January 16, 2006 - Author Nicole Kelby says she wanted to work out why she was so peculiar. During the 20 years she lived in Minnesota she worked with Dudley Riggs, Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater, Kevin Kling, and Channel 9 News. Then a few years ago, she moved back to her native Florida, in part to explore her own personality quirks. She describes the state as so undeniably beautiful that it warps people. Be that as it may, one of the results of Kelby's return is her new book, "Whale Season" which details strange going's on at a rural Florida strip bar.
January 23, 2006 - Local music critic Chris Riemenschneider joins Morning Edition’s Cathy Wurzer to talk about what makes The Current different from other radio stations. Riemenschneider discusses the revolutionary and eclectic nature of the initial playlists.
January 24, 2006 - Family and friends of the late Senator Eugene McCarthy gathered at St. John's University in Collegeville for a memorial yesterday. This is an excerpt of Walter Mondale speaking at memorial service.
January 26, 2006 - Dominic Papatola, Minnesota Public Radio arts commentator and St. Paul Pioneer Press theater critic, talks with MPR’s Cathy Wurzer about Norwegian playwright and poet Henrik Ibsen.
January 31, 2006 - One night a year, three Twin Cities musicians come together to perform before a live audience. The three men come from different generations and musical backgrounds, but they have two things in common; they all play keyboard instruments, and they all resist attempts to pigeonhole their music. MPR’s Marianne Combs talks with the the three pianists about their annual concert creation, Keys Please!
January 31, 2006 - You may know Camille Paglia from her wide-ranging columns on culture and politics on Salon. Or from her breakthrough book: "Sexual Personae, a treatise on decadence in the history of art." It's fair to say her thoughts are often provocative, causing controversy with feminists and cultural conservatives alike. In her most recent book, she goes back to basics, and turns to her academic roots: poetry. And she rails against what she terms "post -modernist" theories of poetry. The title -- "Break, Blow, Burn" -- comes from a line of one of John Donne's Holy Sonnets. It's a collection of essays on 43 poems Paglia teaches in class: from lyrics to a song by Joni Mitchell, to classics like Shakespeare and Donne.
February 1, 2006 - A writer, who has traveled the world searching for the secrets of a long life, is now working to fight obesity in children. In partnership with MPR's Sound Learning, Dan Buettner is launching the Blue Zones Challenge. It is named for the so-called blue zones, places in the world where people live longer than the rest of us. Buettner is the author of "Secrets of Long Life" which was the cover story in November's National Gegraphic magazine. Dan Buettner joins me this morning in the studio.
February 10, 2006 - MPR’s Chris Roberts talks with Ryan Pfeiffer, founder of the Minnesota band Captain Yonder, about origin of group’s name and meaning behind dark lyrics. The band’s style has been described as chamber folk music mixed with heavy "Americana" or "roots" influences.
February 15, 2006 - MPR’s Marriane Combs looks at St. Paul’s Teatro Del Pueblo, a Minnesota theater company providing a forum for political activism and an agent for change. Combs interviews Alberto Justiniano, artistic director, about the Teatro Del Pueblo’s focus on Latin America political theater with a local festival.
February 17, 2006 - MPR’s Marianne Combs interviews Michelle Kinney and Jacqueline Ferrier-Ultan, the duo that make up local cello act Jelloslave. The cellists discuss taking the traditions of being classically trained and incorporating it with more contemporary sounds.