September 26, 2002 - Today marks the beginning of an unprecedented weeklong event in the twin cities arts community. "Art on the Town" involves dozens of art galleries and four museums in an effort to raise awareness of what the local visual arts scene has to offer. For more on "Art on the Town," we turn to Minnesota Public Radio's Chris Roberts.
September 26, 2002 - A new museum devoted to Soviet-era Russian painting opened today in Bloomington. The museum is a labor of love for local art dealer Raymond Johnson, who has spent the last 13 years collecting in Russia. He began scouting trips to Russia soon after perestroika opened the country up, Ignoring cold war rhetoric that Russian art was of little value, he hired art historians from all over the former Soviet Union to help identify the most important artists. Johnson says he was quickly impressed by what he found:
October 3, 2002 - Cleveland gets little respect in many quarters. It's a great place to live nowadays, but its still known as the town where the river caught fire. Author Keith Gandal grew up in Cleveland, and he tries to exorcise some of the bad feelings in his novel "Cleveland Anonymous". The novel is a thriller, a love story, and a mystery, but Gandal says he also wants it to be a book of healing for anyone suffering from Midwestern angst. He came in to the MPR studios to talk with Euan Kerr. He began by reading an excerpt from the book, in which a member of a New York support group for ex-residents of Cleveland is unhappy. Keith Gandal will read from his book "Cleveland Anonymous" at the "Bound to be Read" bookstore in St Paul tomorrow evening at 7.
October 7, 2002 - Minneapolis writer Norah Labiner's (Lab-in-er's) new novel "Miniatures" takes readers into the lives of a reclusive literary couple. Owen Leib {Lee-ib} has returned to Ireland after years of self-imposed exile. Owen fled to Paris after his first wife, Franny, supposedly committed suicide in 1964. There are rumors surrounding Franny's unpublished second novel--and speculation about the circumstances surrounding her death. I spoke to Labiner about her book--and the unusual way she began the novel. "Miniatures" begins with a list of how many famous people met their untimely demise--from F. Scott Fitzgerald's death while eating a chocolate bar--to Virginia's Woolf's suicidal drowning.
October 8, 2002 - A new book tells the story of the bygone life of a country doctor. For almost forty years, Dr. Roger MacDonald cared for people in the remote communities of northern Minnesota. His book is called A Country Doctor's Casebook. In style it's a lot like James Herriott's tales of a Yorkshire veterinarian. Roger MacDonald talked with Mainstreet Radio's Stephanie Hemphill.
October 9, 2002 - Minnesotan's know her as Rhoda Morgenstern--the headscarf wearing, wise-cracking woman who lived upstairs from Mary Richards on the "Mary Tyler Moore Show." Valerie Harper is in St. Paul starring in the Tony Award-winning play "The Allergist's Wife" at the Ordway. Harper plays Marjorie Taub--a culture obsessed upper-middle class New Yorker who is facing a mid-life crisis armed with humor. I spoke with Valerie Harper backstage at the Ordway. She says she's enjoying her role. She says Majorie Taub shares similiarities with characters in the "Mary Tyler Moore Show."
October 11, 2002 - 150 years ago this week the Rock Island Line departed from Chicago on its maiden voyage. Over the next 50 years, the Rock Island Line would extend through 14 states and play a big role in the settlement of the West. Then it would inspire a song that would travel around the world. A documentary airing today at noon traces the history of the railroad and the song and how they fit into the story of America. In this excerpt, reporter Jim Bickal tells how the song was first discovered in a southern prison.
October 11, 2002 - Word of Mouth
October 15, 2002 - MPR’s Lorna Benson interviews Mai Nemg Moua, author and editor of "Bamboo Among the Oaks: Contemporary Writing by Hmong-Americans," which features stories, poems and essays written by the first generation of Hmong to grow up in the United States. It is the first Hmong anthology ever published.
October 29, 2002 - Folk singer Larry Long is a longtime friend of Senator Wellstone's who is preparing two songs for Wellstone memorial service. Long says he wrote the songs after traveling with Wellstone and his wife Sheila on a plane back from Farmfest in southwestern Minnestoa.