Paul Lundgren Posts

Duluth Band Stickers

Jun 19, 2024 8 Comments

In the aftermath of the 2024 Homegrown Music Festival a few band stickers that got crammed into jacket pockets and tossed onto shelves have been assembled into a tiny pile at the Perfect Duluth Day World Headquarters. Which got us to wondering how many there are in total, either stuck to something or crammed into drawers. It turns out, maybe not that many. The initial search at PDDHQ turned up only ten, but there might be more hiding in forgotten spots. So consider this post a work in progress, and please share images of the local band stickers you’ve got on your bumpers, lockers or the paper-towel dispensers of your favorite drinking establishments.

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Music

Postcards from the “Three Spot”

Jun 18, 2024 No Comments

Featured here are postcards of Duluth & Iron Range Railroad locomotive No. 3, known as “Three Spot.” It has been on display at the D&IR Depot in Two Harbors since 1923.

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History , , , ,

Duluth Brand Parodies: Derogatory Wordplay in Dull-youth

Jun 11, 2024 12 Comments

It probably happens everywhere just as much as it happens in Duluth. Someone intentionally replaces the name of a well-known person, place or thing with a similar sounding word or words, almost always in a belittling way, and other people think it’s funny and repeat it.

There should be a list of those, right? Well, here it is.

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Random ,

Garbage, Dog Turds and Polyethylene Owls

Jun 08, 2024 1 Comment

When I’m out walking and I see a plastic bag stuck in a tree, I always point it out to anyone who might be around and say, “Hey look, a West Duluth owl.” It’s a stupid joke that doesn’t get much of a reaction, but hey, so am I.

Making cheesy remarks might be the best action in that situation. There’s a clump of ugly garbage stuck in a beautiful tree, and my options for how to deal with it are to climb the tree or use a long device of some kind to somehow remove the bag, ignore the situation altogether, or pretend like I wanted that bag to be there all along to support the comedy of life.

I have similar statements I repeat all the time. If my childhood friend is telling me about her cancer diagnosis, for example, I’ll say, “I told you not to go swimming downstream of the steel plant.”

The tragedy behind the comedy boils down to something pretty simple: I want a clean environment, but I know that’s unrealistic. It’s also confusing, because a clean environment contains a lot of dirt. And seriously, a clean planet and a polluted planet are made up of the same things; the difference is how those things are arranged.

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Random

Greetings from Duluth

Jun 07, 2024 No Comments

This undated postcard, published by Cartwheel Company of St. Paul, shows five images of Duluth circa perhaps the early 1980s.

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History

Mystery Photo: Miss Norton

Jun 03, 2024 3 Comments

No fewer than five pennants hang on the wall in the photo on this undated postcard. Three are illegible, but one clearly indicates someone is a fan of Duluth. Another pennant represents the Withee Farmers Market of either 1912 or 1913. Withee is a village in Wisconsin, about 140 southeast of Duluth.

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History ,

Postcard from the St. Louis County Courthouse in 1924

Jun 01, 2024 No Comments

This postcard was mailed June 1, 1924 — 100 years ago today. It shows the St. Louis County Courthouse in Downtown Duluth, which opened in 1909.

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History ,

Postcards from Passage Island Lighthouse at Isle Royale

May 21, 2024 No Comments

This undated postcard, published by the E.C. Kropp Company, shows Passage Island Lighthouse and the rugged shore at Isle Royale on Lake Superior.

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Homegrown Music Festival 2024 Photo Slideshow

May 17, 2024 No Comments

This year was the third in row that I lugged my heavy camera around during the Homegrown Music Festival and attempted to be a photographer. Above are the 86 best photos I could muster.

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Photos, Videos

WDSM 10 p.m. News Final: Walt Jensen and Don Wright

May 15, 2024 2 Comments

This 1964 newspaper clipping, for sale on eBay, shows Duluth television newscasters Walt Jensen and Don Wright at the WDSM-TV anchor desk.

WDSM was Duluth’s first VHF television station, launching in black and white on March 1, 1954. Color broadcasts started in 1965. In 1974 the call letters were changed to KBJR.


History

Selective Focus: Homegrown 2024 (The Weekend)

May 06, 2024 No Comments

Select images via Instagram from the final three days of the Homegrown Music Festival.

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Music , ,

Mystery Photo: Little Rufus Milne in 1894

May 05, 2024 2 Comments

This cabinet card photo is marked “Rec’d May 5, 1894.” It’s not entirely clear what received might specifically refer to here, but with some confidence we can say this photo is at least 130 years old and someone received it precisely 130 years ago.

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History ,

Selective Focus: Homegrown 2024 (The First Five Days)

May 03, 2024 No Comments

Select images via Instagram from the first five days of the Homegrown Music Festival.

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Music , ,

Homegrown Music Festival 2024 Primer

Apr 28, 2024 No Comments

Every year the Homegrown Music Festival publishes a Field Guide with all the intricate details of the eight-day extravaganza. And every year Perfect Duluth Day kicks out a little rundown of updates, sidebar details and notes about peripheral, unsanctioned or otherwise-related items of interest at party time. This year there is just one official schedule change (so far), but plenty of sidebar updates.

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Music

Postcard from Superior Street at 15th Avenue West

Apr 24, 2024 7 Comments

This undated postcard, published by Odin Ebbesen, shows Superior Street in Duluth’s Lincoln Park neighborhood long before the neighborhood was called Lincoln Park. The church at right is, presumably, the Second Presbyterian Church of Duluth, according to text in an appendix of surveyed properties in the city of Duluth’s Historic Resources Inventory for the Lincoln Park Neighborhood.

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History , , ,