February 28, 2001 - Minneapolis recording company can do what Napster cannot do for the music industry.
March 8, 2001 - INTRO-- An exhibit showcasing the art of Yoko Ono opens this weekend at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Ono, who is best known for her marriage to John Lennon, has pushed the boundaries of art during her 40-year career. The Walker exhibit features more than 150 pieces of her work, including many she did in collaboration with Lennon. Barbara Haskell is a curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and co-author of a book about Yoko Ono's work. Haskell says Ono began in the early 1960s with performance art, which was cutting edge at the time.
March 9, 2001 - PRONOUNCE: KARELIA is kuh RAIL yuh A trio of Karelian (kuh RAY lee un) folk musicians is in Minnesota to sing and play centuries-old music from their homeland. Karelia is a piece of northern Europe between Finland and Russia. The land is carpeted with forests and dotted with lakes. These days Karelia is an autonomous region of the Russian Federation. The Karelian Folk Ensemble tunes showcase ancient instruments and stories of forest wizards. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson reports. BACK ANNOUNCE IF USED THURSDAY: The Karelian Folk Ensemble performs tonight (Thursday) at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis and on Saturday in New York Mills.
March 12, 2001 - The Twin Cities radio music scene is getting a make over. The new trend appears to be back to the old. Alternative rock station 105 FM abruptly changed its format last week to classic soul and R&B. But this latest change may have less to do with the listeners requests, and more to do with corporate competition. ABC-Disney owns 105FM, rock station KQRS and three other local stations. According to Pioneer Press Media Columnist Brian Lambert, 105FM is basically a pawn.
March 15, 2001 - When Christina Bjork first took her idea for a children's book on impressionist Claude Monet to her Swedish publisher, she found herself swatting away dubious looks and skeptical remarks. But sixteen years after "Linnea in Monet's Garden" first hit stores, the book is an unqualified hit with fans all over the world. The story follows the adventures of young Linnea and her friend, Mr. Bloom, who travel to Paris to visit Monet's famous home and gardens and Giverny. Bjork attributes the book's sucess to its ability to appeal to all age groups.
March 15, 2001 - One of the world's best collections of Ancient Egyptian Art is coming to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The exhibit, on loan from the British Museum in London, contains objects spanning three and a half thousand years of history and includes objects ranging from large granite statues to tiny ornately carved pieces of jewelry. The collection is travelling to eight U-S cities arriving in Minneapolis in December 2002. MIA Curator Robert Jacobsen says he is particularly excited about one particular piece.
March 16, 2001 - On Word of Mouth, MPR’s Chris Roberts provides a radio guide to the local arts. This episode includes Yoko Ono, Peter Ostroushko, Popular Creeps, and an arts round-up.
March 19, 2001 - ********** LIVE INTRO AND BACK-ANNOUNCE ************ Driving by outdoor billboards, few of us see anything other than the advertisement. But Joni Johnson, an entrepreneur from Minneapolis, sees a raw material for her business. Her company, called Relan (ra-LON), recycles old billboards into colorful hand bags, and tote bags. Most billboards are made of vinyl. After their time as a billboard is over, the vinyl surface is dirty and wrinkled. For 2 years now, Joni's company has perfected the process of taking the material, and recycling it into fashionable bags. We joined Joni and her operations manager Jonathan Fitz at their warehouse where they cut the tennis-court-sized billboards into workable pieces. Joni says the HUGE images on a billboard make it difficult to describe her much smaller hand bags.
March 19, 2001 - Scott Carrier's quirky radio stories about sibling rivalry, swimming lessons and falling in love are familiar to many "All Things Considered" listeners AND fans of "This American Life." But the independent radio producer has also spent years writing about life and death struggles in lesser-known war zones from Cambodia to Kashmir to Chiapas. This seemingly disperate collection of stories is the basis for Carrier's book "Running After Antelope." And as the name implies, large horned animals also figure into the storyline. Carrier starts the book by looking back on a defining moment he shared with his slightly older brother:
March 21, 2001 - Nuala O'Faolain (Oh-FWAY-lawn) made a splash a couple of years back with her memoir "Are You Somebody?" The rave reviews and her regular Irish Times column, have actually made her somebody, in her native Ireland and here. Her new book, "My Dream of You," is a novel within a novel and it's not without its parallels to her own life, and Irish history. Its protagonist, Kathleen de Burca is an Irish travel writer based in London. She has kept her life "even and dry" for two decades, living in a London basement when she's not globetrotting. But after a friend dies, she heads back to Ireland and becomes obsessed by a centuries old scandal. O'Faolain told Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Crann she got the idea for the story as a result of a chance meeting during one of her own travels: