Selective Focus: Fireworks

Select Instagram images of Fourth of July fireworks. (more…)

PhotosInstagram, Selective Focus

Rich Mattson and the Northstars – “What’s Your Story?”

The latest music video from Rich Mattson and the Northstars features home-movie travel footage, edited by Reggie Pype. The track is from the album Totem, released in January.

The band plays a street show in Virginia on July 11 with Horse Fzce and Charlie Parr.

Music, VideosRich Mattson
Casey Carbert
Vision Pro: Year End 2026

Monthly Grovel: July 2019 Edition

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In the past year — from July 2018 through June 2019 — the PDD Calendar published 8,045 Duluth-area events. Each one was edited by a human being before the “publish” button was pushed.

It’s a tremendous amount of work to keep up with all the submissions from the more than 1,000 organizations that have sent us info about their concerts, plays, seminars and cornhole tournaments. That’s why once a month we set our dignity aside and remind readers how much we appreciate their financial support. (more…)

RandomPDD Shop Talk

Bethany Lutheran Church could become restaurant

Fox 21 is reporting that brothers Chuck and Robert Bagley are working on turning the former Bethany Lutheran Church at 2302-2308 W. Third St. into a restaurant.

News and Current Affairs, RestaurantsChurches, Lincoln Park Neighborhood / The Friendly West End
Glensheen Lantern Tours 2026
Vision Pro: Year End 2026

A People’s Free Skate gem by Johnny of the Northwoods

Recorded at this past winter’s #peoplesfreeskate, in response to DNT reporters prompting him. Just getting this off my phone now. Cast your mind back to blessed February.

Outdoors, VideosLake Superior, Lake Superior Aquaman, North Shore of Lake Superior, Winter

The Slice: Harbor Symphony #2

Ships and foghorns create a misfit symphony in the Duluth-Superior Harbor.

In its series The Slice, WDSE-TV 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. Composer credit for this clip goes to photographer Ted Pellman.

Music, VideosThe Slice, WDSE-TV - PBS North
Casey Carbert
Ashwabay Alliance / Big Top Chautauqua

Duluth View from Cascade Park in 1899

This photo from Detroit Publishing Company shows the view looking out from Duluth’s hillside at Cascade Park toward the Downtown area and Minnesota Point. William Henry Jackson is credited as the photographer.

The Library of Congress dates the image as circa 1902, but research by Mark Ryan for the story “W. H. Jackson’s Photographs of Duluth” for Zenith City Press puts the time of Jackson’s visit to Duluth as the summer of 1899.

History, PhotosCascade Park, Detroit Publishing Company, Minnesota Point and Park Point, William Henry Jackson

Wallace W. Abbey: A Life in Railroad Photography

Ashland Ore Dock – Ashland
Loading iron ore into the steamer Denmark.

Bridge over the St. Croix – Summerset
Soo Line train crossing the High Bridge.

The Lake Superior Railroad Museum at the St. Louis County Heritage & Arts Center has opened a new photo exhibition based on the work of American railroad photographer Wallace W. Abbey. Located in the museum’s Gallery Car, the collection follows Abbey’s life work as he traveled around the country capturing historic images of railroads and the people who worked on all levels to keep the trains running. (more…)

Events, History, PhotosLake Superior Railroad Museum, Railroad Industry
Ashwabay Alliance / Big Top Chautauqua
Pier B Resort: Rise and Dine

The Felice Brothers – “Aerosol Ball”

The Felice Brothers note that “every tooth in Duluth is Baby Ruth-proof,” in this track from their 2016 album Life in the Dark.

MusicDuluth Songs

New Duluth Marketing Campaign

 

Outdoors, Photos, RecommendationsLake Superior, Lake Superior Aquaman, Media
Glensheen Lantern Tours 2026
Pier B Resort: Rise and Dine

Lake Superior Aquaman on Patrol

Outdoors, RandomLake Superior, Lake Superior Aquaman, North Shore of Lake Superior

PDD Quiz: June 2019

Celebrate 16 years of PDD by testing your knowledge of current events!

The next PDD quiz, on presidential ties to the Twin Ports, will be published on July 14. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by July 11. (more…)

News and Current AffairsPDD Quiz
Pier B Resort: Rise and Dine
Pizza Luce: Butternut Squash

Meatballs clip with Duluth pennant in background

It was 40 years ago today — June 29, 1979 — that the screwball summer camp film Meatballs premiered in theaters. In one scene, Tripper and Rudy (Bill Murray and Chris Makepeace) have a conversation while a Duluth pennant hangs in the background.

History, VideosReferences to Duluth in Film/TV or Other Media

Selective Focus: Free Range Film Festival

This weekend, you have the chance to celebrate two Sweet 16 parties. There is of course Perfect Duluth Day’s 16th Anniversary on Saturday at Ursa Minor. But the Free Range Film Festival is also celebrating 16 years, and this year, has a theme: Competition.

Film festival programmer Annie Dugan explains, “I realized as I was screening films for this year’s festival that we had a lot of movies about interesting people participating in very particular pursuits. I don’t know what it is in the cultural zeitgeist right now, but people want to compete!”
(more…)

Art, VideosFree Range Film Festival, Selective Focus
Pier B Resort: Rise and Dine
FDLTCC: Pumpin Run

Perfect Duluth Day NE IPA

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen had a toothpaste. The World Wrestling Federation had ice cream bars. Now Perfect Duluth Day has a beer. (more…)

EventsBeer and Breweries, PDD Shop Talk

Trio of Romping Red Fox Pups

Sparky Stensaas captured this trio of red fox pups romping around on a gravel road in Carlton County on Sunday.

VideosFox, Mark "Sparky" Stensaas
Pizza Luce: Butternut Squash

At Sara’s Table expands kitchen, adds second floor

At Sara’s Table Chester Creek Cafe is expanding its kitchen and adding a second story to its building at 1902 E. Eighth St.

Brunch has become so big at a Duluth farm-to-table restaurant that owners are building an addition to help cooks keep up with the French toast and omelette orders.

At Sara’s Table Chester Creek Cafe owner Carla Blumberg said a construction project started this spring will expand the kitchen, add new bathrooms and offer a newly created second floor space with dramatic Lake Superior views. The restaurant was established in 2002 at the corner of Eighth Street and 19th Avenue East on the former Taran’s Food Market site. (more…)

News and Current Affairs, RestaurantsAt Sara's Table / Chester Creek Cafe

This week on the Richardson Brothers podcast

New Duluth-based fiction vignettes on the podcast: “I Destroyed the Universe,” “Intimations of Time’s Imaginings,” and “Menno Zwonk, Amish Outlaw: Monkey Porn.”

ArtCreepy, Lake Superior Aquaman, References to Duluth in Film/TV or Other Media
Pier B Resort: Rise and Dine
Glensheen Lantern Tours 2026

I’m from Minnesota, Land of the Cold Air

Twin Cities commercial drone pilot Tyler Mason produced this tribute to Minnesota, as seen through drone footage of the state, with music by Atmosphere. Most of the shots feature the Twin Cities area, but there are glimpses of Duluth and the North Shore of Lake Superior.

VideosDrone Videos

City Girl Coffee in Martha Stewart Living magazine

A profile of “women behind eight American food brands,” in Martha Stewart Living magazine includes a blurb about Alyza Bohbot of Duluth’s City Girl Coffee. “Bohbot works closely with organizations including the International Women’s Coffee Alliance and Café Femenino, a program designed to stop the mistreatment and poverty affecting women coffee bean farmers across the globe,” the magazine notes. “She also sources as much coffee as possible from women-owned or -managed farms.”

News and Current AffairsCity Girl Coffee, Coffee Roasters
Casey Carbert

The Richardson brothers vs. the Alexy brothers

The Duluth-based Richardson brothers (Jim and Allen) have a longstanding creative relationship with the Duluth-based Alexy brothers (Teague and Ian). Most recently, Jim (aka Lake Superior Aquaman) has a cameo in the new video “Everybody’s Got A Baby But Me” by Alexy bros. project, Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank. (more…)

History, Music, VideosHobo Nephews of Uncle Frank, Lake Superior Aquaman

Trump administration smoothing the way for mining ambitions

News and Current AffairsMining, New York Times
Glensheen Lantern Tours 2026
Pier B Resort: Rise and Dine

The Definition of Love

Mikaela Sarran, public health education intern at the University of Minnesota Duluth, created this dance piece for the I Love You Institute. Her rhythm is kept by collaborators who answer the question, “How do you describe love?” (more…)

VideosDancing, Mikaela Sarran

More Then Merry – “Duluth”

Oshkosh trio More Then Merry released a song called “Duluth” on the 2017 album Long Live Vinyl.

Music, VideosDuluth Songs
Pizza Luce: Butternut Squash
Casey Carbert

Mystery Photo #94: Postcard of Bizarro Duluth

So … what we’ve got here is … um … an image that seems completely unrelated to Duluth, labeled upside down as Duluth. Can anyone speculate on what the folks at V.O. Hammon Publishing Company were thinking? What is this image actually depicting?

While it’s not technically a photo, it needs to be categorized as a PDD Mystery Photo nonetheless.

HistoryMystery Photos, Postcards, V. O. Hammon Publishing Company