November 6, 1998 - Here's an American culture quiz. Everyone knows Francis Scott Key wrote the words to the national anthem. But do you know who wrote the words to 'Lift Every Voice and Sing,' often called the African American national anthem? The answer is James Weldon Johnson. You get extra credit if you can name another famous work by Johnson. Time's up. The answer is the poem 'Creation.' The poem is part of a choral piece called 'God's Trombones.' The works will be performed Friday night at First Baptist Church in Minneapolis. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson has more. audio . . . (creation 1) and God stepped out on space and looked around and said I'm lonely. I'll make me a world.
November 13, 1998 - Bud Grant, former Minnesota Vikings and Hall-of-Fame coach discusses the Vikings team history and current strong season. After Grant interview, a report from Chris Roberts on the music history of Minnesota’s Soma Records. Begins highlights of the top ten releases from label and is continued into a second hour program with MPR’s John Rabe (aka Johnny R). Program contains pledge drive segments.
November 13, 1998 - MPR’s John Rabe (aka Johnny R) presents The Big Hits of Mid-America Countdown! A musical extravaganza featuring local bands - the Gestures, the Castaways, the Trashmen and more. Soma Records was an American record label, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This program continues highlights of the top ten releases from label, which began in first hour. Program contains pledge drive segments.
November 18, 1998 - As Ventura prepares to take office, he is sure to remember the political experts and lobbyists who gave him little respect before the election. Now some of those same people are flocking to his office asking for jobs. Morning Show humorist Dale Connelly imagined how those ‘career politicians’ are feeling about now with the song creation "Governor Body"...(with apologies to Leonard Bernstein and his "Officer Krupky" from West Side Story).
November 18, 1998 - In less than an hour yesterday, the Childrens Theater Company sold out tickets for a performance of "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas." It was the latest in a new CTC program "Pay what You Can", which allows buyers to decide how much to pay for tickets. The program is one of the innovations brought by the CTC's artistic Director of a year... Peter Brosius (BRO-sious.) This season is the first selected by Brosius, and to some degree it signals a move away from adaptations of childrens' classics to new works and plays that deal with modern issues. Minnesota Public Radio's Chris Roberts reports.
November 19, 1998 - Cyrano. Only one word, but a big name... and a big nose. Cyrano, the swashbuckling, swordfighting poet, devastated while his object of desire swoons over the dashing looks and borrowed words of a young cadet. It's one of the world's great stories. And tonight, Theater de la Jeune Lune in Minneapolis opens it's two and half month run of Cyrano de Bergerac, and attempts to show it's still relevant. Minnesota Public Radio's Lynette Nyman has this report. It's all Roxanne's fault. Okay. No. Not really. But she might as well be held responsible for some of Cyrano's pain and suffering. He can't tell her how much he loves her because he's embarrassed by his nose, which is the talk of Paris, at least behind his back. I
November 20, 1998 - The Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis will glow in a field of beams tonight and tomorrow night. Two lighting designers will illuminate the architectual landmark as part of the Weisman's fifth anniversary. Minnesota Public Radio's Chris Roberts reports. Sun 28-MAY 07:53:00 MPR NewsPro Archive - Wed 04/11/2001
November 23, 1998 - Things are seldom entirely what they seem in the short stories in Joseph Clark's new collection "Jungle Wedding." A paranoid father believes the government has bugged his house... not realising his family's really the subject of an elaborate and outrageous sociology experiment. A woman spends her time shopping in tears, feeling anonymous because her of her ex-husband's behavior, not knowing she the staff considers her an institution in her local mall. And a woman returns to her childhood home to prepare for her mothers funeral, but ends using the building as a massive but anonymous mausoleum. Clarke, who is currently living and working in Vermillion, South Dakota, told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr he is so interested in the idea someone is always watching... that he writes with a camera in mind.
November 24, 1998 - St. Paul writer Patricia Hampl has received another big honor--She's won a Pushcart Prize for one of her short stories. Hampl is better known for her memoirs A Romantic Education and Virgin Time and her two volumes of poetry. In 1990 she received a McArthur Genius grant. The prize-winning story called "The Bill Collector's Vacation" originally appeared in the literary journal Ploughshares last fall. The Pushcart anthologies pull together the best stories, poems and essays published by small presses in a given year. Hampl says winning a Pushcart means a lot more people may actually read her story: Patricia Hampl's story "The Bill Collector's Vacation."
November 25, 1998 - Mainstreet Radio's Gretchen Lehmann profiles the Kensington Runestone…and the debate over the authenticity that has has waged on for one hundred years.