Members of the Duluth band Trampled by Turtles are spreading the word in San Francisco about the Zenith City:
“Per capita, there has to be more bands there than anywhere that I know of,” said Ryan Young, fiddler.
From the Bay Bridged, an indie-music website for the San Francisco Bay Area: Trampled by Turtles: an unconventional bluegrass band inspired by metal and Dylan
The West Duluth ICO on Grand Avenue and 46th Avenue West has been torn down. A CVS pharmacy will be built in its place. I don’t have any ICO memories that are springing to mind, other than that one night in 2010 I decided to shoot a photo of it.
By the way, I think it might have technically been a Spur station, even though everyone called it ICO and there was an ICO sign on it. I’m not really sure how gas-station naming works.
In preparation for the holidays, it’s time to clear the desks at PDD of any hot giveaway items. Mention in the comments how good you’ve been this past year, and which one of the shows below you deserve two free tickets to, and I’ll act like Santa and divvy up the goodies.
(UPDATE: This contest is over now, and Santa has given away all his goodies, but you can still brag about how good you’ve been in the comments if you want. Just be aware that bragging is not being good.)
The Running (Unopposed) Man
Dec. 9, 10, 16, 17, 30 and 31, 7 p.m., The Venue at Mohaupt Block
Dink Tank: Return of the Dinks
Dec. 9, 10, 16 and 17, 8 p.m., Teatro Zuccone
From Havana to Duluth
Dec. 12 and 13, 8 p.m., Teatro Zuccone
Old Knifey and the Cutthroats Holiday Variety Show
Dec. 17, 9 p.m., All American Club
From last week’s City Pages, “Wilco’s John Stirratt talks about the band’s Minnesotan ties“:
Jeff Gage: Just last year, you guys became honorary citizens of Duluth. Have you been doing any house shopping up there yet?
John Stirratt: I don’t know if I want to move any further north — not that I want to sound wimpy to a Minnesotan. But that’s a beautiful town, man, it really is. I would totally hang out there during a summer.
Personally, I find it impossible to drive past a situation like this and not have a Dukes-of-Hazzard fantasy. And it always surprises me that no one goes for it. A trailer positioned like this is clearly a stunt-jumping invitation for any West Duluth dirtbag with a muscle car — and I don’t see how any judge could disagree.
I ran into Marc Gartman last night, who had this item hot off Miss Zoey Cohen’s drawing pad.
Although I audibly groaned to myself at every stage of the Ween cover art controversy (starting with “Ween … and you?,” continuing with “Sex and Rock and Roll,” and finally dragging to a temporary halt with “This is what a feminist looks like“) I now personally endorse as much disagreement and debate about this as possible.
Timothy LaPara and a team of researchers at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities, testing water pouring from a modern water treatment facility in Duluth, found genes of drug-resistant bacteria in the discharge. Most American cities do not have facilities as good as Duluth’s, but no one knows for sure how much worse the situation may be at those facilities because it has not been measured.
Inside Science News Service: The best wastewater treatment plants can’t filter out superbug fragments
I’m thankful the server that hosts the PDD Calendar is back up and running, after a day of problems. (Ironically, in setting up the links below I noticed that last year my personal Internet service was down just before Thanksgiving, and I was thankful for it being restored. Ah, the joy of technical issues around the holidays!)
Anyway, what are you all thankful for this year, fellow Duluthians?
(Here’s what PDDers were thankful for in 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004 and 2003.)
I recently recovered this photo from my attic. It’s dated July 18, 1992. That’s me on the left in my Minnesota Twins championship T-shirt, proudly raising a bag full of what have got to be bear claws. PDD co-founder Barrett Chase is on the right. In the middle, grabbing his junk, is Bob Schulte.
For most of its existence, and at the time of the photo above, House of Donuts was located just east of where the Whole Foods Co-op is now, at 624 E. Fourth St. Ronald and Michele Carter were the owners.
Another classic Duluth radio jingle from Bob Halverson’s collection:
Last night’s “Lost Grey Cat in Lincoln Park” post was the 10,000th post on Perfect Duluth Day. We didn’t realize it at the time, and forgot to drop balloons from the ceiling.
Quantity is no substitute for quality, so let’s celebrate by linking to favorite posts from the past. Dig into those archives and find your favorites. And find that lost grey cat, too.
The 2012 DFL District 8 Congressional Candidate Forum coordinated and moderated by Minnesota Public Radio has ended, but the full transcript remains. You can read it at perfectduluthday.com/candidate-forum.
The candidates are Jeff Anderson, Tarryl Clark, Daniel Fanning and
Rick Nolan.
PDD is conducting a bit of an experiment in today’s race for the District One Duluth City Council seat between incumbent Todd Fedora and challenger Jennifer Julsrud. UMD journalism students we be poll watching at the seven precincts in District One, and they will be hustling to report the results in record time.
