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KAREN BARTA: Good morning. I'm Karen Barta with news from Minnesota Public Radio. Minnesotans continue digging out this morning after the latest major snowstorm. Much of the state was hit with the biggest snowfall in Wheaton were 27 inches of new snow was reported. Many schools and some colleges and universities are closed today because of the snowstorm. The Minnesota Department of Transportation says highways in the Mankato and Windom areas are now open.

The 1997 state legislative session begins this week. Minnesota Public Radio's Karen Louise Booth reports.

KAREN LOUISE BOOTH: Among the first items of business tomorrow is a vote to elect Phil Carruthers as speaker of the House. Chief authors of some key bills hope to introduce their legislation early on in the week as well. Among the key issues this budget session are spending proposals for the projected surplus, consideration of an education bill, welfare reform, a crime package, and a controversial stadium financing package. All in all, some 2,000 pieces of legislation are expected to be introduced, with only a couple hundred getting signed into law when all is said and done in mid to late May. At the Capitol, this is Karen Louise booth.

KAREN BARTA: Negotiators resumed talks near International Falls this week on the management of Voyageurs National Park. A fragile compromise in the talks began crumbling over the holidays and disputes about the details, leaving any final settlement in limbo. The state forecast, partly to mostly sunny highs from 0 to the teens. And for the Twin Cities, mostly sunny with a high around 10. Around the region in Rochester, it's fair and 0. It's sunny and 3 below in Saint Cloud. And in the Twin Cities, skies are fair, the wind chill is minus 17, and it's 1 degree. That's news from Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Karen Barta.

PAULA SCHROEDER: It's 10:06. I'm Paula Schroeder. This is Midmorning on Minnesota Public Radio.

[PIANO MUSIC]

Kevin McCollum recalls he was in no mood to attend a reading of the musical that would eventually become Rent. He was just separated from his wife, but a friend coaxed him to come along. Midway through the reading, McCollum plunked down money to invest in the show and offered to produce what became Broadway's hottest musical. Today on our Voices of Minnesota interview, we hear him talk about theater and his job as director of Saint Paul's Ordway Music Theater. The Ordway announces its season today, and the centerpiece will be Rent.

["TAKE ME OR LEAVE ME"]

(SINGING) Every single day I walk down the street, I hear people say, baby. So sweet. Ever since puberty, everybody stares at me. Boys, girls. I can't help it, baby. So be kind and don't lose your mind. Just remember that I'm your baby. Take me for what I am, who I was meant to be. And if you give a damn, take me, baby or leave me.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Composer Jonathan Larsson wrote the music for Rent. He died from an aneurysm just as the show was ready to open. Rent is a retelling of Puccini's Opera La Boheme, but it's staged as a modern-day New York City romance between artists with HIV. McCollum told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr he was hooked on theater at an early age. He organized the kids in the Honolulu neighborhood where he grew up to do plays. The 34-year-old McCollum was brought up by his mother, who was an actress but lost her to cancer when he was 14.

He moved to live with relatives in suburban Chicago, where he discovered he could break into his new high school community by being a performer. Besides acting, McCollum studied film and ultimately worked for Disney as an executive. He made the leap to stage productions working in Los Angeles. McCollum and a friend formed The Booking Office, and against all odds, they began to succeed. McCollum says he believes it was more than simple luck.

KEVIN MCCOLLUM: Theater defines me, and there was no choice. I'm used to people saying no, and knowing no comes out of a point of fear in them. It doesn't come from a fact that it's impossible. It comes from their own experience. And I am very-- one of my talents, I think, is that I have a strong gut, and at the same time, I'm not afraid of people saying no or that's stupid because I don't take it personally.

I just say, well, that's based on your experience, and I have a different experience of how I think it will work. That's number one. Number two, Jeffrey Seller, the person who was the first employee of The Booking Office, at the age of 24, 25 when he was hired, was probably the best booker possible, even at that young age. He, like myself, was defined by the theater. And we had no choice but to succeed.

And I think that's why when Jeffrey first saw Jonathan Larson's first musical called Tick, Tick, Boom, he kept in touch with him over those five years because he knew that Jonathan had the chops. And when he then-- Jeffrey introduced me to Jonathan three years later, Jeffrey and I hadn't agreed on any piece of material that we had. Do you like that? No, I don't like this. I don't like it. But we both respected each other's opinions.

When I first heard the very first workshop 2 and 1/2 years ago, I turned to Jeffrey and I said, get out the checkbook. This it. And he said, yeah, I think he's pretty good too. So we just did it. And it came from a point of really wanting to make a difference and really having a knowledge, not going into theater as a way to just make money. It was never about money. I could have made a lot of money in the film world. It was never that. It was, I got to get people to show up for each other. It's that definition of who you are. I think that's what makes anyone successful, not having a job, but doing something that defines you.

EUAN KERR: I wanted to ask you about that workshop because I understand that you-- well, I've heard that you weren't in a very good mood--

[BOTH CHUCKLING]

--and you were kind of forced along. But by the intermission, I mean, that was when you literally put pen to check--

KEVIN MCCOLLUM: Mm-hmm.

EUAN KERR: --and said, this is it. I mean, run through--

KEVIN MCCOLLUM: This was the--

EUAN KERR: --well, the emotions, really, that must have been going through your head at the time.

KEVIN MCCOLLUM: Well, it was very interesting because I was in the middle of my separation. I was probably in that two-week period where I knew probably this was real, that my wife and I were not going to figure out how to solve this, which, ultimately, is unfortunate because she's a terrific lady and we were terrific. But at the same time, you know, you marry each other's tribes. You don't marry just the person. And there was backgrounds from both of our parts that sort of were in conflict.

But Jeffrey says to me-- now, you have to understand, as a booking agent-- and we were one-- we were a very strong booking agency-- we go to a lot of readings. And unfortunately, 90% of them, although have all the great intentions of the world of changing the world, are just indulgent and bizarre and not very good. But you go because you never know. And Jeffrey said to me, there's this guy I know.

And last year, I went to this workshop of Rent, and it was kind of a mess. But there's some talent there, and he's doing another one tonight. Why don't you come with me? And I'm like, oh, [CHUCKLES] that's the last thing I want to do. I just want to go home and go to bed and forget about my life. And he said, no, come on, let's go. We'll get a piece of pizza. I said, I have high cholesterol. I can't get a piece of pizza. He said, come on, come on, come with me. So I said, all right, I'll go.

So we go down there and we go to this New York Theater workshop, which has just been moved to this new space. And I walk into this space and it's about 150 seats, but the stage is twice as big as the theater. And immediately, I'm struck with, what a wonderful facility. When did this come up? And it's in the East Village on East Fourth Street. And we go and sit in the front row. And it just starts. And before it starts, Jeffrey says, this is either going to be terrific or it's going to be, you know, a mess.

I said, OK. He was already qualifying it because we had always, you know-- always been very careful about what each other thought. And so I watch it. And about the first 25 to 35 minutes, it's just there are these people and they're meeting and someone's getting mugged and this-- and I'm not quite-- I don't quite know what's going on. And then about 35 minutes into this version, this character named Mimi enters and hooks up with this guy named Roger.

And there's a song called "Will You Light My Candle?" When she comes in looking for a match for her candle, which is what happened in La Boheme as well. And Rent is inspired by La Boheme, except this woman is a junkie and she obviously needs the candle, not only for the heat, but perhaps to heat up this coke spoon or whatever she might be doing. We don't know. But there are these two isolated individuals who are financially, emotionally, perhaps medically handicapped connecting in this one song.

And the way it was written with such humor, love, attraction for each other, but yet knowing the danger of being attracted to each other, that song-- and it's basically verbatim, which is what's in the show today-- once that song happened, I wanted to know these people. I wanted to hang out with these people, even though these were people who I have no experience with. I've never been into drugs. I don't know. I don't hang around with people who are into drugs.

But I do know what it's like to feel lonely or unloved or unworthy and want to connect with someone. And I think we all feel that. No matter where we are in our life, we all understand that we need to connect with people. And here was a realistic expression of that connection. And it went on and on. And by the end of the first act, I turned to Jeffrey-- many new songs, like, 15 songs that are not in the show right now.

And I said, this guy's great. And he goes, well, do you want to meet him? And I said, yeah, I think we should get out the checkbook. And he goes, well, Kevin, he's a friend. Don't worry about it. I said, well, let me go, because I was always much more of the gambler and the aggressive one on these issues. And so I went up and met Jonathan. And I said, you know, you're the new voice. And he said, yeah? You think so? I said, yeah, I really do. And, you know, you've seen pictures of him, and he's tall and lanky.

And he kind of leaned against the back wall, nodding his head and saying, well, yeah, I think it's really good. And I said, well, what do you need? And he goes, well, I'd really like a full production. I said, well, we'll do it. And I turned to Jeffrey, and Jeffrey says, well, you heard the guy. He says, we'll do it. And Jonathan said, well, that would be great. I said, well, so-- well, let's talk at the end of the show. And he goes, well, I hope you like the end as much as you like the beginning. And he was that kind of laid back and I was that frenetic. I was like, I got-- this is fabulous.

And then the second act began with Seasons of Love. And I think it's the first time in my recent memory where I just started to cry. It wasn't a cry I was embarrassed about. It wasn't weeping from another place. It came from the beauty of these 15 characters and measuring lives. And it was all it's a song all about perspective.

["SEASON OF LOVE"]

(SINGING) 525,600 minutes. 525,000 moments so dear. 525,600 minutes. How do you measure, measure a year? In daylights? In sunsets? In midnights and cups of coffee? In inches? In miles? In laughter? In strife?

525,600 minutes. How do you measure a year in the life? How about love? How about love? How about love?

KEVIN MCCOLLUM: And again, perhaps because of my recent separation, and I was vulnerable enough to not be analytical as a theater professional, but be a human being first. And at the end of that song, I was like, oh, my god. Oh, my gosh. Um-- [CHUCKLES] And by the end of the show, and to go on and on and on-- and there were flaws in it and there were performances that were not as good as others. And it was a rough workshop. But at the end, I went up to him and I said, well, we need to do this.

And he said, great. And I said, is there a tape? And he said, no. So I said, well, come to the office tomorrow. It was a-- actually, it was a Thursday. And I said, well, on-- we should come to the office tomorrow, on Friday, even though the workshop was going till Sunday, and I'll give you a check to do the recording. I said, how much you think it'll be? He said, like, $8,000. I said, fine. So he came to my office kind of sheepishly and just said, listen, I have a lawyer and I can't sign anything.

And I said, you don't have to sign anything. All I ask is that if you don't work with us, you know, this gets folded into the capitalization. And if you do work with us, you know, just be part of the capitalization. And if it never happens, it'll be, you know, whenever you can pay us back, if you eventually make some money off of this. And so that's how we left it. And I think that act alone also-- we didn't fall into the typical, well, my lawyer will call your lawyer.

And it was about, let's get this thing up. And then we worked with the New York theater workshop because they couldn't afford to do it alone. And so when the show opened, we had already worked everything out, even though people said, well, who has the rights? Who has the rights? We had already done all the work, you know, two years earlier. So it was one of these things where just following your heart, remaining open. The fact that Jeffrey knew him five years before-- Jeffrey met him the same year he met me, actually. So it was interesting.

And then I was flying back on the final dress rehearsal to see the opening. And I land that night around 12:00 midnight. I was thinking of going over to the theater, but I figured they're gone, went to bed and was awoken at 8:30 by my lawyer saying something terrible has happened. And I thought, OK, the theater's, you know-- the set's broken, the costume designer quit, something happened. And he said, Jonathan's dead.

PAULA SCHROEDER: You're listening to Our Voices of Minnesota interview with Ordway Music Theater executive director Kevin McCollum, who is also co-producer of the musical Rent. This is Midmorning from Minnesota Public Radio. Coming up after the conclusion of our interview with Kevin McCollum, we'll talk with Rick Moody, who writes fiction about some of the people who populate the East Village of New York City. Programming on Minnesota Public Radio is supported by 3M, who generously matches more than 900 employee contributions to Minnesota Public Radio.

It's 10:21. We'll go back now to our interview with Kevin McCollum. Composer Jonathan Larson's death from an aneurysm came on the Eve of what was to be his greatest triumph. Kevin McCollum told MPR's Euan Kerr that initially, , there was turmoil and a lot of questions.

KEVIN MCCOLLUM: And I've dealt with a lot of death in my life. But this was so bizarre. I was shaking and I finally got in touch with Jeff, and he was a mess too. We took a walk that day, still shaking, still not knowing, you know-- we didn't know what it was about. We didn't know, did someone kill him? Did he think the show was terrible? You know, did he inflict this on himself? What?

And, you know, we saw people going along with their lives, and we realized, you know, listen, whatever happens, we have to, you know, follow this out to the end because we had no idea it would be received as well as-- we knew it was really, really good, but-- And again, once again, Jonathan's gift, his legacy of Rent is humbling with the experience of it and the success of it.

The more successful it is, the more humbled and-- I am by it, by the power of what Jonathan achieved through his work and the legacy, and hopefully, encouraging more people to go to live theater. And gosh, and to work on Rent, I mean, besides just everything else I get to do with the Ordway, which is very important to me as well, it's a gift, and

I am blessed in some way that I'm not a religious person, but I am a grateful person and a thankful person and a spiritual person. So on all those levels, I'm in awe of its gathering power.

EUAN KERR: Well, let's talk about that transition. Just as this was coming together in New York, you've got this show, which you think has got some potential, but you didn't know about the Pulitzer and the Tonys and all those things coming down the line.

KEVIN MCCOLLUM: No, I did not.

EUAN KERR: What brought you to the frozen North?

KEVIN MCCOLLUM: They had me come look at it in the summer, first of all [CHUCKLES]

EUAN KERR: Very smart very smart.

KEVIN MCCOLLUM: I thought it was also a strange idea, a kid coming from Hawaii ending up in Minnesota. I thought it was a nice-- I'm a man of extremes. The Ordway is probably the finest performing arts facility in the nation, if not the world, for a number of reasons. Number one, it was completely independently financed, did not take any government or city money. Number two, it is perfection in its building and its ability to gather people.

And that's a big theme with me. The fact that you have more room in the lobbies than you actually have in the theater is very important for quality of performance. It's to relax. You're not being shoved. You can actually get a Diet Coke at intermission. You can talk to neighbors. You can see the exhibits and displays we have. And Sally's vision, a $43 million facility in Rice Park in the middle of Saint Paul might not have made sense to an accountant, but it certainly makes sense to the human spirit.

And in theater across this nation, even though it's about gathering people, there are very few examples of theaters built that way. And the fact that in 1985, this was built with that in mind is something very special. And the fact that what the Ordway is and the entire Twin Cities is very special. And I also felt the Ordway was being--

Because we serve so many constituencies, whether it be the Chamber Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra or the Minnesota Orchestra or the Minnesota Opera or the Schubert Club or our own Broadway programming, there is sort of a-- something I don't quite understand here in the Twin Cities between Minneapolis and Saint Paul, which doesn't make sense to me. And I thought I could perhaps come here and be a healer and sort of explore the idea-- we used to program in Minneapolis.

And then currently, this past year, we've been-- we lost the ability to do that. And one of the things I want to do is I want to program in Minneapolis as well as Saint Paul, because I think the entire Twin Cities and what the Ordway stands for by not being part of the government is very, very important to our arts. And more and more of our arts are getting in the hands of government agencies and our buildings are in government agencies. And although that's fine on one level, it means our theaters and our live performances are becoming part of an overall political gambit like our sports teams.

And that's unfortunate. And I would just like to say, hey, you have this wonderful resource here. Let's piggyback it. Let's work as a full Twin Cities environment rather than Saint Paul versus Minneapolis or vice versa. So all those challenges were very intriguing to me. And on top of it, I'm a producer who started a booking agency out of a necessity to get people on the phone. And I look at everything I do in life at times as tool gathering.

And I think, ultimately, I am a producer. That's what I want to do. And the fact that the resources, the community, the facility, the quality of life, to be wanted is always nice. I really felt I could make a difference. And I am attracted, just like when I started the booking office and no one thought it would work or Rent and nobody really thought it would work-- I am attracted to David and Goliath equations.

I mean, I cast myself as Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar in the fourth grade. So I don't know. Maybe I should get into analysis on that one. But the bottom line is I really thought I could make a difference, and I really was appreciative of the opportunity. And hopefully, I can make a difference. I think the Twin Cities are a town of producers and whether it be the Guthrie, whether it be the Chamber Orchestra, whether it be the Minnesota, they do their own programming, they develop their own.

And the children's theater and then the museums here, it's just-- it's amazing, the resources. And the Ordway had typically brought in shows from New York only or other places or London. And I just felt that, you know what? The Ordway needs to self-produce as well. And the board was behind me on that idea. So I came here and I've produced a couple of things already. One has been wildly successful.

I love a piano, the Irving Berlin, music of Irving Berlin. And the other, The Wizard of Oz, a new version wasn't financially or critically successful. However, the audiences were seeing something new and different. We didn't do the movie at all, which hurt us commercially but also established us artistically, which, for the first time, the Ordway was producing their own-- we were auditioning here. We were bringing in some people, perhaps from Chicago or even New York when necessary. And next year, we're going to do more of that.

And it's what this town deserves. It's a town of producers. We just don't have to wait for what New York will give us. We need to create our own. And I formed a consortium. The Ordway formed a consortium with the Seattle 5th Avenue Theater and Theater Under the Stars down in Houston. And through this consortium, we hope to work with young writers, so to actually encourage them before they go into advertising or write pop songs only because musical storytelling is very, very important to our hearts and our souls and our minds.

And what a wonderful resource. And to be at a point in my career where someone says, here's a $43 million facility we want you to create in. It's like, when do I start? So I'm thrilled to be here.

[PIANO MUSIC]

PAULA SCHROEDER: Ordway Music Theater executive director Kevin McCollum talking to Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr. It'll be announced today that Rent will be at the Ordway this year. Our Voices of Minnesota interview series is produced by Dan Olson. The intern is Brian Bull.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

RAY SUAREZ: I'm Ray Suarez. The power of the presidency was boosted New Year's day when the controversial line item veto took effect. The president can now cut specific items in spending bills without killing the entire bill. Several lawmakers are filing suit against the law's constitutionality, saying too much power has been taken from Congress. How will President Clinton wield his new authority? The line item veto, next on Talk of the Nation from NPR News.

PAULA SCHROEDER: And that will be on our air at 1 o'clock this afternoon right here on Minnesota Public Radio. Today's programming is sponsored in part by Donna and Jerry Balls in celebration of their 30th wedding anniversary tomorrow. In the weather today, we are expecting some sunny skies finally with high temperatures from 0 in the Northwestern part of the state getting up into the teens in the southeast. In the Twin Cities, the high should be around 10 above. And we're going to have some northwesterly winds, making it even colder at 10 to 20 miles per hour.

Overnight lows from 30 below in the North tonight to the single digits below 0 in the South. And tomorrow, we'll have some increasing cloudiness in the Northwest. Otherwise, partly to mostly sunny with highs in the single digits to mid-teens. Look for a high in the Twin Cities from 10 to 15 degrees. And then Wednesday, another chance of snow. It's 29 minutes before 11 o'clock.

["TAKE ME OR LEAVE ME"]

(SINGING): Every single day I walk down the street, I hear people say, baby. So sweet. Ever since puberty, everybody stares at me, boys, girls. I can't help it, baby. So be kind and don't--

PAULA SCHROEDER: Well, that music from Rent is set, of course, in the East Village of New York. A neighborhood that was once the home of Eastern European immigrants today attracts young people disaffected by middle class life and is rife with drugs, sex, and homelessness. A recent article in the New York times Magazine about young white kids who've chosen life on the street there said there's been some comparison made between the East Village and the Haight-Ashbury of the 1960s.

But the article went on to say that no one these days seems to think these young dropouts are important, culturally or otherwise. They are, in fact, probably the most despised class in New York City, dismissed even in a neighborhood of misfits and non-conformists as trustafarians, rich, white kids playing at the edge of society. While kids like these and the true misfits populate a new novella by Rick Moody that takes its title from this line. Junkies and masochists and hookers and those who have squandered everything are the ring of brightest angels around heaven.

Moody's books and stories focus on the misfits and victims of our society who are most often the young. In the Ring of Brightest Angels Around Heaven, he introduces readers to the people behind the masochistic sex, pierced body parts, and drug-induced highs. A graduate of Brown University and Columbia, Moody grew up in New York City and lives now, I think, in Brooklyn, where he sets-- and has also lived in New Jersey. He's had two previous books also set in that part of the country called Garden State and The Ice Storm. And Rick Moody is in our studios today.

RICK MOODY: Hey, Paula.

PAULA SCHROEDER: It's great to have you here.

RICK MOODY: Thanks.

PAULA SCHROEDER: This is so fascinating that we were just talking about the musical Rent and you were telling me that you just saw it last week and were amazed at the coincidences between this musical and your novella, The Ring of Brightest Angels Around Heaven.

RICK MOODY: Oh, yeah, absolutely. It seems to me-- I mean, I'm suggesting only that there are a bunch of similar ideas coming out of this neighborhood at the same time because he was probably writing it, you know, in the early '90s, which is very much the period of time in which I undertook to talk about similar people. So it is uncanny to me.

PAULA SCHROEDER: What was it-- I mean, I mentioned that you went to Brown and Columbia and grew up kind of a privileged white kid-- that drew you? Because it is so different, I think, from that kind of upbringing to end up writing about people in the East Village who-- I mean, in your story, there are some pretty weird characters and in this.

RICK MOODY: I don't know exactly what drew me. I mean, when I first got out of college in the early '80s, the East Village, at that time, had a very lively, thriving gallery scene. So it was a combination of the avant garde of the art world and really loud rock and roll and the kind of disaffection that the book chronicles. The story is set more in the later '80s when that coalition began to fragment and, really, the worst of all parties remained behind. But initially, when I was excited by the East village, it was about art and music and not just drugs.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Yeah. Well, there's a lot of drugs, there's a lot of sex, and these underground clubs as well. Now, clearly, you did some research because a lot of this, as I was reading it-- by the way, it's beautifully written prose. It's not just, you know, kinky sex. It was fascinating because, to me, it was almost like reading a reporter's words, but much more beautifully written.

RICK MOODY: Well, everyone likes to ask me that question about research.

PAULA SCHROEDER: [CHUCKLES]

RICK MOODY: A friend of mine once said she would be really interested to see what I had deducted from my taxes that year.

PAULA SCHROEDER: [CHUCKLES]

RICK MOODY: But, uh--

PAULA SCHROEDER: Yeah, but as a struggling writer, did you even pay any taxes?

[BOTH CHUCKLING]

RICK MOODY: Well, I did some research, strictly research, really. And, you know, some of it was imagined and some of it was overheard from friends, you know?

PAULA SCHROEDER: Yeah, yeah. Well, tell us about some of the characters that are in the story. I guess that I was particularly fascinated by Doris and Marlene--

RICK MOODY: Uh-huh?

PAULA SCHROEDER: --who are-- well, tell us about them.

RICK MOODY: Well, Doris and Marlene are based on people I know and knew in the gay community of the West Village in the late '80s and early '90s. I mean, I think Doris is what they call in politically correct circles, a sex worker. And Marlene is a sort of deconstructionist, you know, Marxist, feminist, Princeton dropout type of woman. And they're together, and they have a very combative relationship.

I think it's often concealed in the gay community, as in many communities, that these relationships can sometimes be fractious and difficult and punctuated by the same kinds of unfortunate physical expression that we find in heterosexual couples. And so the book, the story takes up a little bit of that.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Yeah. Violent sex and also domestic violence, that's occurring in this particular relationship, which I have to say, was pretty amazing to actually read about this in prose form written by a man because it does seem to be very sensitive to the relationship between these two women.

RICK MOODY: Well, I'm glad you think so. I mean, that's a task that every writer worth his or her salt wants to undertake to try and do the opposite gender well.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Yeah. One of the other things that you write about is all the sex shops that are in that part of New York City. And you have one character, Jorge, who seems like such a confused soul. And he doesn't really know where he belongs in the world, doesn't fit in anywhere, and ends up wandering into these pornography shops. And you write about the other kinds of people who go into those.

RICK MOODY: You know, actually, what's of interest to me there is that that's a spot in New York City sort of topography that's vanishing now because the whole area where those stores were is now really being Disneyfied. They completely cleared out 42nd Street between 7th and 8th avenues, and it's Nike city and stuff like that now.

PAULA SCHROEDER: No kidding.

RICK MOODY: Yeah, yeah,

PAULA SCHROEDER: Yeah, yeah. Well, you have a section in there where you write about, you know, the people who go into pornography, whether it's a store or a video or something like that. And basically, you run down all the reasons in the world, and it comes out being that, well, if you're a human being, you might find yourself in one of those.

RICK MOODY: Yeah, well, it's easy to point fingers at this sort of activity and be condescending about it or judgmental. And I think the higher road is To understand that, you know, people have their difficulties and their problems. And a lot of people who find themselves with these sorts of compulsions are dignified, well-meaning people, nonetheless.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Yeah. It's 21 minutes before 11 o'clock. We're talking with Rick Moody today. And he is a writer of fiction. He's got a new collection of short stories out and a novella, and it's called The Ring of Brightest Angels Around Heaven. Why do you say that. Junkies and masochists and people who have squandered their lives are the Ring of brightest angels.

RICK MOODY: I've taken some flack for that sentence, actually, but I think it has a sort of New Testament derivation, you know? I mean, I think at one point, Jesus is quoted as saying that the sheep that goes astray is as beloved as the others, in fact, maybe even more so. So it was meant to convey that kind of attitude, really.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Yeah. I want to go talk about one of the other stories that's in this collection because it really struck me when we were listening to the interview with Kevin McCollum and what spoke to him about the musical Rent. He said that he wanted to know the people who were in that musical. He wanted to hang out with them, even though he wasn't like them, you know? He didn't do drugs and wasn't necessarily, you know, making art the way they did, but that he did understand being lonely.

And that's what so much of Rent was about. And you have another story in this collection called the James Dean Garage Band. And this is another bunch of losers--

[BOTH CHUCKLING]

--who really were not very good musicians. But the premise is that after James Dean has his car accident in which it was reported that he was killed, he actually wasn't killed. And he shows up in this desert area. Is it California?

RICK MOODY: Central California.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Central California, right. And these guys are practicing in an old air raid shelter, and they decide to take him on as a band member. But can I just read a sentence here-- because I love this too-- about the kind of music that they wanted to make? "We wanted to make these pieces that sounded like the wind blowing through a barn or like a neglected teakettle, or the little cry of pain that escapes your lips when you are really lonely."

And then you go on to write about loneliness. "Everything we played was just a simple sentence about our loneliness, about loneliness and the tan from above-ground tests, loneliness and jobs at filling stations, loneliness and loneliness and grade school humiliations, loneliness that we were only now digesting into song." You understand loneliness.

RICK MOODY: Well, I'm trying, I'm trying, certainly. That passage is in some ways suggested by a famous comment of a New York minimalist composer called La Monte Young, that when he was young, he said the most influential sound in his music was a kind of whistling that used to come through his barn occasionally. And that later on, when he was writing these huge symphonies with for one note, that it was all based on that barn. So that was where I started, really.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Well, and that's where the story ends up too, where this band finally gets its big break and gets to play in Los Angeles, and they end up playing one note to an empty house.

[BOTH CHUCKLING]

It kind of sends a comment about the drive or the ambition for fame and fortune.

RICK MOODY: Exactly that's what that story is about. I wrote it after I'd finished The Ice Storm and I was starting to get noticed a little bit. And I had some mixed feelings about it. So--

PAULA SCHROEDER: About getting noticed?

RICK MOODY: Yeah. I mean, as a writer, one finds, you know, that you want a readership, you want to be read, you want to be-- want to excite people. But the craft is so solitary and you have such a-- you require that and you require the ability to slip unnoticed into situations and be able to observe. So it's a mixed blessing, sort of, you know, being known.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Well, and now you have to go out in these book tours and do interviews like this.

RICK MOODY: [CHUCKLES]

PAULA SCHROEDER: You know? And that's not necessarily what a writer loves to do, but it says something about the publishing industry too, doesn't it.

RICK MOODY: Absolutely. I mean, I think the publishing industry has created these kinds of marketing situations out of a kind of desperation. And it isn't our-- I don't think for many writers, it's presenting our best face to be out talking, you know? We do it on the page.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Yeah, absolutely. Well, you do a beautiful job on the page, and I can't wait to read your other books too. I have The Ice Storm and your first book that got all the attention, Garden State. But those are all out and they can be found even at big bookstores. Are you going to be doing any readings here in town?

RICK MOODY: I am. I'm reading tonight in a suburb that I'm probably about to mispronounce. I think, Edina. Is that right?

PAULA SCHROEDER: Excellent. You got it right. A lot of people will say Edina. [CHUCKLES]

RICK MOODY: At the Barnes and Nobles there tonight at 7:00, I think.

PAULA SCHROEDER: OK, that must be out at the Galleria or someplace like that, yes. It's a very nice shop. I think you'll like it. Rick moody, thanks so much for coming in today. And keep writing.

RICK MOODY: Thanks, Paula.

PAULA SCHROEDER: OK. Rick Moody is the author of The Ring of Brightest Angels Around Heaven. And it's published by Warner Books.

[JAZZ MUSIC]

It's 15 minutes before 11 o'clock. You're listening to Midmorning on Minnesota Public Radio. One of the sleeper hits of the recording industry last year was a compilation called Planet Squeezebox, a three-CD set of accordion music from around the world. One of the tracks that grabbed the attention of many fans and critics was a recording of "What is this Thing Called Love?" It's played by a virtually unknown accordionist by the name of Alice Hall, who now lives in semi-retirement in Van Nuys, California. Dean Olsher prepared this profile.

DEAD OLSHER: If things had gone differently, it would be possible to look in a dictionary of jazz greats and look up Alice Hall and find out she was born Alice Marie Laquiere in 1917 in Brussels, Belgium, and that she grew up around Detroit, Michigan, and that her father was an accordionist who got her started in music at the age of five. But things went in such a way that there are few people alive who remember Alice Hall. Instead, one of the only places you'll find an entry for her is a typewritten reference book called The golden age of the accordion. And there are several reasons why. One of them is Hall's lost decade.

ALICE HALL: People thought I was dead for 10 years because depression took me.

DEAD OLSHER: It happened after she found out that a man who is now one of her ex-husbands was cheating on her. Hall checked herself into a board and care facility between 1975 and 1985, locked the door, and didn't speak. She says she pulled out of it, not because of drugs or doctors, but because she forgave the people who had hurt her.

ALICE HALL: And then when I talked to my sister after the depression was over, she says, boy, you sure made up for it because you can't even shut up!

DEAD OLSHER: Meeting with her today, it's hard to imagine Hall not talking for an entire decade. She's a nonstop nuclear reactor of stories and exclamations and laughter, and listening to one of her vintage live recordings, that seems to have been her way from the start.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[CHANTING]

SPEAKER 1: Caravan being the theme for Alice Hall and her trio. For an opener, let's have "What is this Thing Called Love?"

ALICE HALL: Ah!

[ALICE HALL, "WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED LOVE?"]

DEAD OLSHER: That irrepressible energy is what made producer Michael Shapiro take notice when she was preparing the Planet Squeezebox compilation and someone sent her a recording of Alice Hall.

MICHAEL SHAPIRO: I was just blown away. I listened to it and I took it off and I ran around the office looking for somebody else who might be there. And I found this guy, Steve. I said, Steve, you got to hear this. Listen to this. Listen to this. Am I crazy or does this woman burn? And he listened to it and he went, whoa. So I knew I had something really hot.

[VOCALIZING]

DEAD OLSHER: There were a couple of problems in using the recording of Hall. Shapiro had instructions to put out a compilation of folk-based world music and not to use archival recordings of marginal technical quality.

MICHAEL SHAPIRO: So I really had to say to the president of the company, look, this is a significant recording historically. And he said, well, how come I've never heard of her? And I said, well, I don't know why you haven't heard of her. Possibly because-- dare I say it-- she's a woman. But as far as the evidence of my ears is concerned, this is an important slice of time.

DEAD OLSHER: Being a woman may have actually helped Alice Hall get noticed, although, no doubt, she was considered a novelty. And yet, some of the biggest names in jazz appreciated her talent. Bandleader Benny Goodman asked her to tour with him, but the owner of a restaurant that had her on contract wouldn't release her. And trombonist Jack Teagarden invited her to go on the road with his band.

ALICE HALL: I said, Jack, I don't even want to think it over. I said, no, I want to do my own thing. I want to do what I want to do as far as a trio or quartet is concerned because playing with the big band, you know how many chances you get to play 16 bars or something, or eight bars or something? And that's it, you know? There's nothing there.

DEAD OLSHER: It wasn't just that Hall wanted more than a brief moment in the spotlight. She had something to prove.

ALICE HALL: I wanted to prove that something can be done on this instrument other than playing just the ordinary Jolly Caballero stuff, you know? So I proved it.

[EXCITING MUSIC]

DEAD OLSHER: Alice Hall likes the accordion well enough, but her real passion is jazz, and the accordion is simply her vehicle for realizing it. She even had a hit on Capitol with the jazz standard Caravan in the 1940s. On the flip side was "Pennies From Heaven," which she still plays.

[ALICE HALL, "PENNIES FROM HEAVEN"]

ALICE HALL: [VOCALIZING]

How you like those apples? [CHUCKLES]

DEAD OLSHER: These days, most of Hall's time is taken up, not with practicing, but with an organization called Friends of the Accordion. She edits its newsletter, The Bellows.

ALICE HALL: With this newsletter, I write a lot of letters to these people that are members written by hand. It's not typed. And there is lots of empathy and stuff that goes into this, you know? Like this one guy, he was going to quit playing. I got him to play again.

DEAD OLSHER: Alice Hall is always promoting other accordionists too. Much of the time that I was trying to get Hall to tell me her life story, she was pushing a young Italian named Nick Ariondo. Maybe if Alice Hall had pushed herself, she might be remembered as a jazz great today. But the lost accordionists who she tries to cheer up are, no doubt, glad her life took the course it did. I'm Dean Olsher.

[EXCITING MUSIC]

PAULA SCHROEDER: Wow. And her music can be heard on that three-cd set of ion-- or compilation, rather, of accordion music called Planet Squeezebox, probably available at the Public Radio music source 1800-75-MUSIC. It's 7 and 1/2 minutes before 11 o'clock. I'm Paula Schroeder. This is Midmorning on Minnesota Public Radio. In our weather forecast today, we are still expecting partly to mostly sunny skies with a few flurries possible in Northern Minnesota. Just what you need, right?

Highs today from 5 Below in the Northwest to around 10 above in the Southeast. And then it is going to be warming up a little bit tomorrow. Look for highs in the single digits above 0 to the mid teens. And 15 to 25 on Wednesday with a chance of snow. Then by Friday, it's going to be very cold statewide with a continuing chance of snow. High temperatures by Friday. 5 Below to 10 below in the Northwest to 5 to 10 above in the Southeast East. Reminder that roads continue to be in fair to poor driving conditions across much of Northern and Western Minnesota, also parts of Central Minnesota.

And so if you're going to be going out, do drive with caution, of course. In the Twin Cities, roads are in fair driving conditions. Right now, it is 0 in Worthington, Mankato, and Rochester. It's 9 below in Bemidji, 2 below in International Falls. In Duluth, it's partly cloudy and 3 below 0 with a wind chill of 37 below. In Fargo-Moorhead, it's cloudy and 5 below 0. It's partly sunny in Sioux Falls, 2 above, and in the Twin cities, clear skies and 3 degrees above 0. Time now for Garrison Keillor.

[PIANO MUSIC]

GARRISON KEILLOR: And here is the Writer's Almanac for Monday, the 6th of January, 1997. It's Twelfth Night. It's the epiphany, the feast day of the Magi, commemorating their visit to Bethlehem to see the Christ child. The Ethiopian Balthazar who brought myrrh, the Hindu Malchior who brought gold, and the Greek Gaspar, who brought frankincense.

Today is the birthday of Carl Sandburg in Galesburg, Illinois. To Swedish immigrant parents in 1878, he was born. Wrote his first poems in Chicago, where he was a socialist, organizer, and newspaperman. His poem "Chicago" written there. Hog butcher, toolmaker, stacker of wheat, player with railroads, and freight Handler to the nation. It's the birthday of the cowboy star of the silent movie era, Thomas Hezekiah. Born in Mix Run, Pennsylvania in 1880, Tom Mix.

It's the birthday in 1905 of the Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh, also author of an autobiographical novel Tarry Flynn. And it's the birthday of Edgar Lawrence Doctorow. EL Doctorow, born in 1931 in New York City, who began his career reading movie scripts and decided that he could write a better Western than what he was reading for Columbia Pictures and wrote his first book, Welcome to Hard Times, followed by many others, including Ragtime, World's Fair and Billy Bathgate. Here's a poem for today by Michael Collier. It's entitled "Bread Route."

His name was Randy Niver, and he cried so hard the night he came to spend with me, we had to call his mother to come and take him home, back to the world that must have been too familiar for him to leave. His father's boot on the step van great each morning as he climbed into the cab and closed the door that spelled in blue italic script, Sunbeam.

A blue and yellow van with a small girl's face painted on its side, and a painted loaf of bread sliced, and the slices falling down to make a falling angled stack on a blue plate. He must have been afraid of lying where we lay outside on ponchos in sleeping bags, the sky awash, strewn with stars, high and clear that let us rise above the roofs and trees.

A planet is steady light, a star blinks, but nothing at that distance holds, nothing from where we lay or thought we rose settled firm enough for sleep. And so when I no longer could pretend not to hear him cry, I asked him what it was. His silent answer now comes back across the years.

A friend is nothing compared with love. And love is dark. A parent arriving in the night or leaving each morning. A father's boot. A van door sliding shut. Bread racks empty. A clipboard waiting for its routing slips.

[PIANO MUSIC]

A poem by Michael Collier entitled "Bread Route" from his book The Neighbor, published by the University of Chicago Press and used here by permission of the publisher. That's the Writer's Almanac for Monday, January 6, made possible by Cowles Enthusiast Media, publishers of American history and the historynet.com, where history lives on the world wide web. Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.

PAULA SCHROEDER: Well, that's Midmorning for today. Tomorrow, the Minnesota State legislative session opens up. And one of the things that they are going to be taking up this session is welfare reform. We'll talk with a senator who is writing one of the bills to reform Minnesota's welfare system. And then we'll talk about finding out how to address the issue of poverty with Northwestern University Professor Rebecca Blank. That's tomorrow on Midmorning. Thanks for joining us today.

[BEEPING]

JOHN GORDON: Governor Carlson's technology priorities for the 1997 legislature. I'm John Gordon, and you can hear that story on the next Future Tense. Future Tense in one half hour on Minnesota Public Radio. KNOW FM 91.1.

PAULA SCHROEDER: You're listening to Minnesota Public Radio.

[BEEPING]

3 degrees above 0 at KNOW FM 91.1, Minneapolis, Saint Paul. In the Twin Cities today, it's going to be mostly sunny with a high near 10 above 0. Northwest winds at 10 to 20 miles per hour. Clear and cold tonight with a low near 10 below. Tomorrow, sunny with a high around 12.

[THEME MUSIC]