So I sat around a table in the Intercultural Center at Lake Superior College, filling my belly with food from Zhong Hua and filling my heart with stories of people coming to Duluth. It was all part of “We are here. Hear us.”
In 1999 I was living in Minneapolis, listening to the Legendary Pink Dots. In Duluth, Def Leppard was playing. The audio is available on the Internet Archive.
I’m plunking about in the Archive.org site, and this video shows the Duluth harbor as a dystopian nightmare of smoke at about 2:30.
What an amazing transformation how we fuel our ships and how we imagine our port.
Dick Anthony of Duluth made popcorn in his basement circa 1952 for distribution to local stores, where it was sold in dispensers. The video clip is from the television series “Industry on Parade,” which was created by the National Association of Manufacturers and ran from 1950 to 1960.
“The bridge between Duluth and Superior” appears at just after the 1-minute mark in the circa-1957 short film Al-Can Trailer Trek, which promotes trailer traveling. After the quick bridge shot, zoom, it’s straight to International Falls.
This bridge is the Duluth/Superior Interstate Bridge, which was replaced when the Blatnik Bridge opened in 1961. Parts of the Interstate Bridge still exist as a fishing pier on Rice’s Point.
Ojibwe homesteads, shipwrecks and working class haunts provide just some of the backdrops for works honored by this year’s Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards.
There are an array of Low concerts available on the Internet archive. Joy joy joy while also vaguely restful.
The master list of recordings is at archive.org/details/lowmusic.
The Youth 4 Socialist Action Membership Handbook is available on the Internet Archive. It’s part of a collection of several documents.
I’d bet there are readers of Perfect Duluth Day who know something of this organization. Maybe tell me what it was all about below?
The Arrowhead Regional Arts Council has announced its grant recipients from June to August. The full list of project descriptions is at aracouncil.org.
Recently inspired to look into trains in Duluth, I found this video. It’s a bit older than some of the videos I’m posting, but it’s still more or less contemporary.
I love the practice of model trains. My grandpa helped me set one up in my basement, and it was wonderful, but being in my basement made the tracks tarnish, hindering the current that made the train run. So I eventually just used the track board as a table.
Model railroaders have incredible imaginations. This person has established an imaginary rail company carrying materials from the range to Duluth and from Duluth to Minneapolis.
There are a ton of videos of the train ride from Downtown Duluth to Two Harbors. The one above is from the engine.
I attended Bay Days to table with Wilderness Health and the North Shore Mental Health Group. It is an active group of citizens committed to increasing awareness of and access to mental health resources up the shore.
For the past three decades, the Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards have recognized books that substantially represent the history, culture, heritage and lifestyle of northeastern Minnesota. In 2021, longtime award coordinators at the Kathryn A. Martin Library at the University of Minnesota Duluth announced that due to staffing changes, the university library would no longer organize the awards. In early 2022, Twin Ports-based nonprofit, the Lake Superior Writers, announced that it would be the new NEMBA coordinators.
