August 27, 1997 - This weekend marks the real end of Hart's Record Store. Hart's was open in St. Paul until 1952, when owner Hart Callender closed the doors because of health problems. But he always planned to re-open it, and he held onto all his merchandise until he died last year, never letting that faint hope die. That merchandise, including 200,000 unopened records, but also some record players and radios, spent years in the Callendar basement and then in a warehouse, and no one knows how much it's worth to collectors. Pop music historian Arne Fogel got a sneak preview of the collection, which includes this old record of the music from the movie Pinnochio.
September 4, 1997 - For years the Nautilus Music Theater in Minneapolis, formerly known as The New Music Theater Ensemble, produced and performed only new works perched on the precarious boundary between musicals and opera. Some of the pieces were quite ambitious and experimental, and performers often played to less than a full house. This year, the organization has a new name and an expanded mission, to produce the old, or relatively old, as well as the new. Nautilus has chosen "Into the Woods," a Stephen Sondheim production to inaugurate what it hopes will be a new era in twin cities music theater. Minnesota Public Radio's Chris Roberts reports.
September 4, 1997 - **** PRODUCTION NOTE: FOR SHOW USE ONLY, NOT FOR NEWSCASTS ***NOTE SLIGHTLY LOW LEVEL ON CUT One of the stage's most famous voices will appear in this years Guthrie Theater production of "A Christmas Carol". Sir John Geilgud recently recorded the story's narration in London in a day long session with Guthrie Artistic Director Joe Dowling, who says he expects Geilgud's performance to make a dramatic difference in this year's production. The Guthrie today released this short excerpt of the 93 year old actor's reading..... The Guthrie Christmas Carol opens i
September 5, 1997 - Cowles Media Company, the parent company of the Star Tribune, is considering selling Minnesota's largest newspaper. The decision came at the request of members of the Cowles family, who control more than 56-percent of the company's voting stock. While analysts agree it's a seller's market for family-owned newspapers, others are concerned by huge corporate interests gobbling up the nation's remaining independent newspapers. Minnesota Public Radio's Chris Roberts reports.
September 7, 1997 - Since the T-V networks are touting their new fall line-ups--we thought it would be a good time to talk about Fall Films. Weekend Edition Film Critic Rob Nelson says film fans will be pleased with this seasons crop of local screenings.
September 7, 1997 - Today is your opportunity to peek inside the beautifully restored homes in the Ramsey Hill section of St. Paul... through The GABLES, GARDENS AND GHOSTS tour. The Ramsey Hill neighborhood is the second largest contiguous Victorian District in North America. I had the opportunity to preview two of the homes with the Ramsey Hill Association's--Maryanne O'Brien and Tom Zahn--the former preservation planner for the city of St. Paul. We began our tour near Summit and Arundel at the stately Victorian home of Sara Kinney...a long time Ramsey Hill Resident.
September 8, 1997 - Fifth graders across the state this week are deciding which instruments they'll play in band and orchestra classes. Minnesota Public Radio's Art Hughes reports professional musicians in Rochester are helping students make what can be a life-changing decision. (sound..clarinet) In a room filled with squeaks and whistles, clarinettist Richard Halleen zeroes in on Sasha Case's first few notes.
September 9, 1997 - The business of buying and selling art has traditionally been the reserve of the priviledged few. For an artist to come to the attention of art collecting circles, he or she has to show their work, and galleries are generally reluctant to take a chance on an unknown talent. The Groveland Gallery in Minneapolis is taking steps to make the art marketplace more accessible by opening up an annex devoted to new emerging artists and clientele who will find their prices a little easier to swallow. Minnesota Public Radio's Chris Roberts reports.
September 12, 1997 - Slavenka Drakulic, the Croatian journalist and commentator, is out with "Taste of a Man", a bizarre love story. Drakulic is well-known for her New York Times opinion pieces, and her post-Iron Curtain books "How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed" and "Cafe Europa: Life After Communism". "Taste of a Man" is not necessarily about the war in the Balkans. It involves a woman who has a torrid three-month affair, and when her lover is about to go back to his family, she kills him. And eats him. Then scours her apartment. She's heard all kinds of interpretations of "Taste of a Man"; the religious, the psychological, and the political. They may all be valid, but Drakulic herself thinks the cannibalistic Thereza may be a parallel with the amoral killer in Camus' "The Stranger".
September 12, 1997 - When we report on a labor shortage in outstate Minnesota, we're usually not talking about Rabbis. But for eighteen months, Temple Israel in Duluth had no rabbi. After Rabbi Sue Levy resigned for medical reasons, the synagogue depended on rabbinical aides to help with funerals and bar and bat mitzvahs, and flew in a rabbinical student from Philadelphia twice a month to help with services. Now, that student, Amy Berstein , has completed her degree, and has accepted a full-time permanent job in Duluth. That means she's one of two rabbis in outstate Minnesota. Berstein's formal installation ceremony will be held this evening: