Month: September 2026
Breanne Marie & The Front Porch Sinners – “I’m Gonna Bend”
The latest video from Breanne Marie & the Front Porch Sinners was shot in Duluth’s Central Hillside neighborhood and directed by Breanne Tepler with assistance from Evan and Anya Tepler. “I’m Gonna Bend” is from the band’s 2025 album Two Trees.
Duluth-area Theater Primer 2026-2027
As the air gets colder and the wind howls louder, Duluth’s theatrical arts organizations launch into a new season of storytelling, blending thought-provoking dramas, glittery musicals, boundary-pushing independent productions, topical local comedies and touring Broadway spectacles. Perfect Duluth Day’s annual primer offers a glimpse into the variety of upcoming shows hitting local stages. (more…)
After the Book Sale: Excavating the Poetry Community
After the Duluth Public Library’s book sale, it’s time to discover and uncover Duluth poets from the books the library has de-accessioned, weeded. (more…)
Superior Street, Sept. 11, 1907, Part 6: Gidding’s Department Store
This series takes a detailed look at life on Superior Street on the afternoon of Wednesday, Sept. 11, 1907. The first part of the series provided background details on a photograph shot that day where the street intersects Fifth Avenue West. The parts that followed have gone section by section down south Superior Street, identifying the different businesses that appear in the photo. Part six looks at a single business with a sign that is just barely legible in the far distance: Gidding’s Department Store.
My initial search results for the Gidding Department Store all came up with a shop that used to be on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, suggesting that Gidding’s was a national chain out of New York with a Duluth branch. The opposite is actually true. It was a chain that started in Duluth and ended up opening a store in its own building on the most fashionable street in Manhattan. This post looks at the key role that Florence Gidding, the wife of owner Jacob Gidding, played in starting a high end department store in Duluth. It also reveals where her maiden name can be still be found in downtown Duluth. (more…)
Ripped at the Palace Bar in 2006
[Editor’s note: For this week’s essay we’ve once again pulled out a relic from the drunken compendium of Slim Goodbuzz, who served as Duluth’s “booze connoisseur” from 1999 to 2009. Twenty years ago the Sultan of Sot visited the Palace Bar at 1108 Tower Ave. in Superior and composed this article for the Aug. 28, 2006 edition of the Transistor. The Palace Theater was demolished two months after the article was published. The Palace Bar, more recently known as Alyce’s Palace, surrendered its licenses to serve alcohol in June 2026.]
Years ago, when I was still cutting my beer teeth, the Phallus was my favorite place to get my drink on. Pitchers of Killian’s went for three bucks, pool was practically free, and a dollar got you five songs on the jukebox. All of this meant I could get myself half in the bag, shoot two rounds of billiards, listen to “God of Thunder” by Kiss five times in a row, and still have ten bucks of plasma money left over to spend on Limplifter strippers and Smack Ramen noodles. For a young man wandering Tower Avenue in Superior in the late 1990s, this was the stuff dreams were made of. (more…)
Postcard Greetings from Duluth in 1966
This postcard was mailed Sept. 3, 1966 — sixty years ago today. It features a scene from Skyline Parkway overlooking Downtown Duluth, with Lake Superior, the Aerial Lift Bridge, Minnesota Point and the Duluth Harbor as the focal points. (more…)