Paul Lundgren

Duluth Button Collection

If you have a button to add, upload it to the comments. It’s one of the nice things about the Internet — we can all have a button collection without having to have a button collection. (more…)

Duluth Album Releases in 2006

Cheer Up Poems - Here Not Up ThereCheer Up Poems
Here Not Up There
Wire Heart

Sara Softich - Pipe DreamSara Softich
Pipe Dream
Available on CD Baby

Cneterville All Stars - Not Dead YetCenterville All Stars
Not Dead Yet

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Duluth Trail Update

Info from Duluth’s Parks and Recreation Division:

– The COGGS mountain-biking trails are not open due to wet conditions. It is possible the trails will be open next week.

– Kingsbury Trail is closed.

– Western Waterfront Trail is passable. Hikers are asked to use caution.

– The Lakewalk is repaired and open to the public.

– Chester Trail is closed

– Lester Ski Trail is currently being surveyed for damage. Use with caution.

– Hartley Trail is open.

– Lincoln Trail is closed.

– Superior Hiking Trail can only be summed up section-by-section …
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Happy ninth birthday to us

amy-abts august-rowley badger beer2astill BlackEyedSusans BobKaraoke brushstrokes christas-ass DaCrib dog-on-ice fitgers-beer-can FredTyson OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Geek GeekProm GoDuluth hazelsunglasses hotrod-heartthrob jerree-in-wig jjohnson louis-fire main-club-bob MrNice mvplvp pagan_cork pearl Psycho-Capone Ruvelplace ryan-van-slooten shaky-ray SHT Skateboarding borgbaci2 best ThankYouWilco BervLindsey

Perfect Duluth Day is nine years old today – Friday, June 29, 2012. We’ll be celebrating tonight at Tycoons Alehouse and Eatery (in the board room upstairs) starting at 8 p.m. There will be cake and an array of door prizes. Come on out and share in the merriment.

PDD Calendar entry | Facebook invite

What started as a fun little experiment for Barrett Chase and Scott “Starfire” Lunt in 2003 has grown into a hideous beast containing well over 10,000 posts about everything from wood ticks to roller derby. Thanks for all the support, whether you are a PDD user, lurker or just someone searching Google for karaoke photos.

Grand Cliffs Salon

The “Grand Cliffs Salon” lettering was hung last night. I didn’t have time to stop and ask questions, but apparently the Clifford Johnson legacy will continue in some form.

Duluth vs. Superior

On almost every point, Superior suffers by comparison. Duluth has 90,000 inhabitants; Superior has 30,000. Duluth has some of the most impressive nineteenth-century architecture in the Midwest; Superior is famous for asphalt shingles and insulbrick. Duluth is known for first-rate medical facilities; Superior has an oil refinery. Duluth has Spirit Mountain and a ski jump; Superior is flat as a turkey platter. Superior is clearly inferior to Duluth, but if you like an underdog, you have to love that town across the harbor. I sure do.

–Barton Sutter, from “Sister City,” an essay in his book Cold Comfort: Life at the Top of the Map

Watch out for trail-head thieves

I noticed a lot of broken glass last summer at trail-head parking lots, and last Friday I arrived at the parking lot at 123rd Ave. W. (Ely’s Peak, Munger Trail, Superior Hiking Trail) to meet a few folks who just had their car robbed.

So here’s your reminder to hide your valuables before leaving your vehicle and hitting the trails, unless you’re on a stakeout and plan to finally nab this punk (or these punks) in the act.

Lost Fedora in the Garden of the Plaza

Below is the text from an interesting Craiglist ad posted today.

You left me… – w4m (Downtown Duluth)
Date: 2012-06-05, 2:49PM

Me: Fedora laying in the garden of the Plaza on the corner of 5th Avenue West and Superior Street.

You: Wandering around with an outfit that is probably a mess without me. YOU HEARD ME. You’re a MESS without me.
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Blue Laws are Stupid, post #6

According to the latest poll by Public Policy Polling, Minnesotans continue to be in strong support of allowing liquor stores to open on Sundays.

Do you support or oppose allowing Sunday liquor sales?
Support …… 59%
Oppose ……. 27%
Not sure ….. 14%

There’s a bipartisan consensus on the issue with Democrats supporting it 61/22, Republicans 46/38, and independents 68/23. The only group that doesn’t support it is elected officials.

Duluth’s Mayor Ness: Cooler by the lake

“Duluth’s youthful chief executive is bringing fresh energy and, yes, a sense of hipness to the port city.”

Minneapolis Star Tribune: “Duluth’s Mayor Ness: Cooler by the lake

Truck crashing into Gordie’s Place

Gordie’s Place is in Little Canada, a suburb of the Twin Cities. This happened last night; the driver wasn’t drunk, but apparently had a “diabetic reaction” and lost control of his truck. Two patrons were injured.

“It’s going to be a great year for swimming”

Jay Austin, a lake researcher at the University of Minnesota Duluth, says Lake Superior is running warm this spring after a warm winter and lack of ice cover. The lake’s summer “turnover,” in which the warm water from below replaces cooler surface water, may occur in early June instead of the customary early July.

Star Tribune: “Warmup could bring Superior swimming

Duluth Album Releases in 2005

Low - The Great DestroyerLow
The Great Destroyer
Sub Pop Records (Jan. 24)
Available at Sub Pop’s Mega Mart

Boy Girl Boy Girl - Sugar Skull MakerBoy Girl Boy Girl
Sugar Skull Maker
(March 28)
Available on Amazon

Trampled by Turtles - Blue Sky and the DevilTrampled by Turtles
Blue Sky and the Devil
(April 20)
Available on Amazon

The Hobo Nephews of Uncle FrankThe Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank
Self titled
Consider it Correspondence (July 1)
Available on Amazon

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This ought to be the death of them

Duluth band Low is playing a concert in front of the caretaker’s cottage at the Minneapolis Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery on June 9.

View of Rice’s Point, circa 1961

Rices-Point-Duluth-1962

The above shot of Rice’s Point is from the Cliff’s Barber Shop Collection. It must be from 1961, as the new Blatnik Bridge (highlighted in the below) appears to be not quite completed in the photo.

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Where in Superior?

Black bear on the pier in Duluth

Thanks to photos from the Duluth Shipping News’ “bear cam” and an audio clip of Ryan Beamer, chief Aerial Lift Bridge operator, PDD now presents this delightful 12-second recap of yesterday’s events at the South Pier of the Duluth shipping canal.

Missing Person: Andrew Wagner

Andrew Wagner, age 47, has been missing from Cherry, Minn. since Thursday at approximately 8 a.m. He is believed to be at risk of self harm.

Wagner is Caucasian, approximately 6-ft. tall and 220 lbs., and has short salt-and-pepper hair and dark-rimmed glasses.

He is driving a distinctive red 1964 Volvo 122s, Minnesota license plate NX110, and was last seen at the Greenwood Cemetery in Virginia at 2:00 on the day he went missing. Anyone with information is asked to contact the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office at 218-479-6010.

Reflecting on Coolio in Duluth

Ten days before Homegrown 2012, Coolio came to Duluth. I find myself looking back and wondering how the hell I ended up at that show, standing in the back next to Jellybean Johnson, listening to a mid-1990s rap star talk about eating sushi at Black Water and how “Duluth bitches are all dimes.”

DNR: Full-on forest tent caterpillar invasion won’t be happening in 2012

The icky army worms are coming … but won’t be in full force this year.

Quizzard. Slizzard. Gizzard.

Homegrown Band Count, 1999 to 2012

“Ten bands, then 25, then 40 and 50. It would be nice to see it plotted out.” — Homegrown Music Festival founder Scott Lunt in today’s Duluth News Tribune

Here it is, plotted out:

Duluth’s job growth continues as Perfect Duluth Day adds half a position

As if recent news about AAR and Cirrus creating hundreds of jobs in Duluth’s aviation sector wasn’t enough, Perfect Duluth Day has announced the creation of one-half of a job in the important selling-square-boxes-on-the-right-column-of-websites sector. Yes, the Internet giant has launched a search for a part-time media sales representative.

Mayor Don Ness’ press conference regarding this major development is apparently still in the planning stages.

PDD Corporate President Paul Lundgren said the addition of this half job should put to rest any rumors that the popular website is considering leaving Duluth to take advantage of incentives offered by Hermantown and Esko.

“After months of working with city leaders, DEDA, APEX, the Duluth Area Chamber of Commerce, the West Duluth Business Club and for some reason the Duluth Amateur Hockey Association, we feel confident Duluth is the place to grow our business and add one half of a job,” Lundgren said, noting also that “interested candidates for the position can read a serious job description through the link embedded in this very sentence.”

The general public had no comment on the matter, because comments to this post are closed.

Duluth trails are now open

The city Parks and Recreation Dept. has determined trails are now dry enough for public use. Let the hiking and leashed dog walking commence.

Trail maps and info

Trampled by Turtles on Letterman (video)