A novel set in a fictionalized Duluth/Superior
A colleague sent me a link to the novel False Negative by David B. Rusterholz, which is set in a fictional university in Superior/Duluth. The author lives in River Falls, a semi-rural, semi-suburb-of-the-Twin Cities community.
Has anyone read it?
Selective Focus: Murals and Art by Taylor Rose
Taylor Rose has attended more than 100 art festivals and his murals can be found spread out in the Duluth area, througuout the United States and in Brazil. Working with a variety of mediums, he has been creating pieces since he “was old enough to hold a pencil,” starting out by drawing Pokémon and cartoons in the flavor of Calvin and Hobbes. He can be reached at rose_oner98 @ gmail.com, with his art found at divergingrosedesigns.com, on Instgram at both @rose_oner and @divergingrose, and on TikTok @drosedesigns. Rose occasionally accepts commissions, continuously seeking to do work he finds “inspiring and lets me have creative freedom.” His clothing, prints, stickers, canvas and more can be found for sale on his website. Below are words from a recent interview with Rose and some of his work. (more…)
Summer Trips to the Northwest through Duluth, 1911
The Internet Archive hosts advertisements from transportation-themed magazines. This one features Duluth as the endpoint on a steamer trip to the Northwest, before joining the train to Seattle and points nearby in Canada and Oregon.
Bob Dylan’s Hibbing High School love letters sold for $670K
The Associated Press reports 42 handwritten love letters from Robert Zimmerman to his high school sweetheart, Barbara Ann Hewitt, were sold at auction to a Portuguese bookshop for nearly $670,000.
Jonathan Thunder on PBS
Duluth’s Jonathan Thunder is the subject of a new short film airing nationally on PBS. Jonathan Thunder: Good Mythology, directed by Sergio Mata’u Rapu, was selected by American Masters for national broadcast as part of the digital series In the Making. It will air in Duluth on WDSE-TV channel 8.1 on Tuesday, Nov. 22, following the broadcast of Buffy Sainte Marie: Carry it On. The programs occupy the 8 to 10 p.m. slot, so the Thunder feature will likely air after 9:30 p.m. (more…)
PDD Gift Guide 2022
Welcome to the 2022 PDD Holiday Gift Guide, highlighting products made in the Duluth area that one might wrap in paper and put under a tree. It features 15 items, as usual, but the comment area is open for limitless other suggestions. Or email the editors at info @ perfectduluthday.com. (more…)
Steamships from Buffalo to Duluth, 1901
This advert from Life magazine promotes trips from Buffalo through Chicago and Milwaukee to Duluth. I found it on the Internet Archive. (more…)
Lincoln Park Parking Park
In the category of “Best Name for a Parking Lot,” we have a winner.
Duluth’s Krummel family and their Maytag washing machine
Fifty years ago today Duluth’s Krummel family appeared in a Maytag washing machine advertisement. It was in the Nov. 17, 1972 issue of Life magazine. (more…)
Why Duluthians might be annoyed with Andrew Ti
For the second time in four months — and third time overall — Duluth has been mentioned on the podcast Yo, is this Racist? In the show’s opening banter, Andrew Ti mentions his fingers are cold. Co-host Tawny Newsome quickly points out how someone in Los Angeles complaining about cold fingers might be annoying to people in places like Buffalo, Fargo or Duluth.
Photos of an Empty Skywalk
The Duluth News Tribune recently published an article about the Downtown Task Force’s recommendations to improve conditions in downtown. This summer, I spent some time walking through the Skywalk system and was a bit shocked by how empty it was. The summer might not be the most popular time to use the Skywalk, but it wasn’t just the absence of people. So many of the shops that I remembered were gone. I didn’t intend to make a themed photo series about this, but I had my camera and kept turning a corner to find another impossibly long, completely empty hallway. (more…)
Duluth retailer on Twin Cities TV
Ryan Fleming of Rogue Robot Comics and Games was on KSTP-TV’s Minnesota Live with a nearly statewide audience, showing off hot holiday gift items and/or “a little bit of everything in geekdom.”
Climate>Duluth: Martha Stephens and Manlio Pertout of THES
Climate>Duluth host Tone Lanzillo interviews Martha Stephens and Manlio Pertout of the Human Exploring Society, which seeks to “talk to and involve everyone, because this connection we all share, plays the most important role in the changes we need to see.”
Abortion
This post originally featured a re-released classic from John Holden. The embedded video has since been removed from its source, YouTube.
All the hipsters in New York want to be from Duluth
This Twin Cities Public Television segment challenges the notion that Minnesotans are all blond-haired, blue-eyed Scandinavians. Although the piece is Twin Cities-focused, the final clip includes a nod to Duluth.
Duluth Canal/Lift Bridge stock footage in ghost ship doc
I was watching this YouTube documentary on the Big Old Boats channel, like ya do. It is about the Carroll Deering, which wrecked on Cape Hatteras without her crew in a nautical mystery. But a lot of the footage used is stock footage from other sources, for seaside vibes. So when I saw Ol’ Lifty on screen @17:30-17:46, I wasn’t too surprised. Duluth as generic sea location, thrown into amateur doc about unrelated East Coast disaster.
The Institute for the Study of Light and Water: Another psychedelic weather report
Sunset a silent H-bomb
Now a burning Saturn, now an apricot pastel dab on slate. Sun zips the sky closed behind it as it goes, now dying, now resurrecting in orange creamsicle. Color cosmologies. Gold birch leaves rattle like paper coins. Leaves crunch, clatter, gather against curbs. (more…)
MN Moder – “Christ Air”
Duluth-based hip-hop artist Zachary Moder, aka MN Moder, hangs out with Jesus at Enger Tower in his new music video, produced by Montclair Media.
Almanac North: All Souls Night 2022
The 15th annual All Souls Night brought Duluthians together to remember those lost with poetry readings, fire dancing and Mary Plaster’s unique puppets. WDSE-TV Producer Megan McGarvey captured the scenes for this Almanac North feature. (more…)
PDD Quiz: Football
Are you ready for some football? Call up your best plays and tackle this week’s PDD quiz about football in the Twin Ports.
The PDD current events quiz comes your way on Nov. 27. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by Nov. 23. (more…)
Ripped on Arrowhead Road on 2002
[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 took a rare trip to Hermantown and wrote the article below for the Nov. 11, 2002 issue of the Ripsaw newspaper. Since then each of the drinking establishments mentioned have changed. The Afterburner Bar & Lounge was replaced by Arrowhead Tap House. The Runway Bar closed in 2011 and the site became home to the Kolar auto dealership. The Local Bar & Grill is now Foster’s Sports Bar & Grill.]
Laugh all you want, but on Election Day I like to be near the Duluth International Airport. I mean, you never know: We’re on the brink of destruction, and, in the event of a sudden military coup, I want to be the first to take off to another land. But, security being what it is these days, I’ve unfortunately had a bit of trouble just hanging out and getting drunk at the official airport bar, the Afterburner. I’d rather not go into the details.
The Runway
So I find myself a mile or two away from the airport at the Runway Bar and Grill, hunkering down, waiting for the inevitable and having a few beers in the process. I’ve got three problems with this place: 1) They use the kind of pitchers that have the “ice reservoir,” thus cheating the customer out of valuable pitcher space. 2) They’re not showing election coverage on TV. 3) The man/woman ratio in this room is at least 20:1. (more…)
The Bass Players of Low
The paper said the eulogy began: “Friends, family, and bass players, welcome.”
Rafe Carlson – “A Place to Fall”
The new single from Hermantown’s Rafe Carlson has been released on Veteran’s Day for a reason. He’s donating 1,000 percent of his streaming revenue to 23rd Veteran, an organization that helps military veterans living with post-traumatic stress disorder.