July 5, 2001 - Mainstreet Radio's Chris Julin visits Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center in Ashland, Wisconsin. The center turns tourists and school groups into voyageurs for a day, and takes them out on Superior in a huge, Montreal canoe.
July 6, 2001 - Garrison Keillor delivered a eulogy for guitar player Chet Atkins, who died earlier this week.
July 6, 2001 - Square dancing is one of those things where you can learn a few basic steps in moments, then spend a lifetime practicing. Some people like to push the square dancing envelope. Take the Park Rapids Crazy Eights: four couples who traded their dancing shoes for wheels.... very LARGE wheels. Mainstreet Radios Dan Gunderson explains.
July 6, 2001 - MPR’s Kamoi Goetz profiles the 21st annual Hmong International Freedom Festival sports competition in St. Paul. 25,000 people are expected at the two-day festival which features a parade, food and souvenir booths, and sports competitions. Hmong youth from across the country will compete with Minnesota athletes in soccer, volleyball…and Takraw, a sport that blends aspects of both volleyball and soccer.
July 9, 2001 - Where can you hear works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Darius Milhaud, (me-YOH) and Bernstein's (BURN-stine) "West Side Story" performed on the same Wednesday evening? In Duluth, of course. The Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra's adventurous artistic director and conductor Warren Friesen, says he programs concerts the way he fixes dinner -- tossing together a tasty variety of interesting flavors and textures. Minnesota Public Radio's Stephanie Hemphill samples a few courses.
July 10, 2001 - MPR’s Greta Cunningham talks with Jacquelyn Mitchard about her book "A Theory of Relativity," which opens with a fatal car crash and focuses on the question of who should raise the orphaned baby girl left behind. Cunningham says the book was inspired by a real-life court battle.
July 11, 2001 - Mainstreet Radios Dan Gunderson reports from Fergus Falls, where Artspace, a Minneapolis non-profit agency, is hoping to renovate the Hotel Kaddatz. The empty historic building is the organizations first attempt to create space for artists in rural areas. Artspace builds affordable space for artists to live and work. It has developed projects in the Twin Cities and Duluth, as well as several large cities across the country. It was the organization behind the much publicized moving of the Shubert Theater across downtown Minneapolis.
July 11, 2001 - When author Ann Patchett heard the story of how terrorists seized a group of dignitaries at the Japanese Embassy in Peru and held them hostage, she felt there was an operatic quality to the story. She took that feeling and created "Bel Canto" the critically acclaimed novel about what happens when a world famous soprano is seized by terrorists, along with dozens of international businessmen in an un-named South American country. As the stand-off drags on, from days into months hostages and captors become almost an extended family, tied together by the soprano's singing. Ann Patchett told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr she wanted to create a utopia.
July 11, 2001 - Weekly visits to a local farmers market have become an important summer tradition for many Minnesotans. Farmers markets offer an abundance of home grown produce as well as arts, crafts and even music. City Pages Restaurant Critic Dara Moskowitz has toured many Twin Cities choices and stopped by to talk about them.
July 11, 2001 - Governor Jesse Ventura is in Canada today, to promote Minnesota trade and tourism. Later this morning he'll meet with business leaders in Toronto. The governor's three-day tour of Canada is his fourth international trade mission since he took office. Later this week in Winnepeg, the governor will participate in a ceremony solidifying an agreement between the Winnepeg Art Gallery, and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Joining us on the line is Patricia Bovey (BOE-vee), director of the Winnepeg Art Gallery.