Sidestreet Detour performed its Superior Porchfest concert on June 15 on a residential driveway near Central Park. Porchfest is a free, family-friendly music and art series in which attendees can bring a blanket or lawn chair, pack a picnic and/or simply stop by to enjoy the show.
The 2023 season concludes on Thursday, Sept. 7, with music at sunset around a campfire in Billings Park.
Steve Solkela performs Wild Cherry’s hit song “Play that Funky Music” on accordion while riding a unicycle … because he’s Steve Solkela.
This short video explores Ojibwe perspectives and cultural stories associated with Lake Superior, with interviews and artwork by Carl Gawboy and Jonathan Thunder. A version of it will be included in the public television documentary, A Sea Change for Lake Superior.
Comedian and sitcom actor Tim Allen referenced Duluth in a scene on the ABC-TV sitcom Last Man Standing in 2015. The scene appears in season 4, episode 19, titled “Summer Internship.”
Duluth’s 50-acre Bagley Nature Area gets its name from Dr. William R. Bagley, who gifted the land to the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Dr. Bagley’s hobby was nature photography. He was known to use a camera mounted on the stock of a gun in pursuit of wild animal photos. His family home movies, however, were probably not shot using wooden parts from weaponry.
The Olcott Park Greenhouse and Botanical Garden in Virginia is open year-round during volunteer-staffed open hours on Fridays and Saturdays from noon to 4 p.m. It offers the chance to view a variety of tropical plants in the comfort and warmth of a unique green space during the long winter months.
In its series The Slice, PBS North 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.
Sculptor Nick Legeros recently completed a bronze sculpture of Champ the Bulldog, mascot of the University of Minnesota Duluth. The statue was installed on Aug. 8 near the walkway in front of the Darland Administration Building.
The 2004 film The Life and Death of Peter Sellers contains a brief mention of Duluth. Geoffrey Rush plays the role of the famous actor/comedian Sellers, whose agent Dennis Selinger, played by Henry Goodman, encourages him to broaden his audience in the scene embedded above.
Notoriously cold Lake Superior is among the fastest warming of the world’s large lakes. This excerpt from the upcoming public television documentary A Sea Change for Lake Superior documents research at the Large Lakes Observatory at University of Minnesota Duluth investigating how variations in winter ice-cover plays in that change.
The documentary is a coproduction of the Center for Global Environmental Education at Hamline University and WDSE-TV PBS North. It is scheduled for release in December.
It was 20 years ago that Duluth Entertainment Convention Center officials announced plans to build an eight-screen movie theater next to the DECC’s Omnimax theater. Within a few weeks the plan expanded to 10 screens and had the name Canal Park 10. When it opened on Dec. 22, 2004, it bore the name Duluth 10 and was operated by Cinema Entertainment Corp.
Canadian rocker Dave Rave has been teaming up with Minnesota-based musicians for more than a decade, performing as Dave Rave and the Governors. Although the Minnesotans in the group are mostly from the Twin Cities, Duluthians will recognize Rich Mattson of Sparta playing guitar at far left in this music video.
“Lear Jet” is from the band’s new album, Seven, recorded at Mattson’s Sparta Sound studio. Video by Reggie Pype.
Troy Rogers, the artist behind the cart full of musical robots known as Robot Rickshaw, has developed a drill-powered blender for use on the beach. Park Point will never be the same.
The 1971 educational film Part Way to the Majors, a documentary produced by ABC News for the Sunday afternoon series Discovery, follows the Duluth-Superior Dukes as they road trip to Sioux Falls, S.D. The film starts and ends at Wade Stadium in Duluth.
The 1981 comedy/action film The Cannonball Run includes a mention of Duluth. Lamborghini Girls #1 and #2, played by Adrienne Barbeau and Tara Buckman, respectively, are pulled over for speeding. In a successful effort to sweettalk the highway patrol, the girls supply him with a phone number.
“If you’re ever up in Duluth, remember to look me up,” Buckman says.
Duluth’s Kip Praslowicz has made a modest name for himself in recent years as a photographer and YouTube video producer. But now he stands on the cusp of mega-influencer status, having achieved an unprecedented feat in photography.
