Superior Porchfest 2024 Recap Video
The 2024 season of Superior Porchfest concluded on Sept. 5. The event is a free, family-friendly music and art series in which attendees can bring a blanket or lawn chair, pack a picnic and/or simply stop by to enjoy the show. The performances are typically held either on a residential porch or at a city park.
PDD Quiz: September 2024
Another month is in the books: how much of it do you remember? Check your memories of September 2024 headlines with this week’s quiz!
A Halloween-y PDD quiz comes your way on Oct. 13. Please submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at aklawite@d.umn.edu by Oct. 10. (more…)
Mystery Photo: Zweifel Studio Composite Print
John Rudolph Zweifel was a Duluth-based photographer from roughly 1885 to 1935. Several of his cabinet card portraits have appeared in Perfect Duluth Day’s “Mystery Photo” series over the years. Now a composite print of his work samples has emerged. (more…)
Iconic Curious Goods building for sale in Superior
Taimi Ranta has owned the Curious Goods building for about 35 years. (Photos by Mark Nicklawske)
A widely photographed building on one of the funkiest street corners in Superior is up for sale after a long run as an antique store, warehouse and spare apartment.
The Curious Goods building, 1717 Winter St., just off Tower Avenue, has been put up for sale by owner Taimi Ranta after about 35 years of using the property for her antique and vintage sales business. While Curious Goods featured an enticing and colorful storefront the space has been used only as a warehouse for the past two decades. (more…)
Alan Sparhawk – “Heaven”
Alan Sparhawk‘s solo album White Roses, My God drops on Friday. “Heaven” is the third video release from the record. It was directed and edited by Rick Alverson.
More on Sparhawk and the new album in the New York Times: “Alan Sparhawk of Low Lost His Other Half. He’s Learning to Sing Again.“
Minnesota mystery beast stalking the northwoods
The Voyageurs Wolf Project posted trail-camera video one month ago showing a “wolf-dog like animal wandering forests of northern Minnesota.” The scenes were captured last winter and the release of the video garnered considerable media attention — with some organizations offering competent reporting and others maybe more focused on a clickbait headline than careful attention to detail. A new version of the video, embedded above, pokes fun at some headlines that emerged after the initial video was released. (more…)
Ichiro Sushi & Ramen wows guests on Miller Hill
Bella, the robot server at Ichiro Sushi & Ramen, glides through the Duluth restaurant. (Photos by Melinda Lavine)
A cat-eared robot buzzed around Ichiro Sushi & Ramen. “Bella” sported white digital whiskers up top, and in its fur-less belly sat plates of fried rice and sushi.
After a series of silent maneuvers, Bella stopped at a table of two, where Cody Tesser served fellow humans their orders from the robot’s racks. (more…)
Postcard from the Incline
This undated postcard shows Duluth’s Incline Railway, which operated from 1891 to 1939. The tram system carried passengers from a housing development at the top of the hillside into the downtown along Seventh Avenue West.
PDD Geoguessr #26: Duluth City Limits
Arriving in Duluth (Photo by Matthew James)
“Twenty-six miles long and an average of 2-1/2 miles wide, Duluth is squeezed between rocky bluffs and the waterfront of Lake Superior and the St. Louis River,” a National Geographic reporter wrote when describing the city in 1949. This post describes some of the stranger contours of our long and narrow city with a Geoguessr challenge at the end to test your knowledge of the city limits. (more…)
Hoodies Are Stupid
I have four hooded sweatshirts in my closet. That’s probably not an unusual number, because the hoodie is a popular shirt style. It also seems like a very practical garment, designed to keep people warm and cozy. It’s like an indoor/outdoor jackety blanket for people who don’t want to feel weird about wearing a jacket inside or a blanket outside.
Though I sometimes wear hoodies and appreciate the idea behind the design, I don’t actually like them. The reason is that there are really only two things that differentiate a hoodie from a sweatshirt — the hood and the kangaroo pocket. And both of those things are stupid.
Yet, somehow, hoodies are far more popular than regular sweatshirts. The reason, I think, is because most people believe they sincerely like the hood and the jumbo single-pocket abdominal pad. But really, they don’t. They just can’t.
Surely hoodie lovers have been waiting for decades for someone to come along and explain how stupid they are. Well, here I am. Society is now just a few paragraphs away from the end of the hoodie, because everyone is going to agree with me, change their ways immediately, and heap praise upon me for freeing them from their misguided perceptions of fashion and comfort. (more…)
Shaky Ray Records Reissues?
I don’t remember where I heard this, but is it true that Shaky Ray Records is planning to reissue its local music recordings?
Big Into – “Used to Go”
The latest music video from Big Into includes cameos by a variety of other Iron Range rockers, but the real star is a cheese-flavored cracker. The video was shot at Mesaba Co-op Park near Hibbing.
Guide to Duluth-area Blogs
The journey of blogging from personal to institutional has been slow and steady, but there are still individuals crafting creative narratives about their lives and the things they love. Of course, there are also organizations that want to promote tourism, hotel rooms and merchandise by mixing in lists of the ten best trails to lure in readers. Whether the medium is better or worse in 2024 than in 2004 is up for debate, but blogging is, at least on some level, still a thing.
Every two years or so, Perfect Duluth Day scans the web to see who’s active in the local blogosphere, compiling a comprehensive-as-possible guide to the region’s active web logs. Below is the roundup as of September 2024. (more…)
Homestead Aurora
Duluth photographer Tone Coughlin captured northern lights scenes from Monday night’s stronger-than-expected solar storm. “It peaked around 10:30 pm and was so strong you could see it with the moon lighting up the foreground!” Coughlin wrote in the YouTube description of his video. “Another wonderful light show.”
Climate>Duluth: Andrew Boyd
Climate>Duluth host Tone Lanzillo interviews author and activist Andrew Boyd in episode #29. Boyd is the author of the book I Want a Better Catastrophe,” published in 2023 by NSP Books, and co-creator and CEO of Climate Clock.
PDD Quiz: Superior School Daze
Hit the books and test your smarts with this week’s quiz about Superior schools. (And check out a similarly-themed PDD quiz on historic Duluth schools here).
The next PDD current events quiz will be published on Sept. 29. Please submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at aklawite@d.umn.edu by Sept. 25. (more…)
Illustrating Hunger and Homelessness: AC Kirk
Art by Nelle Rhicard at reframeideas.com.
A group of University of Minnesota Duluth faculty, students and community artists came together to explore strategies to communicate the stories of frontline workers in housing and food insecurity. UMD students met AC Kirk, the Farms Coordinator at the Family Freedom Center in Duluth. (more…)
Sir Duluth and Father Hennepin on Mushrooms
Letters exchanged between Father Louis Hennepin and Daniel Greysolon, Sir Duluth. From a special collection at Northern Illinois University, translated from the French by Peter S. Svenson.
To: Daniel Greysolon, Sir Duluth
Montreal, New France
From: Father Louis Hennepin
Rome
Date: August 23, 1701
Dear Duluth,
Remember our exchange when you rescued me from my kidnappers? I asked you, “Do you have to look so much like a French musketeer?” And you replied, “I am literally a French musketeer. Do you have to look so much like Friar Tuck?” Forgive me. An old man on my deathbed, let me put things right. I anticipate my reward but I look back at the enemies I made. I hope you were not one. I only spent a short while in New France. And we did not know each other well. But we tore it up, didn’t we? I should think they will name a city after you someday. I will be content with a street or two named after me, perhaps a bridge. One doesn’t wish to be prideful. But you deserve your glories.
One thing bothers me. Please tell me what you remember of our time on Lake Superior, our final full day together. My memories of the event are confused. We caught no fish yet we were out there for hours.
Please accept, dear Sir, the expression of my most sincere feelings.
Louis
Morgan Park church wins place on national registry
United Protestant Church member Bob Berg, left, Moderator Marna Fasteland and Pastor Mitch Nelson stand in a back balcony inside the church sanctuary. The Morgan Park church was recently added to the National Register of Historic Places. (Photo by Mark Nicklawske)
A monumental concrete block church constructed by idle steelworkers in early 19th-century Morgan Park earned national recognition last month and will be a stop on a historic building tour this weekend in Duluth. (more…)
Duluth playwright interviewed on NME
New Beatles play Two Of Us explores John and Paul's final meeting
Writer Mark Stanfield’s 2000 movie has made a long and winding journey to the stage
nme.com
Duluth playwright Mark Stanfield was interviewed for an article published this week in the British arts and culture website New Musical Express, or NME. (more…)
Ian Alexy – “Dancing in the Dark”
Ian Alexy offers a take on Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” on his new EP of cover songs titled Campfire Extraordinary.
The performance footage in the video was shot by Sarah Jane Hale with assistance and lighting by Dan Dresser. The additional footage is from two educational films, Asking for a Date (1949) and Show ’em the Road (1954).
Armory fundraiser event seeks art submissions
The Armory Arts and Music Center is celebrating the 109th anniversary of the Historic Duluth Armory on Nov. 15. The fundraising event will feature 20-25 artists and their works, focusing on the theme of the evening: Preservation. (more…)
Postcard from the Willard Motel
This undated postcard shows the Willard Munger Inn circa 1970, when it was simply the “Willard Motel.” It is still in operation in Duluth’s Norton Park neighborhood. (more…)
Club One Under to replace Rex Bar at Fitger’s
Duluth's new sports bar features golf simulators - Duluth News Tribune | News, weather, and sports from Duluth, Minnesota
Club One Under is opening soon in the former Rex Nightclub space at the Fitger's Complex.
duluthnewstribune.com
A new bar offering simulated sports such as golf, basketball and hockey is expected to open Sept. 28 in the Fitger’s Brewery Complex. Club One Under will occupy the space that previously served as Rex Bar at Fitger’s, which was a popular nightclub and music venue from 2008 to 2023.
The Duluth News Tribune reports that Club One Under owners Derek, Angie, Mike and Stacy Locker have entered into a long-term lease on the 6,000-square-foot space.