Minnesota poet, essayist, memoirist and musician Bill Holm died earlier this year. (See PDD post from Feb. 26.) This MPR program features highlights from a tribute held at the Fitzgerald Theater on April 14, with Robert Bly, Emilie Buchwald, Barton and Ross Sutter and so on. Also, many clips of the man himself.
Word on the street is the Lakeview Castle will be closing it doors.
If anyone has fun memories of going to a Suburbs show especially in Duluth please post them in the comments. I want to read them on my radio show today between sets of awesome Suburbs music.
R.I.P. Bruce Allen.
The annual airing of the 2-1/2 hour documentary We’re Holding Our Own: The Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald will be tonight at 7 p.m. on KUWS-FM (91.3 Superior, 102.9 Ashland). The ore carrier sank in eastern Lake Superior with no distress calls, no witnesses and most tragically, no survivors. This doc was produced by Wisconsin Public Radio over a five-year period and aired November 10, 1995 on the 20th anniversary of its sinking. Two-and-a-half hours seems like a long time, but it moves pretty fast and doesn’t have Gordon Lightfoot’s song all over it.
From 1991 to 2008, Yoshikas Sauna served the West End with its famous “erotic” massages. Everyone in town knew prostitution was going on there, but somehow the long arm of the law seemed to ignore it.
It was finally shut down when the city decided not to grant a massage establishment license to owner Suzy Woo-Young in November 2008. (Woo-Young had operated Yoshikas without a license all those years, and decided to finally apply for one. Oops.)
Kevin Lund bought the building and had it torn down last Thursday.
Any Yoshikas memories for the record, PDD commenters? (You know, stories that won’t gross us all out.)
By the way, people always called the place “Yoshiko’s Sauna.” The News Tribune refers to it as “Yoshiko Sauna,” which is also how it appeared in the phone book. The sign (pictured above) said “Yoshikas Sauna,” so I spell it that way. It seems like there should be a possessive apostrophe, but I’m not sure who or what a Yoshika is.
Duluth Denfeld played Duluth Central tonight in high school football for what will very likely be the last time. Denfeld won 20-6 in front of a crowd of maybe 500 at Public Schools Stadium.
Chip Stewart has passed away after a long battle with cancer. Thousands of people knew Chip and his wife Marcie as proprietors of the amazing Amazing Grace Bakery & Cafe in the DeWitt-Seitz Building in Canal Park.
I don’t have any more details right now, but hopefully those will materialize as is possible. But what I can tell you is that Chip was a very great man who I first met in 1997 when I was working on a story as a freelance reporter. Amazing Grace was hosting a counter-rally when anti-gay freakshow activist Fr*d Ph*lps was coming to Duluth. And that was the beginning of many, many conversations. In 2004 he gave me the biggest business break that I never deserved when (despite owning a successful food service operation of his own) he allowed my little food stand to come in and sling some wienies during events at the Historic NorShor Theater, which he was hoping to revive at the time. Chip was a friend to many, many people. The bread, coffee and all the food at Amazing Grace is fantastic, he provided a great venue for live folk music in Duluth, and he also provided a great place for people to sit in a non-rushed atmosphere. One of his least heralded but possibly most important gifts to all of us was providing a safe and fun place for young people (and sober people) to gather, play cards, surf the net and socialize, there was nothing quite like it in Duluth before it opened, and it remains a one-of-a-kind institution with Chip’s fingerprints all over it. He gave big breaks to many more musicians, artists, waitresses, bakers, baristas and entrepreneurs than just me, dozens, maybe hundreds of people’s lives and careers were enhanced by contact with this man. I feel safe in saying that his impact on our community will reverberate not just for days and weeks, but for generations.
My heartfelt prayers go out to his wife Marcie and all of his family, and to the rest of us, his chosen family. May you rest in peace, my brother.
If someone has a good photo or two of Chip, please post it here or provide a link to where we can all see them.
Last night I walked past a house that reeked of a fetid oil recently sprayed from the anus of a West Duluth skunk.
Two kids, who looked to be about 11 years old, were walking the sidewalk toward the odiferous house as I was walking away. They seemed to know that something was going on. Another kid, maybe two years younger, came from across the street and shouted, “Did they kill the skunk yet?”
“No, but they’re about to,” one of the other kids answered.
“Awesome!” the younger kid yelled with great enthusiasm, running over to join them.
I continued on my way, as I often do in these situations, only to wonder later why I didn’t hang around for the full story. It seems that, at some point in my life, getting to Kmart became more important than witnessing an execution.
Former Denfeld principal Wayne Samskar died on Friday in Appleton, Wis. He was 81.
Dr. Samskar taught and was principal at several Duluth-area schools before becoming principal at Denfeld in 1970. He’s credited with helping to establish the Greater Denfeld Foundation, which awards scholarships to outstanding students.
He retired in 1984, but helped architects design Denfeld’s gymnasium addition in 1987. He was inducted into the school’s hall of fame in 1996.
I was asked to pass this along (time intentionally vague-my understanding is we have no need for “rules” or “formalities”):
This Thursday Evening – R.T. Quinlan’s
Feb. 22, 1932 – Aug. 25, 2009
A non-cantankerous, very funny guy and talented actor.
Harold Nelson, the old fellow often seen walking along Central Entrance and elsewhere, was struck by a car and killed. The News Tribune has an article in the August 16th edition.
Read and discuss. 🙂
This man has had an enormous impact on my life, I’m a little speechless so won’t even try. We’re playing 16 Candles tomorrow at MITP, just so you know. Wanna come down and celebrate that life/grieve a little with us?
