January 2022 Posts

R.I.P. Louie Anderson, sitcom Duluthian

Comedian Louie Anderson died today at age 68. Part of his credentials in the entertainment industry is a CBS sitcom set in Duluth. Six episodes were produced; five were aired in 1996.

My message to FedEx about their Duluth branch

Messaged this to FedEx’s Facebook page even though I was off the clock (I am not speaking for my unnamed place of business in any capacity but only as a private concerned citizen): “Hello – I work for a Duluth MN business that is having consistent problems with your drivers being unmasked in violation of our store policy, FedEx policy, and a citywide masking ordinance.

The Slice: Duluth Harbor Cams

Take a look at the sights and sounds of Lake Superior via web camera at duluthharborcam.com.

In its series The Slice, WDSE-TV presents short “slices of life” that capture the events and experiences that bring people together and speak to what it means to live up north.

LEAN Duluth Citizen Blotter: January 2022

The Citizen Blotter is the monthly newsletter of LEAN Duluth — Law Enforcement Accountability Network — a volunteer-run data-analysis group and public communications resource for organizers working for police accountability. To support LEAN’s work, email leanduluth @ gmail.com.

Duluth history used to illustrate white privilege on Netflix show

In the new Netflix series Colin in Black & White, former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick serves as the narrator for his own story of growing up in California’s Central Valley with white adoptive parents. At the very beginning of the third episode, a modified version of a photograph taken at the 1920 lynching of Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie in Duluth is used as part of a montage explaining the concept of white privilege.

Jane Yolen awarded Sophie Brody Medal for 2022

Duluth’s Holy Cow! Press author Jane Yolen, author of Kaddish: Before the Holocaust and After, has been awarded the Sophie Brody Medal for 2022.

Lake Superior Writers taking over NEMBA

The Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards have a new organizing body, Lake Superior Writers. As a fan of NEMBA, the University of Minnesota Duluth and LSW, I think this is good news for all.

Matchbooks from Superior-area Restaurants and Bars

One year ago Perfect Duluth Day published a collection of “Matchbooks from Duluth Restaurants and Bars.” Now we honor the neighboring city of Superior, and the rest of northwestern Wisconsin, with a collection of matchbooks from Superior-area restaurants and bars.

Postcard from a Typical Lumber Camp in Northern Minnesota

This postcard was mailed 110 years ago today — Jan. 18, 1912. It depicts a “typical lumber camp in northern Minnesota.”

Cloud Cult – “One Way Out of a Hole”

Cloud Cult released the first music video today from its new album Metamorphosis, due out March 4. The video is directed by Jeff D. Johnson.

The band kicks off its tour with a performance at Papa Charlie’s in Lutsen on Feb. 12 and hits Duluth on April 20 with a show at the NorShor Theatre.

Heely Tricks with JamesG: December 2021

Here it is, the last of the 2021 wheeled-sneaker stunts by former Duluthian James Geisler, also known as the hip-hop artist JamesG.

PDD Quiz: 2022 Coming Attractions

Glensheen – Minnesota History Theatre

This week’s quiz looks ahead to new things coming (or returning) to the Duluth area in 2022. As with everything these days, all future events and shenanigans are subject to change; quiz on to test your knowledge of things to get cautiously excited about!

The next PDD quiz, heading your way on Jan. 30, will cover January 2022 headlines. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by Jan. 26.

The SuperiorLab-Marquette Disaster

Deep-sea explorer Ecclesia Hummingbird, August 23, 2001 on PBS: “I live and work here in SuperiorLab, a hyperbaric underwater habitat 950 feet deep, by a drowned petrified forest. Welcome to science’s first permanent presence at the bottom of Lake Superior, with our partners: the University of Minnesota, NASA, and our corporate sponsors. We are offshore between Two Harbors and Silver Bay, in a quarter-mile-wide underwater canyon whose sides slope hundreds of feet down. This scar cuts for thirty miles getting deeper and deeper. The lake’s canyons divide the bedrock like cracking skin, and this crack is one of its deepest, Bible black like space.

“SuperiorLab is manned by a rotating crew of divers and astronauts-in-training who live here for months at a time. Because of budget cuts, that is currently a crew of two. There’s myself, and there’s my half-sister Persephone Marrow, a geologist developing protocols for future Mars missions. We are the so-called ‘genius daughters’ of the university’s Professor Joseph Marrow.

Two new Nat Harvie songs: “Longbody” and “Every Woman”

Lyric video for “Every Woman” below.

Woodblind – “Watched Pot”

Veikko Lepisto and Jason Wussow of Duluth band Woodblind make soup in this new music video. Cory Coffman adds percussion to the track.

Woodblind performs Jan. 29 at Wussow’s Concert Cafe as part of the Soup & a Song showcase.