Selective Focus: Jeffrey T. Larson
Jeffrey T. Larson is a painter and founder of the Great Lakes Academy of Art, located in the former St. Peter’s Church, 810 W. Third St. Larson has been working and teaching a classical style of painting in that location since 2015. There will be a student-instructor exhibit at the school May 24-26. Larson talks about his classical training and how working and teaching fit together for him.
JTL: I was fortunate to have found and be accepted into one of the last ateliers (studios) left in the world taking on apprentices and training them in the manner of the old masters. It was a sort of visual Julliard. I work pretty exclusively in oil paints. The tradition that I studied in is really more about retraining your eye to see nature honestly and truthfully as it is about learning how to paint. My style is really my reaction to what I see as beautiful filtered through my personal aesthetics. More simply put, I would call myself a classical impressionist. (more…)
Ingeborg von Agassiz – “Rebel Robin”
Videos from the 2019 Homegrown Music Video Festival are starting to make their way to the internet, and as usual Perfect Duluth Day has a page for that. In this post we spotlight Killy Kay‘s video for Ingeborg von Agassiz‘ “Rebel Robin.”
Fly High Duluth Flag
Props to the person who answered “the phrase ‘fly high duluth'” on the city’s flag survey!
I’m also amused by “This town is dying. Thanks.” Savage, yet polite – quintessential Duluth! (more…)
Duluth Boat Club circa 1906
This photo from the Detroit Publishing Company shows the Duluth Boat Club on the bay side of Minnesota Point at South Tenth Street. A previous clubhouse existed where Bayfront Park is today, but the facility shown in the photo above was built in 1903 and was destroyed by fire in 1951. (more…)
Duluth Harbor Canada Geese Cam
Dennis O’Hara’s video of the lake freighter Walter J. McCarthy Jr. passing under the Aerial Lift Bridge features a couple of special guests.
Postcard from Thompson Hill Information Center and Rest Area
This undated postcard has the following text on the back:
The Thompson Hill Information Center and Rest Area is located at the junction of I-35 and US 2 on a 28 acre site overlooking the St. Louis River Valley and the Duluth-Superior metropolitan area. The Information Center is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with tourist and travel information and road condition reports available during the day as a service of the Minnesota Highway Department.
Video: Duluth stilt walker takes a tumble
Allison Simonson of Princeton, Minn., captured this rather unfortunate moment when a stilt walker took a face plant on the Duluth Lakewalk this past weekend. Ouch.
You could move to Duluth and walk right into Chuck Klosterman’s office
Manhatten-based humorist Micah Osler drops the D-word six times in a May 11 piece in The New Yorker titled “Hi, It’s Your Mom, and I Have Some Advice for Your Job Search.”
The article is entirely from the voice of a mother on the phone, mostly offering employment advice based on hot tips like, “Dolores works up in Duluth, and she says that everywhere in Duluth is hiring.”
Art in an Unusual Place
Photo of Artist by Carrie Boberg
I went to see the exhibit by Rob Adams, as discussed on Radio Gallery. It’s being shown within the workspace of a professional design company in Downtown Duluth. (more…)
PDD Quiz: Parks of Duluth
Now that spring has (maybe) sprung, Duluth’s many parks and green spaces are beckoning. Take this week’s quiz to learn more about parks located in neighborhoods from Central Hillside to Congdon Park. While an earlier PDD quiz explored parks on the western side of town, it’s no longer available because the platform supporting the quiz changed, so we’ll revisit western parks and other neighborhood parks in future PDD quizzes.
Duluth’s Historical Parks: Their First 160 Years, by Tony Dierckins and Nancy S. Nelson, was an invaluable resource for this quiz (as was Dierckins’ Zenith City Online).
The next quiz, reviewing current events, will be published on May 26. Please email question suggestions to Alison Moffat at aklawite@d.umn.edu by May 23. (more…)
Adult Braces
Last year, I got adult braces, which are distinct from kids’ braces in several ways. They were the tooth-colored kind, made of ceramic, so you could not call me metal mouth, just brace face. No one did, which is the first way they differ. I was 14 the first time I had braces. They did their job, but the effects had a statute of limitations.
Getting braces a second time became a priority when midlife seized me. About to turn 40, I had a classic crisis during which I asked the important questions: Who am I? Am I living my best life? And: ugh, can I get my teeth fixed?
I could, actually. My two girls had gone through orthodontic treatments one after the other, and because I was such a good customer, the orthodontist gave me a deal: the price of one person’s braces in addition to two other people’s. Paying for braces three times is another way adult braces differ from kids’.
At first, I was surprised at the pain. Tylenol couldn’t touch the deep soreness the braces caused. Advil, Aleve, margaritas, nothing helped. The pain caused me to hold my mouth half open and make weird hand-shields while talking at work. I apologized to people repeatedly during this period, asking for my grossness to be excused. (more…)
Pictures of Spring
Naomi’s photography blog is great at sharing images of Duluth. Yesterday she shared this beautiful image of the return of Spring.
A Nice Catch of Trout from Northern Minnesota
The text on the back of this undated postcard from Gallagher’s Studio of Photography reads simply: “A nice catch of trout from northern Minnesota.”
The 2019 lake and stream trout seasons open on May 11.
Ken Bloom’s Tweevening
Ken Bloom packed the Tweed for a “Tweevening.” Ken is a photographer who directs and occasionally curates shows, and as he retires, the Tweed is celebrating his medium. (more…)
Missing Person: Julian Daniel Decoux
On May 5 an adult foster care home in Canosia Township, about five miles north of the Duluth International Airport, reported a resident was missing. Julian Daniel Decoux was last seen outside the home earlier in the afternoon. Deputies and volunteers from the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office searched the area around the foster home, aided by both canines and aerial drone technology, and did not locate Decoux.
The sheriff’s office is asking for help from anyone who may have seen Decoux or knows where he is.
Decoux was last seen wearing a bright green winter hat, an orange hooded sweatshirt, a black vest, black pants and new grey tennis shoes. Anyone with information should call 911 or contact the Sheriff’s Office Investigative Division in Duluth at 218-336-4350. (more…)
Shooting with Sparky: Greater Prairie Chickens
Mark “Sparky” Stensaas visits Tympanuchus Wildlife Management Area, about 230 miles west of Duluth, observing greater prairie chickens for his blog, the Photonaturalist.
Thunder Bay loves Duluth
One thing this discounted T-shirt makes fairly clear: Duluth will not automatically reciprocate your love.
Thanks to Tomasz Majewski for finding it.
A People’s History of the People’s Free Skate
Hear the totally true story of the People’s Free Skate Rink from its creators: Lake Superior Aquaman and Robot Rickshaw interviewed by Ryan Welles on his podcast “True Stories and Other Damage.” Featuring the genesis of it, all the behind the scenes information, anecdotes, and a few extravagant claims, finishing up with the harrowing account of our iceberg ride.
Where in Duluth?: First Trailwalk of the Season
Is this too easy? I only get here a few times a year, so it seems alien landscape to me.
Can you tell I have a new phone?
The Stonemans – “Two Kids from Duluth Minnesota”
“Two Kids From Duluth Minnesota” by the Stonemans first appeared as a 45rpm single on RCA Records in 1969. The following year it was included on the band’s album Dawn of the Stonemans’ Age, which was later remastered and combined with the 1970 album In All Honesty and released under the title of the latter. (more…)
Selective Focus: Homegrown 2019: Brunch & Recovery
Select Instagram photos from day eight of the Homegrown Music Festival. (more…)
May the Fourth (Doctor) be with You on Free Comic Book Day
May Fourth was a great day for nerds around the Duluth area. Claimed by Star Wars fans with the slightest bit of imagination, only the slightest, the Fourth of May is Star Wars Day. I cringe, still, every time I hear someone say “May the Fourth be with You.” Except when William Shatner says it, because the irony I read into it is delicious. (more…)
