August 15, 2003 - The last person hanged in Britain for high treason was American William Joyce known to millions of Britons and Americans during World War II as "Lord Haw Haw". Joyce broadcast propaganda messages for the Nazis heard in the UK and the US on shortwave radio. He got the nickname after a journalist compared his upperclass English accent to a braying donkey. Born to Irish parents in New York, Joyce joined Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts in London. He left after clashing with Mosley, and moved with his wife to Berlin in the summer of 1939. War broke out soon after and Joyce was broadcasting for Hitler within a matter of months. Cambridge University historian Peter Martland recently gained access to British intelligence files on Joyce that were kept secret for fifty years. He told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr Joyce was remarkably successful, at first.
August 8, 2003 - Word of Mouth
August 7, 2003 - N.M. Kelby's book "Theater of the Stars" is described as "a novel of physics and memory." It's the story of a daughter dealing with her mother's attempted suicide. She learns a lot about her mother's life, and her own history too. The story travels from war-torn Paris in the early 1940's to the labs at Los Alamos as scientists develop the atomic bomb. It continues to the present day and the global shocks caused by September 11th. Kelby told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr that like all good stories, it came from real life.
August 4, 2003 - The Minnesota Fringe opened over the weekend: dozens of shows dotted around Minneapolis. They range from the sublime to the ridiculous and they're proud of it. One of the more anticipated shows opens tonight. Playwright and storyteller Kevin Kling's latest foray is called simply "Baseball, Dogs, and Motorcycles." Kling was developing the piece two years ago when he was badly injured in a motorcycle accident. He told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr it basically about the three subjects he can talk about forever. He'll tell stories about the joys and frustrations of being a Twins fan, his enduring love of bikes, his new basset hound and the importance of Wiener dogs in his life. Kevin Kling opens his new show "Baseball Dogs and Motorcycles" at the Hey City Stage in Minneapolis this evening. It's part of the Minnesota Fringe Festival.
August 4, 2003 - The Minnesota Fringe opened over the weekend: dozens of shows dotted around Minneapolis. They range from the sublime to the ridiculous and they're proud of it. One of the more anticipated shows opens tonight. Playwright and storyteller Kevin Kling's latest foray is called simply "Baseball, Dogs, and Motorcycles." Kling was developing the piece two years ago when he was badly injured in a motorcycle accident. He told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr it basically about the three subjects he can talk about forever. He'll tell stories about the joys and frustrations of being a Twins fan, his enduring love of bikes, his new basset hound and the importance of Wiener dogs in his life. Kevin Kling opens his new show "Baseball Dogs and Motorcycles" at the Hey City Stage in Minneapolis this evening. It's part of the Minnesota Fringe Festival.
August 1, 2003 - In the early 1990's novelist Alan Lightman published "Einstein's Dreams". In it he described the great physicist's dreams as he worked out the theory of relativity. It was a smash hit, selling 600,000 copies. Lightman's new novel, "Reunion" also deals with the workings of the mind. But this time it's the mind of Charles, a middle-aged and somewhat mediocre professor attending his college reunion. He finds himself thinking back to his love affair with a ballet dancer during his senior year. Charles begins to realize the story says more about him than perhaps he's ever acknowledged. Alan Lightman told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr he was interested in how people construct their identities, and sense of being from all the little pieces of their pasts.
July 30, 2003 - The new Guthrie Theatre season opens this week with the adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel "Pride and Prejudice." The play centers around Mr. and Mrs. Bennett who are searching for suitable husbands for their five daughters. MPR's Euan Kerr reports.
July 25, 2003 - A showdown began last night in Minneapolis... it's Barebones Productions versus Galumph Interactive Theater in a competition called "Dumpster Duels." It's descrbed as a "puppet free-for-all". Inspired by cable-TV's "Junkyard Wars," each company will transform a dumpster full of bike tires, chicken wire, cardboard, used furniture and other materials into puppets, props and a set for a brand new show that will be performed tomorrow night. Last night, judges tossed a coin to determine which pile of junk each team will be making their art from.
July 14, 2003 - The latest book from Oscar Hijuelos' (ee-WELL-owes) - "A Simple Habana Melody - is the story of a Cuban composer caught in Germany during World War II. He's Catholic, but has a Jewish name: Israel Levis (leh-viss). He's thrown in a concentration camp, yet somehow survives. The story opens as he returns to Cuba, and is beset with memories, many linked to a popular tune he wrote long ago. Hijuelos told Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Crann he originally meant to write a ballet. Then he became intrigued with how a single tune can shape a composer's life. He says he even tried to write the music. Oscar Hijuelos' new novel is "A Simple Habana Melody." You can hear a reading from the book and a longer version of Tom Crann's interview on the Minnesota Public Radio website at www-dot-minnesota-public-radio-dot-org
July 11, 2003 - Word of Mouth