December 12, 2001 - Barrie Osborne says he was inspired to get into movies when a fellow student at Carlton College in Northfield made a film as a class project. That was back in the 1960's. Now he's a film producer with a long list of movies to his name, including Dick Tracy, Face Off and The Matrix. Osborne is in the Twin Cities tonight for a special sneak preview of his latest film: the highly anticipated adaptation of "Lord of the Rings." It's been a huge project. The three-hour film is only the first of three movies that will tell the whole of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic story. Osborne told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr the project needed a two thousand member crew all paying close attention to detail.
December 12, 2001 - A Midmorning broadcast of Talking Volumes event with Minnesota poet Robert Bly and MPR’s Katherine Lanpher, held at the Woman's Club of Minneapolis.
December 13, 2001 - All over Sweden, Norway, and parts of the United States people welcome the beginning of the holiday season with Santa Lucia Day. The celebration has become an important family tradition for commentator Nanci Olesen.
December 14, 2001 - Minnesota Public Radio's Chris Roberts has a look at what's going on with arts around the state this week.
December 14, 2001 -
December 17, 2001 - Stephen Sondheim, award-winning composer and lyricist, gives a speech at the Guthrie Theater's "Global Voices" series.
December 17, 2001 - Three Norman Rockwell paintings stolen from a Minnesota Gallery 23 years ago have been recovered and will be returned to their owner. That story made big news, in part because it involved the work of a famous artist. Art theft is a multi-billion dollar crime that plagues collectors, gallery owners and insurance agencies. And as Minnesota Public Radio's Marianne Combs reports it's on the rise:
December 17, 2001 - Gwendolyn Cates was 11 when her father first took her to visit a Navajo reservation. Her father had set out to learn the local language, and made friends on the reservation. Gwendolyn continued to visit as she grew older. Later she became a professional photographer. It was almost a natural when she was asked by the Men's Journal to travel to ten reservations around the country to document Indian Country. A book "Indian Country" grew from the assignment. It contains dozens of portraits, including many from Minnesota, the Dakotas, and Wisconsin. Cates told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr she wanted to dispel misconceptions about native people. The book includes pictures of many well known and not so well known Indians. One is a portrait of Leonard Peltier who is serving a life sentence for murder at the Federal Prison in Leavenworth, Kansas.
December 20, 2001 - From Nat King Cole asking us to picture "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire" to choirs singing "Handel's Messiah"--the holiday season is a time for traditional music. I sat down with Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Music host, Tom Crann, to hear the stories behind a few of those classics and some of his picks for the best of the season: Once again, you can tune into Christmas Day With Tom Crann on Christmas day from 9 to 11 right here on Minnesota Public Radio.
December 21, 2001 - Health of Minnesota theater is looked at in the next episode.