PDD News Sieve Posts

Trophy Café open on Commonwealth Avenue

Jul 11, 2017 No Comments

Fox 21 News reports a new café has opened in the former Vietnamese Lotus Inn location at 1314 Commonwealth Ave. in Duluth’s Gary neighborhood. The Trophy Café is owned by Mont du Lac Resort and managed by Mike Ohara.

St. Louis County records show Matt Gregg is the owner of the building. He purchased it from Steven D. and Cuc T. Allen one year ago for $40,000. The Allens were proprietors of the Lotus Inn, which they operated from 2003 to 2013, and briefly reopened in 2015 under the name VN Coffeehouse.

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News and Current Affairs, Restaurants

Missing Person: Leah Buehring

Jul 06, 2017 No Comments

The Duluth Police Department is seeking the public’s assistance in locating a missing person. Leah Buehring was last seen July 1 in the area of 4000 W. Ninth St. in West Duluth. She is a 17-year-old light-skinned white female, 5’7″ tall, 180 lbs., with brown hair and hazel/brown eyes. She is possibly wearing a knee brace on her right knee. Buehring may also use the name “Angel Faith James.”

Anyone with information pertaining to Buehring’s whereabouts is asked to contact the Duluth Police Department by calling 911, or Duluth Police Department Investigations at 218-730-5560 during business hours or 218-625-3581 at any time.


News and Current Affairs

Pressroom Podcast: PDD on the DNT

Jun 28, 2017 No Comments


Click the lil’ triangle above to hear a 37-minute podcast about Perfect Duluth Day on the eve of its 14th anniversary.

Duluth News Tribune Pressroom Podcast hosts Christa Lawler and Brady Slater talk with PDD grand poobah Paul Lundgren, food and drink reporter Lissa Maki, and PDD co-founder Barrett Chase (who left PDD in 2015 to become a web editor at the DNT).

Perfect Duluth Day’s 14th birthday party is Thursday, June 29, from 5-7 p.m. at Sir Benedict’s Tavern on the Lake. Free coleslaw while supplies last!


History ,

Sinclair Lewis’ Perfect Duluth Day

Jun 27, 2017 4 Comments

Excerpt of a letter from Sinclair Lewis to Marcella Powers, included in the book Minnesota Diaries:

What a day — the first in Duluth this year completely of the type known to meteorologists as a p.d., or “absolutely perfect day” — cool, the air sweet, sky ringing blue except for lovely lazy clouds, as idyllic and indolent as a Grecian glade, yet full of energy for people from Chicago … the lake a mirror of many kinds of blue and gray glass, some sleek, some delicately wrinkled …

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Art ,

Dylan musical set in Duluth

Jun 27, 2017 1 Comment

Perfect Duluth Day reported in early May that a new musical play written and directed by Conor McPherson with music and lyrics by Bob Dylan was scheduled to open at the Vic Theater in London in July. What wasn’t known at the time is the play is set in Duluth.

Audio clips of two tracks recorded as part of a workshop for Girl from the North Country can be heard in the PDD post from May. Three reports verifying the setting of the play are listed below.

From the BBC New story “Bob Dylan: Conor McPherson on writing the musical“:

Conor McPherson has set the play in a guesthouse in Dylan’s birthplace of Duluth in Minnesota. It is called Girl from the North Country, after a track Dylan wrote in 1963.

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Art, Music

“Colder than the surface of Mars”

Jun 19, 2017 No Comments

Poet Dora Malech gets all Duluthy in a poem published in the May 29 issue of The New Yorker. It’s more that a reference — the poem is basically set in Duluth.

The text of “I Now Pronounce You” is available online, along with an audio track of the poet reading it.

Malech grew up in Bethesda, Md., and now lives in Baltimore. Her connection to Duluth is unknown, unless it’s as simple as the first line of the poem: “Our friends are getting married in Duluth.”


Art , ,

Reflection, refraction, dispersion: Duluth rainbow pics

Jun 19, 2017 1 Comment

Sun showers produced a Father’s Day rainbow in Duluth. Click the thumbnails to view the images at full size.

Photographers: Jamie Merideth (Duluth Harbor), Eric Dubnicka (Old Central High School), Tim Mlodozyniec (Denfeld clock tower) and Erin Anderson (Lake Superior).


Photos

Duluth artist Russell Gran dead at 81

Jun 15, 2017 1 Comment

Russell V. Gran, a Duluth native best known for his acrylic paintings and role as the unofficial “patriarch” of the Washington Studios Artist Cooperative, died June 14 of an apparent heart attack. He was 81.

“Endlessly curious and driven to create, his curmudgeonly exterior was merely a facade for a wonderfully humorous, sensitive and loving being,” fellow artist and friend Eric Dubnicka wrote on Facebook.

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Art, News and Current Affairs, R.I.P.

2 Dope Queens discuss Justin Bieber’s Duluth chakra

Jun 15, 2017 No Comments

At the very onset of episode #36 of the 2 Dope Queens podcast, hosts Jessica Williams and Phoebe Robinson drop a reference to Duluth while going over items on Justin Bieber’s tour rider.

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Music

Rolph, Wilson named head brewers at Earth Rider

Jun 12, 2017 1 Comment

Earth Rider Brewery in Superior has named Allyson Rolph and Tim Wilson as lead brewers. The craft brewery, founded by Tim Nelson, is expected to launch later this year. It will service bars, restaurants and liquor stores throughout the Arrowhead region. The project was announced in February.

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News and Current Affairs , ,

Zenith Bookstore opens July 1 in West Duluth

Jun 08, 2017 2 Comments

A year-long quest to launch a shop selling new and “gently used” books is almost complete. Zenith Bookstore will open for business July 1 in the former Wild West Liquor building at 318 N. Central Ave. in West Duluth. Perfect Duluth Day first reported about the store’s development in September.

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News and Current Affairs

Downtown Duluth’s Bullseye building sold

Jun 08, 2017 4 Comments

The two-story white brick building in Downtown Duluth occupied by the Chinese Dragon restaurant, Bullseye Silkscreen & Embroidery and Old Town Antiques was sold in March for $1.65 million according to St. Louis County records. The building sits on the corner of Superior Street and First Avenue East. The three businesses use the addresses 108, 106 and 102 E. Superior St., respectively. The building’s general address is 101 E. Michigan St.

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News and Current Affairs

Mystery mural found during NorShor Theatre renovation

Jun 01, 2017 No Comments

At a May 31 news conference, Duluth Playhouse Executive & Artistic Director Christine Gradl Seitz showed off a canvas painting discovered by workers busy renovating the NorShor Theatre. The Duluth News Tribune reports the painting was “behind a suspended ceiling that was installed in 1941 when the existing Orpheum Theatre was converted into the NorShor. The grand theater’s original balcony had been concealed and transformed into a makeshift attic. But Gradl Seitz said a careful exploration of the space revealed ‘this beautiful mural, which we believe dates back to 1910, and the original Orpheum.'”

The NorShor is expected to open in early 2018; the Playhouse has a run of the musical Mamma Mia scheduled for Feb. 8-24. Renovation work is about 60 percent complete.

The theater was purchased by the Duluth Economic Development Authority in June 2010 for $2.6 million. The $30.5-million renovation began in summer 2016. It is a partnership between Sherman Associates and DEDA. The 750+ seat theater will serve as an arts center managed by the Duluth Playhouse.

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History, News and Current Affairs

Exploring the Superior Entry Lighthouse on Wisconsin Point

May 25, 2017 1 Comment

The latest adventure on the Substreet website takes readers inside the Superior Entry Lighthouse, where every step “happens with an echoing crunch.”

As for the view from the top: “For 180 degrees, there is nothing but water, clouds, and a beautiful sandy beach backgrounded by pine trees and dune grass.”


History, Photos , , ,

Remains of James J. Hubert finally coming home to Duluth

May 24, 2017 No Comments

U.S. Marine Corps Sergeant James Joseph Hubert, a Duluthian who fought and died during the Battle of Tarawa Island in the Pacific Theater of World War II, is finally coming home. He was killed in action and buried in 1943, but when the war was over his remains were not found … until more than seven decades later.

Sgt. Hubert will be returned to Duluth this summer with full military honors. A formal funeral and burial will be held at Calvary Cemetery on July 15.

The full story is available on jamesjosephhubert.com and will likely be heavily featured in Duluth media over Memorial Day weekend.

A detailed interview with Jay Hagen, nephew of Sgt. Hubert, was broadcast in March on WDSM radio’s Sound Off! with Brad Bennett program. The interview is available for listening and downloading at wdsm710.com.


History, News and Current Affairs