New harbor commission seeks to buy Madeline Island Ferry Line

Minnesota Public Radio reports the town of LaPointe has formed a harbor commission is negotiating with the owners of the Madeline Island Ferry Line to purchase the business and transfer its assets to public ownership.

The Committee for Building a Giant Colossal Statue of Bob Dylan

Proposal: Building a Giant Colossal Statue of Bob Dylan in Lake Superior by Duluth’s Aerial Lift Bridge Canal.

Video: Duluth State of the City Address 2023

Via PACT-TV, Duluth Mayor Emily Larson outlines priorities for Duluth with her State of the City address, which she gave on March 22 at the West Theatre.

Mayor Larson’s remarks begin at the 20:30 mark in the video.

Video Archive: UMD Women’s Hockey Championship Threepeat

Twenty years ago today — March 23, 2003 — the University of Minnesota Duluth won it’s third consecutive NCAA Women’s Hockey Frozen Four championship defeating Harvard 4-3 in double overtime at the DECC Arena. The news footage embedded above is from KBJR-TV.

Selective Focus: Wintery PDDs

Select photos from Instagram spanning mid-February to mid-March 2023, all hashtagged with the name of a certain website. #perfectduluthday

Superior Siren – “Love Poem”

Laura Sellner of Superior Siren directs this new music video, produced by Illy Killy with cinematography by Chris Linder. The video was shot in Duluth at the Oliver G. Traphagen House and Jade Fountain Cocktail Lounge.

The song “Love Poem” is from the 2021 solo EP Kill Your Darlings.

The Slice: Duluth Fiber Guild’s 50th Anniversary Show

The Duluth Fiber Guild‘s 50th anniversary installation, Janet Meaney and 50 Years of Fiber Art, is on display at the Tweed Museum of Art through May 21.

I wrote Bob Saget’s last movie and it’s coming to Duluth

Twelve years ago I wrote a movie called Killing Daniel. Two years after I wrote it, I optioned it to Darius Films in Toronto, Canada. At the time I had no idea it would take a decade before it would be finished. In that time the script went through more rewrites than I can count, numerous actors signed on and departed from the project, and we lost the original director and were director-less for quite some time.

Ripped at Frozen Man in 2003

[Editor’s note: For this week’s essay we’ve once again pulled out a relic from the archive of Slim Goodbuzz, who served as Duluth’s “booze connoisseur” from 1999 to 2009. Twenty years ago the Sultan of Sot wrote the article below for the March 19, 2003 issue of the Ripsaw newspaper.]

One reason to be nice to your bartender is that she will likely throw a party some day, and you will want to be invited. See, bartenders are good at throwing parties because … well, they’re bartenders. They have connections to all the good drinkers, and they know who the big-time assholes are. This allows them to “cast” their parties.

The party I’m going to tonight is called “Frozen Man.” I won’t provide too many details, like the name of the host, the date or the location, because I want to be invited back next year. I will tell you that Frozen Man is held in the Duluth Township, just outside of Howdy-Dotyville, where a good bonfire/campout/drinkfest can go down without someone creating an ordinance to stop it.

The concept of Frozen Man is to drink alcohol around a fire when it’s really cold out. There are various activities and rituals and surprises throughout the night, but the main purpose is to see how much cold your body can endure before you either die, go home crying or prove you are more powerful than nature itself.

The Great Lakes Aurora Hunters

This Twin Cities Public Television segment follows a group of photographers chasing the Northern Lights in Minnesota.

Bonnie Shea: Duluth’s first female hockey player

The University of Minnesota Duluth’s public relations and marketing department presents the story of Bonnie Shea, Duluth’s first female hockey player. Read more about Bonnie at news.d.umn.edu.

Mostly auto-colorized photos of Duluth and Northern Minnesota

During the pandemic, I colorized six early Duluth photos, which was absurdly time consuming but seemed like as good of a way as any to spend some evenings inside. A friend of mine recently informed me that Adobe Photoshop now has a tool that will colorize photos automatically with far better results than my drawing over pixels method. He was somewhat correct.

Duluth Monitor on the London East Townhomes

Regularly, I am ecstatic to live in a city whose politics so smoothly reflects my values. And regularly, the Duluth Monitor reveals that, when it comes to its regulatory authority over developers utilizing the limited resources of space and property, my city lets me down, always choosing to side with people with money.

Enger Park Little League circa 1963-1975

The Ensign Community Club built and maintained the Enger Park Little League Field at the dead-end of West 13th Street, just below “The Boulevard.” Fans flocked to the games and parked along neighborhood streets and on Skyline Parkway to see games play out below. Along with the field was a basketball court that doubled as a tennis court. The neighborhood built the field and maintained it for about 15 years.

London Road roundabout plan riles residents

Minnesota Public Radio reports that the Minnesota Department of Transportation is moving forward with a plan to install a roundabout at 60th Avenue East and London Road despite objections from residents.