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.
September 5, 2002 - When people are asked to name the great photographers of the 20th century, Ruth Bernhard's is unlikely to come up immediately. However she studied and worked with some of the greats: including Ansel Adams. Now 96 years old, Ruth Bernhards work encompasses seventy years of American photography. She is particularly recognized for her studies of the female figure. Ansel Adams called her the greatest photographer of the nude. Her work is now on display at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr reports.
August 12, 2002 - Neil Gaiman became the toast of the comic book world with his "Sandman" series. He then became a best selling novelist with his books "Neverwhere" "Stardust" "and "American Gods". Now he has written "Coraline", a horror novel for children. "Coraline" is about a little girl who discovers a malevolent netherworld hidden behind a door in her house. It's ruled by a hideous being known as "the other mother" who kidnaps Coraline's real parents. She then tries to imprison the girls herself. Gaiman, an Englishman who now lives just outside the Twin Cities, says he began writing the novel for his daughter 10 years ago. He followed G.K. Chesterton's admonition that fairy tales are more than true, not because they say dragons exist, but because they say dragons can be beaten.
July 29, 2002 - In this short documentary, Narrator Earl Leaf presents various insights on the history of the “poorhouse,” as well as a look into how society treats poor people today, compared to the era of the poorhouse.
July 19, 2002 - Minneapolis native Arthur Phillips novel is set in Budapest in 1990. It's called "Prague" though, because that's where the expatriate Americans in the story worry they really should be. The group includes entrepreneurs, writers and diplomats, caught in the excitement of the fall of Eastern European totalitarianism. Yet they can't shake the feeling they are missing the real action elsewhere. Arthur Phillips himself lived in the Hungarian capital in the early nineties. His novel had drawn critical acclaim for it's depiction of a unique period of recent history. "Prague" opens with some of the Americans sitting in a cafe playing "Sincerity", a game where each player makes a series of statements, only one of which is true. The players score by fooling the other players and guessing correctly when they are lying. Phillips told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr the game reveals a great deal about the players.
June 3, 2002 - TThe Guthrie Theater Board today voted to go ahead with preparations for its proposed 125-million dollar theater complex on the edge of downtown Minneapolis. But it delayed groundbreaking on the project until it has a guarantee of state bonding money. Governor Ventura stripped twenty-four million dollars earmarked for the Guthrie from the state bonding bill. The Guthrie and advocates for other projects vetoed by Ventura hope the legislature will pass a special bonding bill next year. Guthrie Artistic Director Joe Dowling says legislative interest in the project remains high.
May 23, 2002 - MPR’s Euan Kerr interviews writer Garrison Keillor, about the writing libretto for the opera Mr. and Mrs. Olson. The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and a star studded ensemble will present the world premiere of opera.
May 13, 2002 - After more than thirty years of singing, the Plymouth Music Series is no more. Instead, as of Saturday, the Minneapolis based ensemble is called "Vocalessence". Music Director Phillip Brunelle admits he was initially perturbed about changing the name, but he told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr it was time for a change for a number of reasons.
May 3, 2002 - An 18-year old was the first college student in South Dakota to knowingly pass on the HIV cells without telling her sexual partner. The law could make him a viral terrorist.