Kirsten Aune puts kaleidoscopic spin on textile folk art

Kirsten Aune is preparing work for a group art show she co-organized with her sister for the Nordic Center for FinnFest. “Inspiraatioita: Finnish Art and Design in Minnesota” will be on display July 27-30. Read more about it from MPR News.

Two Harbors healthcare organization wins national attention

The Commonwealth Fund spotlights Two Harbors’ Wilderness Health in its recent feature on “How Regional Partnerships Bolster Rural Hospitals.”

Hidehiro Otake, Photographer of the Northwoods

Hidehiro Otake first passed through Duluth in 1999, following a literal had-while-sleeping dream. He had been a college student and budding photographer living in Tokyo when he dreamt one night that he was in a cabin in an evergreen forest and outside was a wolf gazing back at him.

EmbalmingEva – “RBMK”

Duluth synth act EmbalmingEva‘s debut video is directed and edited by Marcel Hones with creative direction and styling by Catherine Karakas.

MN Moder – “Love Letter”

The new video from Duluth-based hip-hop artist Zachary Moder, aka MN Moder, is a love letter to music with visuals by Montclair Media.

MN Moder performs at Wussow’s Concert Cafe on June 7 as part of the weeklong Pete Fest.

Minnesota Historia: Boomtown!

The history of Minnesota’s Iron Range is full of boomtowns. That word usually refers to any town that grows rapidly due to economic prosperity. But in the case of Eveleth, “boomtown” took on a more literal definition. Twice.

Minnesota Historia is a PBS North web series dedicated to Minnesota’s quirky past. It is hosted by Hailey Eidenschink and produced/edited/written by Mike Scholtz.

Postcard from the Passenger Station at Duluth circa 1910

This early 20th century postcard shows the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Passenger Station, which was located in Duluth’s old waterfront warehouse district — basically between Amsoil Arena and the Ordean Building where I-35 is now.

Duluth kids use miniature nuclear reactor for stickball backstop

Duluth is name-dropped in the new Netflix action/comedy series FUBAR, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, which premiered last week. In episode 4, titled “Armed & Dane-gerous,” the regional Central Intelligence Agency director informs a team of operatives that a medical glass manufacturer in Duluth went bankrupt and left a miniature nuclear reactor in the basement, where kids used it as a backstop for their stickball game.

Lake Superior Writers 2023 writing contest winners announced

Lake Superior Writers has announced the winners of its 2023 writing contest. There were nearly 200 entries focused on this year’s theme of “Connections.” First place winners in each category received $200 and their works can be read online at lakesuperiorwriters.org.

Navigating at Home

Katya Gordon of Two Harbors is in the new Minnesota Women’s Press.

The 2023 Half-Moon Pack of Wolf Pups

The 2023 Half-Moon wolf pack has seven pups and all appear to be in good shape.

The Voyageurs Wolf Project is focused on understanding the summer ecology of wolves in Voyageurs National Park, about 100 miles north of Duluth. Donations to its annual fundraiser help study how many of these pups survive to adulthood and pays for the equipment that captures footage like this. Donations can be made via crowdfund.umn.edu.

Miller Music Company: Photos from the Estate of Ben B. Miller

One century ago the Miller Brothers opened Miller Music Company at 8 W. First St. in Duluth’s Spina Building. According to the Kathryn A. Martin Library’s Archives & Special Collections at the University of Minnesota Duluth, “Abe Miller was a violinist and the manager of the Duluth Symphony for 37 years beginning in 1932. Ben was an assistant manager of Northern Drug prior to launching the music store in 1922.”

PDD Quiz: May 2023

As the Northland shifts into summer mode, see how many May 2023 headlines you remember with this week’s current events quiz!

Hartley Park will be the subject of the next PDD quiz, which comes your way on June 11. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by June 7.

Times I Was Secretly High: An Apology Letter

Well, it looks like it’s finally going to be legal to smoke weed for funsies in Minnesota, which is terrific news for all of the people languishing in jail for smoking or dealing weed for funsies in Minnesota. Law is the ultimate example of the abject arbitrariness of reality: we have an entire system of rules and consequences established around the specious assertion that smoking weed, and all practices associated with it are, well, objectively bad. And not just rules and consequences, an elaborate — and until very recently, shared — ethos that avers a deep and persistent truth: using marijuana is dangerous and wrong. What a hoot.

Being a human is such absurdity, most of the time — how does anyone keep a straight face? Like so many of you, I have struggled with some of the more frittersome or idiosyncratic morae introduced as inalienable verities: men do this, women are that, and you’re either one or the other; these are the ways we cover our bodies with cloth, but these ways are terrible and wrong; these animals are great to eat, but these ones are friends … Sometimes, the whole world seems like a very elaborate game of make believe we’re all playing together. Through the right lens, even the houses we live in, with two sinks in the bathrooms, secret refrigerators, walk-in closets — it’s all like some fantastical fever dream.

Advertisements from the Duluth Public Library Nostalgic Newsstand Sale: Frigidaire

The Duluth Public Library’s Nostalgic Newsstand Sale was a source of many things to write about. Here is another advert from my collection of now-recycled magazines.