April 26, 2002 - It has been argued that technology is helping new artists, but it can also make things harder.
April 22, 2002 - British author Michael Frayn begins his new novel "Spies" with the description of a smell. It's the heady smell of a privet hedge in mid-summer. A scent that spurs an old man to remember the events of a war-time summer long ago. Frayn is a novelist and playwright*. He wrote the best seller "Headlong" and his play "Noises Off" is now a theater standard. His most recent play "Copenhagen" won three Tony awards in 2000. He told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr he has been meaning to write the story for years.
April 16, 2002 - The central character of Australian novelist Richard Flanagan's book "Gould's Book of Fish" is a convict who paints fish. Or maybe he's not. Flanagan leaves the reader to wonder whether his story is a free-wheeling tale of life which set in a British penal colony in Tasmania, or perhaps a figment of the imagination of a modern lowlife faking antiques to sell to the tourist trade. The book has been described as a modern masterpiece in Australia, part "Papillion", part "Baron Munchausen".. It is already selling well in the US. Flanagan told Minesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr the novel grew from a single experience.
March 21, 2002 - MPR’s Cara Hetland interviews conductor Leonard Slatkin about National Symphony Orchestra’s residency in South Dakota. In ten days, orchestra members performed more than 100 times. Slatkin explains the lessons on the value of music that the efforts offer, especially for children.
March 18, 2002 - Low income residents of the Red Lake Indian Reservation say the local electric cooperative is discriminating against the Ojibwe band. A complaint filed with the state Public Utilities Commission alleges the cooperative's customer service practices and fee requirements are unfair and illegal. Cooperative officials deny the charges. Mainstreet Radio's Tom Robertson has the story... {
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February 25, 2002 - In her new novel "Fingersmith," author Sarah Waters tells a tale of deception and love in Victorian England. This is the third novel she has set in this time period, each dealing with an issue of the time, prostitution, pornography and the treatment of women in asylums. The term "Fingersmith" was a name given by the Victorians to petty thieves. Sarah Waters told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr "Fingersmith" grew out of her own fascination with what were called the "Sensation" novels of the 1860's. They were a genre of immensely popular books featuring melodramatic and highly complicated plots.
February 22, 2002 - The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra will play all nine of Beethoven's symphonies during its 2002-2003 season. SPCO Music Director Andreas Delfs tells MPR's Euan Kerr that he decided to do what he is calling the "Beethoven project" after conducting Beethoven's Symphony No. 4 with the orchestra. The season, announced by the Orchestra Thursday also includes four world premieres, and a new seating arrangement at the Ordway.