis.
In anticipation of the NorShor Theatre re-opening in February, this month’s PDD Quiz looks back at the colorful history of this Duluth landmark.
The next PDD Quiz, on January headlines and happenings, will be published on Jan. 28. Please send question ideas to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by Jan. 24.
I’ve really grown a lot, since turning 40. Particularly in relationship to my willingness to talk about poop.
Let me back up. (Have you noticed how, when you lead with poo, everything that follows becomes a double-entendre?) Anyway. Up until my late 30s, it was a well-known and oft-ridiculed fact that all things concerning defecation made me wildly, morbidly uncomfortable. I knew it was a natural, essential, healthy bodily function. I also realized that everyone (including me, heaven forgive me) did it. But it was so disgusting, so private and feral and ghastly, that I could not acknowledge it in anyone else’s company.
I did a lot of very silly things to avoid mutual recognition of poop situations.
I famously repaired a toilet while pregnant to avoid calling anyone else into the vestibule, lest they deduce what might have caused the trouble in the first place. For five full years, I used a restroom in a gas station next door to the building in which I worked because the bathroom at my job was right next to the lunchroom, and that was monstrous. I have had entire business trips in which my body mysteriously began apparently absorbing my waste, rather than eliminating it, until I returned home, lest I be forced to do any pooping on an airplane, or, for the love of all that remains holy, in a stall next to a client. I have left a lover’s house and driven home and back again, under the ruse of requiring medicine I did not need, take or have in my possession to avoid any implication of my defecatory habits.
Explore this interactive map for the bounty of our Northlandic Atlantis. Containing hundreds of photos, video and links, this is a virtual tour of the area with a focus on water, wildlife, history, and recreation.
Alison Aune is an award-winning painter and educator who paints large-scale works that combine intricate Nordic-style patterns, portraits and mixed-media techniques. This week Alison goes in-depth about her style, her inspirations and even her favorite paint brush.
AA: I studied painting as an undergrad and graduate student. In 1984 I received a BFA in painting and a teaching license in art education from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst where I am from, my dad was a professor of philosophy at UMASS and is currently emeritus, and I received a masters degree in painting from UMD (1987) and a PhD in Comparative Arts from Ohio University in Athens (2000). In graduate school I changed from oil paint to acrylics because I needed the paint to dry quickly!
Image from the Heritage Center website
For New Year’s, I never make resolutions. But I do point myself toward new things that feed me.
Ice skating.
I went to the Heritage Center for City of Duluth Open Skate.
It started as a Twitter feud between Mt. St. Helens and Lake Superior, then Duluth band Low got involved. Soon Glacier Peak, Mt. Baker, Cahaba River and the Grand Canyon were in on the action.
The date on this image appears to be Oct. 4, 1896. Just about everything else is a mystery. Who is the baby? Who is the adult? Where are they? What does the note “5 win + 6 days” mean?
Video by Spencer Starnes.
