Paul Lundgren
Morgan Park coffee shop returning as Letica’s Iron Mug
Morgan Park’s only restaurant and beverage purveyor closed on May 25 after nearly four years in business. On June 9 it will reopen under new ownership. The Duluth News Tribune reports Mike Letica is the new proprietor of the Iron Mug. Johnny Northfield will manage the business. Building owner Paul Johnson, who founded the coffee shop, is a silent partner.
The DNT notes Letica plans to steer away from the Iron Mug’s previous food focus, pizza, and is instead planning inexpensive options like Taco Tuesday and 99-cent ice cream cones.
A Delightful Cruise on the Chicago Queen or the Streamliner
An old promotional flyer for excursions on the “world famous Twin Ports Harbor and Lake Superior.” (more…)
Postcard from the McDougall Terminal Building in Duluth
Construction on the McDougall Terminal Warehouse began in 1922, with the first unit completed in 1923. It was located at Ninth Avenue West and Railroad Street, just a bit southwest of where Pier B Resort is today. The building became a Jeno’s frozen foods manufacturing plant in the 1970s and was demolished in 1987.
Postcard from Duluth’s Shipping Canal, 1978
The message on the back of this postcard was written 40 years ago today — May 22, 1978. The card is postmarked the next day. (more…)
Mystery Photo #66: U.S. Mail boat near Duluth, Minnesota
This undated postcard photo depicts a U.S. Mail boat at a nondescript location. The only clue that it might be on the St. Louis River or some other body of water in the vicinity of Duluth is a penciled note on the back of the card. (more…)
Duluth-area Radio Station Guide for 2018
The Duluth/Superior radio market is noted for two striking characteristics — an uncommon number of public-interest stations and an uncommon number of Christian stations. The commercial broadcast signals that fill out the rest of dial are mostly owned by two entities — Midwest Communications and Townsquare Media — although there are a few smaller station owners, like Northwoods Radio and Twin Ports Radio. (more…)
This is Duluth
Twenty-six pages of Duluth propaganda circa 1981. (more…)
Video Archive: Bobby “The Brain” Heenan and “Macho Man” Randy Savage cut wrestling promos for 1988 Duluth show
Thirty years ago — May 10, 1988 — the World Wrestling Federation brought a card to Duluth for the sixth time. A television crew came along to capture matches for four episodes of the syndicated weekly program Superstars of Wrestling. (more…)
The pizza-like item at Duluth’s airport
Ten year’s ago today, May 3, 2008, Duluth was featured on the “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks. “Megan saw this at Duluth Airport,” the post noted. “Given some of the bad food I’ve eaten in airports maybe it is a pizza-like item. Or maybe the menu isn’t actually printed ON a pizza.”
The post failed to mention one thing a commenter noticed. The person who wrote the sign also misspelled the name of the place.
The Afterburner Bar & Lounge at the Duluth International Airport closed several years ago and was replaced in 2014 by the Arrowhead Tap House.
Chris Monroe’s 2008 Homegrown Highlights
A little cartoon retrospective on the 2008 Homegrown Music Festival, drawn by Chris Monroe in 2008. (more…)
Postcard from Duluth Bethel
This postcard of the Duluth Bethel building was mailed 105 years ago today — May 1, 1913. It’s not easy to read, but the sender appears to be “Auntie Paul” and the recipient is Mrs. Mildred Wilkinson of Clare, Mich. (more…)
Homegrown Music Festival 2018 Primer
If you’ve been living under a chicken you might not know Duluth’s 20th annual Homegrown Music Festival is upon us. There is a 108-page Homegrown Field Guide available at locations all over town with the details. Updates and peripheral tidbits can be found below.
Homegrown website
Homegrown schedule
Homegrown Facebook page
Homegrown Twitter page
Seasons 1-5 of Seth Langreck’s Duluth Band Profiles
Admission wristbands are $30 for the full eight days of music, but there are also many free-admission events. (more…)
Glossary of Music Genres
There’s pretty much no such thing as a rock band anymore. A rock band couldn’t possibly be as cool as a screamocore post-punk dream-rock math band. The proliferation of such terms, however, has created some confusion among casual music fans. “What in the world is grindcore?” some wonder.
That’s why the Homegrown Music Festival steering committee commissioned the handy list of meaningless music-style descriptors with vague definitions that appears below. The glossary was originally compiled for the 2007 Homegrown Field Guide, and appears here as a refresher course.
Obviously it’s not necessary to include well-known genres like rap, soul, techno, country, hip hop, blues and reggae in the list because most people are familiar with those terms.
Also, since the list of music-writer lingo is seemingly endless, and this particular writer is lazy, numerous terms such as trance, electronica, reggaeton and synth pop will have to be left undefined. The goal here is not to be comprehensive, but simply to be helpful.
American roots music is basically folk music, but saying “American roots” or “Americana” instead of “folk” leaves the impression the artist is more like Woody Guthrie than like Joni Mitchell.
Black metal is thrash metal played by people who dislike mainstream culture and religion. The goal is to show contempt for anything conventional by distorting and otherwise mangling song structures while shrieking a lot. You know, get mad at the man, take it out on music in general. (more…)
2 Sleepy People – “Backstage”
Bands that were part of the first Homegrown Music Festival in 1999 tended to be long-running acts that played dozens if not hundreds of shows. Some recorded numerous albums, others put out just one album or at least a few scattered singles.
The exception is 2 Sleepy People, a short-lived act that is nonetheless remembered for stealing the show the one time it played Homegrown. Available above is a rare recording of the group, captured at the Shaky Ray Records studio in Duluth’s Hillside, one day before the very first Homegrown. The track was recorded by Mark Lindquist, who supplied it to Perfect Duluth Day for your pre-Homegrown 2018 nostalgia fix.
R.I.P. DJ Baby Judy.
Duluth Curling Club on the Shores of Lake Superior
This undated photo shows the old Duluth Curling Club perched on a bluff at the shore of Lake Superior. The building at 1338 London Road stood from 1913 to 1984. More Duluth Curling Club history can be found in “Postcards from the Duluth Curling Club.”
Duluth Book Releases in 2018
A Nice Relaxing Sea Cruise
Dale R. Botten
Page Publishing
(Jan. 18)
Web Watching: A Guide to Webs & the Spiders that Make Them
Larry Weber
Adventure Publications
(Jan. 25)
Chance Poems
Poems by Michael Kleber-Diggs, Julie Gard, Sheila Packa and Kathleen Roberts
Edited by Kathleen Roberts
Wildwood River Press
(Feb. 3)
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.
Dere iss somebody yet in Duluth dot vants to see somebody
Once again we feature a “Dutch Kid” pennant postcard, similar to “Duluth vas dere best” and others shown in the recommended links to this post. (more…)
How would you like to take a trip over Duluth on the air line?
This picture postcard was mailed 110 years ago today — April 13, 1908 — from Minot, N.D. William Richert had just arrived in Douglas, N.D., presumably after a stay in Duluth, and sent the card to his brother Charles in Sublette, Ill. The card arrived on April 15. (more…)
The Lincoln Hotel … your Duluth home
“Located at the edge of the Duluth loop district,” the Lincoln Hotel’s spot on West Second Street was “most advantageous,” according to this old brochure. (more…)
Postcard from Skyline Drive at Night
This postcard image looking out from Skyline Drive at the city’s hillside, downtown, Aerial Lift Bridge, Minnesota Point, Lake Superior and so on has been used a few times as Perfect Duluth Day’s cover photo on Facebook, and more than once has been met with the question, “Who did this painting?” The answer is, we don’t know. Old postcards rarely credit the artist. But maybe someone out there knows. (more…)
Perfect Duluth Day launching two new community websites — Perfect East Duluth Day and Perfect West Duluth Day
In an effort to better serve the community, Perfect Duluth Day announced today it will convert its nearly 15-year-old website into an all-advertising format, then launch two new websites to separately serve eastern and western Duluth with neighborhood-specific features and folksy tidbits. (more…)
Duluth Show Case Company
The Duluth Show Case Company, doing business as Duluth Store Equipment or simply Duluth Equipment, was a maker of display cabinets using the “Duluth Method” or “Duluth Unit System of Sectional Store Furniture.” Read the ad copy to determine what that might mean. (more…)
Land of the Sky Blue Waters
This illustrated map depicting “The Minnesota Arrowhead Country” is from the Hotel Duluth Coffee Cub menu, circa the mid-20th Century. The illustration is by wildlife painter Louis S. Raymer, who graduated from Duluth Central High School.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune published an article about Raymer’s career in 2014: “Painter Louis Raymer, 85, on life, career and the heyday of wildlife art.” Raymer died in 2016.
Eat Yourself Help
The biggest mistake you can make after deciding to eat yourself is to start with the hands. The hands are the easiest part of the body to eat, so they seem like a good place to begin, but that is exactly why you should save them as long as possible. Remember, once your hands are gone, those hard to bite areas become an even bigger strain.
I suggest you start with your thigh, just above the knee. Chew through both legs, severing them. This allows you to eat your calves and feet like two big, sloppy corncobs. (Should you begin choking on an Achilles tendon, remember that a self-applied Heimlich maneuver can be just as easily performed when you are rolling around on the floor with severed legs as when you are standing on your feet.)
You might find the area from your thighs up hard to reach with your mouth so it’s important that you still have your hands and arms. Don’t eat them yet! After you have chewed open your legs, you will easily be able to use your hands to scoop out heaping portions of the rest of your body.
Many people ask me, “Paul, how do I eat my own mouth?” The answer is simple. Just push it down your throat and swallow. It’s that easy. (more…)