David Beard
‘The bridge between Duluth and Superior’
“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. (more…)
Northeastern Minnesota Book Award Winners for 2022
Ojibwe homesteads, shipwrecks and working class haunts provide just some of the backdrops for works honored by this year’s Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards. (more…)
Low Concerts on the Internet Archive
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. (more…)
Youth for Socialist Action of Duluth on the Internet Archive
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?
Congrats ARAC Grant Recipients
The Arrowhead Regional Arts Council has announced its grant recipients from June to August. The full list of project descriptions is at aracouncil.org. (more…)
Riding a Train to Duluth on YouTube
I love trains. So when this showed up in my YouTube feed, I was excited. (more…)
Model Trains of the Duluth Depot
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 Trains of an Imaginary Duluth
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. (more…)
The Train Ride to Two Harbors
There are a ton of videos of the train ride from Downtown Duluth to Two Harbors. The one above is from the engine. (more…)
Bay Days with the North Shore Mental Health Group
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. (more…)
Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards announce nominees
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. (more…)
Sonofmel at Earth Rider after the Rhizomes and Poliça
It was a busy weekend in Duluth, despite the rain that postponed the Fourth of July events.
Saturday I missed the Rhizomes, who played in Two Harbors. Crankily, I have decided that I will only be indoors in places with cavernous, flowing air, until the pandemic has subsided. (For more information about the pandemic that is still going on, no matter how many people you see walking around without masks, visit the Minnesota Dashboard. We’re doing okay — COVID hospitalizations are definitely flat, but variants are increasingly resistant to the vaccine.) (more…)
Thoughts about the new ad campaign
The new campaign to increase tourism for Duluth had, I guess, a “soft open” this week, covered in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and on Fox 21. (more…)
Lake Superior College Wolf Fair
I attended the wolf event at Lake Superior College. It was awesome, a blending of art, science, and indigenous cultures, with representatives from the International Wolf Center, the Wildlife Science Center, Timber Wolf Alliance, Wildwoods, and the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission. (more…)
ARAC seeking new executive director
The Arrowhead Regional Arts Council is accepting applications for the position of executive director. This position shapes arts and culture in Duluth and the Arrowhead, so they should want the best possible pool of applicants. (more…)
Pączki!
Every year, for a week, Super One Foods sells pączki, pronounced poonch-key, a specialty Polish donut. But they never do my favorite flavor, prune.
What does a man have to do to get a prune donut in time for Mardi Gras?
Mater Dei Apostolate
Students at Mater Dei open house.
I recently attended the open house at Mater Dei Apostolate in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. (more…)
Freethinkers host Visiting Scholar on the Jiu Jitsu of Argument
The Lake Superior Freethinkers hosted Shane Courtland for a talk at the College of St. Scholastica. Courtland is a Superior native who completed an undergraduate degree at UMD, a PhD at Tulane, and now serves as a leader in the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University. (more…)
Thank you for the coffee …
To the angel who prepaid several people’s coffee at a mall-area coffee shop on Sunday — thank you. I appreciate the kindness.
A Bit More about Helen Futter
A reader has sent some information about Helen Futter, the subject (I think) of some thoughts I’ve had about record collections, midcentury media, and pop culture. (See here, here, here, here, and here.) Generally, reflecting on what (I think) was Helen’s record collection, donated by her estate to Gabriel’s Books in Lakeside, I treated her like a “typical teen,” listening to records on her “Victrola.” (more…)
Jane Yolen awarded Sophie Brody Medal for 2022
Duluth’s Holy Cow! Press author Jane Yolen, author of Kaddish: Before the Holocaust and After, has been awarded the Sophie Brody Medal for 2022. (more…)
Lake Superior Writers taking over NEMBA
The Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards have a new organizing body, Lake Superior Writers. As a fan of NEMBA, the University of Minnesota Duluth and LSW, I think this is good news for all. (more…)
Literary History of Duluth: Duluth Benedictine Books
It looks like (from the Online Computer Library Center records and the books I found at Gabriel’s) Duluth Benedictine Books was a brief experiment in recording the lives and institutions of sisters who live at St. Scholastica. (I just finished a jar of strawberry rhubarb jam I purchased at their most recent jam sale — so yummy.)
I wonder whether this was a project fueled by one of the sisters? By someone determined to write down history or by someone who recognized that telling these stories could also help recruit for the sisterhood (whose numbers are dwindling)? (more…)
The Last of the (I Think) Futter Collection
So, this is the last batch of records purchased at a $5 bag sale at Gabriel’s Books in Lakeside. (more…)
Closer to the Core: Helen A. Futter’s Records
Yesterday was a “snow day,” meaning things were open, but my Kia Soul was not equipped to get me there while the snow fell on the ice. So I took a break from grading some excellent papers by my students to go over my next stack of records from Gabriels’s Used Bookstore in Lakeside. (more…)