December 19, 2000 - If you're in the midst of a cookie disaster or your fudge isn't looking so good, help is just a phone call away. For the past 11 years, thousands of frenzied cooks have called the Land O'Lakes Holiday Bakeline for tips on how to fix runny frosting, speed-thaw a frozen turkey, or jazz up mashed potatoes.
December 20, 2000 - Author Martin Goldmith says he owes his life to an orchestra that disappeared long before he was born. During the 1930's in Germany the Kulturbund orchestra, staffed entirely by Jewish musicians was used as a Nazi propaganda weapon. Goldsmith, the former host of National Public Radio's Performance Today, tells the story of the Kulturbund in his book "The Inextinguishable Symphony". He told Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Crann it is part of the very personal story of his family. Until recently he didn't even realize how his parents met. And they almost didn't. His father, a flutist, was within days of fleeing the country.
December 20, 2000 - Voices of Minnesota with legendary Guthrie Theatre costume designer Annette Garceau and Dick Goebel, a founder of America's Second Harvest, the country's largest food bank system. Also, Carl Anderson on his experiences in World War II and singing on an Armed Forces Christmas Eve NBC broadcast in 1941.
December 21, 2000 - MPR’s Dan Olson interviews Minneapolis-based harpist Nicholas Carter on Paraguayan style Christmas music.
December 22, 2000 - The art in Minnesota isn't always made by Minnesotans. This show talks about artists who migrated to Minnesota for various reasons.
December 22, 2000 - Puppet theater produces "Winter Dreams," a story about what animals dream. Quidity, at the Orbit Gallery, has a wide variety of work contained within.
December 28, 2000 - A Voices of Minnesota, part 1 features Ray Christianson, a radio announcer and Voice of Golden Gopher sports. Tonight he calls his last game. William Wilcoxen has more. Part.2 is a rebroadcast of an interview with John Gagliardi from September 24, 1999.
December 29, 2000 - The Jayhawks play two shows at First Avenue in Minneapolis this weekend playing songs from the band's latest album, Smile. This is the Jayhawks first recording since Mark Olson, one of the two chief singer-songwriters left the band. Many people thought the band would fold after his departure, but commentator Kate Sullivan says instead, the Jayhawks released the best album of their career:
December 29, 2000 - The Happy Penguin Film Festival in Rochester. Sacred Sounds og Kwanzaa celebrate Kwanzaa through song and theater.
January 8, 2001 - Acclaimed local photographer Wing Young Huie is being recognized at the Ordway Center with a U.S. Bank Sally Ordway Irvine Award for his installation of "Lake Street USA." Huie spent four years taking photographs on and around Lake Street which were then blown up and displayed outdoors on storefronts, bus shelters and buildings. MPR’s Mary Stucky met with Huie as he began installing these enormous portraits, and filed this report.