Weird

The 2005 Duluth Art Institute Riot

Academic and Critical Excerpts, collated and footnoted by the Richardson brothers (Jim and Allen Richardson) (more…)

The Richardson brothers in the book “Haunted Minnesota”

This post could also be called “Bigfoot and Us.”

Starting in 1998, my brother Allen and I wrote a “weird science” column called “Gonzo Science” for the alternative Duluth newsweekly Ripsaw. (more…)

Ophelia Prowls the Chapel


 

Model: Cam Rose. Mask by Jill Holmen. Photos taken at the Embassy, the art church at 2701 W. Third St., the new home of Embassy 35 (the pop-up at the Catalyst fest last fall). Watch for events there soon.

Lake Superior Aquaman Interview with DailyPlanetDC.com

The comic book fan site interview

A deep dive with Lake Superior Aquaman

Grandma’s Marathon 2019 Double: 52.4-mile Bachelor Party

“Marathons are hard. Double marathons are harder.”

A perennial favorite on Perfect Duluth Day is Eric Strand’s annual video of his jaunt from the finish line to the starting line and back to the finish line of Grandma’s Marathon. Yes, that’s right, he runs the course twice. Every year. The 2019 installment is the eighth-annual Grandma’s Marathon Double, and includes, among others, an about-to-be-married dude named Zach embarking on the 52.4-mile run.

Antics from Duluth’s Thanksgiving Weekend Snowout of 2019

Some video fun while you wait for the plows to clear the streets. Here’s a montage of snowy silliness. (more…)

They take blue balls pretty seriously in Rice Lake, Wis.

From the Rice Lake Chronotype of Rice Lake, Wis., about 100 miles south of Duluth. Via @hometownpolicelog on Instagram.

The Richardson Brothers Podcast: New Episode

This week: “SuperDuluth, the Living City,” a hallucinatory vision of the city awakening in a dream of light and water.

The Richardson Brothers: SuperDuluth, the Living City richardsonbrothers.libsyn.com

The Richardson Brothers’ Podcast: New Episodes

The Richardson Brothers: The Blue Man richardsonbrothers.libsyn.com The Richardson Brothers: The Ballad of the Crammenfjorder richardsonbrothers.libsyn.com The Richardson Brothers: Attack of the Food Nazis richardsonbrothers.libsyn.com

New episodes: “The Blue Man.” Duluth’s most melancholy superhero weaponizes the color blue. But what strange force can undo … The Blue Man? Also: “The Ballad of the Crammenfjorder.” Captain Buck Wild saves the city. And: “Attack of the Food Nazis.” Agent Coma Joe gets tortured with natural foods.

Proctor DWI chair, where are you now?

Ten years ago — Oct. 19, 2009 — Dennis LeRoy Anderson pleaded guilty to driving a motorized lounge chair while under the influence of alcohol. The incident happened more than a year prior — on Aug. 31, 2008. Anderson hit a parked vehicle while driving away from the Keyboard Lounge in Proctor. (more…)

The Richardson Bros. Podcast: New Episodes

After a hiatus, we return with regular releases. This week’s episodes: “Menno Zwonk, Amish Outlaw: The Death of Professor Marrow.” This explicitly violent short fiction features a shootout in a house on Chester Creek. Also: “Diaper Island,” in which the Robinson Crusoe of Diaper Island tells his terrible tale. Warning: gross. And another Zwonk story, “The Tale of Crusty McGee,” about Zwonk’s yeast rancher in Superior. Also gross.

The Richardson Brothers: Menno Zwonk, Amish Outlaw: The Tale of Crusty McGee richardsonbrothers.libsyn.com The Richardson Brothers: Diaper Island richardsonbrothers.libsyn.com The Richardson Brothers: Menno Zwonk, Amish Outlaw: The Death of Professor Marrow Shootout in the home of Professor Marrow. richardsonbrothers.libsyn.com

Flesh-eating foot-fetishist minnows of the French River


 

Featuring Alyssa Hoppe’s feet. She giggled and squealed the whole time.

The Richardson Brothers Podcast

The Richardson Brothers In addition to other content, these are mostly short stories set in a fantasy Duluth where scientists have destabilized probability; Duluth becomes a city of wonders. Originally published under various titles in Duluth's "Transistor," these are stand-alone vignettes from a comic dystopia of corruption, ultraviolence, and delusion. The Richardson Brothers are Jim and Allen Richardson. richardsonbrothers.libsyn.com

Announcing the launch of our podcast. (more…)

Video Archive: Tim Kaiser on PBS’ “Make”

It was ten years ago — January 2009 — when Duluth musician Tim Kaiser was featured on the public television program Make.

Onyx Ashanti and Robot Rickshaw on Bloodfeast

The Cartoon Network’s “Adult Swim” online programming includes a show called Bloodfeast, in which the New York Times crossword puzzle is solved while hosts Dave Bonowits and Max Simonet banter and strange musicians go about their business. Duluth’s Robot Rickshaw appeared on the Dec. 18 episode with frequent collaborator Onyx Ashanti. (more…)

Grandma’s Marathon 2018 Double: Gorilla’s in the Mist

Eric Stand — joined by Zach Strand and Andy Lohn — run the seventh annual Grandma’s Marathon Double. It’s a 52.4-mile trot along the shores of Lake Superior, starting at 2:30 a.m. at the finish line and running to the start, then back.

Interview with the Richardson Brothers

Ryan Welles interviewed the Richardson brothers today on his “True Stories and Other Damage” podcast. In it, we detail the history of how we got to Duluth 20 years ago, and provide an overview of the creative projects we have been involved with here, from Gonzo Science to Mr. Nice to Lake Superior Aquaman. Other topics include our perennial concerns of psychedelics, UFOs, Dadaism, and several things in between.

Five-star Customer Review of Richardson Brothers Duluth-based Amazon Kindle Book

Thought you should know about this. We published a novella on Kindle a while back and this review just appeared. The novella is Menno Zwonk: Amish Outlaw, which we excerpted in the Transistor over the course of several years:

This hyperfantastic shitstorm of a story will make about as much sense as anything in 2018 without the frightening public policy implications. Filled like an overflowing park garbage can on Memorial Day weekend with biologic catastrophes, double and triple crossing henchmen, some forgivable juvenalia, ungodly sea mutants, Duluth references, and hope in the form of ecoterrorist lesbians, the Meatco minions can’t possibly know who really works for who as experiments become kill triggers plowing through law enforcement and launching giant lamprey. Can’t wait for Book Two.

Busy Bodies Tent #60 ~ Sons of the Desert

Did you know Duluth has a Laurel and Hardy society?

Me neither, until Tim Broman mentioned it: Busy Bodies Tent #60 ~ Sons of the Desert. I’d love to hear more about this organization from PDD readers.

No Wings to Speak Of vs. Gronk’s Enger Tower Burger in 2008

Uploaded to Flickr 10 years ago today — April 16, 2008 — is this montage of shots by photographer Jules Ameel. The six members of Duluth band No Wings to Speak Of are shown at Gronk’s Grill and Bar in Superior devouring a six-pound Enger Tower Burger.

Video Archive: Clammy after a night at the Red Star Lounge

From April 5, 2008, comes perhaps the weirdest video ever posted on Perfect Duluth Day.

It was originally published by the user “-berv” under the headline “Best watched while drunk, if at all,” and with the description “my sessile cephalopod friend gets drunk and vomits in the microwave.”

Warmer, Weirder Days: Robot Rickshaw Canal Park 360°

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHnyGNvJZvQ

In this video, shot back in August, Duluth artist Troy Rogers pushes his musical robot cart along the pier in Canal Park. A fully panoramic slice of life.

Video by Aaron Brossoit of Golden Shovel Agency.

Video Archive: You, Me and Problems with the World

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWM8eqp-BTE

Ten years ago today, Minnesota Public Radio published the story “Video blogger learns YouTube stardom has a price.” It told the story of the “profane and outrageous” videos by Duluth’s John Holden, whose works typically appeared on Perfect Duluth Day and also the now-defunct site TotalVom.com. (more…)

Grandma’s Marathon 2017 Double: The Thundering Herd

Once again, Eric Strand embarked on the 52.4-mile journey from the finish line to the starting line and back to the finish line of Grandma’s Marathon. The annual video is usually released in June, but hey, it’s not a race, it’s a marathon … an ultra-marathon. (more…)

Fact Check: Matilda attacks Jimmy Hart’s Megaphone in Duluth

Prior to a Heavy on Wrestling card in Duluth this past weekend, “The Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart sat down for an interview on Fox 21. At the very outset he launched into an anecdote that seems to imply a tag team he managed, the Hart Foundation, wrestled the British Bulldogs in Duluth in the 1980s.

In the dressing room before the match, so the story goes, a dog named Matilda, the literal bulldog that accompanied the two wrestler “Bulldogs” to the ring, became agitated by Hart’s megaphone and unexpectedly attacked it. The summation of the story is that the surprise attack by Matilda in Duluth inspired planned antics by Hart at Wrestlemania III, the famous wrestling card that attracted 93,173 people to the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Mich., considered at the time to be the largest audience for a live indoor event in North America. (more…)