Harley Race proposed to third wife on a drive to Duluth

PDDTV May 07, 2024 No Comments

[This post originally contained an embedded video that is no longer available at its source.]

Season five, episode five, of the Vice-TV documentary series The Dark Side of the Ring delves into “The Life and Legends of Harley Race,” a world champion professional wrestler whose early career included a run in the Minneapolis-based American Wrestling Association. At the 13-minute mark in the episode, Race’s third wife, Evonna Hedbávný, tells the story of Race proposing marriage on a trip from Minneapolis to Duluth in the early 1960s.

Apparently, even the toughest guy in the rasslin’ business can’t resist the romance of Duluth.


History ,

Selective Focus: Homegrown 2024 (The Weekend)

Paul Lundgren May 06, 2024 No Comments

Select images via Instagram from the final three days of the Homegrown Music Festival.

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Music , ,

Postcards: Steve Solkela

PDDTV May 06, 2024 No Comments

Steve Solkela is a comedian, and the only member of his one-man band, which includes accordion and cymbals among other instruments. Solkela finds joy in his music and his heritage, showcasing his talent and sense of humor to audiences all over the world.

This video is a segment from the southwestern Minnesota Pioneer PBS series Postcards. The May 2 episode focused on Finnish musician and artists. The Solkela segment is edited by Mike Scholtz.


Music, Videos , ,

The Slice: Pelicans!

PDDTV May 06, 2024 No Comments

Every spring pelicans flock to Chambers Grove Park in Duluth’s Fond du Lac neighborhood.

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.


Outdoors, Videos , , , ,

PDD Geoguessr Challenge #17: Duluth’s Sister Cities – Petrozavodsk, Russia

Matthew James May 05, 2024 No Comments

Petrozavodsk, Russia. Photo based on an interpretation of aerial imagery by Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Petrozavodsk, Russia became a sister city of Duluth in 1987. With a population of 250,000, its Duluth’s largest sister city. Petrozavodsk is the capitol of the Republic of Karelia and located on the western shore of Lake Onega. Like Duluth, Petrozavodsk has a lakewalk that features art from its sister cities. In 1991, artist Rafael Consuegra won a national competition to represent Duluth in a sister cities sculpture exchange with Petrozavodsk. Below is a picture of his sculpture, The Fisherman, that I took with a disposable camera during my brief visit to the city nearly 20 years ago.

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News and Current Affairs ,

Mystery Photo: Little Rufus Milne in 1894

Paul Lundgren May 05, 2024 2 Comments

This cabinet card photo is marked “Rec’d May 5, 1894.” It’s not entirely clear what received might specifically refer to here, but with some confidence we can say this photo is at least 130 years old and someone received it precisely 130 years ago.

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History ,

My phone call with Kathy Cargill

Jim Richardson (aka Lake Superior Aquaman) May 05, 2024 No Comments

Videos

Remember Watson

Eric Chandler May 04, 2024 No Comments

Goob, Fozz, and I hiked down around another switchback in the trail. We saw a family that passed us higher up on the mountain. A dad, his three kids, and a dog. I saw the dad standing there, blocking the trail. His son sat on a rock with his two sisters standing beside him.

As we got closer Dad said, “He’s not doing so good.” I assumed he meant his son.

I walked up and then saw the dog. Their golden retriever was lying on its side in the trail and panting. I thought: We’re part of this now.

Dad said, “His stomach is super hard, too.” I reached down and felt the dog’s stomach which had swollen up bigger than his ribcage. It was firm.

The Dad explained that the dog chased something and got all riled up. I can’t remember if he said it was a squirrel or another dog. But it was after the dog’s frantic chase and barking that he started to swell up.

“I think his stomach has flipped over,” I said.

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Random

Selective Focus: Homegrown 2024 (The First Five Days)

Paul Lundgren May 03, 2024 No Comments

Select images via Instagram from the first five days of the Homegrown Music Festival.

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Music , ,

Dirty Knobs – “Sticks on Skins”

PDDTV May 03, 2024 No Comments

Duluth’s auditory atmospherist Zac Bentz has a new Dirty Knobs album, Songs About Everything Dying Around Us, Including Us, set for release on May 31. The first visualizer is for the track “Sticks on Skins.” Bentz says the “hypnotic, looping visuals are meant as an aid to clear the mind, at least for a few moments, even if the music conjures visions of doom.”


Music

The Peoples Temple: A Unique Duluth Resource

David Beard May 02, 2024 No Comments

My friend and colleague Elizabeth Nelson has donated some remarkable materials to the archives at the University of Minnesota Duluth.

The Elizabeth Nelson Peoples Temple Collection contains items relevant to the alternative religious organization founded by Jim Jones, best known for a mass suicide/murder in 1978 at its “Jonestown” settlement in Guyana.

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Art, History, Politics

DuluthiLeaks: Duluth Foghorn Facts

PDD News Sieve May 01, 2024 No Comments

It’s been 100 years since Duluth’s original diaphone fog siren was installed at the Duluth Shipping Canal. That siren was decommissioned by the Coast Guard in 1968 and replaced by an electric whistle. In 1983 another old diaphone foghorn was acquired and installed. It was used on a ceremonial basis until 1995, then returned to regular service as a maritime aid to navigation. Community members immediately complained it was too loud. The controversy raged on until the horn was dismantled in 2006.

For the sixth edition of DuluthiLeaks — Perfect Duluth Day’s series in which public documents are presented as if they contain secret information leaked from an anonymous whistle blower — we present “Duluth Foghorn Facts,” a document and collection of images compiled by Jeffrey L. Laser of Bellville, Ohio. At some point after 1996, Laser put together the information below, delving into the nitty gritty of the diaphone foghorn that was housed in the Duluth South Breakwater Outer Light from 1983 to 2006.

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History ,

Arrowhead Regional Arts Council announces grant recipients

David Beard May 01, 2024 No Comments

The Arrowhead Regional Arts Council has announced its most recent grant recipients.

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Art

Star Tribune on Homegrown kicking off without the mayor

Jim Richardson (aka Lake Superior Aquaman) Apr 30, 2024 4 Comments


Music, News and Current Affairs

R. I. P. Florian Chmielewski

PDD News Sieve Apr 29, 2024 No Comments

Florian Chmielewski, leader of the Chmielewski Funtime Band and a Minnesota state senator from 1971 to 1976, died last week at his home in Sturgeon Lake at the age of 97.

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Music, News and Current Affairs, Politics, R.I.P.