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EmbalmingEva – “Mouth Open Wide”

“Mouth Open Wide” is the latest music video from the Duluth synth act EmbalmingEva. The musicians, Galalee Wright and Jesse Hatten, directed, shot, edited and performed in the video.

PDD Quiz: Alan Sparhawk Projects

In honor of his recent solo release White Roses, My God, this edition of the PDD Quiz looks back at Alan Sparhawk’s many musical collaborations.

A current events PDD Quiz comes your way on Nov. 24. Please submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by Nov. 21.

These Extraordinary Days

In the introduction to their book The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis, the authors wrote, “The world is on fire, from the Amazon to California, from Australia to the Siberian Arctic. The hour is late, and the moment of consequence, so long delayed, is now upon us. Do we watch the world burn, or do we choose to do what is necessary to achieve a different future? Who we understand ourselves to be determines the choice we will make. That choice determines what will become of us. The choice is both simple and complex, but above all it is urgent.”

Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac talk about the various climate events that have contributed to a more fragile planet over the past fifty years. The populations of mammals, fish, reptiles and birds have declined by 60%. Half of the world’s coral reefs have disappeared. Also, the Arctic summer sea ice is rapidly shrinking.

Over the past several months, we’ve been reading about the extensive wildfires in California and Canada as well as the ever rising temperatures in Phoenix and other parts of the Southwest. And now, we’re watching wildfires in Oklahoma, historic heat records in the central region of the United States, new hottest night records in Indonesia and Thailand, and a year’s worth of rain fell in 8 hours in Valencia, Spain.

Thoughts on Obstetric Violence and a Call for Stories, Art, Etc.

Recently, I wrote on this site about Caesarean section, trying to nail down my thoughts and my questions around C-section, especially the ways that it seems statistically over-prevalent in the United States. I am trying to wrap my brain, too, around questions of consent — what does it mean to consent to C-section in a context where a doctor recommends it.

Postcard from the Lighthouse at Duluth, Minn.

This 120ish-year-old postcard shows the Duluth Harbor South Breakwater Outer Light on the Canal Park side of the Duluth Shipping Canal during a storm.

Tug Duluth Adventures

The DreamWorks animated television series Trolls: The Beat Goes On!, which aired from 2018 to 2019, featured a recurring character named Tug Duluth. Whether the orange-skinned, purple-nosed troll has anything to do with the city of Duluth, Minnesota, is not known, but nonetheless we present this recently released compilation reel.

Chester Park restaurant recycles ‘Pigeon House’

A Better Futures Minnesota worker removes shingles from the roof of the ‘Pigeon House.’ The home was purchased and recycled by owners of the nearby restaurant At Sara’s Table / Chester Creek Café. (Photo by Mark Nicklawske)

Deck-side diners at a popular Chester Park neighborhood restaurant are treated to glorious Lake Superior views but staff knew an abandoned house — in a direct line of vision — could easily spoil the scene.

The “Pigeon House” had to go — but not to a landfill.

Duluth 2024 General Election Results

With 4,103 of 4,103 precincts reporting, here are the statewide general election results for races relevant to Duluth.

FEDERAL OFFICES

President and Vice-President of the United States
Kamala D. Harris and Tim Walz – 1,653,657
Donald J. Trump and JD Vance – 1,514,261
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Nicole Shanahan – 24,426
Jill Stein and Samson Kpadenou – 16,669
Chase Oliver and Mike ter Maat – 15,620
Write in – 13,269
Cornel West and Melina Abdullah – 3,508
Claudia De la Cruz and Karina Garcia – 3,423
Shiva Ayyadurai and Crystal Ellis – 3,226
Rachele Fruit and Dennis Richter – 857

Climate>Duluth: An Interview with Gaia Vince

Climate>Duluth host Tone Lanzillo interviews award-winning science writer Gaia Vince, author of Nomad Century: How Climate Migration Will Reshape Our World, published in the United States by Flatiron Books in 2022.

Boxcar – “Freedom March”

On Election Day, Duluth band Boxcar‘s new video reminds Americans that “love of country begins with love of our countrymen and countrywomen.” The group’s second album, Black Noon, was released in October. The “Freedom March” video was edited by Adam Jones from public domain footage.

Boxcar is playing a three-week residency on Tuesday nights at Pizza Luce — Nov. 12, 19 and 26. A curtain will be pulled to block the view from the dining area and the band will face the bar.

All Souls Night Poetry

Below are photos from the Duluth All Souls Night poetry reading. The event was held at Studio 4 (formerly the Underground) at the Depot on Nov. 1.

Did Kiss play Duluth twice in 1974?

Fifty years ago today — Nov. 3, 1974 — Kiss played the Duluth Arena in what is believed to be the band’s first of eight Duluth shows spanning five decades.

But the documentary TV series Biography released a two-part episode on Kiss in 2021 that briefly shows a handwritten 1974 tour schedule with the band slotted to play Duluth on March 27. Did Kiss play Duluth twice in 1974? Or does the documentary use a fake schedule scribbled together to create imagery for an interview cutaway shot? Or was there a canceled Kiss show before the real one seven months later?

PDD Geoguessr #29: Lake Superior Lighthouses

The Duluth North Pier Lighthouse (Photo by Matthew James)

On Nov. 10, 1975 — 49 years ago next week — the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank in a Lake Superior Storm, killing all 29 crew members on board. As noted in Gordon Lightfoot’s ballad, “The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald,” the ship sank during a November gale, a Great Lakes weather event in which Artic air from the north collides with Gulf air from the south, creating hurricane-level winds. With the Lake Superior Marine Museum’s Gales of November event approaching, this post takes a look at the lighthouses that historically guided Great Lakes ships to safety during these storms. It concludes with a Geoguessr that includes Lake Superior lighthouses in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ontario.

Two-headed Calf and the Power of Stories

I own thousands of books and comic books. I own fewer books than comics — I have grown disenchanted with the novel, as a form of storytelling, because it sucks me away from the world that I want to be part of, to find meaning in. So my shelves are filled with nonfiction books that I can reference, instead of read cover to cover. They are filled with poetry books and prose poems, writings by mystics and cranks. And they are filled with comics.

Comics read quickly but reward reflection — I can zoom through 20 pages while waiting for a teenager who takes forever to kiss their girlfriend goodbye, or I can slowly reflect on a page or two that tugs at my heart and makes me think.

The Laura Gilpin poem, “Two Headed Calf,” has become the source for a lot of internet comics.

For example, the two-page comic below by Little Tunny (their name on Twitter and on Patreon).