July 24, 1997 - A new record label in Minneapolis is hoping to become the home of traditional Scandanavian music in North America. Founders of Northside records say the traditional folk music and fiddle tunes of Sweden, Norway and Finland are becoming the hottest thing going in world music circles. The resurgence is being fueled by young Scandanavian musicians. Minnesota Public Radio's Chris Roberts reports.
July 28, 1997 - Gary Sudduth, the 44-year-old president of the Minneapolis Urban League died today. Sudduth... who is believed to have had a history of heart problems, collapsed while working out at the Northside YMCA. Friends and co-workers call Sudduth a far-sighted civil rights leader who understood the battle against racism is a long-term struggle.
August 9, 1997 - In sports news: The Minnesota Twins have stepped up pressure on lawmakers in the team's bid to get a new stadium. The Twins said yesterday they've hired a national company to help pursue options in case the Twins don't get a new ballpark. The other Twins news this week came from owner Carl Pohlad. He says he likes the idea of publicly selling shares in his team. But Major League baseball would first have to approve the plan. Pohlad says the team could sell voting and non-voting shares, but he says he would keep his voting stake. The Twins open a four-game series with the New York Yankees tonight as they begin the big celebration honoring the 1987 World Series championship team.
August 20, 1997 - Its been almost six months since Phillip Bither came from the Flynn Theater for the performing arts in Burlington Vermont to be curator of Performing Arts at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. He knew that replacing his predecessor John Killacky was going to be a huge challenge, and one of the reasons he has kept such a low profile so far is because he has been hard at work preparing his first season. Now he is ready... promising a series of cutting edge music, performace art and dance featuring such well known as the Wooster Group and the Sun Ra Arkestra as well as those less well known in the U.S. such as the Teatro Tinglado puppets from mexico and the DV* Physical Theater from Britain. I spoke with Bither this afternoon and asked how the performers he might bring to the Walker might be different from those John Killacky presented.
August 20, 1997 - Giant wood and metal structures are sprouting up in a field near Taylors Falls where corn grew just two years ago. Franconia Sculpture park is primarily an artists refuge, but the sculptors who are building the huge artworks hope the public will drop by and get a better understanding of what they do. Minnesota Public Radio's Marcy Tveidt reports.
August 24, 1997 - Move over Shirley Temple, step aside Fred Astaire--several nationally acclaimed tap dancers are shuffeling into the Twin Cities this weekend for the Tappin' In the Twin Cities Festival. You're listenting to 18-year old St. Paul dance sensation Tyheesha Collins. She's a featured dancer in this weekend's festival. I met her between classes at the Hennepin Center for the Arts in Minneapolis . Tyheesha says she started tapping when she was two years old. Her six year old cousin was taking tap and little Tyheesha used to get in trouble for stealing her cousins tap shoes.
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.