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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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).
Art by Nelle Rhicard at reframeideas.com.
Food insecurity, housing insecurity, poverty and social justice are intertwined, a knot of problems facing our community. Thirteen percent of Duluthians face food insecurity, and over 54% of renter-households are rent burdened. Often these difficult social problems are addressed by nonprofit organizations that run food pantries or housing shelters. They build affordable housing and support people living on the street. While these workers are heroes, they are also human, and their stories are also intertwined with larger issues like poverty and social justice. These frontline workers are also often former college students who enter the job market with the consequential task of supporting those who others have left behind.
Alan Sparhawk launches “The White Roses Tour” this weekend with four shows in Europe followed by stops in 14 U.S. cities during the month of November. The new lyric video for “I Made This Beat” is a helpful guide to learning all four of the words in the song.
The 30th season of the Haunted Shack ended on Saturday. This video goes behind the scenes to see what it takes to create the scares.
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.
From the graveyards of Duluth, Josh the Rapper throws down about the impending holiday.
Superior Porchfest took part in the 10th annual Superior Spooktacular Parade on Saturday, represented by musician Steve Solkela. The video was made by Bret Holland.
This undated postcard, published by the W. A. Fisher Company, features a Kodachrome photo of the Aerial Lift Bridge circa maybe the early 1960s.
