PDD Herzog Zone
If you’ve followed Perfect Duluth Day for any length of time you know one of the more prolific commenters is “Helmut Flaag,” who for a five-year stretch went under the handle “Herzog.” I’m often curious about whether people enjoy his contributions or find them annoying.
Personally, and as one of the moderators of PDD, I have mixed feelings. I often find Helmut/Herzog’s remarks to be well crafted and amusing, but they occasionally consist of a flurry of antagonistic threadjacks about how lumbersexuals are destroying rock and roll with their old-time banjo music.
So it’s time to start a thread specifically dedicated to our mysterious opinionated friend. (more…)
My friends went to Duluth and all I got was this crummy mug
… at least it wasn’t a T-shirt.
R.I.P. Francine York
Aurora, the Iron Range city about an hour north of Duluth, was home to Francine York. “From the 60s and into the 70s, she was a guest-star on dozens of series, with some of her most remembered roles from Batman, Lost In Space, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, and The Streets of San Francisco.”
Bleeding Cool has the obituary for this Northland celebrity.
To the Battlements, Wherever and Whatever They Are
I think about September 11th a lot. More, lately.
I was working at Duluth’s now-defunct Ripsaw newspaper at the time, and we were confounded for the first hours. Do you remember the world in which an attack on U.S. shores was impossible? The idle impenetrability of the United States? We invaded. The world was our bully pulpit. But that day, the paradigm shifted as surely and as immediately as that of a new mother, who, in the second her child leaves her body finds her heart, her worst fears, vulnerable and exposed to the worst the world has to offer. You could almost hear it, the snap of collective consciousness as the reality became apparent, over the day. One hour at a time, our perceived security, the luxury of our superiority, rolled away like so many layers of fog.
My sister came and picked me up. We drove around, listening to the soundtrack from the Coen Brothers’ masterpiece, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and tuning in to the news for updates. We smoked a million American Spirit cigarettes. We felt scared.
Later, I stood on the balcony of my third-floor apartment, on the phone with my best friend. “We’re going to war,” he said.
“Definitely,” I replied. (more…)
(It’s all about that) Duluth Bass Player Adam Booker
Woot for the local artist, internationally recognized. In the Contrabass Conversations podcast from Prague, Duluth bassist Adam Booker is interviewed about …
- traditional jazz bass lines and what notes were really being played
- confessions from a former string neurotic
- what surprised Adam the most about academia
- Stefon Harris and his description of scales as a collection of emotions
- hanging up on Milt Hinton … and then watching Jeopardy! with him
- not just creating great bassists, but creating great people
Lutefisk Hotline
As seen on the Twitters.
Selective Focus: Kristina Estell
For the first Selective Focus of 2017, we start off with Kristina Estell’s sculpture and installations which depend on form and material but are also defined by their locations around the world.
K.E.: I studied sculpture in undergrad at Herron School of Art and in graduate school at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Very early in my art education, I knew I was interested in making serial sculptural work that interacted with architectural and outdoor spaces as opposed to singular traditional forms that lived on pedestals. In recent years, I have become primarily an installation artist who creates dimensional work with a variety of materials, processes and spaces. My work is often site-specific or site-responsive … making projects that consider a particular location and/or context. Silicone molding rubber, natural stones, fabric, live plants and gold leaf are a few of my favorite mediums. In between larger projects, I love taking up the process of watercolor painting and have an ongoing series based on bubble wrap packaging material. (more…)
The cost of adding solar panels to a Duluth home or business
The Duluth Shines! solar application launched this week, allowing Duluthians curious about the viability of including solar in their home or business energy mix to use an interactive map to find results for installation sizing and cost. UMD’s Geospatial Analysis Center is in the process of digitizing a few remaining neighborhoods in the city, and expects the application to cover all buildings in Duluth by February. (more…)
Brief Summer Swim Shot
Been waiting to post this for deep winter: a few seconds of crystal clear underwater summertime Lake Superior.
O’Neill’s Pub and Liquor in Superior is closed
After 23 years in business, the owners of O’Neill’s Pub and Liquor closed its doors after ringing in the new year with customers on Saturday.
The laid back Irish pub at 3333 Tower Avenue in Superior featured weekly $1 tap beer and $2 Bloody Mary specials and had the distinction of being Superior’s only drive-through liquor store.
In 2014, Thrillest touted O’Neill’s as one of the top ten drive-through liquor stores in the country. Wisconsin is one of only six states where this modern convenience is legal. (more…)
Paul Metsa – “Christmas at Molly’s”
This video slideshow, produced by Andy Watson of ANDVD Media, was released just before Christmas. It features a song written by Paul Metsa in 1990 as a loving tribute to Molly O’Kash Muench Spaun, proprietor of Molly’s Bar in Superior. Spaun died in 2013 at the age of 99. Molly’s Bar closed in 2005 and became Tower Avenue Tavern.
In Duluth on a little booziness trip
This novelty leather postcard is presumably from the era of Prohibition.
Postcards from Glensheen
Oh, that Congdon opulence. Glensheen Mansion and Museum, “the Historic Congdon Estate,” has been open for tours since 1979. In this post we look at some early postcards from the historic house museum, which of course looks very much the same today. Above is the north entrance of the Jacobean manor house. (more…)
Perfect Duluth Day’s Best Videos of 2016
Among the 250+ videos that landed on PDD in 2016, we’ve chosen 17 to feature as “the best.” From music videos and aerial waterfall footage to everything in between, here’s how people amused themselves with cameras in Duluth this year. (more…)
PDD Quiz: 2016 in Review
[This post originally contained an embedded quiz created on the platform Qzzr. It is no longer available at its source.]
We bid farewell to 2016 with a recap of regional happenings.
Flashback: Denfeld and Marshall defeat Milford … in a comic
It was New Year’s Day of 2007 when the first of a series of Gil Thorp comics that referenced Duluth was published. According to a Duluth News Tribune story that week, writer Neal Rubin typically uses the names of actual high school teams in the comic, and simply liked the team name Denfeld Hunters. Frank McLaughlin is the artist who drew the strip. (more…)
2016: The Year in Duluth Gig Posters
By no means is this a comprehensive collection, nor is it a carefully curated archive of the best. It’s just a bunch of 2016 concert posters the PDD crew was alert enough to toss in a folder for use in this feature. Enjoy. (more…)
Saturday Essay: Select gems from 2016
Last week we highlighted the five most-read pieces from the first year of Perfect Duluth Day’s “Saturday Essay” series. This week’s focus is on five essays of similar quality that might have been missed by readers who were cleaning their attics, fixing their hot rods or relaxing at the cabin on the particular Saturdays these stories were originally posted.
The first 50 essays in our series showcased the work of 16 different writers; we hope to expand that roster in 2017. Anyone who has an original piece of literary excellence that seems to fit (or appropriately defy) the established format should email paul @ perfectduluthday.com to get involved.
And now a few select gems from season one, in random order … (more…)
Selective Focus: Harry Welty
Every winter, at least when the conditions are right, Harry Welty turns his front yard into a sculpture garden of sorts, making huge snow sculptures on the side of his very steep hill at 21st Avenue East and Fourth Street. Here’s how it all started.
H.W.: I am a snow sculptor. Like every kid in Minnesota I started by making snow men and snow forts. My ideal work environment is a field of snow on a sunny day in the thirties – the kind that makes for perfect snowballs. If I had a muse it was my Mother who, as a baby boomer Mom, wanted me to be the artist she aspired to be. I was more interested in politics although I always thought being a political cartoonist sounded like a great occupation.
(more…)
Crows Attacking Snowy Owl at Sunrise
Shot this morning in the Duluth area by Richard Hoeg for 365daysofbirds.com.
The Lifespan of the Herring on My Sandwich
I had guests in from Ontario, from the part of Canada that is south by a long drive from Duluth. We talk often about that oddity, about how strange it feels to drive north to the United States from Waterloo. (more…)
R.I.P. Fizzy Waters, Crabby Ol’ Bill’s
Two Duluth businesses owned by Steve and Susan Smith are closed. Fizzy Waters was a specialty soda and candy shop that recently moved from Canal Park to West Superior Street. Crabby Ol’ Bill’s was a food stand that operated out of an old boat in Canal Park. (more…)
Christmas Waves at Tetteguche
Gary Fiedler of Radiant Spirit Gallery captured the power Lake Superior’s waves at Tettegouche State Park on Christmas Day.
New Vietnamese restaurant open in Superior
Fans of phở have a new place to enjoy the savory Vietnamese soup. Phở Cali Vietnamese Noodles Restaurant opened Dec. 17 in the former Lan Chi’s building at 1320 Belknap St. in Superior. (more…)