Mayor Snively welcomes Blackfeet chiefs to Duluth in 1921
On May 4, 1921 — one hundred years ago today — newly elected Duluth Mayor Samuel Snively welcomed to the city five chiefs from the Blackfeet Tribe of Montana. (more…)
Video Archive: Movie “White Palace” too racy for Duluth
This clip from The Tonight Show features guest host Jay Leno showing the evolution of an ad in the Duluth News Tribune for the 1990 film White Palace at Superior’s Mariner 4 Theatres. Watch as Susan Sarandon’s dress expands up her torso. (more…)
Dave Simonett – “Central Hillside Blues”
Dave Simonette has a new EP out titled Orion. The first single, “Central Hillside Blues,” of course references the neighborhood in the middle of Duluth.
The EP is available via multiple internet platforms.
Videos: Homegrown 2021 Day One
The Homegrown Music Festival is underway, with video releases and livestreams throughout the week. (more…)
Elliot Silberman: Duluth’s Five-minute Sketch Artist
He’s a one-man band and a five-minute sketch artist. Presenting Elliot Silberman.
Homegrown Music Festival 2021 Primer
The Homegrown Music Festival is pretty much all online again this year, but things are a bit more organized this time around, with planned video releases and livestreams every day, May 2-9. (more…)
Your Team!
My aunt Meda died and I felt nothing. I was completely numb. Probably shell shocked, to be honest. I flew to New Jersey to be with her widow — aunt Maren — and my grandma, who lived with them at the time. I tried to help around the house, feeling nothing more than a dull ache that seemed wrong for the situation. I thought I was a sociopath, the pain not substantial enough for the tragedy.
The hurt hit me like a tidal wave when I stood in the TGI Fridays bar where Meda worked. I was helping to prepare the celebration of life when the realization set in that I would never see my fun, erratic, loving aunt again. The woman who welcomed her wife’s weird niece into her home for the summer months. The woman who loved pugs more than anything. The woman who was called “sir” at drive-throughs on multiple occasions when lowering her voice to try to sound cooler.
I cried when I heard Adele’s 21 for the first time after she died, knowing Meda had cultivated my love for the album.
Grief is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad time. (more…)
Seaway in Song
News that the Esmond building in the Lincoln Park Craft District might soon be demolished leads Perfect Duluth Day to note that the structure once known as the Seaway Hotel in Duluth’s Friendly West End has at least twice been referenced in music. (more…)
Demolition, apartments is new plan for Esmond building
The Esmond Building – formerly the Seaway Hotel – at 2001 W. Superior St. in Lincoln Park. The now vacant, city-owned building would be demolished and replaced with a mixed use housing project under a new redevelopment proposal. (Photo by Mark Nicklawske)
A historic but blighted building in the heart of the Lincoln Park craft district could be headed for demolition after plans to renovate the city-owned property fell through and officials started working with a new developer. (more…)
Duluth record labels boosted the scene, but are going extinct
Compact discs and cassettes of releases from Duluth record labels fill a plastic bin at the Perfect Duluth Day headquarters. (Photo by Paul Lundgren)
Mark Lindquist, the chief purveyor of local albums at the turn of the millennium, thinks he can succinctly describe the difference between the best-known Duluth record labels.
“Chair Kickers’ put out the most gorgeous records,” he said. “Spinout had the most professional. Chaperone had the coolest. And Shaky Ray had … the most.” (more…)
Torment – “Drown in Piss” (Instrumental Playthrough)
Submerged in urine once again, Duluth band Torment continues to fine tune for the day when rock shows resume in full force.
West Duluth kids rarely strayed from neighborhood in 1920s
An article in the Duluth Herald of April 28, 1921 — one hundred years ago today — calls attention to how western Duluth kids seldom ventured to the center of town, much less to the eastern side. (more…)
Blueprints of Paul Baby
Found the blueprints on the internet and this anonymous cartoon in an old notebook.
Paul Baby
Kweluude – “Bases,” “My Life” and “The Message”
Duluth artist Kwe Perry, aka Kweluude, has three tracks on the new Mixtape Project 6.0 release from DanSan Creatives. (more…)
The Slice: Homegrown Music Festival 2021
Duluth’s Homegrown Music Festival will be online again in 2021, due to COVID-19. In the clip above, festival director Melissa La Tour explains that musicians have submitted pre-recorded material that will be curated into daily releases on the festival’s YouTube channel.
In its series The Slice, WDSE-TV 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.
Postcard from an Outbound Freighter
This undated postcard from Zenith Interstate News Company shows a freighter exiting the Duluth shipping canal into Lake Superior. (more…)
PDD Quiz: April 2021 in Review
Wake up your brain with this week’s current events quiz!
Duluth’s Old Central High School will be the focus of the next PDD quiz on May 16. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at aklawite@d.umn.edu by May 12. (more…)
Gaelynn Lea: Three Performances for MPR
Duluth’s Gaelynn Lea was the Current‘s Minnesota Music Month featured artist of the day on April 23. This video is part of a series the singer-songwriter and violinist contributed as educational videos to YourClassical MPR. (more…)
“Things We Lost in the Fire” 20th Anniversary Visual Album
Duluth band Low has released a visualizer marking the 20th anniversary of the 2001 album Things We Lost in the Fire. Artists Shane Donahue, Julie Casper Roth and Allen Killian-Moore provide the visuals. (more…)
Video Archive: Duluth Missabe and Iron Range Railway, 1961
This 1960s-era film by Bruce Ward shows Duluth Missabe & Iron Range Railway 2-8-8-4 Yellowstone locomotives on excursions around and out of Duluth.
Selective Focus: Help Wanted
Perfect Duluth Day is looking for a new curator for its ongoing Selective Focus feature. Applications are being accepted through May 9.
Curator sounds artsier than coordinator, right? And it’s not really a writing thing, is it? Well, maybe it’s a bit of all three. (more…)
Frost River has gone solar
Frost River, a maker of canvas packs in Duluth’s Lincoln Park Craft District, is now powering its manufacturing facility and retail store with solar panels. The new rooftop panels are from EPF Solar of Minneapolis and were installed by Belknap Electric. (more…)
Video Archive: Norway’s royal couple given stirring welcome
Although Crown Prince Olav and Princess Martha of Norway did visit Duluth in 1939 for the dedication of Enger Tower, the footage in this silent film seems to all have been shot in Los Angeles a month earlier. Nevertheless, images of Duluth News Tribune stories are splashed across the screen at the start of the film. (more…)
Earth Day Special: “No More Pipeline Blues (On this Land Where We Belong)” with Bonnie Raitt, Indigo Girls
Bonnie Raitt, Indigo Girls Appear on Protest Song Against 'Line 3'
Bonnie Raitt and the Indigo Girls appear on a new song against Minnesota's "Line 3" pipeline, part of the resistance led by indigenous women.
rollingstone.com
Hey Duluth, how do you fit into the story this video depicts?
Here are some resources for getting involved as well as upcoming events.