Selective Focus: Erin Tope
We kick off 2019 with a profile of dancer and choreographer Erin Tope, who as her stage persona Miss Tallulah Creant, keeps busy with the Duluth Dolls and other burlesque groups, is a member of the band Red Mountain, teaches, and works to make dance of all kinds more accessible to audiences and those interested in participating.
I am a dancer, choreographer, performer, and dance teacher. My mother was a dancer and dance teacher so she put me in creative movement classes at age three. By age six, I was in ballet at Minnesota School of Ballet here in Duluth. While at Minnesota Ballet I also studied Jazz and Modern dance. At age eight I started figure skating with Duluth Figure Skating Club and continued to competitively skate until age 16, when I was accepted into Perpich Center for Arts Education. There I finished my junior and senior year of high school in their Dance Department, studying Modern Dance, Ballet, Dance Composition and Dance History extensively. I moved back to Duluth after graduating and began Performing with Over The Top dance company, with a focus on Latin Ballroom Dance, mainly Salsa. With that group I was lucky enough to attend and perform at Chicago International Salsa Congress as well as learn the inner workings of producing shows. I learned most of my production, technical, and backstage lessons in those days and that has definitely shaped who I am and what I am capable of today. After the Director of Over The Top Dance moved to Minneapolis in 2011, I started dancing with Grace Holden and through her got connected with Rebecca Katz Harwood at UMD.
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Bigotry to Brook Trout: A Watershed Moment
Geoff Vukelich, who lives just north of Duluth, is the subject of the short feature “Bigotry to Brook Trout,” which is part of the International Fly Fishing Film Festival.
Synopsis:
Bigotry to Brook Trout features one man’s transformation from a life of ignorance and hate to quiet solitude on the waters of northern Minnesota. Hard truth and honest self-reflection parallel the beauty of Fall brook trout in this rare display of vulnerability and acceptance. Geoff Vukelich owns his past and speaks his truth, reminding us that we have the capacity to change our lives.
The traveling festival will hit Duluth on March 22 at Zeitgeist Arts.
Skating the Duluth Harbor
Matt Porter and friends laced up and skated on the Duluth Harbor back in mid December for this video.
Monthly Grovel: PDD Calendar accepting donations
Happy 2019, Perfect Duluth Day readers! It’s been almost ten years since PDD began selling sidebar advertising to support the development of the content you read here, and it’s been more than seven years since the PDD Calendar was launched. Over those spans of time, two things have become abundantly clear: 1) There is a strong demand for the content on PDD. 2) Advertising revenue doesn’t come close to paying for the human resources necessary to produce it.
So back in September we quietly put a donation bar on the page where event organizers submit PDD Calendar listings. Bits of funding began trickling in … $5 here, $30 there … and it’s been a big help. Now we’re reaching out to readers. (more…)
Video: Rad Surfing on Stoney Point
Once again Brent Eliason of Ease Drones has captured some exceptional aerial video of Lake Superior surfers at Stoney Point. The footage is from Dec. 28.
“All the surfers in this video were killing it!!!” Eliason wrote in the YouTube description. “My favorite shots are between 2:20 and 2:40. At 2:20 you will see UMD’s Randy Carlson just dominating on the SUP.”
Kmart gone, Spirit Valley hopes to rebound like Lincoln Park
The Spirit Valley business district sits just east of I-35 and includes a variety of businesses along Grand and Central avenues including the Super One grocery store in the foreground. (Photo by Cory Fechner, Liftoff Aerials)
The Spirit Valley business district in West Duluth took a serious hit in 2018 when Kmart closed but business leaders and city officials believe the area is ripe for a makeover that could match successful redevelopment work in Lincoln Park. (more…)
Perfect Duluth Day’s Best Videos of 2018
We come to the close of another year, and look back on some of our favorite videos that were posted on PDD. It really does get harder and harder to choose favorites with so much variety and quality these days. But we’ve looked through the music videos, the drone videos, the extreme sports videos, the travelogues, the absurd experiments, and we’ve got twelve here that feel like a pretty good summary of 2018 in Duluth. Let us know if we’ve missed any of your favorites. (more…)
2018: The Year in Duluth Gig Posters
Here it is, the annual gallery o’ rock posters. As usual, by no means is this a comprehensive collection, nor is it a carefully curated archive of the best. It’s just a bunch of random 2018 concert posters. (more…)
Ten years without Bayside Market
Bayside Market at 1901 Minnesota Ave. closed on Dec. 31, 2008 after 37 years in business. Originally named Clem’s Market, it was the only grocery store in the Park Point neighborhood. (more…)
Interim host keeps the Current’s Duluth music show rolling
Andrea Swensson is serving as guest host of The Duluth Local Show on the Current. (Photo by Leslie Plesser)
The Duluth Local Show, a weekly one-hour radio program featuring music by Duluth-area musicians, will close out 2018 in a transition phase. Mike Novitzki, who had hosted the show since May 2016, announced his resignation in October and his farewell episode aired Dec. 2.
Andrea Swensson, a Moose Lake native who has been an on-air personality and writer at St. Paul-based Minnesota Public Radio’s the Current since 2005, has served as guest host of The Duluth Local Show since Novitzki’s departure. She is also the regular host of an all-Minnesota music show with a similar title, The Local Show. (more…)
PDD Quiz: 2018 in Review
Bid adieu to 2018 with this year-in-review quiz, which tests your memory of local headlines (and PDD current events quizzes).
The next PDD quiz, on the murals of Superior, will be published on Jan. 13. Please email question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by Jan. 10. (more…)
Postcard from the Sellwood Building
This postcard, mailed 110 years ago today — Dec. 29, 1908 — depicts what was then the relatively new Sellwood Building at 202 W. Superior St. in Downtown Duluth. The Sellwood still stands today, with Western Bank as its most visible tenant. (more…)
Saturday Essay: Select gems from 2018
Last week we highlighted the five most-read pieces from the third year of Perfect Duluth Day’s “Saturday Essay” series. This week we ignore the numbers and look back at a few select essays of similar quality that might have been missed by non-compulsive followers.
In the past three years PDD has published 150 essays showcasing the work of 27 different writers; we hope to expand that roster in 2019. Anyone who has an original piece of literary excellence that seems to fit (or appropriately defy) the established format should email paul @ perfectduluthday.com to get involved.
And now, links to a few select gems from season three … (more…)
Video Archive: KDAL-TV Anniversary Video from 1974
Check out this video. If you’re a fan of 1974 TV in Duluth, then you’ll enjoy this. It’s a recording of KDAL-TV’s 20th anniversary as shown on the Town and Country Show with Kathy Linde. The video features many of the most recognizable personalities from the Channel 3 studios during that era.
Geek out on this Canal Park history map
Students enrolled in a Fall 2018 visual journalism course at the University of Minnesota Duluth used ArcGIS software to tell stories about Canal Park using mapping technology. The collaborative project tells 25 stories spanning more than 100 years.
Link: A History of Canal Park
Students curated visual materials and other sources for this project from various places that include the UMD Kathryn A. Martin Library; UMD Archives & Special Collections; the Duluth News Tribune archives; Zenith City Press and other publicly available sources.
Postcards from Silver Creek Cliff
Before the Silver Creek Cliff Tunnel was built in the early 1990s, Highway 61 wound around the edge of the cliff. Drivers relied on skill and luck to avoid tumbling boulders or anything that might send them plunging over the edge into Lake Superior. The Gitchi-Gami State Trail was later built following the old Highway 61 path. (more…)
Missing Dog
Taken from home on Christmas Eve. Brown retriever dog, hollow, filled with lights. Kids were heartbroken that someone unplugged and stole their favorite lawn decoration.
Mystery Photo: Miss Edna May Boyle
Here she is, Edna May Boyle, 120 years ago. Who was she? Why did she get her photo shot on Christmas Day 1898? Well, if we knew that it wouldn’t be a mystery photo, would it? (more…)
Video: Burntside Lake Christmas Ice Carousel
Joe Bianco and Cam Regan of Ely built a giant Christmas carousel on Burntside Lake, about 100 miles north of Duluth.
It’s Going to be a Merry Christmas
[This post originally contained an embedded video that is no longer available at its source.]
John Holden obtains a set of fancy speakers in the grocery store parking lot.
One last late night before the holiday
I spent Saturday at the Marcus Duluth Theater, which is on the lake [in the DECC]. For point of wry comparison, the Marcus Lakes theater is in Hermantown, near no obvious lake. My sweetheart Zomi and my friend Kate and I hoped to see Holmes and Watson. (more…)
Mystery Photo #81: Markus Family, Christmas 1893
Some mystery photos are less mysterious than others. Often cabinet card photos have nothing written on the back, but this particular card comes with info suggesting the subjects are William Frederick Markus and his family. The photo was likely shot 125 years ago, around Christmas of 1893. (more…)