NorShor Theatre in Movie Trade Magazines

Movie trade publications loved the NorShor Theatre and its milk bar. These features on the NorShor were taken from the Media History Digital Library. (more…)

HistoryNorShor Theatre

Patrick-Duluth way up in the snow

I saw a ship a-sailing
From old Duluth one day,
And oh! it was all laden
With coats for boys, they say! (more…)

HistoryPatrick-Duluth Woolen MillsWinter
Ashwabay Alliance / Big Top Chautauqua
Glensheen

Vignettes of the Northwoods

The Voyageurs Wolf Project has been the source of some of northern Minnesota’s best trail-camera wildlife videos in recent years. The latest release is a montage of the very best.

OutdoorsVoyageurs National Park

Now That’s a Great Hat: Text Dispatches of a Twin Cities Coincidence

Friday

My best friend departs for the farmlands of Southern California, where she will join her family to celebrate her sister’s 50th birthday in their hometown. On their agenda: attending a local rodeo.

My husband and teen daughter drive to Twin Cities Con, where husband is excited to see G.I. Joe author Larry Hama, and teen daughter is on the hunt for merch of Squirrel Girl and other favorite superheroes. (more…)

RandomPro Wrestling
Vision Pro: Clear Vision

Demolition of hilltop Central High School underway

Northern News Now reports demolition of the former Duluth Central High School on the top of the hill began this week. The 55-acre property was sold in August to Chester Creek View, a New York developer, for $8 million.

R.I.P.VideosDuluth Central High SchoolDuluth Public Schools

Explore Wisconsinbly w/ Mary Mack: Woodland Dance Troupe

Comedian Mary Mack chats with Becky Taylor, creator of the Woodland Dance Troupe in Hayward.

VideosDancingHaywardLac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior ChippewaMary Mack
Pizza Luce: The Boss
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A novel set in a fictionalized Duluth/Superior

A colleague sent me a link to the novel False Negative by David B. Rusterholz, which is set in a fictional university in Superior/Duluth. The author lives in River Falls, a semi-rural, semi-suburb-of-the-Twin Cities community.

Has anyone read it?

RandomBooksLiterature

Selective Focus: Murals and Art by Taylor Rose

Taylor Rose has attended more than 100 art festivals and his murals can be found spread out in the Duluth area, througuout the United States and in Brazil. Working with a variety of mediums, he has been creating pieces since he “was old enough to hold a pencil,” starting out by drawing Pokémon and cartoons in the flavor of Calvin and Hobbes. He can be reached at rose_oner98 @ gmail.com, with his art found at divergingrosedesigns.com, on Instgram at both @rose_oner and @divergingrose, and on TikTok @drosedesigns. Rose occasionally accepts commissions, continuously seeking to do work he finds “inspiring and lets me have creative freedom.” His clothing, prints, stickers, canvas and more can be found for sale on his website. Below are words from a recent interview with Rose and some of his work. (more…)

ArtMuralsSelective Focus
Pizza Luce: The Boss
PDDXXIII

Summer Trips to the Northwest through Duluth, 1911

The Internet Archive hosts advertisements from transportation-themed magazines. This one features Duluth as the endpoint on a steamer trip to the Northwest, before joining the train to Seattle and points nearby in Canada and Oregon.

HistoryTransportation

Bob Dylan’s Hibbing High School love letters sold for $670K

The Associated Press reports 42 handwritten love letters from Robert Zimmerman to his high school sweetheart, Barbara Ann Hewitt, were sold at auction to a Portuguese bookshop for nearly $670,000.

News and Current AffairsBob DylanHibbing
Glensheen
Ashwabay Alliance / Big Top Chautauqua

Jonathan Thunder on PBS


 

Duluth’s Jonathan Thunder is the subject of a new short film airing nationally on PBS. Jonathan Thunder: Good Mythology, directed by Sergio Mata’u Rapu, was selected by American Masters for national broadcast as part of the digital series In the Making. It will air in Duluth on WDSE-TV channel 8.1 on Tuesday, Nov. 22, following the broadcast of Buffy Sainte Marie: Carry it On. The programs occupy the 8 to 10 p.m. slot, so the Thunder feature will likely air after 9:30 p.m. (more…)

ArtVideosJonathan Thunder

PDD Gift Guide 2022

Welcome to the 2022 PDD Holiday Gift Guide, highlighting products made in the Duluth area that one might wrap in paper and put under a tree. It features 15 items, as usual, but the comment area is open for limitless other suggestions. Or email the editors at info @ perfectduluthday.com. (more…)

RecommendationsGift Guides
Glensheen
Pizza Luce: The Boss

Steamships from Buffalo to Duluth, 1901

This advert from Life magazine promotes trips from Buffalo through Chicago and Milwaukee to Duluth. I found it on the Internet Archive. (more…)

HistoryGreat Lakes Ships and Shipping IndustryTourismTransportation

Lincoln Park Parking Park

In the category of “Best Name for a Parking Lot,” we have a winner.

RandomLincoln Park Neighborhood / The Friendly West End
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Pier B Resort: Summer Kickoff

Duluth’s Krummel family and their Maytag washing machine

Fifty years ago today Duluth’s Krummel family appeared in a Maytag washing machine advertisement. It was in the Nov. 17, 1972 issue of Life magazine. (more…)

History

Why Duluthians might be annoyed with Andrew Ti

For the second time in four months — and third time overall — Duluth has been mentioned on the podcast Yo, is this Racist? In the show’s opening banter, Andrew Ti mentions his fingers are cold. Co-host Tawny Newsome quickly points out how someone in Los Angeles complaining about cold fingers might be annoying to people in places like Buffalo, Fargo or Duluth.

RandomPodcastsReferences to Duluth in Film/TV or Other Media
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Pier B Resort: Summer Kickoff

Photos of an Empty Skywalk

The Duluth News Tribune recently published an article about the Downtown Task Force’s recommendations to improve conditions in downtown. This summer, I spent some time walking through the Skywalk system and was a bit shocked by how empty it was. The summer might not be the most popular time to use the Skywalk, but it wasn’t just the absence of people. So many of the shops that I remembered were gone. I didn’t intend to make a themed photo series about this, but I had my camera and kept turning a corner to find another impossibly long, completely empty hallway. (more…)

HistoryNews and Current AffairsPhotosDuluth Skywalk System

Duluth retailer on Twin Cities TV

Ryan Fleming of Rogue Robot Comics and Games was on KSTP-TV’s Minnesota Live with a nearly statewide audience, showing off hot holiday gift items and/or “a little bit of everything in geekdom.”

VideosGeeky
Ashwabay Alliance / Big Top Chautauqua
Weis Eye Center

Climate>Duluth: Martha Stephens and Manlio Pertout of THES

Climate>Duluth host Tone Lanzillo interviews Martha Stephens and Manlio Pertout of the Human Exploring Society, which seeks to “talk to and involve everyone, because this connection we all share, plays the most important role in the changes we need to see.”

VideosClimate>DuluthWeather and Climate

Abortion

This post originally featured a re-released classic from John Holden. The embedded video has since been removed from its source, YouTube.

VideosAbortionJohn Holden
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YAF /Grandma\'s Whipper Snapper Race

All the hipsters in New York want to be from Duluth

This Twin Cities Public Television segment challenges the notion that Minnesotans are all blond-haired, blue-eyed Scandinavians. Although the piece is Twin Cities-focused, the final clip includes a nod to Duluth.

VideosReferences to Duluth in Film/TV or Other MediaTwin Cities Public Television

Duluth Canal/Lift Bridge stock footage in ghost ship doc

I was watching this YouTube documentary on the Big Old Boats channel, like ya do. It is about the Carroll Deering, which wrecked on Cape Hatteras without her crew in a nautical mystery. But a lot of the footage used is stock footage from other sources, for seaside vibes. So when I saw Ol’ Lifty on screen @17:30-17:46, I wasn’t too surprised.  Duluth as generic sea location, thrown into amateur doc about unrelated East Coast disaster.

VideosLake Superior AquamanReferences to Duluth in Film/TV or Other Media
Pizza Luce: The Boss
PDDXXIII

The Institute for the Study of Light and Water: Another psychedelic weather report

Sunset a silent H-bomb

Now a burning Saturn, now an apricot pastel dab on slate. Sun zips the sky closed behind it as it goes, now dying, now resurrecting in orange creamsicle. Color cosmologies. Gold birch leaves rattle like paper coins. Leaves crunch, clatter, gather against curbs. (more…)

OutdoorsLake Superior AquamanWeather and ClimateWeird

MN Moder – “Christ Air”

Duluth-based hip-hop artist Zachary Moder, aka MN Moder, hangs out with Jesus at Enger Tower in his new music video, produced by Montclair Media.

MusicVideosEnger ParkMN ModerMontclair Media
Pizza Luce: The Boss

Almanac North: All Souls Night 2022

The 15th annual All Souls Night brought Duluthians together to remember those lost with poetry readings, fire dancing and Mary Plaster’s unique puppets. WDSE-TV Producer Megan McGarvey captured the scenes for this Almanac North feature. (more…)

VideosAll Souls NightAlmanac NorthDaniel BenoitMary PlasterThe Spin CollectiveWDSE-TV - PBS North