The Name and the Person
Growing up, I disliked my name. It’s a 1970’s-era “J name” — like Jennifer, Jessica, Julie, and Jason. It was partly inspired by the Scream Queen, Jamie Lee Curtis, who starred in Halloween in 1978, the year I was born.
Since Jamie is often a boy’s name, I got Boys’ Life magazine ads and Boy Scout fliers in the mail. On the first day of 7th grade, my homeroom teacher met me with an “oh!,” and said he was surprised I was a girl. These things greatly offended younger me.
My mother chose a cute, trendy name for a critical, contrarian child. I could only see the contradictions in Jamie the name: an androgynous name for a feminine girl; a plain name that has four or more different spellings; a common name that people misread as Janice and mishear as Janie.
My middle name was no better in my opinion. It is my mother’s maiden name, a last name. I would have liked a “real” middle name like Jamie Lynn or Jamie Lee, like Ms. Curtis. (more…)
Selective Focus: Esther Piszczek
This week, Esther Piszczek talks about her journey from attorney and doodler to artist and teacher. Be sure to check out the beautiful documentary produced by Lola Visuals toward the end of the post to see in real-time how she makes her intricate artwork.
EP: I am a pattern artist specializing in the Zentangle® method of pattern drawing. The Zentangle method, created by Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts in Massachusetts, uses a .01 Sakura micron pen and pencil shading on a 3.5 x 3.5 inch paper tile to create intricate, beautiful, non-representational art. The method is contemplative and founded on the principle that there are no mistakes, only opportunities to create something unexpected. (more…)
Sketchbooks at Brooklyn Art Library: Steven Rodriques
I’m digging deeper into the online collection of Duluth-related Sketchbooks at the Brooklyn Art Library. (more…)
Dementia: Shifting Mystery to Meaning and Management
I’ve been working on a medical humanities project. Some Duluthians are part of it, including communication instructor Daniel Egley and his partner Beverly Egley. (more…)
A Coaching Party on Boulevard Drive, Duluth, Minn.
Copyright 1904, Detroit Publishing Co.
After the Endoscopy …
I’ve been working on a medical humanities project. Some Duluthians are part of it, including poet Zomi Bloom.
“After the endoscopy … while living in limbo, every attempt to eat led to unbearable burning and the inevitable blowing up of the balloon on my right side. I drifted in and out of waking dream‐state such that dreams became nightmares and shifted back into dreams of fantastic sweetness.”
Read the poem at repository.stcloudstate.edu.
Video Archive: Duluth’s Chinese Lantern Restaurant
It was 25 years ago today — January 16, 1994 — when Duluth’s iconic Chinese Lantern restaurant was destroyed by fire. The video clip above is from the Asian Flavors documentary co-produced by the Minnesota Historical Society Press and Twin Cities Public Television in 2013. The full 28-minute documentary is below. (more…)
Sisyphus on a Skateboard: A Review of “To Keep Him Hidden”
I reviewed Ryan Vine’s book of poetry. It’s good! Check the review out here.
Weird Waves Season 1: Great Lakes
Shoe company Vans brings its branded content team to Duluth, and the locals show them some of the winter surf “hot” spots. (more…)
Sketchbooks at Brooklyn Art Library: Samantha Nielsen
About a year ago, Samantha Nielsen was subject of a Selective Focus on Perfect Duluth Day. She’s one of the Duluth artists in the Brooklyn Art Library. (more…)
Hiki Hut: Duluth’s little blue sauna on a trailer
Whitney & Kelby Sundquist – Photo by Lissa Maki
A little blue sauna on a trailer began popping up around Duluth late last year. The Hiki Hut has licensing similar to a food truck, but instead of food it’s serving up nourishing doses of heat and steam. Owners Whitney and Kelby Sundquist aim to encourage sauna appreciation as well as cultivate community. (more…)
PDD Quiz: Murals of Superior
Test your art smarts with this quiz, which explores the murals of Superior. Murals in Duluth were explored in an earlier quiz, which can be found here.
The next PDD quiz, reviewing headlines from January 2019, will be published on Jan. 27. Please email question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by Jan. 24. (more…)
Minnesota Winter Evenings
I.
Some winter evenings I stand on a lake’s edge under bright-black Iron Range sky wondering about walking across that ice, over the train tracks along the far shore, into those woods, and away. What if I wandered until weary, laid down under a pine tree, then breathed easy until one by one my atoms drifted off into moonlight and air? Could I become birch smoke? Would a resting black bear or hunting fox know me among everything else it inhales? Most often on those nights I just look at the outside from inside, through my mother-in-law’s living room window after everyone else has gone to bed. When the TV and lights are off I can see down her back yard and past the dock we pulled out of Colby Lake in October and will push back into it come late May or early June. Snow on lake ice glows blue-gray under black pine silhouettes. Sky glows black. Abashed by comfort and warmth, I tell myself to get dressed and ski out the eastern end of Colby into the Partridge River. Or ride fat tires across Whitewater Lake or along the Bird Lake Trail or up and down the Moose Line Road. Then I admit my lack of will. Then I stand there for a couple more minutes, trying to make sure I can remember what that outside looks and feels like so my brain can reproduce the sensation long after the last time I’ve seen it. Then I go to bed and struggle to sleep. (more…)
Duluth to Montgomery Reflections: History in Context
In the sixth episode of the “Duluth to Montgomery Reflections,” the Duluth NAACP welcomes an advocate, coordinator, and mentor from the Duluth community. Sandra Oyinloye is no stranger to facing issues of racial justice head-on, yet this trip to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice brought her into new challenges. (more…)
Selective Focus: Amber Burns
Amber Burns is a true advocate for the arts. She has worked as a dancer, choreographer, painter, teacher and is now Artistic Director of the Duluth Playhouse Family Theatre. This week she talks about her love of many types of expression, and how she builds the work of other people as well as the many disciplines of her own.
AB: When I think about my medium I more like to think about what I love to create, which is visual movement, whether it is through my choreography, directing, through sculpture or on a canvas. Sometimes my medium is paint and sometimes it is physical bodies. I am a dancer, actor, director, choreographer, and visual artist. When I was just three years old I started dancing at a studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota and when people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up I said, “I already am a dancer!” As I got older I developed passions for many other things, including drawing and painting. When it was time to pick a career and go to college I decided to b become an art teacher, and graduated from UMD in 2011 with a BFA in Art Education, all the while I was still dancing and teaching dance classes. At UMD I also received a minor in dance, and this is where I was introduced to the theater world.
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Sketchbooks at Brooklyn Art Library: Sam Luoma
Brooklyn Art Library claims to hold the largest collection of sketchbooks in the world with more than 41,000 sketchbooks on shelves and more than 20,000 in a digital library. Some of them reference Duluth. (more…)
The Slice: Ice Climbing in Quarry Park V.1
Minnesota Point, 1904
This cityscape photo of Minnesota Point, shot from Duluth’s hillside, is from the Detroit Publishing Company, copyright 1904.
Postcard from U.S. Steel’s Machine Shop and Power House
U.S. Steel’s Duluth Works plant in Morgan Park had more than 50 buildings when production began in 1915. This undated postcard highlights the machine shop and power house. (more…)
North Shore Adventure in 60 Seconds
Joe Esenther of Excelsior posts videos of his travel adventures on YouTube under the moniker “Wild by Nature.” His most recent travelogue shows him exploring the North Shore of Lake Superior with friends.
Video Archive: Tim Kaiser on PBS’ “Make”
It was ten years ago — January 2009 — when Duluth musician Tim Kaiser was featured on the public television program Make.
Servant-Leader and Artist
Jan Carlson Carey
My friend Jan Carlson Carey and I served on the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council at the time of its immense growth. I was the at-large Duluth representative, and Jan represented the Iron Range, more or less.
In all those five years, I never knew she was a talented painter in her own right. (more…)
Mystery Photo: Stokes or Dalgarno Family?
This mystery photo is another cabinet card from Duluth’s Zweifel Studio. Ann Ramage posted the image on Facebook, tagging Perfect Duluth Day with this message:
‘Turnip’ Found! Oh, I mean to say a family mystery photo. Perhaps Stokes family from Petrolia, Ontario, Canada — Gordon and/or Dalgarno family from Tenney, Minn? Not dated. Any feedback most appreciated!
“Duluth” is a Small Drill-Hole on Mars?
Over the past few years Duluth has occasionally had colder temps than the temp measured on Mars on the same day. I have gleefully pointed this out to friends in the warm south when it happens.
But, if PDD covered this last year, I missed it — how a small test drill hole on Mars made by the Curiosity Rover get named “Duluth”? (more…)
A Little Green
It’s a perfect day outside — not too hot, not too cold. He doesn’t look when he hears my voice, like he has forgotten that he can turn his head to see who’s entered the room. I’ve gotten into the habit of coming up behind his chair, placing my hand on his shoulder, and lowering my body to a half-crouch before him. I meet his eyes, and wait to watch as recognition transforms him. It’s a silly thing, but it delights me to see the love on his face grow like the sunrise, changing the angle of his shoulders as he leans forward in pleasure and relief. It’s me. He doesn’t know my name, but he knows me. I have spent a not inconsiderable amount of time wondering if my father loves me. How my father loves me. Why my father loves me. But this, this is simple: my father loves me. It is one of the few gifts this fucking miserable disease has given me. But if I’m being honest, it’s a good one.
Today I brought fresh raspberries from the neighbor’s yard. They will taste like sunshine and outside, and I know he’ll love them. I attempt to broker a handoff, but the berries are so ripe we both end up with our hands covered in juice. His motor skills are dyssynchronous and irregular, now. He can pinch and grasp, but it’s like he’s playing one of those camp games, where some other guy puts his arms through your sleeves and gestures for you; he smooshes the berry, he pinches it, he grabs my hand and pulls it to his cheek. I laugh, because it’s better if it’s funny, and it kind of is. It can be, anyway. (more…)