Art, literature, my relationship to Lake Superior, the secret history of Duluth, and other stuff. I keep this updated. New installments appear roughly monthly as part of PDD’s “Saturday Essay” feature, with more I post myself.

Favorite Writers/Biggest Influences

Jorge Luis Borges. William S. Burroughs. J.G. Ballard. Stanislaw Lem. Italo Calvino. N is for Nostalgia: Peak Bradbury. Synchronicity in Action: How I Met the Late Ralph Abraham.

Avant-Garde Women from Dada to Situationism 

Eliane Brau: The Invisible Icon. The Shakespearean Tragedy of Peggy and Pegeen Guggenheim. Michele Bernstein: Queen of the Situationists. Sophie Taeuber: Founding Dadaist. The Hundred-Jointed Dancer and the Laban Ladies. Emmy Hennings: “Shining Star of the Voltaire”. Review of the Novel “Branded” by Founding Dadaist Emmy Hennings. Gertrude Stein Makes No Sense.

The Adventures of Lake Superior Aquaman

Freediving the Edmund Fitzgerald. Nautical Milestone for the Duluth Autonomous Navy. AP: Lake Superior Bull Shark Eradicated by Duluth Autonomous Navy. Sharkgate: the Lake Superior Bull Shark Conspiracy. On the Recent Ice Angler Rescue. My Origin Story. Acceptance Speech: Mayor of Snow-Fort City. Iceberg Ride One Year Ago Today “Do Not Attempt”. Lake Superior Eats Lesser Bodies of Water for Breakfast. PDD Headshot Backstory. The Winter of My Discontent: Lake Superior Wild Ice Report 2021-2022. Stock Lake Superior with Seals and Orca Whales: A Modest Proposal.

The Secret History of Duluth, Minnesota

The 2005 Duluth Art Institute Riot. World’s Longest Comments Thread. The Floating Island of Fremont, Duluth’s Breakaway Township. Lake Inferior: The Underground Lake Beneath Lake Superior (Related: “What About the Legend of the Underwater Lake?”). The Janus, Ghost Ship of Lake Superior. Duluth, Minnesota and the Lost Confederate Gold. Three Academic Papers on Duluth and the Lost Confederate Gold. Lake Superior Sea Monster: Three Fatal Encounters. Glensheen Denies Occult Rituals of Disgraced Congdon Nephew. (Related: Occultists Deny “Glensheen Denies Occult Rituals” Story.) Bob Dylan’s Last Hit. The SuperiorLab-Marquette Disaster. Zeppelins Over Duluth. Duluth’s Granny: Nazi Sub Hunter. Obituary of Peter S. Svenson, Minnesota’s Rogue Historian. Duluth’s Lost Township on Chester Creek. The History of Cloquet, Pierre the Pantsless Voyageur and Duluth’s Missing Vermeer. I was Left for Dead at Nopeming Sanatorium in the 1918 Fire. The Northland Sportsmen’s Club Wild Game Dinner. The Wreck of the Ophelia. Sir Duluth and Father Hennepin on Mushrooms. Also: Ghosts of the French River: The Book (with Erin Sola).

The Institute for the Study of Light and Water

The Institute for the Study of Light and Water. The Institute for the Study of Light and Water reviews endless summer 2022. Fall weather report. Another psychedelic weather report. Duluth View Checklist. What if the South Shore was a mountain range? Related: The Duluth Psychedelic Sermon and Duluth: Bird City.

The Duluth Superhero Community (the Richardsonverse) Co-written with Allen Richardson

Alternate Duluths. Index of the Duluth Superhero Community. The Haunted Groom. Apple Man: Duluth’s Depression-Era Action Hero. The Alworth Incident. Planetary Distress Call Recorded by UMD Observatory. Plutonium Loves. My 100% True Adventures. Escape from Wisconsin.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being Jim Richardson

Convivial Memories of an Epicurean Hedonist Con Mucho Gusto. Schrodinger’s Beer: A Refutation of Quantum Physics From the Duluth Bar Scene. Dreams and Themes. For Father’s Day I Denounce My White Confederate Heritage (Related: my interview with Robin Washington about the essay). I Demand a Lakewalk. I Don’t Want to See Another Naked Woman As Long As I Live. Project SULTAN: A 13-Year-Old’s Plan to Take Over the World. A Weird Experience Writing About Great Lakes Shipwrecks. The “Sorry” Bowl. My Psychic Powers. A Psychogeographical Map of Duluth, 2004. I Tested ChatGPT’s Morals and Things Escalated Quickly. In Memoriam: Duluth Artist Max Moen. Boner Problems. Jimi Hendrix, LSD and My Grandmother. The Lost Coast and the Ghost Choir of Mount Shasta. R.I.P. Burly Burlesque. Attention Billionaires: Get Bent. Ghost Dogs.

On Bob Dylan

The Committee for Building a Giant Colossal Statue of Bob Dylan. Giant Colossal Bob Dylan Statue FINALISTS. Press Releases Supporting Giant Colossal Statues of Bob Dylan. 100 Giant Colossal Statues of Bob Dylan: Duluth Region (Google Map). 100 Giant Colossal Statues of Bob Dylan (the video). Committee for Giant Colossal Statues of Bob Dylan (Homepage). Bob Dylan on Duluth and Minnesota. Bob Dylan’s Last Hit. Jesus Christ Meets Bob Dylan in a Hotel Room in Tucson, 1978.

Miscellaneous

Some of my Indy-Rock Guitar Goddess She-roes. More of my Indy-Rock Guitar Goddess She-roes. The Musician as Inventor. Johnny Depp – Amber Heard Trial vs. Ukraine War: A Mashup.

PDD Selective Focus: Jim Richardson 10/5/2018: “My 20-year cartooning run in Duluth remains essentially unbroken.” I immediately went on hiatus lol but here’s my archive, Jim Richardson: Cartoonist

PDD Select Gems:

2019: #3

PDD Most-Read Essays:

2020: #2 and #3

2021: The top five. I told PDD Editor Paul Lundgren I wanted to sweep the most-read 2021 essays and then I did so, my Babe Ruth moment although here Paul likens me more to Muhammad Ali: “Never before has one author landed more than two works on Perfect Duluth Day’s list of the top-five most read Saturday Essays. And now, like some literary Muhammad Ali, Jim Richardson landed not three, not four, but all five. Total domination. He also had the sixth-most-read essay of the year, just to rub his popularity in the noses of every other writer in town.” I just write more really

2022: #s 2, 3, and 4

2023: #s 1 (with Allen Richardson), 3, and 5

For the completist: Here is the list of everything I’ve ever posted on PDD including my top 30 photos and my top 20 videos, and here is an index of my media hits. Thanks fam.