January 24, 2003 - The long-time President of the Minnesota Orchestra, David Hyslop, (HISS-lop) says he's stepping down. Hyslop told the Orchestra Board today (Fri) he'll retire after the Orchestra's Centennial Concert on November 5th. Hyslop told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr he has always said he would retire at 62, but decided to step down early in part because that would have taken him through the next musicians contract negotiation.
January 21, 2003 - Very little happens in Nicholson Baker's new novel "A box of matches." The novel is a recording of the thoughts of a man who gets up early every morning to light a fire. He tries to avoid any light other than the glow of the flames. Then he sits and thinks about his life, delighting in the ordinary. He attempts simple tasks, such as washing the previous nights casserole dish by touch alone.
January 7, 2003 - MPR’s Euan Kerr interviews local musician David Levin about his CD "Zuni." Levin is part of a song circle, a group of individual musicians who meet to play their own songs, and to accompany one another.
January 1, 2003 - MPR's Euan Kerr reports on Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov and his composition "La Pasión según San Marcos" (St. Mark Passion) draws from many influences. There is the classical music and klezmer he learned through his Russian Jewish immigrant parents; passionate tango of Astor Piazzola which resonates through Argentina; as well as the deep, and at times militant, Christianity of South America.
November 28, 2002 - Matthew Fox plays guitar, and mandolin. But until now he has been playing in bands, either in ensembles, or backing someone else. Now, this relatively recent Twin Cities transplant is stepping into the limelight with his own album "Pilgrim." MPR’s Euan Kerr talks with the artist about album.
November 19, 2002 - The possibility of cloning human beings has caused a great deal of concern. But writer Eva Hoffman believes there has not been near enough debate of the issues involved. A native of Poland, who emigrated when she was 13, Hoffman is the author of the best selling memoir "Lost in Translation." Hoffman turned to fiction to investigate the issue of human cloning. Her new novel "The Secret" follows a young girl, Iris Surrey, who longs to discover her father's identity. Her life is turned upside down when she discovers her father does not exist. She is her mother's clone, the product of a process in a lab. Eva Hoffman told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr she wanted to explore the deeper implications of cloning.
October 23, 2002 - MPR’s Euan Kerr talks with Semisonic’s vocalist and songwriter Dan Olson. The group has been taking a break after hit song “Closing Time.” Olson discusses his side project and songwriting.
October 11, 2002 - Word of Mouth
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.
September 5, 2002 - While Osama Bin Laden has never been captured there ARE some 600 prisoners at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo, Cuba. The military says they're enemy combatants, allied with Bin Laden or the Taliban. But they have never been charged with a formal crime, they are held in solitary cells and the few who have lawyers aren't allowed to talk with them. Now a small band of civil rights lawyers has taken up their cause and they say how the US treats the prisoners in Cuba says more about America than it does about them. Mary Stucky reports.