Random
Preparing for FinnFest
Tomorrow, FinnFest starts in Duluth. It is an annual event that has been held all over the United States. According to the website, “FinnFest USA creates a broad national community involving all Finnish Americans, Finnish citizens living in America, and all Americans interested in Finland and/or Finnish America.” (more…)
Proving I am who I say I am
While I often avoid politics in my public writings, I want to take a few minutes to explain the life of someone different from most people, in a small way, that may reveal the complexities of some recent legislation proposed at the federal level. (more…)
Happy 21st birthday to us!
Duluth’s Duluthiest website was launched 21 years ago today. Join us for a party on the beach at Park Point at 5 p.m. as the Park Point Art Fair wraps up.
PDD Shop Talk: Duluth’s Duluthiest website celebrates 21 years
On Saturday, June 29, Perfect Duluth Day will be 21 years old. Because the anniversary falls on a day loaded with events, we’ve decided to loosely piggyback on one of them and hold our little birthday party on Park Point Beach as the Park Point Art Fair wraps up. We hope you’ll join us. (more…)
Duluth Brand Parodies: Derogatory Wordplay in Dull-youth
It probably happens everywhere just as much as it happens in Duluth. Someone intentionally replaces the name of a well-known person, place or thing with a similar sounding word or words, almost always in a belittling way, and other people think it’s funny and repeat it.
There should be a list of those, right? Well, here it is. (more…)
Garbage, Dog Turds and Polyethylene Owls
When I’m out walking and I see a plastic bag stuck in a tree, I always point it out to anyone who might be around and say, “Hey look, a West Duluth owl.” It’s a stupid joke that doesn’t get much of a reaction, but hey, so am I.
Making cheesy remarks might be the best action in that situation. There’s a clump of ugly garbage stuck in a beautiful tree, and my options for how to deal with it are to climb the tree or use a long device of some kind to somehow remove the bag, ignore the situation altogether, or pretend like I wanted that bag to be there all along to support the comedy of life.
I have similar statements I repeat all the time. If my childhood friend is telling me about her cancer diagnosis, for example, I’ll say, “I told you not to go swimming downstream of the steel plant.”
The tragedy behind the comedy boils down to something pretty simple: I want a clean environment, but I know that’s unrealistic. It’s also confusing, because a clean environment contains a lot of dirt. And seriously, a clean planet and a polluted planet are made up of the same things; the difference is how those things are arranged. (more…)
The Vintage Hideaway flips the script on antiquing
Nichol and Tony Hommerding, owners of The Vintage Hideaway. (Submitted photo)
A thrift and antique store in Hermantown has brought a fresh take on antiquing and thrifting in the Twin Ports. The Vintage Hideaway focuses on uniquely staging items, restoring pieces looking for a little bit of love and creating a welcoming environment by offering coffee and snacks in its pantry. (more…)
Jesus Christ Meets Bob Dylan in a Hotel Room in Tucson, 1978
Bob: I’m ready to accept you, Lord.
Jesus: Not so fast there Bob. I need you to do something first.
Bob: Name it Lord.
Jesus: I need you to rub out Jimmy Gravante.
Bob (stunned): The hitman?
Jesus: Your successor in the Duluth family, after you got out and became — this (gestures around). You know Jimmy — the sniper who blew you off your motorcycle in 1966 in Woodstock.
Bob: He hit the bike, man, not me. Sniper my ass.
Jesus: I’m going to need you to check your tone.
Bob: I’m sorry Lord. It’s just that he wasn’t even at 200 yards. He’s more like a potshot expert than a sniper. And my divorce is killing me. I just got off a world tour and my adrenal glands feel squeezed dry like little raisins. Think I’m coming down with something (sniffles). (more…)
Duluth authors Meg Hafdahl and Kelly Florence return to UMD to share insights with students
University of Minnesota Duluth alumni Meg Hafdahl and Kelly Florence spoke to students in the Writing Studies major in April. Hafdahl and Florence offered tips, tricks and profound insights into the publishing process. (more…)
Remember Watson
Goob, Fozz, and I hiked down around another switchback in the trail. We saw a family that passed us higher up on the mountain. A dad, his three kids, and a dog. I saw the dad standing there, blocking the trail. His son sat on a rock with his two sisters standing beside him.
As we got closer Dad said, “He’s not doing so good.” I assumed he meant his son.
I walked up and then saw the dog. Their golden retriever was lying on its side in the trail and panting. I thought: We’re part of this now.
Dad said, “His stomach is super hard, too.” I reached down and felt the dog’s stomach which had swollen up bigger than his ribcage. It was firm.
The Dad explained that the dog chased something and got all riled up. I can’t remember if he said it was a squirrel or another dog. But it was after the dog’s frantic chase and barking that he started to swell up.
“I think his stomach has flipped over,” I said. (more…)
NorShore?
Duluth’s NorShor Theatre is a bit of a copyeditor’s headache. People often misspell NorShor as “NorShore” or they fail to render the S as a capital letter. And since its proper name uses the British version of “theatre” and Americans prefer “theater,” we end up with numerous ways to screw up two words.
Apparently NorShor was being spelled wrong right from the start — or “NorShore” might have even been what was planned for the original spelling before someone decided to shorten it up — because an old sketch of the building, shown above, includes an E that never made it to the building’s tower or marquee. (more…)
“Stalked by My Stepsister” shot in Duluth
[This post originally contained an embedded video that is no longer available at its source.]
Local author Phil Sher sent me a note asking me to share that the Lifetime cable channel original movie Stalked by My Stepsister was shot in Duluth. It was released in October.
I think I can see the Lakewalk and Leif Erikson Park. I think I can see the interior of Glensheen. IMDB confirms the Duluth shooting sites.
Has anyone watched it, or know anyone involved in the shooting?
Attention Billionaires: Get Bent
“And, for an instant, she stared directly into those soft blue eyes and knew, with an instinctive mammalian certainty, that the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human.”
― William Gibson, Count Zero
Attention billionaires: get bent. As the recent “Cheerios” kerfuffle illustrates, Minnesota billionaire Karen Kathy Cargill is acting like a terrible neighbor in Duluth. Google her name to see the universally bad press she has unleashed upon herself. Basically, Mayor Roger Reinert had the temerity to point out that Cargill was not actually being helpful, and she ran crying to the Wall Street Journal, like ya do. It was there Cargill laid bare her toxic billionaire’s view of the world: “The good plans that I have down there […] forget it […] I think an expression that we all know — don’t pee in your Cheerios — well, [Reinert] kind of peed in his Cheerios right there, and definitely I’m not going to do anything to benefit that community.” Imperious much? Get bent. (more…)
Park Point Land Grab
This Duluth News Tribune article talks about Kathy Cargill’s comments about Duluthians in the Wall St Journal.
Said a billionaire Heiress named Kathy
“The locals are yokels
Their houses are crappy”
No accounting for taste
She bulldozed in haste
And wonders why the neighbors aren’t happy
Do I own this star now?
I picked this up in a thrift store. The frame is worth as much as I paid for it — the certificate is a bonus. (more…)
Saturday in Canal Park
Some kids appeared to be having fun in Canal Park Saturday.
The Nerd Habit of Collecting Signatures
As I mentioned in a previous post, at MarsCon in Bloomington last weekend the son of a nerd who had died was selling his father’s collection of media, books, games and ephemera.
I picked up the Doctor Who cookbook from the previous century, some trading cards, all for pennies on the dollar. Perhaps the best find, or at least the one I can’t ever imagine finding again, was the single by the actor who played the third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, “Who is the Doctor?” (more…)
Signatures for a Nerd
At MarsCon in Bloomington last weekend, the son of a recently passed nerd was selling his father’s collection of media, books, games and ephemera. I picked up the Doctor Who cookbook from the previous century, some trading cards, all for pennies on the dollar. (more…)
Duluth Island
The discovery of a scale model of Duluth, carved from black coral on a desert island in the South Pacific, sent shockwaves through the scientific community. The miniature cityscape lay in a hand-excavated chamber under the sand, on an uninhabited, unnamed island only half the size of a city block. The flat, round expanse of sand, if noticed at all by distant ships, seems featureless. At twenty feet above sea level, it fully submerges in some storm surges, and might not survive climate change’s rising seas. First appearing on maps in 1941 with a numerical designation, it was not explored until 2015. That’s when a team of American biologists, following a tagged sea turtle, navigated a black reef and set foot on what is now known as Duluth Island.
Sea turtles and sea birds liked the island well enough. It had no trees or flora visible from off its tiny shores, but up close it was seen to support beach grass and some shrubs. The thought of human habitation was so impossible it didn’t cross anyone’s mind until one of the team noticed a square slab of black coral in the island’s dead center. It measured thirty inches by thirty inches and was at least a few inches thick, set into the sand. It was either subsuming into the sand or emerging from it. The object, obviously the product of human labor, remained unexplained as the biologists departed. (more…)
PDD Shop Talk: Help Perfect the Perfection
For more than 20 years, Perfect Duluth Day has remained committed to serving up its content with no paywalls and without overly obtrusive advertising. That doesn’t make paying the bills easy, but with modest income from sidebar advertising and the generous contributions of readers we continue to get it done.
So if you appreciate the thorough listings of hoopla on the PDD Calendar and/or the features on the PDD Blog, kindly drop a few bucks in the PayPal account. (more…)
Minnesota Historia: Surf Rock on the Iron Range
After Minneapolis rock band the Trashmen scored a Top 10 hit with “Surfin’ Bird,” surf rock swept through Minnesota like a tidal wave, reaching up to Virginia on the Iron Range. Relive the rapid rise and tragic fall of Virginia band the Vaqueros on a very special musical episode of Minnesota Historia.
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.
Austin Castle and the Northern Pines – “Saratoga”
Austin Castle and the Northern Pines perform “Saratoga” in this video shot at Castle Danger Brewery in Two Harbors. The footage was recorded by Jose Leon of KTWH Two Harbors Community Radio and edited by Castle.
Austin Castle and the Northern Pines have a string of sporadic Saturday gigs at Castle Danger beginning March 30. Castle also performs monthly “Sunday Strumday” shows with bassist Ashe Burton at the Cedar Lounge; the next one is March 17.
Wings as a Fashion Accessory
Back in 2019 I was invited to speak at an arts-centered retreat called “Life is a Verb Camp” in North Carolina. My speech happened to fall on Halloween, so this camp organizer (author Patti Digh) had set a bunch of costume pieces out on a long table and told folks they could wear them.
I approached the table and there they were, shimmering: a large, green, sparkly pair of butterfly wings with two little arm straps. I fell in love instantly, and asked my husband Paul if he could hang them on the back of my chair. They slipped over the handlebars easily and suddenly my wheelchair was transformed into a fantastical thing of beauty. It’s like it had been waiting for the wings forever.
I wore them all weekend, long after my speech had ended, and the wings not only filled me with delight, but they brought cheer wherever they went. People would grin whenever I’d turn to the side, revealing the wings behind me. I realized, for the first time in my life, my wheelchair was finally a true visual expression of my internal aesthetic. If you could see the color palette of my soul you’d know it has a lot of sparkles, rainbows, flowers, and jewel tones. (more…)