January 20, 1997 - On this Odd Jobs feature, MPR’s Euan Kerr interviews Steve Sklar, a local throat singer. Sklar specializes in a style of music born on the windy steppes of Mongolia. He describes and performs various traditional styles of throat singing.
January 14, 1997 - A District Judge in Southwest Minnesota is attempting to fire his court administrator for allegedly supporting the judge's opponent in last fall's election. The squabble in the town of Marshall in Lyon County is the nastiest remnant of the election which saw an unusual number of judges challenged. Judges are supposedly above politics... but in Lyon County politics have made for tense times at the courthouse. Mark Steil of Mainstreet Radio reports. Sun 28-MAY 21:09:04 MPR NewsPro Archive - Wed 04/11/2001
December 13, 1996 - Mark Yudoff is the new President of the University of Minnesota.. Minnesota Public Radio's Martin Kaste is at the Regents meeting at the U and joins us now.
December 12, 1996 - The Minneapolis City council today narrowed to two the number of possible downtown sites for a proposed new Twins stadium. And they adopted a resolution which leaves open the door for partial public financing of a new ball park.
December 5, 1996 - Novelist Umberto Eco's latest book "The Island of the Day Before" tells the strange tale of a 17th century Italian adventurer who is marooned on a ship straddling the international dateline. As with his other novels, "The Name of the Rose" and "Foucault Pendulum" Eco entwines an intricate story with musings on history philosophy and what he calls "lunatic science." Eco is in the Twin Cities to read from his book. Tomorrow he travels to the St John's University in Collegeville to speak, and to visit the monastic library. He told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr he researched "The Island of the Day Before" for five years and even went to remote Pacific islands to experience life on the international dateline.
July 20, 1996 - In the early 1980's a pipeline providing extremely pure, and cheap, heroin began pouring the drug into the Scottish Capital of Edinburgh. The effects were dramatic. In a matter of months the number of addicts soared. A couple of years later the number of needle transmitted HIV infections also mushroomed., so much so Edinburgh became known as the AIDS Capital of Europe. The drug explosion also drove Irvine Welsh to become a writer. Welsh is currently the hottest writer in Britain and his publishers are hoping he's about to make a huge impact in the U.S. The movie of his first novel "Trainspotting" opens this week in the states, after a hugely successful run in Britain.
April 17, 1996 - The passing of a loved one can lead a person to do extraordinary things. This mornings St Paul Pioneer Press tells how a St Paul woman plans to float her fathers ashes down the Mississippi in a pop bottle. It was one of his last requests allowing him to finally make a long planned trip to Louisiana It's a story which could well resonate with British Novelist Graham Swift. His new novel "Last Orders" tells the tale of a group of four men travelling to throw their friend's ashes off the pier in an English seaside resort.
April 16, 1996 - Cuba maintains a peculiar place in the American psyche. A tropical paradise, once the playground of rich American tourists, it's is now decried as the home of Castro's communism. Travel writer Pico Iyer... best known for his pieces on his trips to out of the way spots... says he fell in love with Cuba and its ambiguities on his first visit. It's those ambiguities that led him to set his first novel on the island. "Cuba and the Night" tell the story of the love affair between Richard, an American photojournalist and Lourdes, a young Cuban woman.
February 26, 1996 - Hour 2 of Midmorning featuring Voices of Minnesota with Professor Mahmoud El-Kati from Macalester on race relations. Also Odd Jobs - fish feeder and Leonard Weinglass, lead defense attorney for Mumia Abu-Jamal.
December 22, 1995 - MPR’s Euan Kerr reports on news of a record deal for Aaron Jay Kernis, a composer in residence at The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Kernis has signed an exclusive 5-year recording contract with the British label, Argo Records. He sees the contract as a commitment by the label to contemporary classical music.