Heely Tricks with JamesG: September 2020
Another monthly installment of wheeled-sneaker stunts from former Duluthian James Geisler, also known as the hip-hop artist JamesG.
Another monthly installment of wheeled-sneaker stunts from former Duluthian James Geisler, also known as the hip-hop artist JamesG.
Duluth’s Hoops Brewing won its first Great American Beer Festival medal at the 2020 awards ceremony held Oct. 16. Hoops’ 325 Pineapple Chili was awarded the gold medal in the Chili Beer category. It’s the fourth year in a row that a Duluth or Superior brewery has won a gold medal at the festival.
Earth Rider Brewery in Superior took home two silver medals this year — Royal Bohemian Pilsner in the Kellerbier or Zwickelbier category and North Tower Stout in the Oatmeal Stout category.
Artist Moira Villiard and her team created a mural at 2024 W. Third St. this past summer through a number of artist grants. The team included Michelle Defoe, Aurora Webster and Heather Olson. This video was produced and edited by Dudley Edmondson.
The back of this postcard photo indicates it was shot at the Owl Studio, 10 E. Superior. St., next to Duluth’s Empress Theatre. It’s the same address as the Wide Awake Studio, which was featured in a previous Mystery Photo.
The pandemic gave Adam Swanson time to complete 14 paintings of endangered animals. But it also gave him time to think. In this short documentary by filmmaker Mike Scholtz, Adam wrestles with the importance of art, and art openings, in our lives.
Use the link below for a printable PDF for your drawing and coloring pleasure.
Duluth You & Me: A Storm on Lake Superior
Follow the Duluth You & Me subject tag to see additional pages. For background on the book see the original post on the topic.
Presenting the world premiere of “Central Hillside ’91,” the new single and video from Breanne Marie & the Front Porch Sinners. The song is full of early 1990s nostalgia, and the video was shot and edited by David Syring, with scenes captured in Duluth’s Central Hillside neighborhood, of course.
Duluth is mentioned six times in The Burnt Orange Heresy, a new movie starring Elizabeth Debicki, Donald Sutherland, Claes Bang and Mick Jagger. The fictional Duluth Star Ledger newspaper also appears, featuring the headline “Esko woman goes missing.”
The recent passing of Eddie Van Halen reminded me of a favorite topic: the musician as inventor. I refer to the invention of objects, techniques, and concepts. It’s invention in the service of an art form. For instance, musical instruments are invented, then shaped with further inventions which make additional modifications possible. Musicians have always been inventors. Here are some of my favorite examples.
Rock and Roll Itself
The invention of rock music, with its pedigree of blues, gospel, and so on, is these days commonly attributed to Chuck Berry in the early 1950s. Berry produced the musical mutant that would conquer the world when he combined rhythm and blues with country and western guitar licks, then packaged it with guitar solos and other showmanship. His signature duck walk may be considered a lasting invention, still in use by Angus Young of AC/DC who credits Berry for, well, everything. Berry was influenced by Sister Loretta Tharpe, whose 1944 song, “Strange Things Happening Every Day,” is sometimes considered the first rock record.
Hannah Palma is a potter who has blended her love of woodcut printmaking into her process of working with clay. This week she talks about that combination, and how our big lake inspires her designs.
HP: I work with earth; I work with clay. I feel like all my life ceramics was calling me to it in one way or another, but it wasn’t till my time at the university that I found it would be my deepest passion.
I was born and raised here in Grand Marais, where my love and curiosity for the wild and nature was fostered. I grew up in a little cabin on big land where when the leaves left for the winter you could get the slightest peek of the never ending view of Lady Lake Superior.
Musician Ian Alexy is documenting his life and career during the COVID-19 pandemic through a documentary titled Making it Shine.
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.
This photo of Serpent Lake, about 80 miles west of Duluth, includes an illustrated map of the route. It appeared in the Duluth Herald 100 years ago today — Sept. 16, 1920. Let it serve as a reminder to wear a white shirt and a tie when paddling.
When the pandemic started, painter Aaron Kloss decided to create a new painting every day and post it on his Facebook page. Six months later, he’s still going strong. In this short documentary by filmmaker Mike Scholtz, Aaron talks about why he paints and shows off some of his work.
Duluth-based folk singer Gavin St. Clair has a new EP titled Goodbye and performed a livestream concert last night on Facebook. The show starts around the 3:25 mark on the video above. Fundraising campaigns can be found at paypal.me/gavinstclair and venmo.com/gavin-clair.
Matinee Musicale has been putting on chamber music performances in Duluth since 1900. This year the entire season of performances will be online, for free, released monthly on Matinee Musicale’s YouTube channel.
