Graffiti Graveyard

The video by Shawn Donovan that previously was embedded here is no longer available.

Mystery Photos: Wide Awake and Green Dragon Studios

The three gentlemen in the photos above appear to be the same guys in different positions in front of different backgrounds with different cowboy outfits. They also are at two different Duluth photo studios, according to the ink stamps on the back. The first is from the Green Dragon Studio at 18 E. Superior St., and the second is from the Wide Awake Studio at 10 E. Superior St.

A look at the two-level infill house in West Duluth

Enter, a digital biweekly publication from the creators of Architecture MN magazine, takes a look at “a new prototype for building affordable houses on narrow lots in Duluth.”

Cry on Cue – “Sweetheart Like You”

The video for the first release from the fifth album in the Duluth Does Dylan series — Free Wheelin’ Duluth Does Dylan — is by Cry on Cue, featuring Bernie Larsen on vocals and various instruments, Alan Sparhawk on “big guitar” and Erik Koskinen on drums. The video is directed by Larsen and features Cassidy Linder.

Freewheelin’ Duluth Does Dylan will be released by Spinout Records on May 26 during the Duluth Dylan Fest.

1930s Footage of Duluth’s Streetcars and Incline Railway

The Minnesota Streetcar Museum presents this rare collection of Duluth streetcar footage from the 1930s — much of it in color — including scenes from West Duluth, Woodland and Downtown. The video was written, produced, narrated and directed by historian Aaron Isaacs, with production assistance from Bill Olexy.

Duluth’s streetcars were replaced by buses in 1939.

PDD Quiz: Homegrown 2022

Grab your field guide and start getting (cautiously) excited about the return of the Duluth Homegrown Music Festival with this week’s quiz!

The next PDD quiz rolls your way on April 24; it will cover this month’s headlines. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by April 21.

Bury Me in Hot Sauce

There is a Medieval legend of the honey mummy: holy men consuming nothing but honey until their excreta and fluids turn to honey, whereupon they die and are sealed in honey-filled stone caskets for a hundred years. Bites of their candied flesh are said to have curative powers, mystically evading definitions of cannibalism.

When I am 75, I will stop eating and drinking anything except hot sauce. After a month, my bodily fluids will become hot sauce. I will poop fiery chili paste like a sambal. The endorphins released with every bowel movement will keep me high as a kite. I will pee siracha sauce squirting like a squeeze bottle. My seminal fluid will be an organic salsa verde. My salivary glands will secrete tabasco. Weeping serrano tears from cayenne eyes, everything I see will have an apocalyptic tint. The interstitial fluid between my cells will run with fermented habanero. Since an all-out hot sauce diet is unsustainable, I will die. Fill a stone coffin with artisan ghost peppers, pureed scotch bonnets, Trinidad scorpions, jalapenos aged in wooden casks, vinegar, salt, lime, onions, and garlic. Place my body inside. Then seal it for 100 years.

Selective Focus: Emily Koch

Left: Photograph of Emily Koch. Right: “Self Portrait” 20×28. Oil on wood panel.

Emily Koch is a surrealist painter from Duluth. She studied fine art at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, graduating in 2020 and has worked as a freelance artist since then. She is drawn to all things queer, feminine and counterculture.

Hotel Pikku, an early Lincoln Park revival project, is up for sale

The building at 1923 W. Superior St. was constructed in 1899 and houses the Hotel Pikku and Hemlock Leather works. (Photo: gregfollmer.com)

A small, stylish boutique hotel that opened in a renovated historic building and helped transform Lincoln Park into a hip, trendy neighborhood is now for sale.

The three-suite, second-floor Hotel Pikku, 1923 W. Superior St., opened after owners Chelsy Whittington and Andy Matson purchased the building in 2016 and spent more than a year remodeling it. Hemlock Leatherworks, a custom shoemaker, is located on the ground floor.

Homegrown Music Festival Field Guide 2022 has arrived

The 24th annual Homegrown Music Festival is less than a month away. The 100-page Field Guide is off the presses and will be available at Duluth-area bars, restaurants and other businesses over the course of the next few days.

Monthly Grovel: April 2022

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Zlata Chochieva? 311? Trampled by Turtles? Weird Al? The only reliable tool to help weigh the upcoming concert options is the PDD Calendar.

Each month we reach out with one beggarly blog post to remind everyone that human beings and not machines are at work editing and publishing calendar events. So if you appreciate it, drop a few bucks in the PayPal account.

The colors of water

 

 

Red: Whiteface Reservoir. Orange: French River. Yellow: French River. Green: Lake Superior. Blue: Lake Superior

MMA Squirrel Fighting: Crazy Carl vs. Buster the Beast

Wild Cam North — a production of Duluth’s Brian Luoma — presents this classic mixed martial arts backyard squirrel battle. It’s a no-holds-barred contest in which Crazy Carl defends his championship against Buster the Beast.

Exploring the Cramer Tunnel

Duluth Urbex recently took an icy trudge through Minnesota’s longest train tunnel. The Cramer Tunnel, about 70 miles northeast of Duluth, connected the former LTV Steel Hoyt Lakes taconite plant with its ore dock at Taconite Harbor.

Minnesota Wolf Pack Sauntering Through a Winter Wonderland

The Cranberry Bay Pack of Wolves at Voyageurs National Park strolled past a trail camera about two weeks ago during a snowstorm.