It’s a nearly impossible challenge to put names on people in century-old cabinet card photos, but we occasionally try nonetheless. At least in most cases we know the photographer’s name, which can lead in all sorts of directions.
I stopped by Blue Rock Coffee & Wine, kind of. It recently opened by the Miller Hill Mall, and I am enchanted by the idea of a wine bar. We haven’t had one in Duluth since the Minnesota Wine Exchange closed, unless I suppose you count the Spirit Room over in Superior. A wine bar feels like a place to taste, not to drink, if that distinction makes sense, and I’d love to have one in Duluth.
So I cruised through the drive through, having salivated over the menu, but being full from a full lunch. I ordered a peach iced tea, which tasted like actual tea, instead of a tea mix. That bodes well, as do the photos of the food.
Am I forgetting other places built for tasting wine, instead of drinking? Vikre is built for tasting gin, not for drinking it, if that helps.
Eight years ago the concept of neighborhood book exchanges made its way to Duluth. The original Little Free Library was built in Hudson, Wis., in 2009. Duluth had its first in 2012, and by 2013 there were about 20 in the city. Today there are roughly 40.
It’s a global movement. The nonprofit Little Free Library organization estimates there are now more than 100,000 registered book exchanges in more than 100 countries worldwide.
If you’re unfamiliar with these little libraries, their appearance consists of a bird-house looking box, around 20 inches by 15 inches by 18 inches, typically with a Plexiglas door. Inside is an array of books assembled for the purpose of sharing. Anyone is welcome to take a book or leave a book.
There are 38 book exchanges in Duluth cataloged on littlefreelibrary.org, and several more are in surrounding communities. If you’re interested in where to find them, visit the Little Free Library website and search “Duluth,” “Superior” or the area of your choice. The locations will pop up and you can find the one closest to you.
William S. Burroughs was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1914. He died in Lawrence, Kansas in 1997.
The business card above touts the goods for sale at Louis Oreck’s Curios store in Downtown Duluth circa the 1910s: souvenirs, American Indian crafts and mineral specimens.
My friend Erin Tope (now Sola) and I collaborated on these pictures in the French River a few years ago. From the first they suggested characters and supernatural narratives, which I initially put to a series of four wordless short videos set to music. That sparked years of subsequent imagining about who these ghosts are. Words have now been joined to pictures to form the final iteration of the project. In the absence of an actual physical publisher, I have posted them at their own site where I consider it a free 16-page e-book. I post them here as well for your enjoyment — although you may want to leave the light on.
Many restaurants are struggling to stay afloat during the pandemic since dining in has been prohibited. In this time of uncertainty, two bold young women are prepping to launch a vegan food truck the likes of which the Twin Ports has never seen.
If all goes as planned, Mama Roots will start popping up in parking lots with its big blue school bus in late June. The mobile restaurant will serve up plant-based, globally inspired cuisine.
A short video by Justin Peck, starring Jody Kujawa, Jason Scorich and Peck.
2016 photo by Lissa Maki
Representatives of Lark o’ the Lake Café announced on Facebook yesterday that their eatery in the Greysolon Plaza will not reopen. It has been closed since mid-March, when Minnesota restaurants were ordered to cease dine-in service as part of the Stay-at-home Order related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Half-Breed: Taming the Elements, Book 1
Hickory Mack
Jan. 23
Available on Amazon
Village of Scoundrels
Margi Preus
Feb. 25
Harry N. Abrams
Available at IndieBound
Camp Cocktails: Easy, Fun, and Delicious Drinks for the Great Outdoors
Emily Vikre
Feb. 25
Harvard Common Press
Available on Amazon
As we continue staying safe with our social distancing practices, Perfect Duluth Day continues to showcase local take-out and delivery dining options with “The Menu.”
Wasabi Japanese Cuisine is available for take-out through its drive-through window. Orders can be placed ahead of time by calling 715-718-8033 or through wasabisushisuperior.com.
Current Hours:
Monday through Thursday: 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Friday through Saturday: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Sundays: noon to 9:30 p.m.
Allen Killian-Moore is a filmmaker who recently released a new experimental project in collaboration with the music of Minneapolis-based Humbird for her new single, “On the Day We are Together Again.” His work takes advantage of the imperfections of film and video — the grain, dust and scratches, pixels, flickering, varied frame rates, and they become an important part of the images. This week in Selective Focus, Allen talks about his process and the experiences that have influenced his work.
“On the Day We Are Together Again” Music by Humbird, film by Allen Killian-Moore
AKM: I am a Neurodivergent moving image artist (film and video), writer, curator, still photographer, visual artist, and performer. For this interview, I’ll be focusing specifically on my moving image film and video art.
Use the link below for a printable PDF for your drawing and coloring pleasure.
Duluth You & Me: William A. Irvin
Follow the Duluth You & Me subject tag to see additional pages. For background on the book see the original post on the topic.
“Bar Fight” is a Duluth-centric science fiction vignette in the style of William S. Burroughs. It reads like a hard-boiled noir tale of a private eye tailing a crooked cop to the bad part of town, ending in a scene of shocking violence — except the private eye is an interdimensional traveler in a space suit, the crooked cop is the god Osiris (now a beat cop for Jehovah), and the bad part of town is a bar in Limbo (modeled after the Pizza Luce bar). I performed this through a megaphone while speaking very quietly because it gives the feel of a distant transmission. I recorded this a couple years ago late at night, but abandoned it because I thought it was silly and I was a mess. Now I’ve viewed it again and it is making me laugh, so I’m posting it. There is a gap of a few seconds in the middle as I scroll my page down. This is the first video release on our podcast, which you can see if you click through but it’s just me reading at a table. The video has a surreal shuttering effect which was unintended but I like it. This story originally ran in the Transistor.
For this edition of the PDD Video Lab we’ve once again taken a silent film from Dominic Chione’s archive — this one from 1963 — and paired it with music by Duluth/Superior’s own Jerree Small. The track is “60 Words for Water” from the 2004 album Mobius.
Watch for a nice cameo appearance at the 1:30 mark by the old Sky Room Restaurant at the Buena Vista.
