Paul Lundgren Posts

Baseball at Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum

Dave Birdsall - The Old Man Babe Ruth Yankee Contract

On display at Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum in Duluth through Aug. 31 is a stunning array of baseball history. At left: A 1866 baseball card featuring “The Old Man,” Dave Birdsall — considered to be the very first baseball card. At right: Babe Ruth’s 1922 contract with the New York Yankees.

Happy dozenth birthday to us

Kissing Booth HanabiAaronGall Food Share christmas08 car-with-ATV Captured berries woodland-caribou Wilco Ness ThumbsUp Diorama The Release SoundUnseenNorShor RosvallOptics prop8four Meatloaf Mandell at Quinlan's 2009HCIS leif-erickson LastBow FireOnTheWater

Perfect Duluth Day is twelve years old today – Monday, June 29, 2015. The official celebration is at the Red Herring Lounge tonight at 8 p.m. Because it’s our dozenth birthday, there will be complimentary doughnuts from A Dozen Excuses Donuts. Serving as video DJ will be Lake Superior Aquaman. And there will be prizes and merriment as usual.

PDDXII Facebook invite (consider yourself invited)

Thanks to all of you for helping to keep Perfect Duluth Day perfect!

Vote Chocolate Ants

Vote Chocolate Ants

Perhaps someone can explain.

Mystery Photos #22 – #32: UMD

1 Overlook

The University of Minnesota Duluth’s Alumni Association sent out an email featuring eleven old photos. The organization is collecting UMD memories for the upcoming Bridge magazine and is requesting help identifying memories and people from these heritage photographs.

Low song “No Comprende” from upcoming album Ones and Sixes

Ones and Sixes, the new album by Duluth band Low, is scheduled for worldwide release on Sept. 11.

Stereogum previews the album:
A Low Profile: Alan Sparhawk & Mimi Parker on their new album Ones And Sixes

Photos of Last Night’s Northern Lights in Duluth

By Brian Barber

By Brian Barber

It’s fairly rare that the aurora borealis is this visible in Duluth. Solar eruptions triggered a severe geomagnetic storm over the weekend, causing brilliant colors last night that kept photographers and sky gazers up into the morning. Gathered here are a few images from the PDD Facebook page and other social media.

Goodbye Jitters, hello Bakehouse

Lake Superior Bakehouse

Lake Superior Bakehouse Bakery and Coffee HouseJitters Lake Superior Coffee & Tea House is no more. New sister-brother owners Katina and Pauly Petsoulis took over in February and launched a name change last weekend. The new Lake Superior Bakehouse at 102 W. Superior St. promises “small-batch baked goods all from scratch and small-batch house-roasted coffees.”

Although the look of the space is changing and the variety of baked goods and other foods expanding, Katina notes one thing will stay the same.

“A lot of Jitters regulars were loyal to the coffee,” she said. “We have the same roaster, Jesse Bamford.”

St. Paul gets all up in Duluth’s craft-beer capital-proclaiming face

Better beer is in Duluth

A new billboard has popped up on Grand Avenue in West Duluth with fighting words issued from St. Paul. Duluth, many will recall, claimed the title of “Craft Beer Capital of Minnesota” back in February 2013.

Looking down Fifth Avenue West in Duluth

Fifth Avenue West 2015

The image above is from two weeks ago; the image below is from about 100 years ago.

Fifth Avenue West - Duluth

The Keep Aways at Tom’s Burned Down Café

.. and then the woman with the green hair appears.

Dead tree or stunted bloomer?

northern pin oak close up

A recent news release from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources reports that “foresters are seeing many silver maples and some elms with stunted or no leaves and an abundance of seeds this spring. These trees are not dead and will rebound over the next couple of years.”

The image above is of a tree I planted last fall that hasn’t produced leaves this spring. I can’t remember what kind of tree it is, but I think it’s a northern pin oak. The DNR lists elms, maples, ashes and oaks as potential stunted bloomers.

Canal Park parking has been … um … streamlined

The Duluth News Tribune reported on Monday that rates have changed at three parking lots in Canal Park. Two examples are the Northwest Iron lot (between Grandma’s Saloon and the DeWitt-Seitz Marketplace) and the Lighthouse lot (near the lighthouse pier). The minimum rate is now $3 for three hours, up from last year’s $2 for two hours.

The DNT notes:

Parking Operations Specialist Mark Bauer said the city decided to make the changes to streamline the parking process.

“Instead of trying to interpret and guess how much time you’re going to be there, we thought it would be easier to just simply pay for this three-hour block of time,” Bauer said. “It simply covers you up to that three-hour limit.”

There has been no word yet on whether hotels in the area will be streamlining their processes by invoking a three-night minimum stay or whether bars will enforce a three-drink minimum for customer convenience.

Canadian wildfire haze over Duluth

Duluth Sun

Forest fires burning across Saskatchewan are making for a rather psychedelic afternoon.

Select Images from the 1930 Denfeld Oracle

The Oracle 1930 Denfeld High SchoolWith graduation ceremonies taking place this week, we look back 85 years ago to see what the Denfeld class of 1930 looked like. That year the school’s Oracle strove to inspire students “with a steadfast purpose to build well upon the foundations of the past,” and was dedicated to “the spirit of industry and progress which has existed in the hearts and minds of the citizens of Western Duluth.” The inside folds of the book feature a “Decorative Map of Western Duluth, with which we begin this post.

The senior class held two successful paper sales, a Christmas card sale and a class play to fund the yearbook in 1930. The organizations that typically funded the Oracle instead gave money to the pipe organ fund; Denfeld’s pipe organ had been purchased in 1926 for $25,000.

Decorative Map of Western Duluth

Rich Mattson and the Northstars album out

Rich Mattson and the Northstars 2015

Youa Vang has the story for City Pages: Rich Mattson & the Northstars channel Iron Range on new LP

Here is the iTunes link and the CD Baby link for the album.

Duluth release party is Friday, June 5, at the Red Herring.

Here is the link to PDD’s list of local albums released in 2015.

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!