R.I.P. Viking Lounge & Liquor

Fox 21 reports crews were demolishing the Viking Lounge & Liquor building in Superior yesterday. The bar at 1501 N. Fifth St., and its upstairs apartments, were condemned after a Thanksgiving Day fire.

Postcards from the Fish Fry Lodge

The undated postcard above, published by W. A. Fisher Company, shows the Fish Fry Lodge on Highway 61 near Duluth.

Alan Sparhawk Live at Le Guess Who?

Alan Sparhawk, backed by a trio of fellow Duluthians, played six European Union shows in November 2023. The first was at Jacobikerk, a Protestant church in Utrecht, Netherlands, as part of the Le Guess Who? music festival. The embedded video above is from that performance.

Duluth Book Releases in 2024

Every year a gob of books by Duluth-area writers and/or about Duluth-area topics hit the shelves of local bookstores and warehouses of e-commerce corporations. Here’s a look at what’s new and coming soon in 2024.

Do I own this star now?

I picked this up in a thrift store. The frame is worth as much as I paid for it — the certificate is a bonus.

Nolen Sellwood’s imaginative songs have arrived in Duluth

Nolen Selwood

Nolen Sellwood brings his creative spark to the Northland.

Nolen Sellwood hit the music scene in January as part of a live event produced by Minnesota Public Radio’s “The Current.” His performance delivered a fresh, new sound to the Duluth audience.

Big Into – “The Jupiter Song”

Take a tour through the solar system with Iron Range natives Curtis Kraft Mattson and Jozef Conaway. Their nerd-rock band Big Into is releasing a music video every month for each new track off their upcoming EP. “The Jupiter Song” is the fifth video in the series.

Saturday in Canal Park

Some kids appeared to be having fun in Canal Park Saturday.

PDD Quiz: Basketball

Drive to the basket and take your shot at this week’s basketball-themed PDD Quiz. Shout out to PDD user llinmpls for suggesting some of this week’s questions!

The next current events quiz charges your way on March 31. Submit question ideas to Alison Moffat [email protected] by March 26.

Minnesota hockey hair featured in the New York Times

The New York Times reports this week on Minnesota as the “global hub for hockey hair.” The feature includes the story of Graff Mellin, the junior forward for Hairmantown, who went against the mullet trend with a buzzcut leopard look.

Dance Monkey

For those of you hungry for a three-and-a-half-minute dance session, here’s another Kirwan Klassic from Duluth’s Jean Kirwan. It features go-go dancers performing to “Dance Monkey” by Tones and I.

Hawk Ridge housing proposal under scrutiny

The Duluth News Tribune reports there is concern in the community about a proposal to rezone about 4 acres of land in the Hawk Ridge neighborhood for the Bald Eagle Estates housing development.

Who had the “biggest deal in town”?

The Lakewalk Voyageur Inn has finally been completely demolished (after a long time of sad hotel half-rooms on the hill). Revealed is this old sign. What used to be at that location?

Cargill buying spree on Park Point exceeds a dozen properties

The Duluth News Tribune reports Duluth Mayor Roger Reinert wrote a letter to billionaire Kathy Cargill in February asking to discuss her plans for properties she and her representatives purchased on Park Point. The Star Tribune reports two properties sold at the end of February on Minnesota Avenue’s 1500 and 1400 blocks. Cargill’s limited liability company, North Shore LS, has acquired a dozen properties on Park Point in the past 14 months. The Strib notes “the LLC also owns a home on the point bought in 2021, and a Lake Superior shorefront condo in eastern Duluth.”

The Nerd Habit of Collecting Signatures

As I mentioned in a previous post, at MarsCon in Bloomington last weekend the son of a nerd who had died was selling his father’s collection of media, books, games and ephemera.

I picked up the Doctor Who cookbook from the previous century, some trading cards, all for pennies on the dollar. Perhaps the best find, or at least the one I can’t ever imagine finding again, was the single by the actor who played the third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, “Who is the Doctor?”