Sunshine Café leads the list of 2023 restaurant casualties
The Sunshine Café in West Duluth closed at the outset of the pandemic in March 2020. Owners announced this year it will not reopen. (Photo by Mark Nicklawske)
One of Duluth’s most significant restaurant closures of 2023 technically happened in 2020. The Sunshine Café closed more than three years ago as COVID-19 swept the country. What was considered a temporary closure at the time was finally announced as permanent in September 2023.
The Twin Ports restaurant scene has stabilized and grown as the pandemic has wound down, but the closure of the beloved diner at 5719 Grand Ave. in West Duluth can be seen as evidence the coronavirus fallout lingers. The Sunshine Café had been a neighborhood gathering place for more than three decades. (more…)
Sydney Hansen – “Kringle Tingle”
Duluth native Sydney Hansen has a new, original Christmas song. “Kringle Tingle” was written with Corey Lee Barker and produced by Kent Wells.
Thoughts on Flags, Art and a State of Perpetual Revolution
This post is about the new Minnesota State Flag, about abstract art, and about the exhausted feeling I get in contemporary politics. (more…)
Interview with On the Record’s Kristi Olson
Duluth has seen a multitude of music and arts ‘zines over the years. They are a part of culture that connect and inform people about niche things in a community. In the past, Duluth has watched ‘zines such as The Transistor come and go, but now there is a new sheriff ‘zine-maker in town and her name is Kristi Olson, creator of Duluth music publication On the Record. Click on the image above to hear Olson open up about breaking the mold of the “good ol’ boys club” that made up the Duluth ‘zine-crafting community for many years.
Saturday Morning TV
While this post isn’t specifically about Duluth, I am hoping that posting will bring some Duluth stories out of the woodwork.
Below are lists of Saturday-morning cartoons as they ran in my childhood. I remember many of them (Scooby-Doo, of course; repackaged cinema cartoons like Bugs Bunny Looney Tunes; originals like the animated Star Trek). (more…)
The Rise and Fall and Rise and Fall (and Rise and Fall?) of Downtown Duluth’s Fifth Avenue West
Looking down Fifth Avenue West toward Duluth’s Spalding Hotel in 1889. University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
A few weeks ago, David Beard wrote a post on the future of the plaza next to the Ordean Building, noting plans for it to be sold to a private developer in conjunction with a future housing project. I recently wrote a rather long post about Gunnar Birkerts, the architect of the Duluth Public Library, and because his firm also designed the plaza, I ended up with enough information about this project that I thought it might be worthy of a follow-up post on the history of the Fifth Avenue Mall, a name so forgotten that a 2015 Perfect Duluth Day post referencing the mall clarifies that the word ‘mall’ as used here is “not about a shopping mall, but instead something like the decorative median with trees that stands in the middle of the avenue today.” (more…)
Postcard from Three Ore Carriers at DM&IR Docks
This undated postcard from Gallagher’s Studio of Photography shows the ore carriers Wm. B. Schilier, Peter A. B. Widener and Henry Phipps at the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range docks in West Duluth.
All three vessels were built for the Pittsburgh Steamship Company. The Schilier was sold for scrapping in 1978 in Duluth. The Widener was sold for scrapping in 1986 and towed to Lisbon, Portugal in 1987. The Phipps was sold for scrapping in 1976 in Duluth.
Community Resource List: Freelance Grant Writers
I’m seeking entries for a community resource list. The category of resource I am hoping to build first is “Freelance Grant Writers.”
If you’d like to be on such a list (one I am hoping to convince the University of Minnesota Duluth would be good to have both internally and to serve its community better), please comment below with your name, your electronic presence (e.g., website, LinkedIn, or social media) and the areas you are comfortable writing grants in (e.g., arts, the environment, education, etc.).
PDD Quiz: Bentleyville
In honor of Bentleyville’s 20th anniversary, here’s a quiz testing your knowledge of Duluth’s famous light display.
The final PDD quiz of 2023 will review the year’s headlines; it will be published on Dec. 31. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by Dec. 27. (more…)
Ripped at Miller Hill Mall in 2003
[Editor’s note: For this week’s essay we’ve once again pulled out a relic from the archive of Slim Goodbuzz, who served as Duluth’s “booze connoisseur” from 1999 to 2009. Twenty years ago the Sultan of Sot paid a visit to the Miller Hill Mall and composed this article for the Dec. 24, 2003 issue of the Ripsaw newspaper. Historical footnote: This was Slim’s last column for the Ripsaw before it switched from a weekly newspaper to a monthly magazine. Neither were ever the same. Additional footnote: The Great American Bar & Grill closed in 2011; the space is now occupied by Noodles & Company and Chipotle Mexican Grill.]
With all the recent abductions and alleged abductions going on in the region, now is an excellent time to prey on people’s paranoia. That’s why I’m at the Miller Hill Mall, picking out people at random and following them around. It’s just before Christmas, so there are plenty of targets to choose from.
My first victim is Sean Baker. I know his name because he just registered to win a Sea-doo powerboat and 500,000 World Perks miles. I also know now that he is gullible. You don’t have to read the fine print on the entry form to know that the odds of winning are miniscule and the odds of being contacted by annoying telemarketers for the rest of your life because you just signed away your do-not-call list status are equal to the odds of whether or not you have a phone. (more…)
List of Duluth-area Podcasts No Longer in Production
They might be on hiatus or they might be done. Some lasted a handful of episodes, others lasted a decade. Some were never meant to keep going. There are no recent episodes of the audio productions listed below, but the archives are still available … or, at least they were the last time we checked.
Perfect Duluth Day’s look at archived podcasts no longer in production is a companion piece to the “Guide to Duluth-area Podcasts,” which features shows currently, or at least recently, in production. (more…)
Big Into – “Deep Snow Full Moon”
Iron Range natives Curtis Kraft Mattson and Jozef Conaway find what they are looking for in the latest video from their nerd-rock duo Big Into. The track is from the band’s upcoming EP.
Duluth Podcasts: A Guide to Downloadable Duluth Audio
Left: Jebah Edmunds, host of “Cultural Curriculum Chat.” Top center: Hailey Eidenschink, host of “Attracted to Duluth.” Top right: Tom Jamison and Yvonne Myers, hosts of “For the Love of Duluth,” along with 2022 guest Charlie Parr. Bottom: Marie Zhuikov and Sharon Moen, hosts of “The Fish Dish.”
There are more than 50 active podcasts that have some connection to Duluth and the surrounding area. Some feature Duluthians talking about Duluth, while others are produced in the region but meant for broader audiences. The topics span a wide range — history, phenology, hockey, education, aquaculture, Christianity, gardening, entrepreneurism and so on.
Perfect Duluth Day has resisted the urge to create a podcast about Duluth podcasts and instead used the written word and images to put together this guide to local digital audio. The list below includes only podcasts with recent episodes; we have a separate “List of Duluth-area Podcasts No Longer in Production.” (more…)
Frau Holle’s Werkhaus
Frau Holle’s Werkhaus is Duluth artist Joellyn Rock‘s latest mixed-media installation, on display at the Tweed Museum of Art through February as part of the University of Minnesota Duluth’s faculty and staff exhibition Everything & Nothing. It was first exhibited in the group show Catching Up / Resurfacing at Joseph Nease Gallery. (more…)
PDD Video Lab: Duluth Ship Canal Dog Rescue Footage
The Duluth Fire Department released video footage today of a Dec. 7 dog rescue in the Duluth Shipping Canal. The five segments of footage were shot by cameras controlled by the Aerial Lift Bridge’s engineer. The clips were dark and choppy, but the PDD Video Lab has slapped them together, brightened the scenes a bit, trimmed it all down and added a music track — “A Shoreline Dream” by Hypermode featuring Ulrich Schnauss. (more…)
Postcard from Isle Royale, Lake Superior, Near Duluth
This undated postcard shows a scene from Isle Royale National Park, the fourth-largest lake island in the world, located about 150 miles northeast of Duluth.
Steve Solkela plays “Ievan Polkka” while unicycling
Local accordion sensation/goofball Steve Solkela is playing Minnesota gigs almost daily in December before his tour of Finland in January. (more…)
Jimi Hendrix, LSD and My Grandmother
Jimi Hendrix appeared to me in a vision while I was getting my wisdom teeth out. This was Thanksgiving break 1986, in Houston, Texas. The next day I took LSD. It was a trip full of signs and portents, heralded by Hendrix’s visitation to me at the dentist’s office. At first I thought Jimi was protecting me, but now I think he may have been trying to warn me about that acid trip.
I’d heard Hendrix on LSD the previous summer, as “Are You Experienced?” transformed my boom box. That’s the song where he says he’s experienced, and then he says “Let me prove it to you” and plays a backward guitar solo. Everybody knows that song, but on psychedelics I heard the solo, man. It did prove Jimi was experienced, just like he said he was. I trusted him, an ersatz father figure dispensing psychedelic wisdom.
Why did I get into LSD, you may ask. Well, in 1983 after our father died, my family lived with our Houston grandmother for a summer of grieving. And while we were there, my little brother Allen and I watched the William Hurt movie Altered States on cable like 5,000 times. It’s about a psychedelic scientist testing the limits of meaning and sanity. We adopted it as a roadmap for how to live. (more…)
The Black Labels – “Blackboard Jungle”
Recorded at Beaner’s Central, now known as Wussow’s Concert Cafe, the week in September 2002. The track appears on the double album One Week Live at Beaner’s.
Shippee – “To You: (Merry Christmas)”
Duluth’s Blake Shippee has a new Christmas song. The video is directed by Lance Lindahl. (more…)
Superior Street 1963/2023 – Part Two: Change
The Providence Building, 332 West Superior Street, 11:11 a.m.
The first post in this series looked at locations along Superior Street that have gone largely unchanged over the past 60 years. This set of 10 photos looks at locations where the difference between 1963 and 2023 are a bit more evident. In some cases, that is because of major developments like the Gateway Renewal Program, the Holiday Center, the Skywalk system or the I-35 extension. In other instances, it is simply because at some point the building acquired a new façade. (more…)
Superior Street 1963/2023 – Part One: Continuity
In 1963 an unknown photographer systematically photographed Superior Street, capturing downtown buildings and businesses on both sides. Ninety-five of these images have been preserved on the Minnesota Reflections website. (more…)
PDD Geoguessr Challenge #7: Downtown on the Iron Range
W.F. Cannon (USGS)
As enough people played the original Geoguessr challenge series of six games for it to continue as a regular series, new Geoguessr challenges will now appear twice a month on Sundays, at least for the time being, so if you have any ideas for what you might like to see in the future, please share in the comments. As always, an overview of how the game is played appears at the end of this post. (more…)
The Slice: Amnicon Falls
Amnicon Falls State Park, located about 20 miles southeast of Downtown Duluth, is known for its upper and lower waterfalls, carved through dark basalt and Lake Superior sandstone.
In its series The Slice, PBS North 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.
Postcard from the Lamplighter in 1963
Not to be confused with the former Lamplighter strip club in Superior, the Lamplighter in this 60-year-old postcard is the piano bar in Duluth’s old Fifth Avenue Hotel, which was located where the Duluth Public Library stands today. It was torn down in the 1960s. (more…)