PDD Quiz: Buffalo Bill and Duluth
This month’s quiz looks at Buffalo Bill Cody’s relationship with Duluth. For more information on this topic, check out this Perfect Duluth Day article, this Northland Wilds article, and this The Area Woman article.
The next PDD Quiz, on July happenings, will be published on July 29. Email question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by July 26. (more…)
A Smiter Smote a Sinner While Smitten with Smiting
Smite is a funny word.
My husband Jesse and I were talking about Leviticus (the Quentin Tarantino chapter of the Bible) last night. We don’t spend much time musing about Leviticus (lest you think we are piouser than we are) but were discussing this letter from a gentleman sardonically applauding Dr. Laura’s use of Leviticus 18:22 to rebuke homosexuality. Naturally, we began inquiring into other modern applications of less referenced lines of the book.
After discussing our own Leviticus reflections (scariest band name, ever), we started re-imagining the Christian adage, “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” Jesse suggested, to comply with Leviticus, that we change it to, “Hate the sin, scorn the sinner?” We agreed this was too far from the spirit of the book. Leviticus is very specific (e.g., “How to Build an Altar in 1,347 Easy Steps”). And the truth is, it’s tough to read cubits allegorically, no matter how stoned you are.
I suggested, if we were going Full Monty, that we just go straight to “Love the sinner, hate the sin. Then smite the sinner. Usually to death.” Jesse piled on, “If a sinning sinner smites a loving sinner, that sinner should be smitten, also.”
The fuck? (more…)
Selective Focus: Derek Montgomery
Derek Montgomery has shown us the world through his lens as a photojournalist, and he also does portraits and weddings. He’s worked for the Duluth News Tribune and Minnesota Public Radio, and he tells us how shooting news is different from shooting a bride and groom.
DM: I’m a photographer who specializes in wedding, news and sports photography. That may seem like a lot, but it’s a pretty narrow scope. Weddings is pretty obvious what that is about. I do a lot of work in northern Minnesota with Minnesota Public Radio reporters and have been a part of many stories and projects over the years. And the sports side involves working with the athletic department at the College of St. Scholastica to document their sports teams. Along with my work at CSS, I do a ton of team and individual sports work for hockey, baseball, volleyball, lacrosse and other teams, clubs and programs in Duluth. I’ve been a professional photographer for 12 years now and have been wandering around with a camera for 16 years.
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Video: Duluth Airshow 2018
Footage by Zhen Yan from last weekend’s Duluth Air and Aviation Expo.
Mystery Photo #68: Aerial Transfer Bridge
There’s no doubt the subject of this mystery photo is the gondola car on Duluth’s Aerial Bridge, but what year was the photo shot? (more…)
List of Bands that Have Played Head of the Lakes Fair in Superior
The Head of the Lakes Fair is an annual tradition in Superior. The weekend event usually features bands performing on a stage in the center of the Superior Speedway. Often the headliner is a major touring act that is a bit past its prime. Below is a scattered list of bands that have played the festival. Because … nostalgia. (more…)
The Guy Who Sings Songs About Cities & Towns – “The Truth About Duluth”
Matt Farley of Danvers, Mass. has been producing slapped-together novelty songs under clumsy pseudonyms since roughly 2004. The emphasis is clearly on quantity over quality; his website notes he has released 19,000 songs. He purportedly made $23,000 off his music in 2013.
Silent hero of Boundary Waters blowdown subject of new movie
The heroic story of a man who led one of Minnesota’s largest disaster rescue efforts will be told in a motion picture planned for release in 2019. (more…)
Postcard from Duluth Elks Lodge #133 in 1913
This postcard was mailed 105 years ago — June 8, 1913 — when E.J. Turnbo was “enjoying the cool breeze and having one big time.” (more…)
Mysterious Biz White Song about Duluth
We need to unearth some Duluth-based songwriter history. The current reference librarians at the Duluth Public Library are unable to track down the lyrics to a song about Duluth by Biz White, a female librarian during the 1980s and ’90s.
Here’s the conversation:
I was visiting with friends yesterday and one of them said he had been trying to find the lyrics to a song written about Duluth. It was written by Biz White, who used to work at DPL, and he thought it may have been for a Playhouse production. Some of the lyrics he remembered were, “Oh Duluth, your granite hills rise,” and “Oh Duluth, your heartless hills.” I was hoping you had some ideas.
Thanks,
Kim
Help! Does anyone have these lyrics recorded?
Ripped at Baja Billy’s in 2008
[Editor’s note: For this week’s essay we’ve pulled out another relic from the archive of Slim Goodbuzz, who served as Duluth’s connoisseur of drinking establishments from 1999 to 2009. In this article we travel back ten years to the time of the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 — before Duluth’s Mexico Lindo restaurant existed — when the ol’ “sultan of sot” paid a visit to Baha Billy’s at the Fitger’s Brewery Complex. The article was originally published in the June 30, 2008 issue of the Transistor.]
Have all you motherfucking patriotic cheesedicks got your economic stimulus checks from the IRS yet? That’s valuable drinking money, you know. While a few misguided Duluthians might use that free cashola to pay down their massive credit-card debt or save up to fix their sewer lines, the rest of us know what it’s really for: top-shelf liquor.
And so I walk into the Fitger’s Brewery Complex with three crispy hundos in my pocket, which is pretty much the only way you can walk into a shopping mall on Grandma’s Marathon weekend. My destination is Baja Billy’s Cantina & Grill, the tourist trappiest of the four drinking establishments in the building. Sure, my money would go a lot further at, for example, the Rustic in West Duluth, but I’m not dealing with real money today. I’m going to sit outside on Duluth’s best deck, look out at the full moon over Lake Superior, and slowly get hammered, all on the U.S. taxpayer’s dime. (more…)
Selective Focus: Warrior Printress
Warrior Printress Letterpress and Design is a partnership between two creative entrepreneurs, Janelle Miller and Stacie Renné. Janelle, the original Warrior Printress, started the printing business in 2010 after apprenticing and working for Rick Allen at Kenspeckle Letterpress (featured previously on PDD). Stacie Renné, a graphic artist experienced in brand identity, advertising, and corporate communications, joined forces with Janelle this summer. This week in Selective Focus, they tell us what they have planned for Warrior Printress.
WP: The heart of our business partnership is the shared love for place, for the lake, for paper, for type, for the clank of the press, for the hiss of the ink on the press rollers, and shared passion for creating a quality impression. Couple all those things with a desire for delivering simple, creative designs that communicate clearly, and you have Warrior Printress Letterpress and Design. We fuse contemporary design, technology, and techniques with old world, quality printing processes to create a product that, as we like to say is, “as unique as you are.”
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Info on ice photo from north shore
My father-in-law was recently telling me about a photo he saw in the 1970s(?) that someone took of ice along the north shore during a storm.
When the photographer developed the film, one of the ice/water spray images appeared to be an image of Jesus (sort of like the Jesus in the toast thing from some years ago).
Does anyone know of this photo and/or the photographer? Father-in-law would like to track down a copy of the photo if available somewhere.
Ore Classification Yards in Proctor
This undated photo, attributed to photographer John Vachon, comes with the following caption:
View of the ore classification yards of the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railroad. Here cars are made up in train loads according to quality specification and hauled by powerful mallet engines down the six-mile grade to the Duluth ore dock.
Interview with the Richardson Brothers
Ryan Welles interviewed the Richardson brothers today on his “True Stories and Other Damage” podcast. In it, we detail the history of how we got to Duluth 20 years ago, and provide an overview of the creative projects we have been involved with here, from Gonzo Science to Mr. Nice to Lake Superior Aquaman. Other topics include our perennial concerns of psychedelics, UFOs, Dadaism, and several things in between.
Mary Bue – “The Shit I Left in Duluth”
Glen’s Neighbor – “Explore, Dream, Believe, Imagine”
Duluth-based bluegrass band Glen’s Neighbor recently released its third album, Ice Cream. The video for the single “Explore, Dream, Believe, Imagine” is directed and animated by Shane Nelson.
Postcard from the Canal Park Marine Museum
The Lake Superior Marine Museum & Maritime Visitor Center doesn’t look much different today than it did in this postcard, probably from the 1970s. (more…)
Smokehaus Scavenger Hunt
Northern Waters Smokehaus has been selling smoked fish, meats, salumi, and sandwiches out of its little DeWitt-Seitz Marketplace location for so long that some regulars call it an institution.
To celebrate 20 years of smoking, slinging sandwiches and stumbling through the seasons with various levels of success, Northern Waters is offering discounts, sales and giveaways all year long. For the month of July the business is conducting a Duluth-wide (within its delivery range) Scavenger Hunt. (more…)
Dubz – “Livin'”
Duluth rapper Bryan Wick, aka Dubz, once again enlists the services of Arizona-based Priceless Video Productions on this video for a track from his 2017 release Throw it on My Tab.
Associative Agnosia and a Writer Born in Duluth
Michael Fedo on Associative Agnosia:
During my 1940s and 50s elementary school years in Duluth, Minnesota, I was the only boy in my class who could not identify automobiles by make. Chevrolets, Fords, Plymouths—all appeared indistinct to me. I couldn’t recognize one from another, unless I happened to spot the name on its hood or trunk.
Fascinating read by one of Duluth’s most prominent exports, in the new issue of You & Me.
WDSE-TV Documentary: “Fires of 1918”
The date October 12, 1918 will forever be remembered in this part of the world as a date that didn’t just make history, but erased history. Now, a century later, WDSE-TV presents a new documentary on the greatest catastrophe ever in northern Minnesota.
I. Was. Running.
On a mellow midsummer evening in 1992 — back when the Whole Foods Co-op was still next door to the Chester Park Laundromat at Fourth Street and Fifteenth Avenue East — I emptied a big mesh bag full of dirty laundry into three or four front-loading washers, tied my apartment key (for the basement of 1516 East Fourth Street, a little more than a block away ) to the hockey-skate lace holding up my cutoff UMD sweats, and started jogging up the east side of the Chester Creek trail. My plan was to take that side up to Chester Bowl, follow the pavement back to the soccer field, then reverse the process down the west side of creek and return just as the wash cycle ended. The laundromat wasn’t crowded, but I still didn’t want to be the guy who takes up a bunch of machines then disappears. I also don’t like people touching my stuff, even if it’s just to move my wet clothes into a rolling basket with a janky wheel or two so they can use the washer.
I wasn’t taking classes that summer, so I’d probably thrown a small stack of unread Sports Illustrated issues on top of the dirty clothes along with a jug of Tide. I assume my plan for after the jog was to transfer all the clothes into one or two of the laundromat’s huge, nuclear-heat dryers, grab some chocolate-covered almonds and a fizzy drink at the Co-op, and settle in to read about sports things that were starting to seem a lot less important than they had seemed since I was a little boy.
Good sports writing about more than sports is the stuff that had drawn my attention since elementary school, when Grandma Eva started giving me an annual SI subscription every Christmas. I really liked the long stories that focused more on people and culture and ideas than on stats and player trades and the stuff blowhards now shout about on TV and the radio. I should probably start reading the Best American Sports Writing anthology series again. Or maybe re-buy and re-read (if for no other reason than the story “Popper”) the George Plimpton anthology I once owned when I thought I was preparing for a career as a newspaper or magazine sports columnist. (more…)
“Where in Duluth?” PDD 15th Anniversary Challenge Recap
Here’s a storymap that sums up the “Where in Duluth?” PDD 15th Anniversary Challenge and the winners.