The Slice: Tips from a Northern Lights Photographer

Photographer Travis Novitsky shares his methods for gathering images that capture the beauty of the aurora borealis.

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.

Lanue – “September”

The second video from Sarah Krueger’s new music project Lanue was edited by the artist herself, mixing her own footage with clips from the public domain. The Lanue album is available on Bandcamp, Apple Music and Spotify.

Greetings from Superior National Forest

This collection of old postcards depicts scenes from the Superior National Forest, 3.9-million acres of woods and waters in northeastern Minnesota’s “Arrowhead Country.”

The We All Belong Creativity Exhibit

The We All Belong Creativity Exhibit, an all-campus art show at the University of Minnesota Duluth with art, poetry and video makes its debut today. It is focused on the 2021 Summit on Equity, Race, & Ethnicity theme: “Being Antiracist, Doing Antiracism.”

Daniel Duluth, the Duluth Stone and the Plot to Steal America

It’s been six years since the dubious Duluth Stone appeared on the History Channel series America Unearthed. The episode recently made it to YouTube, and is embedded above. Perfect Duluth Day relegated mention of the topic of the Duluth Stone to an April Fools Day post in 2016.

Is it a hoax? Well, if only we could ask Daniel de Gresolon, the Sieur Dulhut. Or “Daniel Duluth,” as they call him on the History Channel.

Amazing Grace grocery transition complete; sit-down cafe service and music will return after pandemic

Connor Riley - Amazing Grace Cafe + Grocery

Connor Riley – Photo by Lissa Maki

Amazing Grace Bakery and Cafe, a Canal Park mainstay over the past 25 years, is branching out into the grocery business in 2021. Owner Connor Riley said sit-down dining and music will eventually return to Amazing Grace, but for now he’s focused on the new boutique grocery store aspect of the business, which opened in January.

PDD Quiz: February 2021 in Review

Test your memory of February 2021 headlines with this week’s current events quiz!

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, the next PDD quiz will look at Irish (and Irish-adjacent) things in the Twin Ports; it will be published on March 14. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by March 11.

Dreams and Themes

Last week I had a series of interconnected dreams over three nights. I was first introduced to the idea of interconnected dreams by the book A Little Course in Dreams: A Basic Handbook of Jungian Dreamwork by Robert Bosnak. The book is pocket-sized which makes the title a self-referential joke. But the book has had an outsized influence on me. I don’t always agree with its interpretations — dream interpretation is a subjective crapshoot — but it helped.

I am blessed with the ability to easily remember and interpret many of my dreams. The revelatory insight from the book was the idea that dreams can come in clusters over many nights. I began noticing themes and symbols evolving over time. I frequently see this across spans of three or four nights. And some symbols have recurred over my entire life and continue working themselves out. As Bosnak writes, “Dreams often group themselves around specific themes that begin to unfold over time. Images go through a continual process of change, and such a process can sometimes be followed in a series of images that have presented themselves to someone as dreams. The insight that emerges when we study a series of dreams is that dream figures are in a constant state of development. Like any living organism, they come into being and decay.”

Cory Coffman – “Midnight Callin'”

Duluth’s Cory Coffman has released the third music video promoting his 2020 album Canvas and Color.

Videography by Alyssa Johnson of Blind Spot Creatives. Editing by Mason Lehto.

Duluth’s Sharon McMahon on the Daily Show

Former government teacher Sharon McMahon appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah on Monday, sharing why she started her fact-based Instagram account @sharonsaysso and explaining how she separates fact from conspiracy, breaking down the difference between a lie and bias.

The Duluth News Tribune reports McMahon was president of the political science association at the University of Minnesota Duluth. She taught in St. Paul, the San Francisco Bay area and a Maryland suburb of D.C. before returning to Duluth.

Duluth News Tribune: “Duluthian appears on ‘The Daily Show,’ CNN for her viral Instagram account that slays conspiracies, promotes facts

Selective Focus: The Old West End

Photographer Nik Nerburn (previously on PDD) has just published a book of photos and stories following the last few years of transformation in Duluth’s West End, more recently and commonly known as Lincoln Park. We get a sneek peek at a few of the images in the book.

John Rudd turning a complete somersault on skis

As documented on this old postcard, Duluthian John Rudd is credited as having performed the first somersault on skies. It happened at Chester Bowl, then known as Chester Creek Hill.

Riverbend Skate Path in Warroad

About 200 miles northwest of Duluth, the Warroad River connects two ice rinks with a 2.5-mile skating path cleared by local dads.

Also in wild skating news, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is mentioned in the National Geographic online story, “‘It really is like flying.’ Explore wild skating on nature’s ice.” The article “glides across icy geographies, including Minnesota, Colorado, Alaska, and Vermont, where a 4.3-mile skate trail on Lake Morey ranks as the longest in the U.S.,” according to a blurb on the publication’s Travel newsletter.

The Slice: Duluth Lakewalk Reconstruction

Watch reconstruction of the Duluth Lakewalk unfold over the past year in this time-lapse video, compiled from footage via Veit & Company.

Voyageur Wolves: Cranberry Bay Pack

Four members of the Cranberry Bay Pack of wolves cross the camera in this video from the Voyageurs Wolf Project. The wolf that stands in front of the camera is a pup that was born last spring.

Cranberry Bay is on Rainy Lake, about 125 miles north of Duluth in Voyageurs National Park. The Voyageurs Wolf Project is focused on understanding the summer ecology of wolves in the park.