Selective Focus: Quinn Montgomery
This week, we feature the youngest Selective Focus artist so far, Quinn Montgomery. She has been drawing caricatures of celebrities. Many are from shows that she most likely can’t watch for quite awhile. We get some background info from her dad, Derek Montgomery (previously featured in Selective Focus). For now, you can keep up with Quinn’s art career via her dad’s Instagram Feed. Be sure to check the second picture in each Instagram post to see the reference material with the finished drawing.
DM: I started documenting our daughter Quinn’s drawings as just a way to remember some of the things she was doing at her age, which is four years old. I found her style of drawing–large head with The Nightmare Before Christmas’ Jack Skellington-length arms and legs–as really humorous and fun. She’s always been very perceptive and expressive and the drawings are just an extension of that. I work from home and Quinn would bring me drawings every day of stuff she saw around the house or outside to cheer me up because apparently I needed that? I don’t know, but I always appreciated seeing her take on the world out here in Lakeside.
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Then and Now: Blue Crab Bar / OMC Smokehouse
The above photo was shot on Aug. 29, 2009 at the Blue Crab Bar, 1909 W. Superior St. Today it is the location of OMC Smokehouse. The photo below, shot Aug. 29, 2019, attempts to replicate the scene. (more…)
Postcards from the Clarkson Coal & Dock Co.
This undated postcard, published by the Duluth Photo and Engraving Company, shows the Clarkson Coal & Dock Company on Duluth’s waterfront. (more…)
Latinos in Duluth
Luisa Pierce and Teresa Dawson reflect on Latino presence and contributions in Duluth.
The Slice: Edward H. Ojard
Two Harbors-based composer Edward H. Ojard has published two music CDs with a third in the works. He is 10 years old.
In its series The Slice, WDSE-TV presents short “slices of life” that capture the events and experiences that bring people together and speak to what it means to live up north.
White Iron Band – “Drunk in Duluth”
Ely-formed and Twin Cities-based White Iron Band released a Duluth ditty on its 2005 outlaw country album Take it off the Top. (more…)
PDD Quiz: August 2019
August is drawing to a close; how many of this month’s headlines do you recall? Quiz on to find out!
The next PDD quiz, on Duluth in literature, will be published on Sept. 15. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by Sept. 8. (more…)
Book Cover: Entrance to East High School, Spring 1963
The setting for this fictional book is Duluth. The main characters attended East High School. The author grew up on Arrowhead Road.
A thoroughly Duluth-centric book. Read a sample at Amazon. The download version is 99 cents.
Be forewarned; this isn’t another high school reunion puff-piece.
Selective Focus: Graham Burnett
Graham Burnett operates Graflex Parts, a business that restores and repairs antique cameras. Film isn’t dead, and there are a number of people who still take on the challenges of photography without a phone or SD card. He works on medium and large format cameras that shoot one sheet of film at a time, and definitely don’t fall into the “point and shoot” category. It can take months to do the repairs, custom-build parts and fine-tune the mechanics.
GB: I do repair and modification work to antique cameras, with a specialty in a several types of high-end professional cameras dating from 1900-1950. I’m a sort of “custom design shop” but for 100-year-old cameras. The kind I work on are all considered “Large Format” and produce images that can be up to 8 inches by 10 inches wide. I found my way to this niche of photography and cameras through my own progression as a photographer. I had a few specific preferences for what kind of cameras I liked and what sort of image I was trying to create with it; inevitably it lead me to antique cameras. Every artist has tools and my clients are mainly working professionals with a distinct goal in mind, using their cameras for anything from fine art to wedding photography. I often do conversions of cameras allowing them to accept accessories or lenses meant for entirely different camera systems. (more…)
Duluth Shipping Canal in 1899
This photo from Detroit Publishing Company shows the view looking west from the end of the south pier of Duluth’s shipping canal before there was an Aerial Bridge. William Henry Jackson is credited as the photographer.
The Library of Congress dates the image as “between 1890 and 1910,” but research by Mark Ryan for the story “W. H. Jackson’s Photographs of Duluth” for Zenith City Press puts the time of Jackson’s visit to Duluth as the summer of 1899.
Waltzes and Such: Classical and Pops Records from Gabriel’s
Postcard from Two Harbors, where the trout bite
Sure, it’s a cute little piece of art, but the verse on the backside of this undated postcard puts it over the top. (more…)
The Slice: Tom Napoli’s Tortoise and Hare Mural
Artist Tom Napoli recreates Duluth on the side of the Tortoise and Hare Footwear store in West Duluth.
In its series The Slice, WDSE-TV presents short “slices of life” that capture the events and experiences that bring people together and speak to what it means to live up north.
Duluth 2019 General Election Primer
One week ago the field was thinned. Below is a look at the Duluth municipal and school board races to be decided during the General Election on Nov. 5.
Duluth Mayor
Emily Larson
David Nolle (more…)
Todd Slauson from Duluth, Minnesota
Fifteen years ago today — Aug. 20, 2004 — the movie Garden State premiered. Near the beginning of the film, Zach Braff’s character Andrew Largeman is threatened by his boss.
You have two tables. You are 30 minutes late. And if I ever say this again, your job will go to … Todd Slauson from Duluth, Minnesota.
Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #16
So here is another of the cards from the Duluth Trivia game. I’m hoping that Tony Dierckins might correct any egregious errors. Anyone interested in Duluth history needs to visit his site at Zenith City Press. (more…)
Matt the Electrician – “Sad Lisa Waltz”
Austin, Texas-based musician Matt the Electrician referenced Duluth in the song “Sad Lisa Waltz” from his 2004 album Long Way Home. (more…)
West Duluth bar scene adding Boreal House
Katie Fast, left, and Julie LaTourelle stand outside 330 N. 57th Ave. W. The two women purchased the former home of RJ’s Coffee Den and plan to open a new bar in West Duluth. (Photo by Mark Nicklawske)
Two women plan to open a new bar later this fall in a West Duluth neighborhood that boasts some of the oldest drinking establishments in the city.
Katie Fast and Julie LaTourelle, operating as K & J Industries LLC, recently purchased the former RJ’s Coffee Den at 330 N. 57th Ave. W. The century-old building is being remodeled and is expected to reopen as the Boreal House in late November. (more…)
Indecent Exposure
Walking from the car to the beach, it suddenly occurred to me that in the hustle to leave the house I neglected to take off my underwear. It’s not even clear to me why I was wearing boxer shorts under swimming trunks to begin with, but it didn’t matter until I was on the verge of jumping into Lake Superior.
The whole idea of a swimsuit itself is pretty asinine, really. It’s a small layer of clothing people wear while submerged in water, so no one can look at their delicate body parts as they enter and exit the lake. Once out of the water, the swimsuit dries faster than a pair of jeans, but still … to prevent people from seeing my Lake Superior-shriveled wiener I’m supposed to walk around for a half hour in wet shorts. Wetter yet if I’m a dimwit wearing boxer shorts under his trunks.
Still, I understand why society frowns on exposed penises. They are unsightly. But I can go to the beach with a giant oozing scab on my face and not be arrested, so let’s say there’s room for argument here.
Clearly, it’s not because genitals are ugly that society frowns on their public display. It’s because clothing is a perceived barrier to sexual thoughts. (more…)