PDD on KUMD’s “The Local”

KUMD’s DJ Marvin Themix interviews Perfect Duluth Day’s Paul Lundgren, talking about how PDD started and how the pandemic has affected it, and also discussing the evolution of the local music scene and previewing the Homegrown Music Festival.

Former UMD student behind viral Bryant Lake Bowl video

The drone operator who flew the crazy stunts in the Bryant Lake Bowl viral video has a Duluth connection. Jay Christensen attended the University of Minnesota Duluth.

Duluthian’s film starring Bob Saget in production

Duluth’s Matthew Dressel is in the Cayman Islands working on a feature-length film starring Bob Saget, the Duluth News Tribune reports.

Dressel was featured on Perfect Duluth Day in a 2019 Selective Focus post and his short movie Just Coffee appeared on PDD in 2018.

Postcard from Little Two Harbors

This undated postcard from Duluth Photo Engraving Company shows Ellingson Island at Little Two Harbors, the bay best known for its views of Split Rock Lighthouse.

Duluth Concert Archive: Blue Oyster Cult in 1977

From the archives. Were you in attendance? Also, does anyone know where/what Samahdi Sound was in Ashland?

The Slice: Moira Villiard’s “Madweyaashkaa”

Duluth visual artist and Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa descendant Moira Villiard reflects on her latest project: “Illuminate the Lock: Madweyaashkaa – Waves Can Be Heard,” featured in February on the St. Anthony Falls lock wall in Minneapolis.

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.

Call for Performers: Welcome Home {Grown} | Live {Stream}

We miss live music! We all miss live music … right?

This will be the 11th year of 2104’s Soup Social, dubbed #SoupB4Supe. Last year we were forced into the Live Stream gig … and now Bryce Kastning and I, also with support from a few others, have been producing Music Live Stream’s since April 2020. If you haven’t listened to our streams … you can pick them up as often as you want, they are at youtube.com/duluthiscool or 2104.us. As of this writing, we have created 22 streams from 2104.

Frosted Flakes in Duluth

Duluth gets a quick and silly mention in the March 13 episode of Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!, a weekly radio show produced by WBEZ in Chicago and National Public Radio. At the tail end of the clip embedded above, the panel talks about the virtues of pizza for breakfast instead cereal and jokes that people never argue about which city has the best cereal, resulting in the crack, “You haven’t had Frosted Flakes until you’ve had Frosted Flakes in Duluth.”

In case anyone needs another nuisance to deal with …

… here’s the annual reminder that the ticks are back.

PDD Quiz: Irish Twin Ports

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, this week’s quiz will focus on Irish (and Irish-adjacent) things in the Twin Ports.

The next PDD quiz, which will review this month’s headlines, will be published on March 28. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by March 21.

Race Week Jitters

You can die from running a half-marathon. A quick Google search results in roughly 72 million hits about super-healthy folks dropping dead from the exertion of running. Maybe they weren’t all healthy but many of them were in the best shape of their lives.

Welcome to race week jitters. The race day countdown is at three. My running plan strongly discourages any last-minute attempts at getting just one more training run in. I’ve discarded any last-minute hopes of ditching a few more pounds or somehow improving my time by a few more minutes. The momentum from my eleven-mile run is a distant memory. Instead, I’m full of fear.

Running logic says if you can run eleven miles one weekend, then the next step in training is 13.1 miles. There is absolutely no reason I cannot or will not cross the finish line. Except logic has taken a backseat to fear. All I can picture is getting to mile eleven, only to have my body give out on me. I visualize myself seeing the eleven-mile marker and then collapsing from exhaustion.

Another Day on the Beach with Two Wolf Packs

Another montage of excellent trail-cam footage from Voyageurs National Park. In this edition a variety of wildlife visit the beach in the September to January timeframe, but wolves are the main beach bums. Two different packs frequent the area — the Shoepack Lake Pack and the Nashata Pack.

The footage is from the Voyageurs Wolf Project, which is focused on understanding the summer ecology of wolves in the park. The beach is about 120 miles north of Duluth.

Upset Duluth: Stormwater Fee Edition

Increases in commercial and industrial stormwater fees is the cause of the latest “Upset Duluth” shot in our series of Duluth News Tribune photos of people who are perturbed.

Story link: Duluth businesses question stormwater fee hikes

Don’t forget to check out the ever-expanding Upset Duluth Gallery.

Selective Focus: Nature’s Winter Artistry

Select Instagram photos showing a few of nature’s icy art projects.

Postcard from the Leif Erikson Statue and Viking Ship

This undated postcard from Gallagher’s Studio of Photography shows two Duluth relics. The bronze Leif Erikson statue was placed in 1956 and remains on display at Leif Erikson Park. The 42-foot Leif Erikson Viking Ship Replica was built in Norway in 1926 and sailed to Duluth, arriving on June 23, 1927. It was displayed in Leif Erikson Park until 2013, when it was placed in a warehouse until funds are raised to build a display structure to protect it from weather.