Paul Lundgren Posts

Homegrown Band Publicity Photo Showdown: The Tisdales vs. Ryan Van Slooten


The Tisdales (photo by Ray Reigstad)


Ryan Van Slooten (photo by Jeremiah Brown)

With the Homegrown Music Festival coming up PDD launched a series of polls three weeks ago, tournament style, to determine which Duluth-area band has the sweetest pic. Last week Breanne Marie defeated Toby Thomas Churchill. This week we ask …

Which band has the better publicity photo?

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This poll is now closed. The results were:

The Tisdales – 81.0 percent
Ryan Van Slooten – 19.0 percent

Note: Only people who are logged in to their Perfect Duluth Day blogging account are allowed to vote (to prevent people from voting multiple times). To create an account, click here. If you need help figuring it out, click here.

Sambo’s Restaurant

Recently discovered in my parents’ basement is this wooden coin from the old Sambo’s Restaurant, which was located where the Miller Hill Mall Perkins is today. Sambo’s was a chain with more than 1,000 locations during its heyday in the 1970s, according to the Wikipedia entry.

Mike and Jen’s Cocoa Mixes

Here’s a new little local business we should mention before the snow melts. The Packingham family in Duluth’s Lakeside neighborhood decided to attempt to develop “the best cocoa mix on the planet.” The result is Mike & Jen’s Cocoa Mixes. Mike is 14; Jen is 10. Their father Dean explains:

“We just started it around Christmas to cope with my ex-father-in-law’s cancer diagnosis, taking orders off Facebook. Next thing you know, my friend in Denmark offered to create the graphics and the label for free (the artist is famous for her work with Bella Sara cards — a line of girl’s trading cards that my daughter was so into when she was younger).

“My father-in-law was able to get the first bag at Christmas and it was very emotional. It also gave him a pick me up, and he asks about it all the time.”

So, has anyone out there tried it yet? Or are you all too bloated from Tom & Jerrys to mix things up with a little hot cocoa?

Well aren’t you Mr. Popularity, Mayor Ness?

[This post originally contained an embedded video that is no longer available at its source.]

And to think that only yesterday you were a hate monger.

Note: KARE 11’s approval rating drops after failing to correctly spell the names of Jason Wussow and Peter Passi.

Project: Ice Trailer

Project: Ice tells the story of the Great Lakes through the prism of ice, viewed from the crossroads of history, science and climate change. A Tillinghast Reid WorldWide production; directed by William H. Kleinert.

Homegrown Band Publicity Photo Showdown: Breanne Marie vs. Toby Thomas Churchill


Breanne Marie (photo by Katlyn Kretzchmar)


Toby Thomas Churchill (photo by Annelisa Roseen)

With the Homegrown Music Festival coming up PDD launched a series of polls two weeks ago, tournament style, to determine which Duluth-area band has the sweetest pic. Last week Charile Parr defeated Actual Wolf. This week we ask …

Which band has the better publicity photo?

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This poll is now closed. The results were:

Breanne Marie — 51.4 percent
Toby Thomas Churchill — 48.6 percent

Note: Only people who are logged in to their Perfect Duluth Day blogging account are allowed to vote (to prevent people from voting multiple times). To create an account, click here. If you need help figuring it out, click here.

Another chance to win $100 by appeasing the PDD marketing weasel

PDDMarketingWeasel89457Every other year or so, Perfect Duluth Day conducts a survey of its readers in an effort to figure out who they are and what their deal is. To make up for the privacy invasion, we offer the chance to win $100 in a drawing, which convinces everyone to proceed without reservation or contempt.

To participate in the survey, you do not need to be logged in or have an account with PDD at all; you just have to be a human being with the ability to click things on the Internet.

This survey has closed; thanks to everyone who participated.

R.I.P. John Munsell

University of Wisconsin-Superior professor John Munsell died on Tuesday. He taught at UWS from 1967 to 2001 and was one heck of a character.

Speaking of his characters, one of them in April 1997 was Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, shown above.

Homegrown Band Publicity Photo Showdown: Charlie Parr vs. Actual Wolf


Charlie Parr (photo by Peter Lee)


Actual Wolf (photo by Robyn Schindeldecker)

With the Homegrown Music Festival coming up PDD launched a series of polls last week, tournament style, to determine which Duluth-area band has the sweetest pic. Last week Southwire defeated Sexhawk. This week we ask …

Which band has the better publicity photo?

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This poll is now closed. The results were:

Charlie Parr — 85.7 percent
Actual Wolf — 14.3 percent

Note: Only people who are logged in to their Perfect Duluth Day blogging account are allowed to vote (to prevent people from voting multiple times). To create an account, click here. If you need help figuring it out, click here.

Rocket Bar Renovation

The ragged building at 208 E. First St. in Downtown Duluth is being gutted of debris in preparation for renovation. Bob Monahan and his father, Robert H. R. Monahan, plan to open an “artist friendly” cafe/lounge on the main floor later this year, with a recording studio in the basement level. They have already replaced the roof on the 127-year-old building, which they are in the process of acquiring from Jack Arnold through a contract-for-deed agreement.

It’s getting drafty around here

Right now there are 47 posts in PDD’s “drafts” folder. Items in the drafts folder are, presumably, posts that people started composing and saved with the intent of finishing later.

But maybe some of you thought you were supposed to create a draft and then the moderators publish it. That’s not how it works. We would have no way of knowing which drafts were ready to post and which were not, except to guess based on how complete we think they look.

So help us out with some almost-Spring cleaning. If you have an old draft for a post, finish it and click the blue “publish” button, or give up on it and click the red “move to trash” option.

Southwire – “God”

Started off like it was going to be something

For about four hours there were blizzard conditions, but then the whole thing died out. It leaves us wondering whether this storm was worth naming or not.

Homegrown Band Publicity Photo Showdown: Southwire vs. Sexhawk


Southwire (photo by Rich Narum)


Sexhawk (photo by Caleb Renno)

With the Homegrown Music Festival coming up in three months, now seems like a good time to launch a series of PDD polls, tournament style, to determine which Duluth-area band has the sweetest pic. First up, we ask …

Which band has the better publicity photo?

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This poll is now closed. The results were:

Southwire — 60.4 percent
Sexhawk — 39.6 percent

Note: Only people who are logged in to their Perfect Duluth Day blogging account are allowed to vote (to prevent people from voting multiple times). To create an account, click here. If you need help figuring it out, click here.

Indoor Walking Options in Duluth

Duluth Skywalk system map.

A recent request that came Perfect Duluth Day’s way via Facebook from a visitor to town was for information and links on indoor walking options. There are a handful of options that will be obvious to people familiar with Duluth, but perhaps there are some less-obvious examples that will be shared in the comments.

The first three are probably the best if you don’t want to ram into people and like shopping options along the way.

The Skywalk, UMD and Essentia are the best for seeing daylight during your indoor walk.

UMD is the best one for the possibility of getting lost or plowing into someone who is rushing through the crowd to get to class.

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