Vansplaining, Episode 4: Mikaela Davis and Southern Star
In the fourth episode of Vansplaining, Duluth’s Alan Sparhawk performs a one-of-a-kind magic trick for Mikaela Davis and her band Southern Star.
In the fourth episode of Vansplaining, Duluth’s Alan Sparhawk performs a one-of-a-kind magic trick for Mikaela Davis and her band Southern Star.
My name used to be Anna. Now it’s Mamahoney. You can call me Mama, or Honey, or Mamahoney (but not Honeymama: Honeymama was my mother’s name). Honestly, I’ll probably respond to any combination of these sobriquets because the sooner I do the faster I can get back to this Jim Butcher wizard mystery I’m reading. And I really want to get back to it because it takes place in another city, which is not anywhere in my house. In fact, not one part of this fantastic story about how a handsome, middle-aged wizard solves supernatural crimes whilst single-parenting a daughter and negotiating the perilous political landscape of the supernatural world’s equivalent of the United States Senate (if it were diverse and cared about anyone) — not one single page — takes place in my house. Amazing!
I, like many of you (or a couple of you if you’re college-aged and reading this in Texas or Florida), have not been out much in the past five months. For nigh half a year, I, my partner, and our loin fruit have confined ourselves nearly entirely to our house. Our house, in case you’re curious, is 1,000 square feet of space, with two bedrooms, one bathroom, and very nice original woodwork. It’s decorated just how we want it, and doesn’t resemble an oubliette in any way, save one — the fact that we cannot leave it. This has made us all a little barmy. And not in the cute, eccentrically quirky way, like we’ll take up painting with dark chocolate or bat guano or something. More in a Grey-Gardens-meets-Biosphere kind of way.
Thomas Spence’s photos of the landscapes and wildlife of the North Shore have been published and featured in regional and national magazines and TV shows. His Instagram feed is filled with the critters that we all know are around, but rarely get to see so up close and personal. He talks about how he got started with his photography and the patience required to get shots like these.
TS: I have been taking photos with a DSLR for about seven years. I used to carry a point-and-shoot around on trips and gatherings, just to capture the moments with friends and family. I never really was into scenery or wildlife with a camera growing up. In 2007 I gave up a loooong drinking career and needed a new hobby. I wanted to take better photos and I wanted to capture two things. Waterfalls with that silky smooth look, and northern lights. I bought a little Canon digital point-and-shoot and was able to figure out how to do long exposures on it. I learned that camera and was able to get some northern lights photos and the waterfall look I was trying for. I was hooked. In 2011 I took a road trip through the Smoky Mountains and south to Kennedy Space Center. It was that trip that I decided I needed a “real” camera. I think I bought my first DSLR in 2012. Lake Superior, the surrounding State Parks and Superior National Forest soon became my daily haunts. I was mainly doing landscape photos, but I see incredible wildlife on a regular basis, so I knew I needed a long lens to add to the camera. I found myself going into the woods to search for wildlife a lot more once I had the “reach” with a long lens. I live in a great place on the Sawbill Trail in Tofte. When I leave home, if I turn left, I can be on Lake Superior in minutes for sunrise or sunset. If I turn right, I am in Superior National Forest where I see Moose, bear, wolves, lynx and more on a fairly regular basis.
There seems to be a gardening boom in 2020, obviously due to more people staying home during the pandemic. West Duluth has a bit of a reputation for having had numerous gardens a century ago that slowly petered out in more recent decades. According to an article in the Aug. 7, 1920 Duluth Herald, gardening in West Duluth got a big boost from the neighborhood’s commercial club.
The League of Women Voters held this candidate forum for District 3 St. Louis County Commissioner on July 29. Pat Castellano is the moderator.
As the pandemic drags on, the best way to stay on top of all the physically spaced apart, hand sanitizer dispensing, mask wearing concerts, markets, garden tours and similar hoopla continues to be the PDD Calendar.
Once a month we reach out with a beggarly blog post to remind everyone that human beings and not machines are at work editing and publishing calendar events on Perfect Duluth Day. So if you appreciate it, drop a few bucks in the PayPal account, yo.
Duluth artist Carolyn Olson has been inspired by essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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.
Local poet Crystal Gibbins has published in North American Review. It’s fantastic.
Boathouse Treats and Treasures vintage market, 2009 W. Superior St., will open its doors Saturday, Aug. 8. It is located in the former Carr’s Hobby Shop building. (Photo by Mark Nicklawske).
Owners of a new jam-packed vintage market located in a former Lincoln Park hobby shop have announced a grand opening date.
Footage from the Duluth Harbor Cam of dawn breaking over Lake Superior on Aug. 4.
The 1920 Duluth lynchings is the subject of a series of three short videos released by PBS-TV’s Independent Lens. The videos share the title A Lynching in the Family. Part one, above, is subtitled “Accuser, Instigator, Victim.”
There are a thousand ways to let your inexperienced children get themselves killed before they are old enough to know better. Letting them chase around and harass wild animals such as Canada Geese in Chambers Grove Park is as good as any. Check out this link to why letting your cute little 3-year-old daughter chase 50 wild geese in circles is an all around bad idea before you lose your mind over the stranger advising you against this activity, you silly lady.
This postcard was mailed 110 years ago today — Aug. 4, 1910 — from A. Nelson in Duluth to Miss Louise Skoug in Two Harbors.
According to the Historic Detroit website, the North West “began its life as one of the finest passenger steamers ever built for service on the Great Lakes — and, after a series of unusual events, ended that life by being torpedoed by the Germans during World War II.”
In the third episode of Vansplaining, Duluth’s Alan Sparhawk talks with Canadian folk band Cat Clyde about the benefits of saline vaporization.
Laura Weber, editor of Minnesota History magazine, and Chad Montrie, author of the new Minnesota History cover story, “In That Very Northern City: Recovering a Forgotten Struggle for Racial Integration in Duluth” discuss the history of racial integration in Duluth.
