March 6, 1998 - Minnesota State Representative Gene Pelowski, advanced placement social studies teacher at Winona Senior High School, and Bob Wedl, commissioner of the Department of Children, discuss the new "Profile of Learning" standards requirement. Pelowski and Wedl also answer listener questions.
March 6, 1998 - MPR's Amy Radil reports on Minnesota Opera’s Opera Ventures program. Where a venerable art form like opera is placed in the hands of eleven and twelve-year-olds, anything can happen….and that's just what's been happening on the stage of the Hibbing High school auditorium with the production, "The Diner Blues."
March 16, 1998 - There's the "Old Farmers' Almanac," "Almanac of American Politics," "Golf Almanac" and now: the "HARP Almanac." It's the brainchild of a Saint Paul couple Fred Schlomka and Sunita Staneslow that lists just about everything imaginable about harps -- from concerts, performers and music, to carved music stands and harp insurance . As Minnesota Public Radio's Todd Moe reports, this new harpists "Who's Who" could make Saint Paul the hub of the harp world.
March 17, 1998 - For fifteen years, the group Boiled in Lead has taken its unique blend of celtic, east europeon and world music around the globe, while always calling the Twin Cities home. The band has built such a rabid following, its fans are referred to as ‘leadheads.’ Founder and bass player Drew Miller talks with MPR’s Chris Roberts about release of compilation CD “Alloy.”
March 18, 1998 - MPR’s Dan Olson takes a look at the timpani, sometimes called the kettle drum, as it takes the spotlight at The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Earl Yowell, the chamber orchestra's principal timpanist, plays the seldom performed Johann Carl Fischer’s Timpani Concerto.
March 18, 1998 - Uncovering family secrets is the theme of the latest play at the Great American History Theater in St. Paul. "Conversations about Hannah" is the story of Janie, a young woman who's trying to get her grandmother to tell her stories about family members she never knew. First-time playwright Ann Schulman drew on her own family's history as Jewish immigrants living on St. Paul's West Side in the 1930's.
March 18, 1998 - As the editor of the Hungry Mind Review for the last decade and a half Bart Schneider has been examining and critiquing books by others. Now he is experiencing the other side of the literary equation as his first novel "Blue Bossa" is published.
March 19, 1998 - Minneapolis playwright Kim Hines tells the story of three prominent African American women of the time who are largely unknown to most Minnesotans. Hines has written monologues portraying the life of businesswoman Amanda Lyle, social worker Gertrude Brown, and attorney Lena Smith.
March 20, 1998 - Like a church recipe book that weaves together parishioners' favorite banana breads, cobblers and bean dips....Eleanor Ostman's first cookbook, "Always on Sunday" samples some of her favorite recipes collected during her 30 years as Food Columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Ostman's newspaper column called "Tested Recipes", generated thousands of reader contributions over the years... including a submission by former Minnesota first Lady Lola Perpich, who started a lengthy controversy when she submitted a pie crust recipe which readers couldn't seem to make work. Ostman says she eventually learned how to eyeball a recipe to figure out if it had potential.
March 20, 1998 - Nolan Zavoral talks about his book about Iowa wrestler and coach Dan Gable.