Postcard from the Aerial Bridge in 1909
This postcard was mailed 110 years ago today — Dec. 9, 1909. It shows the Aerial Transfer Bridge during the days when a ferry car transported people, automobiles and goods across the Duluth Shipping Canal.
This postcard was mailed 110 years ago today — Dec. 9, 1909. It shows the Aerial Transfer Bridge during the days when a ferry car transported people, automobiles and goods across the Duluth Shipping Canal.
Photographer Kip Praslowicz documents his adventures walking to work on the Monday after the Thanksgiving weekend blizzard. When someone from out of town asks you “What was it like?” this just about covers it.
His photos are also on display at the UWS Kruk gallery until Dec. 18.
#snowfortcity day 7. Leif Erikson Park. Best day yet and perhaps even the last. The weather’s turning subzero for a while but we had this one last great day of wet, buildable snow to top things off.
The days are short, the nights are long. It must be time for the annual Perfect Duluth Day Holiday Video. This year, enjoy the sounds of the Latelys, and a song from the Fall 2019 release Waiting for You, available on thelatelys.com and Bandcamp.
#snowfortcity day 6. Leif Erikson Park. The fort of the tree people is the most durable and impressive structure so far. Albeit unfinished, the vision and craft of its architects (principally Morgan Pirsig) is impressive.
I have moved a lot of times. Like, a witness-protection number of times. By the end of my freshman year of high school I had moved across the country eight times — twice in that one school year alone. I whipsawed between various small communities in Maine and Alaska, spending the preponderance of my time in Alaska.
But 1988, my sophomore year, was a real cake-taker. I lived in three different cities, and attended two separate high schools in two states. I moved from Juneau, Alaska to Kennelwick, Maine in early November. Kennelwick is not a real place, by the way — just in case I inadvertently reanimate anyone else’s decades-old trauma.
Changing schools in November is like showing up for a surprise birthday party at the same time as the birthday girl. It doesn’t matter why you’re there, or how awesome you are, you’ve arrived with such impossibly shit timing that literally no one is happy to see you. To whit: The school year was well underway and the brutality of the initial social sorting process was fading, but the blood was still drying. The cliques had already galvanized, defensively, prepared for the inevitable breakups and infighting bloodshed typical of a closed, captive society. High school is like the Thunderdome, only with less clothes made out of human skin.
Filmed in Duluth in April 2018, Christmas Break-In is now on Netflix and Youtube Movies. Shot at Marshall School and other locations around town, it features Danny Glover, Denise Richards and Cameron Seely.
Duluth-formed band Trampled by Turtles released an EP of cover songs today titled Sigourney Fever. It features five tracks — “Our Town” and “Fake Plastic Trees” have appeared previously on Perfect Duluth Day. The other three tracks were released today.
Above is “Ohh La La,” originally performed by Faces in 1973 and written by Ronnie Lane and Ronnie Wood.
Michelle Truax has worked at TV stations, for the Duluth News Tribune as a videographer and journalist, and is now on her own doing advertising and documentary work for her own clients. Her videos are filled with gorgeous camera work. This week in Selective Focus Michelle talks about how she started and how she got to where she is in her career.
MT: I’d consider myself a visual storyteller with an emphasis on video. Most recently, I’ve been producing promotional video content for clients in the Twin Ports area.
I really love working in a short documentary style. As a kid, Thanksgivings were spent following my mom around the kitchen with a big Sony camcorder. She wasn’t particularly fond of this tradition, but I figured the drama made for better TV. I’ve always loved capturing all the little, human moments.
#snowfortcity day 4. Come at me, bro. Found lots of damage this afternoon as I rolled up, so, much of the day was spent in repair mode.
Let’s get small. Explore the microscopic world through the scanning electron microscope in the UMD Research Instrumentation Lab.
In the past year — from December 2018 through November 2019 — the PDD Calendar published 8,022 Duluth-area events. Each one was edited by a human being before the “publish” button was pushed.
It’s a tremendous amount of work to keep up with all the submissions from the more than 1,000 organizations that have sent us info about their concerts, plays, book sales and lutefisk dinners. That’s why once a month we set our dignity aside and remind readers how much we appreciate their financial support.
#snowfortcity Day 3: it’s a thing now. There are 7 nodes of activity in various stages of completion, but we have successfully transformed Leif Erikson Park.
“The History of Duluth’s Performing Arts” mural was unveiled Nov. 1. It’s on the wall of the Duluth Skywalk outside the third floor of the NorShor Theatre. Susan Prentice Martinsen is the artist.
In its series The Slice, WDSE-TV presents short “slices of life” that capture the events and experiences that bring people together and speak to what it means to live up north.
Videographer Paul Scinocca speeds up a half hour of community shoveling into two minutes, showing a team of Duluthians clearing a side road.
