News Cut Category Archive: Arts

Cruise ship photo: Fake or real?

Posted at 4:13 PM on January 17, 2012 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Disasters

This image is sweeping across the Internet, apparently spawning questions about priorities and perspective. A couple pays attention to their baby, while tragedy looms just a few feet away.

But is it fake or real?

If anything, there's something going on in the photography to make the ship closer than it really is.

Here are several pictures that suggest there isn't a sidewalk or bench area anywhere nearby.

All of these might lead one to conclude it's a fake. There doesn't appear to be a sidewalk within range to make the shot possible.

But then I found this one:

Your verdict?

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Red tails and black actors

Posted at 5:10 PM on January 13, 2012 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

Of the many stories percolating in NewsCutland this week, the one that never seemed to make much of a blip outside of Hollywood and a few others places was filmmaker George Lucas' revelation that Hollywood was skittish about his Red Tails film project because (a) it's a mostly black cast and (b) there's not a foreign market for it.

"It's one of the first-all black action pictures ever made," Lucas told Jon Stewart this week.

Lucas might be playing it straight, or he might be a genius businessman, reminding the country that anyone interested in civil rights and equal acting opportunity, should drop what they're doing and buy a ticket to his film, even if people don't like action movies.

That puts people in a bad spot because the film might not be very good, and who's deserving of movie charity?

The website Shadow and Act calls it a likely "castor oil movie."

The simple fact, and I've said this several times before, is that NO ONE sees a film out of duty or obligation. People see a movie because they WANT to.

People went in droves to see The Devil Inside last weekend despite horrible word of mouth and terrible reviews because they wanted to.

When Tambay asked a few weeks ago what films people were most anxious to see in 2012, films like The Hunger Games, Django Unchanged, Prometheus and The Hobbit were named by all the commenters. I can't really recall anyone saying Red Tails.

And from what I've always seen, even the most ardent "castor oil" supporters encouraging people to go out and see the films never even watch the films themselves. They always seem to find some sort of excuse.

Lucas hints that if the movie flops, black actors not named Cuba Gooding Jr., might never get another shot in Hollywood.

Writing on his Facebook page this week, Kemp Powers, a senior news producer at Yahoo!, takes the Lucas interview with Stewart apart, and finds plenty of evidence that it's simply a bad film:

The most annoying part of the entire interview is when Lucas calls the film "one of the first all-black action films ever made." Even Jon Stewart seemed genuinely surprised when he made this assertion. That's probably because it was simply false, and it shows that Lucas doesn't watch movies that have black casts. Did Ice-T and Wesley Snipes duking it out in "New Jack City" back in 1991 simply pass over his head? How about Reggie Rock Bythewood's "Biker Boyz"? "Rosewood"? "Black Dynamite"?? Did Spike Lee's "Miracle at St. Ana" (which I didn't like) not count? Or the Ice-Cube/Sam Jackson actioner "xXx: State of the Union," because it was a flop? And what about the increasing number of impressive films being made outside of the Hollywood studio system starring all-black casts? Brazil's "City of God." Zaire's "Viva Riva!" Was "I Am Legend" a black action film, since Will Smith was the only human being in three-quarters of the movie? I don't know the answer to this question, because what really even constitutes a "black" film is open to debate. And while I'm sure many would love to just accept any extra admitted oppression a benevolent billionaire is willing to admit to, the reality is that black people inside and outside of Hollywood have been getting some things done. And as any person of any race in Hollywood can tell you, getting any little thing done in this town is a big deal. Times are still tough, but don't dismiss those achievements as nonexistent.

I hope my ranting doesn't come across as sour grapes. As I said at the start, I am going to see "Red Tails." On opening night. It's what I do for most black films not directed by Tyler Perry, regardless of the positive or negative buzz. I saw "Bamboozled" on opening night in a theater with no more than 12 people total, and was proud to do so. The makers of "Red Tails" have my support already. However, my support is not enough, and I can't in good conscious champion to anyone who isn't black what seems to be nothing more than a derivative, cut-rate, effects-driven action film. I hope with all of my heart that it surprises me and defies my every expectation. And if it is a great film, I hope the word of mouth will help the film generate some success. But that success will have to be despite the fact that everything about the trailer, marketing and promotion of the film points to another case of cinematic mediocrity being sold to an audience that feels guilted into rather than genuinely excited about seeing it. You don't sell action films to a wide audience based on moral obligation. And if it really is important, we deserve better. I should be excited to visit the cinema on the 20th, not grudgingly shelling out my money with the same disdain as when I took my son to see "Garfield." And I definitely shouldn't be wondering how much fun the audience watching "Haywire" in the next theater is having.

Kemp, an African American, says "you don't sell an action movie to a wide audience based on moral obligation."

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Photographs and paranoia

Posted at 12:23 PM on January 7, 2012 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

There's more evidence today that America during the Cold War wasn't really the flag we saluted and the home of the free.

The Associated Press reports it's obtained copies of the FBI file on the late photographer Milton Rogovin.

It wasn't so much the paranoia of J. Edgar Hoover as much as the confirmation that Americans were enlisted to spy on Americans, according to the story:

"We as a family were horribly distressed that so many of the people that we felt were good friends turned out to be agents," Mark Rogovin, a Chicago activist and mural artist, told The AP by phone.

Born in New York City in 1909, Rogovin moved to Buffalo in 1938 to practice as an optometrist. He quickly became politically active, organizing an optical workers union, a move that would cost him his job at the time, and attending Communist Party meetings at a Buffalo union hall.

It was nearly 20 years later, in 1957, that Rogovin realized he could accomplish the same type of awareness-raising of social and economic inequities with photography, his family said. That began when a music professor friend, William Tallmadge, invited him to photograph services at an African-American storefront church

Left unanswered is this question: Was Rogovin considered a threat because he attended Communist Party meetings, or because he was able to show working poor America to America?

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Christine Rosholt and the music she loved

Posted at 2:48 PM on December 29, 2011 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

Longtime Minneapolis singer Christine Rosholt died unexpectedly this week, just a week before her 47th birthday.

Just this week, City Pages reported, she'd sent out a press release about upcoming shows. The cause of her death has not been released.

Just a few weeks ago, she was featured on Classical Minnesota Public Radio's Music with Minnesotans with her friend, Alison Young.

I remember my first day on air when I played a Mozart aria and received a breathless call from Christine even before the last note sounded wanting to know what the piece was because it was used in an incredibly touching moment in the movie "Shawshank Redemption."

Christine's eagerness and delight in the music was so contagious, I have found myself often thinking of her enthusiastic listening when I program my mornings on Classical MPR.

Here's the broadcast:

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'The khaki season'

Posted at 1:07 PM on December 29, 2011 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

I'm pretty sure the greatest writer ever to pass through the hallowed halls of Minnesota Public Radio is Leif Enger, who actually toiled from his Aitkin-area home as part of MPR's Mainstreet project.

So it's no surprise at all that he has coined the perfect name for the winter we're having: "the khaki season."

It's also not surprising he found a way to enliven it, with this short video he posted today.

The Brightest Thing in Forty Miles from Leif Enger on Vimeo.

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Cutting out the middle men

Posted at 9:51 AM on December 16, 2011 by Molly Bloom (2 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Marketing and advertising

Photo by Jungleboy via Flickr

Following the path that musicians like Radiohead and authors like Amanda Hocking have taken, comedian Louis C.K. decided to take his most recent comedy special, "Live at the Beacon," directly to the people who want to buy it.

He directed the video himself and the cost of the production was largely covered by tickets sold for the two live performances that were filmed. DVDs of his previous specials have sold for anywhere between $15 and $20. But this new one? Only $5.

And it seems to be paying off, particularly for fans. Louis CK wrote on his website on Tuesday:

The show went on sale at noon on Saturday, December 10th. 12 hours later, we had over 50,000 purchases and had earned $250,000, breaking even on the cost of production and website. As of Today, we've sold over 110,000 copies for a total of over $500,000. Minus some money for PayPal charges etc, I have a profit around $200,000 (after taxes $75.58). This is less than I would have been paid by a large company to simply perform the show and let them sell it to you, but they would have charged you about $20 for the video. They would have given you an encrypted and regionally restricted video of limited value, and they would have owned your private information for their own use. They would have withheld international availability indefinitely. This way, you only paid $5, you can use the video any way you want, and you can watch it in Dublin, whatever the city is in Belgium, or Dubai. I got paid nice, and I still own the video (as do you). You never have to join anything, and you never have to hear from us again.

You can read his full statement here (beware: there is a four-letter word near the beginning).

As technology makes it increasingly easier for artists of all kinds to cut out the middle men, it will be interesting to see how the business side of art-making continues to change. Does this change the way you look at consuming books, music, films, etc.? How do you prefer to support your favorite artists and entertainers?

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The Holly and the iPhone

Posted at 12:08 PM on December 12, 2011 by Eric Ringham (10 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Music, Tech

Somebody at Orchestra Hall had something that he wanted to remember to do at 7:55 Sunday night. Too bad it wasn't to turn off his alarm during the soprano solo in "He Shall Feed His Flock Like a Shepherd." The alarm was an insistent one, starting with beep-beep, beep-beep, and escalating to beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep.

Ring tones and personal alarms are such a part of concerts and plays that they probably fall into the category of things we'll just have to accept, but it's a pity. The Minnesota Orchestra and Minnesota Chorale turned in a pristine performance of Handel's "Messiah" this weekend, assuming that one is OK with some pretty big excisions from the score. (Oh death, where is thy sting? Somewhere on the cutting room floor, apparently.) The tone was clean, the text was clear, the interpretation seemed fresh and each note felt right. Except, of course, for the notes from the electronic devices in the concertgoers' purses and pockets.

So here's a question for this season of "A Christmas Carol," "Messiah" and other holiday performances: If today's phones are smart, are they smart enough to silence themselves? They come equipped with GPS devices, calendars and apps of every conceivable description. Could they see from the location (concert hall), or from the date and the hour (when a concert is on the calendar), that it's time to pipe down?

Come on, technology. Save us from ourselves.

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Cities '97 Sampler sells out again

Posted at 12:07 PM on November 17, 2011 by Bob Collins (9 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

One of these days, the live TV interviews of people sleeping out at Target to be the first to buy the Cities 97 Sampler CD will include the question, "How long do you think it will take you to post it on E*Bay?"

This year's sampler, which certainly appeared to be worth sleeping out for, sold out in three hours, according to the Pioneer Press.

About 300 of them are already listed on E*Bay, where the market appears to favor a $45 charge. It retailed for about $26.

That still leaves plenty of people who intend to keep the CD, since the station made 33,000 of them and will donate the $800,000 in profits to charity.

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Twenty-four hours of Flickr

Posted at 11:09 AM on November 14, 2011 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Tech

How many images are uploaded to the photo-sharing site, Flickr, over a 24-hour period? This many:

Dutch visual artist Erik Kessels has opened a show at the Foam photography gallery in Amsterdam on the future of photography.

"This glut is in large part the result of image-sharing sites like Flickr, networking sites like Facebook, and picture-based search engines," Kessels tells Creative Review. "Their content mingles public and private, with the very personal being openly and un-selfconsciously displayed. By printing all the images uploaded in a 24-hour period, I visualise the feeling of drowning in representations of other peoples' experiences."

That sounds like a negative, which is the way Creative Review sees it. With so much sharing of images, can the really good photography stand out?

Do you feel as though you're drowning in the experiences of others?

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The doodles of Davies

Posted at 1:10 PM on November 8, 2011 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

One of these days, I'm going to set up a NewsCut category for Midmorning guest doodles.

You can learn a lot about the people you hear on the radio by the doodles they make, although we're dumbstruck to tell you what exactly.

Here's today's doodle from Ray Davies of the Kinks, a guest on today's show (click image to enlarge). (h/t: Jon Gordon)

And here's today's show, which was infinitely more interesting:

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Pry this guitar from my cold, dead fingers

Posted at 3:35 PM on October 27, 2011 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Politics

Of the many problems facing America, it's hard to say where "a guitarless society" ranks on the list.

But, it's a real fear in the guitar community, PBS NewsHour reports.

It stems from the August raid of Nashville's iconic Gibson Guitar factory, because investigators think the wood used in the guitars was made from illegally logged wood, and the Lacey Act prohibits the illegal trade of plant products.

Owners and collectors of Gibson guitars are worried that the feds could similarly seize their instruments.

A couple of members of Congress have filed legislation to prevent that.

"Everybody and their bassist wants this," said Stephen George, press secretary for Rep.Jim Cooper, providing both an assurance to musicians and the political quote of the year for the rest of us.

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Arts funding: It helps if you appeal to wealthy whites

Posted at 10:46 AM on October 10, 2011 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

A report issued today claims when it comes to funding for the arts, it's a rich, white person's world.

The report from the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy says foundation giving to the art doesn't properly reflect the changing demographics in the nation, with the large portion of funding going to museums, operas, and symphonies when most of the nation isn't a museum, opera, and symphony culture.

The Associated Press reported:

According to the study, the largest arts organizations with budgets exceeding $5 million represent only 2 percent of the nonprofit arts and culture sector. Yet those groups received 55 percent of foundation funding for the arts in 2009. Only 10 percent of funding went to underserved populations. However, the study's author acknowledged the report may not account for every dollar granted to help reach diverse audiences at larger institutions.

The latest census data shows non-white populations have grown in every region of the country since 2000. More than a third of the country is comprised of people of color. In four states, white people are no longer the majority, the AP said.

"It is a problem because it means that -- in the arts -- philanthropy is using its tax-exempt status primarily to benefit wealthier, more privileged institutions and populations," wrote the report's author, Holly Sidford.

The report said just 2 percent of non-profit cultural organizations have budgets over $5 million, but they get 55 percent of contributions, gifts, and grants. The greater the amount of money given by a foundation, the less likely the foundation is to "prioritize marginalized communities."

View the full report. (pdf)

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Adventures in uncomfortable theater

Posted at 12:20 PM on October 7, 2011 by Eric Ringham (2 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Race

Actor Chris Hampton in "Neighbors," Mixed Blood Theatre, Minneapolis. (Photo/Ann Marsden.)

Last weekend I went to Mixed Blood Theatre on the West Bank to see "Neighbors," and if I wouldn't be depriving someone else of a seat, I'd go see it again. For one thing, thanks to Mixed Blood's "radical hospitality" experiment, it's free. For another, this play is the real thing: theater that messes with your mind and makes you want to talk to somebody about it. The night I went, dozens of people stayed behind for the discussion period that follows every performance.

If you don't want to be offended, don't go. The play's offensive. A normal, modern-day, mixed-race family with ordinary problems gets new neighbors: an extended family of African-Americans in blackface who embody every racist canard you've ever heard of, and a few you probably haven't. (When "Mammy," the matriarch of Family B, bums a cigarette from the teen-age daughter of Family A, it turns out to be a Marlboro. Mammy takes a deep drag and says, "Honey, we got to get you some Newports.") The stereotypes tumbled over each other so fast that I couldn't help laughing -- which I almost regretted during the post-play discussion, when an African-American patron asked the white people in the audience how long it took them to realize they shouldn't be laughing. Gulp.

Three nights later, I sat in another audience, in another theater, during another discussion about race. MPR's Kerri Miller interviewed NPR's Michele Norris as part of the "One Minneapolis, One Read" program. (You can listen to that discussion here.) Once again, audience members seemed eager to share their perspectives on our supposedly post-racial society. Also once again, the people of color present didn't seem to think the prefix "post" applied too well. When Norris asked audience members how often they were conscious of their race when they were out in the world, a woman behind me whispered, "Every minute. Every second."

That the conversation is happening at all feels like a positive development, and it warms my theater- and public-radio-loving heart that two of my favorite institutions are at the middle of it. During the Michele Norris program at the Guthrie, a woman in the audience channeled Rodney King's wish that we could all just get along. "How do we do that?" she asked.

Norris answered: "We do this."

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Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize winner?

Posted at 11:48 AM on October 5, 2011 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

If the oddsmakers are right, Bob Dylan is about to be a Nobel Prize winner in literature.

The oddsmakers, of course, frequently aren't right but the buzz surrounding the possibility eclipses his competition (Legal disclaimer under the Law of Minnesota Media: Bob Dylan grew up in Minnesota. End of disclaimer).

Ladbroke's has installed Dylan now as a 5-to-1 favorite to win the Nobel Prize when the literature award is announced on Thursday. That's a lot of money flowing into the Dylan corner; he was a 100-to-1 shot on Monday and a 10-to-1 nag on Tuesday.

Ladbrokes spokesman Alex Donahue talked with Morning Edition host Phil Picardi about the betting interest in Dylan earlier today:

He eclipsed Adonis, the Syrian poet, overnight. Adonis is actually Ali Ahmed Said. He lives in France and won the Goethe Prize recently, around the same time he published an open letter to Syrian President Bashar Assad urging him to end the repression against his countrymen. Generally, that's just the type of person who wins Nobel prizes.

But a campaign for Dylan, which actually started early in 2010, has taken root. DylanForNobel.com, for example, says this is the kind of poetry deserving of a Nobel:

To win the prize would also go a long way toward settling a long-running debate: Is Bob Dylan a songwriter or a poet? Dylan was asked that very question at a press conference in 1965, when he said, "I think of myself more as a song-and-dance man."

The debate has raged on ever since, and even intensified in 2004, when the Internet spread rumors that he'd win the prize, and several books explored the question.

"Anything I can sing, I call a song. Anything I can't sing, I call a poem," Dylan said in 1963.

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Photographing the northern lights

Posted at 1:31 PM on September 27, 2011 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

It's cloudy in a great part of Minnesota today, which could deny us the opportunity for one of the most spectacular skyward moments -- the northern lights.

A geomagnetic storm began yesterday when a Coronal Mass Ejection collided with Earth's magnetic field.

Greater Minnesota gets all the bragging rights. With no clouds, and no light pollution -- especially in northern Minnesota -- it's already been a great show. MPR's Updraft blog has a photo from Grand Portage.

Here's a video uploaded from last night's display in Norway:

Northern Lights Timelapse 26.09.2011 Norway from Julius Jahre Sætre on Vimeo.

If you can get a good photograph of the northern lights in this part of the world tonight, we'd love to look at it.

Here's a tutorial on how to photograph them.

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R.I.P. R.E.M.

Posted at 12:36 PM on September 21, 2011 by Bob Collins (13 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Music

R.E.M. announced today its breaking up. From the band's website:

To our Fans and Friends: As R.E.M., and as lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band. We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished. To anyone who ever felt touched by our music, our deepest thanks for listening." R.E.M.

In their own words: The guys share their thoughts on why now.

MIKE

"During our last tour, and while making Collapse Into Now and putting together this greatest hits retrospective, we started asking ourselves, 'what next'? Working through our music and memories from over three decades was a hell of a journey. We realized that these songs seemed to draw a natural line under the last 31 years of our working together.

"We have always been a band in the truest sense of the word. Brothers who truly love, and respect, each other. We feel kind of like pioneers in this--there's no disharmony here, no falling-outs, no lawyers squaring-off. We've made this decision together, amicably and with each other's best interests at heart. The time just feels right."

MICHAEL

"A wise man once said--'the skill in attending a party is knowing when it's time to leave. We built something extraordinary together. We did this thing. And now we're going to walk away from it.

"I hope our fans realize this wasn't an easy decision; but all things must end, and we wanted to do it right, to do it our way.

"We have to thank all the people who helped us be R.E.M. for these 31 years; our deepest gratitude to those who allowed us to do this. It's been amazing."

PETER

"One of the things that was always so great about being in R.E.M. was the fact that the records and the songs we wrote meant as much to our fans as they did to us. It was, and still is, important to us to do right by you. Being a part of your lives has been an unbelievable gift. Thank you.

"Mike, Michael, Bill, Bertis, and I walk away as great friends. I know I will be seeing them in the future, just as I know I will be seeing everyone who has followed us and supported us through the years. Even if it's only in the vinyl aisle of your local record store, or standing at the back of the club: watching a group of 19 year olds trying to change the world."

It doesn't matter whether it's the Beatles 40 years ago or a band from this generation, the reactions are usually the same when an iconic band splits. Why? I'm no music expert but music provides the one link we have to a moment in our lives. Recall a piece of music, and you can live the moment. It's the closest thing we have to time travel.

Music -- the right music -- can also speak our feelings we dare not speak, and allow a message to sink in we otherwise wouldn't hear.

And in the end, the world changes because of music. Maybe.

Your favorite R.E.M. song? And why?

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Three videos that can make you want to be a better person

Posted at 10:26 AM on September 12, 2011 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

Artist Lucas Jatoba turned 30 last month so to mark the occasion, he gave presents to 30 people at random.

The people of Sydney had far different reactions to a stranger approaching them with a gift-wrapped item than I imagine people in the U.S. would have.

Here's more:

Making of - 30 gifts to 30 strangers from Lucas Jatoba on Vimeo.

Jatoba's got some serious class. You may recall the video he made upon leaving Barcelona for Australia.

(h/t: Neatorama)

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One nation. From above

Posted at 11:50 AM on September 6, 2011 by Bob Collins (11 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

What's uniquely Minnesotan that would resonate with people in the rest of the country when viewed from the air?

The Smithsonian Channel is filming a series showing every state from the air.

They haven't gotten to Minnesota, yet, which gives us time to consider what would be appropriate images.

I'll spot you Split Rock Lighthouse.

What else?

(h/t: Julia Schrenkler)

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Champs x 2

Posted at 2:35 PM on September 3, 2011 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

We have winners in the duet championships at the Minnesota State Fair.

Jesse Moravec and Clint Birtzer are from the Sawtooth Bluegrass Band

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More from the State Fair

Posted at 12:43 PM on August 22, 2011 by Eric Ringham (2 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Icons

I'm always the last one to spot a trend, so maybe this is news to no one but me. But the fairgrounds now have benches with messages of up to 14 characters -- often the names of people or organizations -- built into them. A visit to the State Fair Foundation's website reveals that the benches are a perq of membership at the $1,500 level. That puts the "recognition benches" in the middle range, between recognition bricks for $250 and recognition tables for $2,500. It amounts to selling the naming rights to infrastructure. For city managers in a struggling economy, I'd like to offer a thought: recognition manholes.

Meanwhile, the Public Insight Network here at MPR wants your help identifying cool, out-of-the-way spots on the fairgrounds. What's your favorite hidden highlight? I'm partial to Steichen's grocery Store and Deli, myself.

We'll feature a Fair Hound every day of the fair on All Things Considered, and in other ways on the Internets.

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Ready ... set ...

Posted at 5:00 AM on August 22, 2011 by Eric Ringham (6 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Icons, Music

Not everybody loves the State Fair. There was even a time in my own life, I admit, when my attitude went like this: "Oh, my God, the fair is here again? The exhibits? The crowds? The noise? The food?"

Then I experienced a conversion, and now my attitude goes like this: "Oh, my God! The fair is here again! The exhibits, the crowds, the noise! The food!"

It's all in the punctuation.

Get ready. The State Fair starts Thursday.

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Terry Pratchett and needless suffering

Posted at 11:38 AM on August 11, 2011 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Health

I can't prove it but it wouldn't surprise me if the e-mail and phones at the NPR ombudsman's office are busy today, following this morning's Morning Edition interview with Terry Pratchett. The writer is in the early stages of Alzheimer's and would like the option of taking his own life when the time is right.

He says he doesn't use the word "suicide."

"I prefer not to use the word 'suicide' because suicide is an irrational thing whereas I think that for some people asking for an assisted death is a very rational thing,"

Is he talking about people with a mental illness who kill themselves? A later portion of the interview reveals that he, in fact, is. And it raises the question of whether people dying of a physical illness should have an option denied those with a mental illness.

He says he believes it's acceptable to have an assisted death if you're suffering from a terminal disease, but not if you're depressed.

"I've often felt depressed, everyone feels depressed," he says.

That's a surprising statement coming from a learned man. Sure, there is depression in the course of a day or a week, and there is depression that is part of a neurological disorder. The two are not the same.

I certainly don't advocate the taking of one's own life, but the assertion that "needless suffering" is cause to be allowed to end one's own life, invites a debate on what constitutes "needless suffering" and who is morally and legally entitled to escape it.

Unfortunately, NPR chose not to explore that question.

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The subway Sinatra

Posted at 2:51 PM on August 2, 2011 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

Saint Paul light-rail-construction workers, you're not going to let Gary Russo of New York outshine you, are you?

Russo has been working on the Second Avenue subway construction project, and disrupting the neighborhood.

So he decided to "give back" to the neighborhood by conducting lunch-hour concerts...

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What MTV says about us

Posted at 3:33 PM on August 1, 2011 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

This is, you may have heard, the 30th anniversary of MTV, when music videos made their debut on their own channel in the United States; they'd already been prominent in Europe for years.

Other than the overexposure of the Buggles -- just as bad now as they were then -- the commemoration and "best" video articles that have been written today seem to ignore the contributions of music video as true art form.

On The Current's music blog today, Steve Seel remembers some of the music videos that were played on August 1, 1981; none of them were particularly good.

The website, Mashable, says technology killed the music video because channels like YouTube made them available instantly.

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest the writer didn't really live through the MTV years, because if she had, she wouldn't make the mistake that many young people make when it comes to evaluating media and technology. Sure, instant access is great, but what about the substance? (The "news" parallel here is the net effect of the death of the newspaper. Without it, you're far less likely to stumble into knowledge -- simply by turning a page -- you didn't already have.)

We'd sit and watch MTV, not because we thought our favorite music video would be the next to play; we watched it because we didn't know what video we'd never seen before would blow us away.

That's the flaw of "instant access." You can only access instantly that which you're looking for. And you can only look for that which you already know. Where's the serendipity of finding something new in that?

Michael Jackson's Thriller was the defining moment of MTV; it's when music videos became more than small skits with lip synching pop stars. It was when structure, and plot, and artistry -- in the old days we paid money to sit in a theater for something with those ingredients -- migrated to a new platform. And it was, indeed, thrilling.

Jackson, with John Landis (and others), was the person who brought a true filmmaker's eye to this new popular culture.

You could get 8 minutes of wonder 24 hours a day if you were patient enough...

In the end, the filmmakers' eye gave way to a medium that gave everyone the ability to make videos of their cat. MTV threw in the towel and gave up the idea of providing a quality product to a nation that wasn't that interested in it anymore. The channel mirrored the times.

It still does.

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Death of a poet's poet

Posted at 12:12 PM on July 29, 2011 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Icons

Roy McBride, the Minneapolis "street poet," and subject of a local documentary not long ago called "A Poet's Poet," has died.

In January, Bao Phi, another local poet of note, wrote in the Star Tribune:

In the 70's, he was one of the few African American students writing poetry at Macalester (also my alma mater) back in the day, where he was introduced to touring poets like Amiri Baraka, Sonja Sanchez, and Etheridge Knight. But part of the reason why Roy is really special to me is that he has that Minneapolis flavor - soul poetry by the way of Powderhorn Park. The blues of Lake Street and the 21A. His work was amongst the first I encountered to really give the Twin Cities a lyrical flavor. I am not ashamed to tell you he is one of the few local poets who has ever beaten me at a Minnesota Grand Poetry Slam, and I was honored to lose to him. The right thing happened.

Roy Chester McBride is originally from Magnolia, Arkansas.

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Leonard Parker, 90

Posted at 3:49 PM on July 25, 2011 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Icons

Word reached us today that Leonard Parker has died at age 90 after a long illness.

Parker, an architect, designed several iconic buildings including the Humphrey Center, the Minneapolis Convention Center, an addition to the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the Minnesota Judicial Center (an awesome combination of integrating the old with the new). He also worked on the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.

He could carry a tune, too, as this video from January showed:

The funeral will be held at Temple Israel at 12:30 on Wednesday.

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The corpse springs to life

Posted at 12:27 PM on June 29, 2011 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Science

Reader Corrie Patrick has just sent this photo from a trip today to St. Paul's wonderful Como Conservatory, where the "corpse flower" is in bloom. And by, "in bloom," we mean it stinks to high heaven... like death, they say.

"It did not disappoint," Corrie says, as if you could be disappointed by the reeking smell of death from a plant whose Latin name means misshapen penis.

The bloom only lasts 1-2 days (it started opening yesterday afternoon) and the smell is much shorter. "By closing time tonight, there is the possibility that the smell will have disappeared and the spathe will have started to close up and again cover the base of the spadix," the Conservatory's website says.

It's staying open late tonight for the occasion ( 9 pm).

It is named "BOB, too," but not for the reason you might think. It was obtained from Gustavus Adolphus College's chemistry professor Dr. Brian O'Brien. It is 18 years old and has never bloomed before.

(h/t: Corrie Patrick)

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Campaigns and songs people are sick of hearing

Posted at 2:15 PM on June 28, 2011 by Bob Collins (19 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Politics

Tom Petty is reportedly upset that Rep. Michele Bachmann played his song, "American Girl," at the conclusion of her announcement that she wants to be president of the United States.

It's an appropriate song beyond the title, perhaps, because American Girl, itself , has been fact-checked over the years, and meaning attributed to it has generally been wrong. Mrs. Bachmann, as NPR suggested today, is a fact-checker's dream.

One urban legend has suggested it's about a woman committing suicide at the University of Florida. That's wrong.

So what is the song about? Nothing, really. It was inspired by cars whizzing by his apartment. They sounded like waves at the beach, he said. Oh.

In selecting a song written in 1978, Mrs. Bachmann continues a political cliche: Using old songs while presenting oneself as a candidate of fresh ideas.

In the last presidential election, for example, Hillary Clinton used Bachmann-Turner Overdrive's "Taking Care of Business," a song from the early '70s (She also used "American Girl"), Mike Huckabee went with Boston's "More Than a Feeling," Chris Dodd chose the Temptations "Get Ready", and John McCain went with ABBA's, "Take a Chance on Me." Those are all songs from the '70s or mid-'60s. They all lost.

What were they trying to tap into if not music associated with some of the cruddiest years in our nation's history?

Barack Obama, meanwhile, alternated between the Black Eyed Peas, "Yes We Can," Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising" and U2's "City of Blinding Lights." Those were all songs that were popular in the same decade as the election.

There might be a lesson there.

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What's at the end of the rainbow? A bridge

Posted at 9:21 AM on June 25, 2011 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

I mentioned earlier this week on 5x8 that the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis is being lit this weekend in honor of PRIDE weekend, one of the few times the magnificently understated structure has been bathed in a light other than blue.

How does it look? Ed Kohler provided the answer in this Flickr posting.

Joe Bielawa steps back for another look (also via Flickr):

This perspective comes from Cynthia Frost:

At least for this weekend, this may be the most photographed structure in Minnesota. If you'd like to send me yours, here's the gateway.

Update 6:24p- Paul Weimer captured the lovely reflection on the water.

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Time-lapse Rock the Garden

Posted at 2:11 PM on June 20, 2011 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

Here's the official Walker Art Center time-lapse video of Saturday's Rock the Garden concert, also sponsored by The Current.

Rain and mud never looked quite so good.

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All the Lawson Building's a stage

Posted at 2:36 PM on June 1, 2011 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

To those not clued in, there appeared to be a jail break today at the Lawson Software building in downtown Saint Paul (click for larger image):

Colleague Diana Flotten spied Project Bandaloop doing its thing on the side of the building at lunchtime today.

According to its Web site, "Project Bandaloop has been amazing audiences worldwide and creating dynamic dances that reframe how people perceive their environment and the art form of dance since 1991. Performing in natural and urban settings, the company uses theaters, buildings, towers, bridges, cliffs, and skyscrapers as its dance floor."

The performance lasted about 20 minutes and will be repeated tomorrow (Thursday) at noon, Friday at 11:45am & 12:45pm, Saturday at noon and 1:45pm and Sunday at11:00am & 1:00pm. (See another image via Flickr. And here's one from above.)

Here's a performance they provided in New Delhi...

Project Bandaloop in New Delhi India 2010 from Project Bandaloop on Vimeo.

Update 3:01 p.m. - A YouTube video of today's performance...

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News graffiti

Posted at 11:12 AM on May 11, 2011 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

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Spontaneous musicals

Posted at 12:36 PM on May 9, 2011 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

Improv Everywhere is out with the fourth installment of its "spontaneous musicals" series. This one took place at one of those nerdy conferences where people usually say the same thing they said at a different nerdy conference a week ago. Hence, the need to break things up a bit.

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Minneapolis: City of right angles and glass

Posted at 1:49 PM on May 4, 2011 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

Developers today unveiled their plan for the blighted Block E in downtown Minneapolis. The solution is a casino, according to MPR's Brandt Williams, who also provides an artist's rendering of what the casino could look like.

Look familiar at all? Here's another artist's rendering of the proposed expansion of the Target Center next door.

... which looked very much like the initial proposal for the Orchestra Hall renovations...

These things almost never end up looking at all like the original artist drawings that are designed to get people excited about a project. If they did, downtown Minneapolis would look pretty much the same from building to building -- lots of high ceilings, right angles, and glass.

Even the original pitch for the new Twins stadium stressed lots of glass...

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'I see your pencil neck weasel and raise you a twit'

Posted at 12:10 PM on May 4, 2011 by Bob Collins (9 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Politics

Not since Garrison Keillor and Jesse Ventura went at it has the world seen a politician vs. elitist artist fray like the one developing between Rep. Matt Dean and author Neil Gaiman. As I wrote on 5x8 this morning, Rep. Dean called Gaiman a "pencil neck weasel" for accepting Legacy Amendment money to give a speech at the Stillwater library.

Gaiman "tweets" back that Dean is a twit...

He doesn't stop there...

A Twitter war? Pass the popcorn!

Back to you Rep. Dean...

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Live: The 2,000-mile walk

Posted at 11:21 AM on May 4, 2011 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

Laura Wilkins is walking to visit her mother in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She's in Tucson.

Wilkins, an artist, is streaming her walk 24/7, with a camera strapped to her head, connected to a solar-powered laptop in her backpack. "My artwork is about community and connections," she says on her Web site. "I believe that safety comes from trust, community and collaboration. I hope to use social networking, both online and traditional, to safely cross the country."

Walkng Home from Andrew Brown on Vimeo.

(h/t: Lorrie Sarafin)

She wants people to join her on her walk -- it's about 2,000 miles -- and tell her stories. The closest she'll get to Minnesota, however, is Dubuque.

Watch live video from lmilkins on Justin.tv

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A blow against 'folk Nazism'

Posted at 10:32 AM on April 28, 2011 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

"Janis Ian is up in Studio M on Midmorning," I said to my 20-something son on our coffee break a little bit ago.

"Who?" he said, appearing to speak for his generation.

Oh, children!

True, she only had two hits, but one of them confronted what the U.S. didn't want to confront.

It's a well-known story that the song earned her death threats and concert jeers from conservatives, but it also broke new ground, eschewing what she called "Folk Nazism."

"I caught the same amount of flack from the folk audience who turned their backs on me because I put drums (and a harpsichord) on a record and had a hit record. You were supposed to starve," she said in this 2009 interview.

Janis Ian performs tonight Friday night in St. Paul.

I'll post the Midmorning audio shortly.

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Bob Dylan: Sellout?

Posted at 10:52 AM on April 11, 2011 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

Bob Dylan played Ho Chi Minh City last night, and left out the peace anthems that made him famous during the Vietnam War. A spokesperson said Dylan had to submit his set list to the government ahead of time, just as he had when he played Beijing last week.

Bob Dylan: Sellout?

New York Times' columnist Maureen Dowd certainly thinks so:

Sean Wilentz, the Princeton professor who wrote "Bob Dylan in America," said that the Chinese were "trying to guard the audience from some figure who hasn't existed in 40 years. He's been frozen in aspic in 1963 but he's not the guy in the work shirt and blue jeans singing 'Masters of War.' "

Wilentz and Hajdu say you can't really censor Dylan because his songs are infused with subversion against all kinds of authority, except God. He's been hard on bosses, courts, pols and anyone corrupted by money and power.

Maybe the songwriter should reread some of his own lyrics: "I think you will find/When your death takes its toll/All the money you made/Will never buy back your soul."

It must be difficult to be an icon from the '60s, held dear and expected not to change by people who likely have.

Here's last night's set list:

# Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking
# It Ain't Me, Babe
# Beyond Here Lies Nothin'
# Tangled Up In Blue
# Honest With Me
# Simple Twist Of Fate
# Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
# Love Sick
# The Levee's Gonna Break
# A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
# Highway 61 Revisited
# Spirit On The Water
# My Wife's Home Town
# Jolene
# Ballad Of A Thin Man
# Like A Rolling Stone
# All Along The Watchtower
# Forever Young

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When it comes to welcoming spring, we stink

Posted at 12:03 PM on March 23, 2011 by Bob Collins (11 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Religion

Here. Print this out and hold it up against the window.

It's part of a Big Picture (Boston Globe) presentation of the festival of Holi. Hindus greet the turn of winter into spring with a splash of color in the festival.

In Turkey this week, Kurds celebrated the start of their New Year, Nowruz. It also marks the first day of spring, which occurred this week. Not that we'd know, of course.

In Valencia over the weekend, it was the last day of the 'Fallas' festival. Nobody seems to know the exact origin of the festival. But it's believed to have something to do with the Middle Ages, when artisans put out their broken artifacts and pieces of wood that they sorted during the winter, then burnt them to celebrate the spring equinox.

In Nagatoro, Saitama Prefecture, Buddhist monks welcomed spring with the traditional "hi-watari", or fire-walking ritual. Hundreds of people followed Buddhist ascetics and participated in fire walking for "purifying the mind and body" and to pray for good health and safety. And no snow.

You know what? Our customs stink.

We're snowblind today when we should be having some sort of festival to blow the whiteness clean out of our retinas.

What's the closest we got this week? A flower is expected to bloom at the Minnesota Zoo. Apparently, it's famous for its rotting, death-like smell. That's just the pick-me-up we need.

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Does classical music help plants grow?

Posted at 10:07 AM on March 23, 2011 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

The 33-member Royal Philharmonic Orchestra played a three-hour concert the other day. The audience was an auditorium full of plants to test the theory that classical music helps plants grow. And to gin up a little publicity.

Let the record show I really don't know what to say here.

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Back in St. Paul, still in Japan

Posted at 2:12 PM on March 16, 2011 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Disasters

A week or so ago, St. Paul composer Raymond Berg was having a great time with some local musicians he was working with for a production of Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat. The locals knew where the good restaurants were and after a performance, they had taken Berg and the orchestra for an evening out. Times were good. In Tokyo.

"It was a great time of bonding," Berg recalled today while sitting in a St. Paul coffee shop. It worked. Separated by thousands of miles and five days after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, he's worried about his five Japanese musical colleagues. He's trying to contact each of them and knows only that "they're alright." As alright as you can be when much of your country is in ruins and there's a chance that the way things are going the right spring breeze may kill you.

"We knew it (the earthquake) was extraordinary," he said. "You could tell by looking at the faces of the Japanese." He was on the 18th floor of a high-rise hotel (which had already been slated for demolition at the end of the month) when the earthquake -- two earthquakes, actually -- struck. He made it to the street in time for the second one.

"After we were on the street, I thought, 'I've got to get back in there to get my computer equipment for tonight's show,'" he said. There would be no show, of course. The production was canceled. He was able to get back home on Monday, feeling a little guilty about leaving people behind.

"They have a warmth that we simply don't have," he said. When the subways shut down, two American colleagues were stranded 7 miles away. They walked with a map in hand. "They ended up several times not knowing where they were, and each time the Japanese people came up and helped them head in the right direction."

At a convenience store in Tokyo, he said, there was no yelling or fighting over the rapidly-disappearing essentials. He says the manager of the hall where the production was being performed apologized for the earthquake and tsunami. "I just fell in love with these people," he said.

Being a composer -- he's musical director of the Ordway -- Berg wants to build a tribute to what he saw last week with the tool he knows best: music. Before "my emotional state is dispassionate" he's planning to compose a piece honoring the people of Japan. Part of it may include notes he heard last Friday afternoon -- the sound his hotel made as it "absorbed tremendous forces."

"It was a deep groan of stress," he said. "Especially with the aftershocks, I often didn't feel it, I heard it."

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The humor of Public Radio

Posted at 4:50 PM on February 26, 2011 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

"Funny" isn't really public radio news' strong suit. But once a year, the MPR employees have a cabaret (talent show) at the Fitzgerald Theater.

Last night, from what I can tell from the video rapidly spinning across the Interverse, the star was MPR's higher education reporter Tim Post.

Update 6:33 p.m. - But, wait! There's more. This one features MPR education (K-12) reporter Tom Weber:

(h/t: Ali Lozoff)

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A year in the life of a beard

Posted at 11:14 AM on February 24, 2011 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

And this took second place in Carleton College's Golden Schillers competition for short films produced by its students.

I'm attempting to find out who the first place finisher was.

Update 11:11 a.m. 2/24 - Lew Weinberg at Carleton reports:

Swim to the Surface." It was made by Chloe Nelson (2014), Ellie Schmidt (2014) and Grace Zarah (2014).

View it here.

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One moment: The balloon goodbye

Posted at 12:15 PM on February 23, 2011 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

We interrupt the steady drumbeat of depressing news for this message: It's not all bad out there.

Lucas Jatoba, an advertising executive, was leaving fond memories behind when he moved from Barcelona to Australia, so he sent seven balloons aloft with tickets to a play. Then, when a business heard about it, it donated 250 more and he repeated the stunt.

The event was reported by the blog, mUmBrella, which also featured one of the funniest comments reacting to the story:

"That's nice. When I left London, I went out and got absolutely wankered, vomitted in a cab, then again on Battersea Bridge. Not really the same is it?"

No,sir.

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Venus and the art of publicity

Posted at 9:35 AM on February 23, 2011 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Marketing and advertising

There's always some sort of billboard mystery in the Twin Cities. Is this one an actual example of graffiti vandalism or a clever publicity gimmick?

It involves a billboard in Minneapolis promoting the Titian and the Golden Age of Venetian Painting exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

Someone covered up Venus:

The Los Angeles Times uncovered the attack on a tip from the -- wait for it -- publicist for the exhibition.

(h/t: Eyeteeth)

Update 9:56 a.m. 2/24: Two things. First: Those aren't the same billboards. Second: "This was no publicity stunt. It happened. A NY PR agency was in conversation with me that morning about something else and we were talking about it. It was also put out on social media by some members of our staff. It was no gag devised by us. Just to make it clear to you," writes Anne-Marie Wagener of the MIA.

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Prince doesn't put up with lame

Posted at 10:15 AM on February 8, 2011 by Steve Mullis (3 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

Minnesota's purple provocateur always brings the soul and feels the funk while performing. However, if you aren't feeling it too, then no stage time with his royal badness for you.

At a recent Madison Square Garden show, Prince invited puzzlingly-popular socialite Kim Kardashian on stage to dance (about 1:00 in). Instead, she pulls the shy girl routine and basically stands there. Not in Prince's house.

He dismisses her with a terse: "Get off the stage."

Well played sir.

(From Gawker: Prince Kicks Kim Kardashian Off Stage)

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On a happy note

Posted at 1:18 PM on February 4, 2011 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Icons

It's taken us a little while today to dig into the crowded closet where we keep 44 years of history at Minnesota Public Radio. So I didn't have this in time for this morning's Five By Eight, lamenting the end of an era in Minneapolis with the retirement of Lou Snider of Nye's Polinaise Room.

But we've found a segment we did with her in 1996, for a series called "Odd Jobs," in which people describe what they do for a living:

By the way, Odd Jobs was tailor-made for News Cut, but it was ahead of its time. If you'd be interested in telling me about the unique job you have, contact me.

(h/t: Sylvia Mohn)

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Embracing winter: The ice sculptures

Posted at 2:31 PM on January 27, 2011 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Weather

The heat is on a group of artist's in St. Paul's Rice Park. They've got until 9 Saturday morning to turn the blocks of ice into works of ice art.

For now, each of the half-dozen sculptures look like the first day your kid brought his Pinewood Derby car project home.

We'll check for some before-after shots tomorrow.

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Milton Rogovin, 1909-2011

Posted at 12:59 PM on January 18, 2011 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

Every person has a story. And every picture tells one. Milton Rogovin, one of the great social documentary photographers, has died at age 101. He concentrated his imagery on the poor, whom he called "the forgotten ones." He was blacklisted during the Communist scare of the 1950s.

He explained how the Depression politicized his work in this 2004 interview:

The loss of my father's business, his following death, and the concrete events I witnessed of people suffering everyday during the Depression completely changed my thinking, and as a result I became politically active. I felt that it was not enough just to feel these things, and that I had to do something to help change the situation. I could no longer be indifferent and like many others at the time I worked for a better future through socialism. I read books by political activists, such as Michael Gold's Jews Without Money (1930) and Change the World (1937), and numerous essays by Emma Goldman, which confirmed my feeling that changes were necessary and we had to do it ourselves.

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Does poetry matter? Ask Haiti

Posted at 2:34 PM on January 5, 2011 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Disasters

It was announced last week that the annual "think-off" in New York Mills this year is "Does poetry matter?".

This shouldn't take long.

Kwame Dawes has been traveling to Haiti since the earthquake one year ago next Wednesday. He's turned his findings into poetry. Who wants to argue against its impact?

In Haiti, meanwhile, reporters who flocked to the island when the earthquake hit, are flocking there again to tell you what's changed. Jeb Sharp of PRI's The World today writes:

But even with all the anger and frustration and grief, life goes on, and it's not as if nothing is being accomplished. You can hear the sounds of building around the city, non-governmental organizations are working hard to tackle the cholera crisis, parts of the economy are humming with dollars from outside that accompany the huge influx of aid workers and others who are here to help Haiti recover. And there are people who see a silver lining or two. In the days after the earthquake there was a sense of Haitians coming together, even across the stark divisions of class that mark this society. People slept in the open without fear of strangers because everyone was facing what felt like an apocalyptic moment together. Several people have described the earthquake as a moment when the world seemed to be coming to an end. That togetherness has receded, but having glimpsed it, some Haitians want to reach for it again, to try to harness it for a greater good.

"That togetherness has receded." It usually does.

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Another look at Twain

Posted at 3:51 PM on January 4, 2011 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

A lot of schools would like to include Mark Twain in their curricula, but they can't anymore. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the "n" word appears 219 times.

So an English professor is producing a new version -- the New South version -- which strips the book of the ingredients that have gotten it banned from many schools.

"I'm hoping that people will welcome this new option, but I suspect that textual purists will be horrified," Alan Gribben told Publishers Weekly. "Already, one professor told me that he is very disappointed that I was involved in this."

A UCLA Twain scholar, however, says "a book like Professor Gribben has imagined doesn't challenge children [and their teachers] to ask, 'Why would a child like Huck use such reprehensible language?' "

In 2007, parents in St. Louis Park tried to get it banned from a 10th grade honors class. One parent told the Star Tribune at the time that his North Carolina class tried the UCLA scholar's approach. It didn't work. "Why were there so many usages of the same word?" he said. "We never got to the story line. It was the racial issue."

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Painting Pawlenty

Posted at 2:49 PM on December 22, 2010 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Politics

Some eyebrows were raised yesterday when Gov. Tim Pawlenty selected an artist in Georgia (Georgia has 15 electoral votes. Minnesota has 10. Make of that what you will) to paint his official portrait to hang in the hallway of the Capitol. Isn't there a Minnesotan who knows how to paint a decent portrait?

Let's find out.

On Twitter today, I asked people with the ability to sketch to provide their version of an official portrait of the governor. Normally, I don't get a lot of response to these sorts of things. I think News Cut caters to the stick figure drawers in all of us.

But Judy Grundstrom sent along her idea, which is a version of the cover art of the governor's soon-to-be-released book.

Want to take a crack at this? Use this form to make your submission or just e-mail it to me at bcollins@mpr.org.

Normally, the official gubernatorial portrait doesn't cause much of a stir, but it's not unheard of. Gov. Arne Carlson caused some jaws to drop when he went with this:

Gov. Jesse Ventura toned it down a bit, but still departed from the usual gubernatorial portraits.

On her blog, State of the Arts, MPR's Marianne Combs points out that Ventura, too, went beyond the great state of Minnesota to find an artist.

Now, as Marianne indicated yesterday, Pawlenty's artist -- Ross R. Rossin -- has some experience in this field. The challenge for him may be whether he can make Tim Pawlenty look as much like Bill Maher as he made President George W. Bush look.

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Friday morning downer

Posted at 9:06 AM on December 3, 2010 by Jon Gordon (3 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

Bob Collins is asking questions today at SugaRush coffee shop, 712 University Avenue in St. Paul, until around noon. Stop in to say hello. In the meantime, and in honor of his Monday Morning Rouser, we present a Friday morning downer: Bill Callahan singing "Too Many Birds" at Waterloo Records in Austin, Texas.

I find depressing music uplifting in a strange way. What are your nominations for the best gloomy songs?

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When privacy destroys a reputation

Posted at 7:41 AM on November 20, 2010 by Bob Collins (9 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

This week, the Ramsey County Medical Examiner issued a news release on the death of Michel Larsen, the local rapper known as Eyedea. It said his death was the result of an accidental overdose that led to "opiate toxicity."

For reasons of privacy, presumably, nothing more was said. The problem, and the reason I chose not to write about the report, is it says much more, much of which might be in accurate. Much of which is likely to be inaccurate.

Restrictions in the name of privacy have made it open season on Michael Larsen's reputation.

Opiates? That's a big range of drugs, some of which are legal, some of which aren't. "Accidental overdose?" What does that mean?

It could make Larsen anything from a habitual junkie to a guy with bipolar disorder who made the mistake of having a beer with his meds, or a guy who crushed his liver by forgetting whether he even took his meds.

All you have to do is listen to the "fine print" on those TV ads for prescription drugs to understand the range of possibilities.

Yesterday afternoon, his mother issued a statement saying prescription drugs were involved, according to the Star Tribune.

"Mikey was at no time in his life a habitual user or drug addict," she said. "Many factors played a role in the death of my son, one being a toxic level of prescription drugs."

Her statement goes on to say: "While this changes nothing, I want people to have a basis for what happened while maintaining some privacy until I am ready to speak further. I trust that anyone reading this will avoid allowing conversations that would in any way desecrate the higher positivity and legacy that Mikey leaves behind."

Sadly, that won't happen.

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Does life imitate politics?

Posted at 11:31 AM on November 2, 2010 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Politics

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Time traveler in a Chaplin film?

Posted at 3:14 PM on October 28, 2010 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

1.5 million views in a week. That's as good a definition of a viral video as there is and this one from a filmmaker qualifies. George Clarke says Charlie Chaplin's The Circus has a time traveler in it.

He's wrong, however, that "nobody can give me an explanation of what it is." Several people have opined that it's a hearing aid, not a woman on a cellphone.

If it is a person from the future, who is she talking to? Someone in the future? You can't get a good signal from inside Target Center, but you can get one from the past?

Time.com -- who else would you go to for questions about time? -- is not buying it:

It can't be a cell phone -- or at least our version of one. The time-traveling woman must have been from further into the future than we are, because her phone seems to work without the help of satellites or towers. NewsFeed has to agree with the New York Daily News, which suggests it could be a hearing aid. They were invented in 1920 and were widely manufactured by 1928. Why is she talking into it? She could be testing the aid, talking to someone near her, or she could just be crazy and talking to herself. Don't judge her, she's hard of hearing as it is. But she's probably not a time traveler.

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Scientists and engineers who dance

Posted at 11:47 AM on October 25, 2010 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

You may have seen a rough video on YouTube last week of a flash mob at the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering. The U today posted a more produced version of the event, which marked the 75th anniversary of the school.

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The last recording?

Posted at 3:44 PM on October 20, 2010 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

Chuck Olsen shot this at McNally Smith in St. Paul for Sound Crawl. He suggests it may be one of the last recordings of Eyedea -- Mike Larsen -- who died last weekend.

(h/t: Ali Lozoff, The Current)

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Music at the speed of light

Posted at 11:19 AM on October 19, 2010 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

The BBC reports today that a violinist has broken the record for the fastest playing of Flight of the Bumblebee. And he played it at "concert level." Of course, the amazing fact in this news is that there actually was already a record for the fastest playing of Flight of the Bumblebee.

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Do you know this man?

Posted at 1:48 PM on October 6, 2010 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Crime and Justice

Who is this?

It's obviously an astronaut, probably one of "ours." But do you know which one? It's Bruce McCandless, who took a walk in space in 1984 and is suing the singer, Dido, for using his image on an album cover.

It's a great legal question. McCandless isn't asserting copyright violation, but a violation of his "publicity rights."

The blog, TechDirt, says it's becoming a more popular form of asserting intellectual property rights...

If this really is a publicity rights claim (and, if anyone has the actual filing, I'd love to see it, and post it here), it's difficult to see how much of a claim he has. It's not as if he's identifiable in the image, or that anyone will see it and think: "Hey, I'll buy this album because I know astronaut Bruce McCandless endorsed it." That's ridiculous. Most people will have no idea who the astronaut is, nor will they even care. This seems like yet another blatant money grab, made possible due to the ever increasing (and dangerous) belief that we own "rights" to imaginary concepts.

It also leads to the question of what rights people in news images have in controlling the use and distribution of their likeness, whether they can be identified or not. For that we turn to our lawyer friends in the News Cut community.

By the way, if you were alive in 1984, you might be in this picture, too.

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Carving a niche in Wabasha

Posted at 7:31 PM on October 2, 2010 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

How's your pumpkin carving coming?

You can't throw a gourd in Minnesota this weekend without hitting either an art fair or a pumpkin festival, but we hit paydirt in Wabasha on Saturday with the city's Septober Festival, specifically the pumpkin art.

Butter? Who needs butter to carve the images of winners? This is Kathy Goodman, who is giving the winner of the "biggest pumpkin" contest in Wabasha his reward, his likeness carved in pumpkin.

The winning pumpkin was about 1,000 pounds.

She's been invited to Stillwater next weekend where she'll carve the visage of the runner-up in a similar contest. We're told the pumpkins there will be even bigger. Here's some more pumpkin art from Wabasha.

The Mississippi is zipping along at a rapid clip, part of the city's park is still underwater in Wabasha. Even so, it's still one of the most delightful stops on a Minnesota weekend.

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Rolling Stone says Minneapolis vinyl shop is super dufte

Posted at 2:51 PM on September 22, 2010 by Jon Gordon (2 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

I'd never heard of local used LP shop Hymie's Vintage Records until Rolling Stone declared that it's one of the 25 best record stores in the country. Forgive me for being unhip to the Minneapolis establishment, as I recently returned to the Twin Cities after spending that last dozen years in the San Francisco Bay Area (which according to RS, has the best record store in the country, an opinion with which I heartily concur).

Based on the magazine's recommendation I visited Hymie's at 38th and Lake last weekend, where I soaked up the atmosphere (requisite cute dog sprawled across a sunny spot on the floor, that kind of thing) and bought a few records.

One of the great things about old LPs is the cheesy jacket art. I was especially amused at the back of a German album with songs from American western movies called "Die Grosse Westernschau." The back was apparently promoting a different album by the same label:

"Super dufte." Classic. Roughly translated: "The Big Teenager Party: Super Neat!"

I walked out of Hymie's with two old records, one from American treasure Buck Owens (I ain't a-kiddin' here) and my favorite childrens' album of all time, "Songs of Fox Hollow" by Tom T. Hall. C'mon now, don't be a hater. I also listen the The Current like everyone else.

Minneapolis institution The Electric Fetus also made the Rolling Stone list.

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Examining NPR

Posted at 9:25 AM on September 19, 2010 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Media

NPR's ombudsman opened a can of worms last week when she wrote about NPR's rejection of underwriting announcements for Harry Shearer's documentary, "The Big Uneasy," ostensibly because the original wording formed a person's opinion, not matters of fact.

Shearer has been participating in a conversation in the comments section of a post I wrote about the controversy last week, and it's pretty clear that I should've gone into greater detail on the issue, since it involves an alleged lack of aggressiveness on the part of NPR toward the cause of the flooding of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.

Yesterday, Shearer provided e-mails showing that he had accepted NPR's proposed wording for an announcement in support of his investigative documentary, contrary to the NPR ombudsman's account of the controversy.

"While the ombud frames the debate over acceptable language in the underwriting announcement as he said/he said, I supplied her with a copy of my email accepting the edit NPR Legal says they proposed," Shearer wrote.

The controversy also asserts that NPR News has had an aversion to investigating the Katrina story. Shearer has company. A reporter for Southern California Public Radio (disclaimer: SCPR is part of the American Public Media "family"), writes that she tried to give NPR her investigation into the causes of the Katrina disaster. It passed.

It is not generally speaking the custom of the station-based public radio reporter to out their inner workings with freelance pitches, particularly to NPR. I'll make an exception to say that NPR was offered these pieces, or segments thereof, or a conversation about them. The message I received was that they had their own coverage plans, and anyway, there had been enough about Katrina around that 'versary. (In those moments, the frustration of the local reporter knows no bounds: I lived in New Orleans after Katrina, and with Eve Troeh, now at Marketplace, I grew so restless with people coming in and telling us how it is that we decided to tell people how it was for us, for residents, not parachutists. I've also been on the other side of the equation, working at NPR.)

(Note: Shearer is also participating in a discussion in the comments section of the above post.)

NPR gets a lot of credit -- to a degree, understandably so -- for its innovative use of social networking. But in the aftermath of the NPR's ombudsman's original post on Shearer's complaint, all of the principals involved are online discussing it in the open. Except one.

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U responds to Troubled Waters controversy

Posted at 3:30 PM on September 17, 2010 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

The University of Minnesota officials today responded to the suggestion that a documentary film about the Mississippi River was pulled from production because it may have upset agricultural interests.

Today, Dr. Susan Weller, the director of Minnesota's Bell Museum of Natural History issued this press release:

"In 2008, the University of Minnesota (Bell Museum of Natural History) received a legislative appropriation, and subsequent additional private funding, to develop an educational documentary on the waters of Minnesota, designed to promote watershed understanding and citizen action in protecting, restoring and conserving water resources.

"Our standard procedure at the Bell Museum is that our exhibits and educational products have at least one researcher who oversees the project's scientific integrity from inception to completion. Unfortunately, this procedure was not followed by the Bell Media unit for production of the documentary, 'Troubled Waters: A Mississippi River Story.' As Director of the Bell Museum, I am responsible for ensuring these standards are followed, and I regret our error in this case.

"Recently, this documentary was previewed by a number of University officials and faculty. In hindsight, this review should have occurred much earlier. As a result of input received from these viewers, I have postponed the premiere of the film at the Bell Museum. I have requested a small group of qualified faculty review the film. These faculty will advise me on whether the documentary as edited meets the specifications of the legislative appropriation to the University, and is scientifically accurate, objective and balanced in its presentation.

"The overall purpose of the review is to assure that the University meets its responsibilities under the legislation to provide the best quality product, one that meets the expectations contained in the legislation and provides high-quality educational material for viewers. No outside interests, as erroneously reported by some news sources, have been involved in this internal decision-making process.

"The Bell Museum of Natural History looks forward to hosting the premiere of the film when this process is concluded. I ask for your understanding and patience as we produce a film that meets our high standards of excellence as a public portal of University research and education on environmental issues."

Update 5:03 p.m. -- Molly Priesmeyer, who's been out front on the story, has an update at Twin Cities Daily Planet that says the responsibility for meeting the conditions of the appropriation toward the film rests with the Legislative Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources.

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Dylan's concert plan

Posted at 2:03 PM on August 23, 2010 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

Concert-goers, what would happen if the world adopts the Bob Dylan method of selling concert tickets?

Dylan -- and I'm ignoring the Minnesota law that requires me to preface his name with Hibbing native -- is appearing Wednesday night at a concert in San Francisco. There are no convenience charges, no handling fees, and no other add-ons to the $60 ticket. There are no tickets. It's all a cash deal, says Spinner:

The line will officially be allowed to form beginning at noon on the day of the show, with the doors opening at 5:30PM and the show beginning at 8:00PM. It's going to be a long day for Bay Area Dylan fans but the wait will be worth it for the 2,250 lucky attendees -- it's been 15 years since the iconic folk singer has performed at the legendary theater.

A statement by promoter Goldenvoice's David Lefkowitz, on the company's website, reads, "Given the state of touring and how fees have escalated, it was a real breath of fresh air to do something very consumer oriented by eliminating all ticketing charges. It's almost a throwback to another time." Almost. The last time Bob Dylan played the Warfield, for a two-night stand in May of 1995, tickets were half that price -- including all fees. Guess the times really have been a-changing.

Suffice it to say, the system will be... inconvenient. Who's got time to wait in a line all day for a concert you may or may not get to see? Oh dear, I've just defended Ticketmaster.

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No Art Shanty

Posted at 12:25 PM on August 17, 2010 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

Here's another reason to dread the coming winter: Organizers of the Art Shanty Project have announced they're taking 2011 off, according to an announcement on the organization's Web site:

As the Art Shanty Projects has expanded, we realize we are unwilling to coordinate a 2011 project with limited staff and board capacity. This break will also provide us with the time and space to begin our implementation of a strategic plan for healthy growth.

Second, this year we were awarded an Organizational Development Grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council which enabled us to work with consultant Anne Howden on intensive strategic planning. With Anne's help we listened to our artists, audiences, funders, and the arts community to help us map out key goals for the coming years.

Artists build ice houses on Medicine Lake in Plymouth, invite the public to bundle up and visit each one over several weeks.

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Monday Morning Rouser

Posted at 9:57 AM on August 2, 2010 by Eric Ringham (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

I'm going to use my emergency powers as the No. 5 Substitute for Mr. News Cut and propose a Monday Morning Rouser. It's August, the State Fair is bearing hard upon us, and this little number by Richard and Linda Thompson should help you get in the mood.

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The 'twilight' of our sanity

Posted at 10:57 AM on July 13, 2010 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

What hath Twilight wrought?

Cosmetic dentists are reporting that one of the more popular crazes this summer are the installation of fangs on the teeth of teenagers.

"The veneer is designed to give a vampiric appeal, but not provide any sort of function beyond regular eating habits," according to Dr. Dianna Wilde, a cosmetic dentist in Houston. Good to know, although when asked whether a teen could bite someone on the neck, Wilde acknowledged one could, "but it's not recommended."

One dentist reports several calls from teenagers who want their teeth "sharpened."

Meanwhile, an online store is selling a "fill your own blood vial jewelry kit." For $39.95, it also includes 3 inch "coffin" gift boxes to give vials to your friends.

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DNA in song

Posted at 3:13 PM on July 11, 2010 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

The BBC reports today that a new choral work is about to be unveiled in which the performers sing their own genetic code.

"I'd sung quite a lot with choirs in my youth and I've written stuff myself, and so I was aware that note sequences look a little bit like genetic sequences," musician Andrew Morley said.

To get the job, of course, each of the 40 members of the choir had to agree to have their DNA decoded, which must raise all sorts of interesting questions for discussions wherever attorneys have their "happy hour."

For example, does an employment process that hinges on revealing your DNA code violate privacy laws? Are you a musician? Or a research subject?

You can listen to the work here. It sounds very much like birds before sunrise.

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Bemidji takes a stand

Posted at 11:01 AM on July 7, 2010 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

The beaver is back!

A standing-room-only crowd at the Bemidji City Council convinced the city to restore "Gaea" to the Sculpture Walk. Sculpture? No. It's a molded beaver that various artists painted to reveal whatever message they wished to reveal.

Deborah Davis' interpretation was removed last week because a city official thought it too closely resembled a woman's genitalia.

Said one supporter as told by the Bemidji Pioneer:

Kathryn Lavelle said "Gaea" depicted womanness, womanhood, feminine strength and beauty.

"I'm interested in knowing which of these things ... Mr. Chattin or the council has an issue with," she said.

After the vote restoring the beaver's rightful place, a procession did the deed:

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Beaver fever in Bemidji

Posted at 2:49 PM on July 4, 2010 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

Like St. Paul with its Snoopy statues, Bemidji has its beavers. As part of a promotion, it encouraged local artists to paint on beaver statues, that were then distributed around town.

Except for one, which has now been removed. Artist Deborah Davis said she was celebrating womanhood when she came up with her interpretation, which organizers say was pornographic.

You can judge for yourself here.

On Sunday several people protested in Bemidji. And, of course, a Facebook page has been created to free the "pornographic" Bemidji beaver -- or "goddess," depending on your view. It provides some fascinating reading.

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Michael Jackson's reach to Eau Claire

Posted at 4:14 PM on June 28, 2010 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

Ordinarily, I'm not much of a wistful Michael Jackson fan, but Joanne Spencer's account on The Story of how a pop singer inspired her career from Eau Claire to Minneapolis and points more important is a compelling one.

Continue reading "Michael Jackson's reach to Eau Claire"

Inspiration by Mario

Posted at 12:27 PM on June 18, 2010 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

Today's the kind of day we need a Friday Funny [tm], so here it is.

Continue reading "Inspiration by Mario"

Field of Dreams for sale

Posted at 3:15 PM on May 13, 2010 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

The Iowa home of the Field of Dreams is for sale.

The family that has owned most of the property on which a baseball diamond was built for the '80s movie has decided to sell. The listing includes "the actual movie site, including the baseball diamond, a two-bedroom, 1½-bath house featuring the movie's familiar front porch, six outbuildings, and a parcel of land totaling 193 acres," according to KCRG.com.

It'll probably remain a tourist spot, but if times get tough, it wouldn't be hard to turn it into a cornfield. $5.4 million and it's yours.

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The oil spill up close

Posted at 12:50 PM on May 12, 2010 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Energy

As it usually does, the Boston Globe's Big Picture blog does a masterful job of organizing the finest images from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

One might feel somewhat guilty noting the beauty in the disaster.

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Second takes on Gaiman's fee

Posted at 2:45 PM on May 7, 2010 by Bob Collins (14 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

We've had a "spirited" discussion on my cubicle row today about the Star Tribune story concerning author Neil Gaiman's $45,000 speaker's fee to speak in Stillwater, paid for via the Legacy Amendment money. That's the arts and outdoors dedicated fund from an increase in the sales tax.

You can hear Gaiman's speech for free:

The arts community has offered a little "pushback" to the criticism of Gaiman since the Star Tribune article appeared.

Says Kevin Hoffman of City Pages:

Sure, $45,000 sounds like a lot of money for an author, even one as acclaimed as Gaiman. But that's pennies compared to the $791 million Vikings stadium the Star Tribune wants taxpayers to help build.

Amy Goetzman of MinnPost:

But predictably, this unleashed the comments-section mob of torch-bearing, anti-library Tea Party types, who will no doubt think of this item when it comes to voting to support their local libraries.

That's a lot of money, to be sure, but author Sarah Palin's been bringing in more than double that for appearances, and a quick look at this talent site finds plenty of other writers charging in the $30K to $50K range for an appearance, including Alice Walker and Anderson Cooper

All of this is low-hanging fruit for those who argued against including arts funding in a bill that originally was intended to help outdoors and natural resources projects. And it caused me to take a look back at how the Legacy Amendment was marketed to voters -- heavy on the outdoors, light on the arts.

Former MPR arts commentator Dominic Papatola delivered a classic quote when asked about it during the campaign.

"It's easy to make a kneejerk argument against the arts; all you have to do is mention Robert Mapplethorpe or Karen Finley. You know, the outdoors don't get naked and smear themselves with chocolate."

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Ronald Reagan and James Dean: Together again

Posted at 9:07 AM on April 24, 2010 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

MPR political editor Mike Mulcahy forwarded this to me earlier this week and I forgot to pass it along.

The friend of a columnist at The Atlantic recently discovered this episode of General Electric Theater in which actors Ronald Reagan and James Dean engage in some cultural warfare of the time. Those drunken, drug-rat beatniks... always invading the homes of decent couples.

You'll dig it.

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Flash mob at the Twins game

Posted at 4:51 PM on April 15, 2010 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Sports

Let the record show that the Minnesota Twins are 1-0 whenever a flash mob appears at Target Field. Someone just posted this flash mob scene on YouTube, from Thursday's game with the Boston Red Sox. It starts about 2 1/2 minutes in.

A much shorter video is at Minneapolis.org.

(h/t: @jehcekah )

Update 5:21 p.m. - Another video has just been posted. A different perspective.

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Fresh Eye on the Radio: The 'sorry' state of love

Posted at 5:02 PM on January 19, 2010 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Icons

Embed | Help

Copy and paste the HTML below to embed this audio onto your web page.

Audio player code:
<iframe title="minnesota_news_newscasts_2010_01_19_fresh_eye_jan_19_20100119_64s_player" type="text/html" width="319" height="83" src="http://minnesota.publicradio.org/www_publicradio/tools/media_player/syndicate.php?name=minnesota/news/newscasts/2010/01/19/fresh_eye_jan_19_20100119_64" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen></iframe>

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Can musicians be replaced?

Posted at 12:09 PM on January 19, 2010 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

Just as I was trying to write some chants for striking members of the Cleveland Orchestra ("Heck no, we won't blow"?), comes word their one-day strike is over. Terms of the settlement -- pay was the big issue -- were not disclosed.

Perhaps orchestra officials showed them this:

Sure, it's not, well, the Cleveland Orchestra, but it does lead to some questions that orchestras must be asking. Why do people go to orchestra concerts? Is it for the "liveness" of the music or the performers playing it? Can they be replaced?

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On Vic Chesnutt

Posted at 2:54 PM on January 7, 2010 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

Vic Chesnutt died on Christmas Day, 2009, two days after taking an overdose of muscle relaxants. The musician was in a car crash at age 18 that left him partly paralyzed. WHYY's Fresh Air remembers him with excerpts from an early December 2009 interview. "You know, I've attempted suicide three or four times," he said. "It didn't take. And this is really a breakup song with death."

Find the interview here, or you can hear it on MPR this evening at 8.

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Cam Waters, 1958-2009

Posted at 10:30 AM on December 22, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

Local blues guitarist Cam Waters was found dead at his north Minneapolis home Sunday, the Star Tribune reports.

He was an occasional guest on the old The Morning Show on MPR. Here's a 2006 appearance. And here's a 2005 appearance.

(h/t: Steve Nelson)

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Beyond the carousel

Posted at 1:07 PM on November 18, 2009 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

When I first visited the Twin Cities, the Cafesjian Carousel sat at the top of Town Square in downtown St. Paul. Rescued from the State Fair, it filled the nearby urban garden with the sound of a merry-go-round. People having lunch sat around the nearby water gardens. For a newcomer, St. Paul seemed like a dynamic, happening place.

Gerald Cafesjian, a former West Publishing exec, is the guy responsible for it. "The music, the magic and the movement combine to create a one-of-a-kind experience. When we preserve the carousel we also preserve that joy and hope--that happiness--for the entire community, for years to come," he said.

Nowadays, there is no joy in Town Square, at least after 2 p.m., when everything closes.

The carousel is at Como Park now and Cafesjian has since moved to Florida. But he still inspires big dreams. Like this:

The Cafesjian Center for the Arts has opened in Yerevan, Armenia, according to the New York Times:

The center, a mad work of architectural megalomania and architectural recovery, is one of the strangest and most spectacular museum buildings to open in ages. Imagine an Art Deco version of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon rising nearly the height of the Empire State Building, its decorations coded with Armenian symbolism.

It's no Town Square, although the picture above reminds me of the carousel's old haunt:

(h/t: Bill Wareham)

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Profile of an artist

Posted at 12:31 PM on October 26, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

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History in sand art

Posted at 12:29 PM on October 21, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

Having been away for a few weeks, I'm catching up on some older "news" now, including the winner of the Ukraine's Got Talent contest.

It's a sand artist depiction of Ukraine's history.

The Guardian translates:

(Kseniya) Simonova's sand story portrays the human loss after the German invasion in 1941. The opening scene shows a couple sitting on a bench under a starry sky. Warplanes appear and the happy scene is obliterated to be replaced by crying faces. Then a baby arrives and the woman smiles again, but war and chaos return and a young woman becomes an old widow, before the image turns into an obelisk - the Ukrainian monument to its Unknown Soldier.

Simonova has returned to ordinary life in the Crimean seaside town of Evpatoria, where she has used her £80,000 prize to buy a modest house and set up a children's charity.

Simonova has told interviewers she is happy to stay in Evpatoria and will not be travelling abroad to cash in on her growing global fan base. Her success has taken the young woman by surprise. "I only entered because there was a child I know who needed an operation and I wanted to help," she said. "I did not mean to make the whole country cry."

Meanwhile, on the American version of the show, some over-emoting singer is harpooning some bad song.

(h/t: Patrick Collins)

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Billboards as art

Posted at 10:37 AM on September 29, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

A few days ago, I posted something about St. Paul's continuing battle to get rid of billboards.

A link sent to me by The Current's Barb Abney today, however, reminds me that sometimes billboards can be public art:

A few years ago the Walker commissioned five artists to create billboard art, and it turned out to be nowhere near as interesting as when the professionals are unleashed.

Besides, St. Paul, today's eyesore might be tomorrow's art exhibit.

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Dying 'doo wop'

Posted at 12:52 PM on September 28, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

The last remaining member of the Silhouettes has died. The Rev. John "Bootsie" Wilson was 69.

Wilson's death prompts a matter requiring serious popular culture research: How many groups who had hit records in the '60s have no surviving members?

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The blog threat

Posted at 11:15 AM on June 8, 2009 by Bob Collins (9 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

From the "Blog as Boogeyman" files:

(1) On Midmorning this morning, author Jane Hamilton suggested blogs are making it difficult for the next generation of young writers to be discovered.

"How are the gifted young voices going to rise up through the murk of the blogosphere?" she told Kerri Miller. "How will we find them? It might be harder for them to get established and make a living. There's so much to wade through and publishers might not necessarily be willing to invest in a young person who's finding their way."

However, she said "Good writing will surface and good writers will be able to carry on and we will want to read them."

(2) The New York Times uses the broad brush to lament that blogs aren't about credibility.

But seeking credibility may be a less-important strategy for the blogs at this stage. Mr. Arrington, a lawyer, is quick to point out that he has no journalism training. He is at ease, even high-minded, in explaining the decisions to print unverified rumors.

Mr. Arrington and the other bloggers see this not as rumor-mongering, but as involving the readers in the reporting process. One mission of his site, he said, is to write about the things a few people are talking about, "the scuttlebutt around Silicon Valley." His blog will often make clear that he's passing along a thinly sourced story.

For the record, it was the New York Times -- printed on dead trees -- that went out of its way in the middle of a presidential campaign to suggest the Republican nominee was having an affair while providing no attribution for the very sloppy article.

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One war. One image.

Posted at 8:59 AM on May 16, 2009 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, War

Hugh Van Es has died. You may not recognize the name. Perhaps you recognize the picture he took:

The image -- the fall of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War -- is also one of the most misunderstood. It's often described as the scene atop the U.S. embassy. But it actually was an apartment building that housed CIA operatives. No matter, really. It captured the drama perfectly.

A local newspaper rejiggered the wire-service-supplied obituary today to say the photo was the most famous photograph of the war. Was it?

Just off the top of my head, here are a couple of competitors in the category.

I can't pick just one.

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Musical virus

Posted at 12:42 PM on May 4, 2009 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

If all of Minnesota were to get together and sing a song, (a) where would we do it and (b) what would we sing?

(h/t: Open Culture)

And as long as I'm on the subject of musical viral videos, try this one on for "sighs."

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Remembering Lawn Chair Larry

Posted at 10:40 AM on May 4, 2009 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

The Pixar folks are hosting a publicity event in the Twin Cities today to promote the upcoming animated movie "Up", about a curmudgeon who ties balloons to his house and goes for a ride. Promoters have tied balloons to a chair at the Metrodome and are giving people rides. The Star Tribune's James Lileks posted a picture.

I wonder, though, how many people remember Lawn Chair Larry, and whether history will treat him more kindly than reality did.

Lawn Chair Larry -- Larry Walters -- tied helium balloons to this lawn chair in 1982...

... with the idea that he'd go for a short flight, just to see what it was like. He miscalculated things, though, and ended up soaring to 16,000 feet, where the pilot of an airliner uttered -- for the first time in history -- the words, "I've just passed a guy flying in a lawn chair."

Lawn Chair Larry's plan was to shoot out the balloons with a pellet gun when it was time to descend, but he dropped the gun. He eventually landed in Long Beach. (If you've got RealPlayer, listen to the audio of conversations during the flight here.)

For the adventure, Walter received honorable mention for the 1982 Darwin Awards, and generally was ridiculed until he walked into the woods in 1993 and shot himself to death.

"Up" will probably rake in a fortune when it opens later this month. Larry wasn't so lucky. Had he just used his chair to sit and watch TV, he'd have been considered normal.

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If David Sedaris delivered pizza

Posted at 1:15 PM on April 17, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

Finally, a YouTube parody for the public radio listener. What if David Sedaris delivered pizza?

(h/t: Open Culture)

If you'd rather have the real thing, here's a blast from the past from MPR's Nikki Tundel and Sedaris. Or try his reading in the Twin Cities from last spring.

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Is it art?

Posted at 10:58 AM on April 15, 2009 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

If you create a symphony orchestra out of hundreds of individual videos of people playing their notes by themselves somewhere else, is it really an orchestra?

YouTube asked people -- amateurs and professionals -- to send in videos of themselves playing a piece composed by Tan Dun. Then they created a mashup of all the submissions.

There actually is an orchestra, however. The winners are appearing tonight at Carnegie Hall.

Could this method of creating art somehow bypass the regional orchestra?

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Breathing new life into an old song

Posted at 8:18 PM on April 14, 2009 by Bob Collins (12 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

"It was the best national anthem rendition I have ever heard. Better than the game," Russell Martin of the Los Angeles Dodgers said Monday of 16-year-old Charice's version at the team's home opener. "I get tears in my eyes when she really gets going," manager Joe Torre said.

So, of course, an immediate search of YouTube was in order to find out what the fuss is all about:

Sure, pretty good. But best ever? I reserve that for Marvin Gaye at the 1993 1983 NBA All Star Game. Hands down.

That performance caused a stir. The national anthem, some suggested, should not be sexy.

Everyone has their opinion, of course. My cubicle mate -- Chris Roberts -- says the "best ever" was Smokey Robinson at the 1986 World Series.

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On Bill Holm

Posted at 8:34 PM on March 8, 2009 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Icons

They had a funeral for Bill Holm out in Minneota on Sunday.

Some touching memories of Holm were printed by the Marshall Independent over the weekend (Others who knew him posted some very touching comments to the News Cut post). One struck a chord for ye olde blogger:

My experiences in knowing Bill Holm while trying to assist him in his health care were likely more valuable to me than to Bill. Although a man of his own direction, he cared dearly for his family, friends, fellow poets, writers, and musicians. I found him to be a great wordsmith in describing his rural roots, thoughts, and experiences, especially those impressions concerning the ethos of Minneota and the prairies...and Iceland. His most recent comment to me was an insightful one: "The only good thing about a recession is that people might read more..."

MPR's Mark Steil is putting his Monday morning story together as I write this. Mark's got a great eye for stories and this image he sent along of the chair Holm sat in during church service is a great one. Note the copy of the Star Tribune on it, with Holm's picture on the front of the Opinon page.

I'm looking forward to Mark's story and the tributes contained therein (When it's done, it'll be at the top of this page).

I imagine they'll be like those of his cousin, Vivian Secrist, who shared this on billholm.com.

I had the privilege of being part of Bill's family since I was born. Bill was my cousin on both my mother's and father's side of the family. We attended Sunday school together at St. Paul's Icelandic Church when I was very young but, then a move by my family separated us for many years. I still would see him on occasion with visits to Minneota and after we both reached adulthood, our lives kept us apart for many years but, in the last twenty some years we were able to connect on many occasions for family celebrations and, of course, Boxelder Days in Minneota. Even tho I didn't get to visit as often as I would have liked, when we met again, it was like we had never been apart. He encouraged my youngest daughter to continue writing her poetry and I know that meant a great deal to her. Even tho she hasn't written anything for several years, I know it left a lasting impression on her and she thought very highly of him. I will so miss his wonderful hugs as we greeted each other on those special reunions and his great presence in our family. I have several of his books signed by him personally and I will treasure them and the stories for years to come. Good bye my precious cousin. You leave a huge void in all our lives. My heart goes out to Marci and all who feel the loss. May God Bless each and everyone of you. Say hello to Mom, Neva, Julian, Robert and all who have gone before you.

MPR is planning an event to honor Holm on April 7 at the Fitz.

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The voice of Bill Holm

Posted at 11:27 AM on February 26, 2009 by Bob Collins (11 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

Bill Holm, whose death we learned about today, was a frequent voice on Minnesota Public Radio and has left plenty behind to listen to.

It appears the last time he was on, however, was Christmas 2007, with the Holiday Stage Session. Unfortunately these archived shows are in RealAudio.

A few months before that, he was Garrison Keillor's guest on A Prairie Home Companion.

In 2004, during an appearance at the College of St. Benedict, he read from many of his essays.

His poem, "Wedding Poem for Schele and Phil" was read on Writer's Almanac in May 2003.

The University of Washington hosts the Bill Holm Center. Several lectures are available on its Web site.

The MPR books site also has extensive links surrounding the 2000 Milkweed Editions reissue of The Heart Can be Filled Anywhere on Earth.

Update 12:07 p.m. - MPR's Marianne Combs will have a look at the life of Bill Holm tonight on All Things Considered. We're also trying to get some of the digitized audio encoded to a Flash player.

Update 12:36 p.m. -- MPR's Michael Wells has found this 1987 appearance on the old MPR Morning Show:

Update 1:13 p.m. - Garrison Keillor has released this statement:

Bill Holm was a great man and unlike most great men he really looked like one. Six-foot-eight, big frame, and a big white beard and a shock of white hair, a booming voice, so he loomed over you like a prophet and a preacher which is what he was. He was an only child, adored by his mother, and she protected him from bullies and he grew up free to follow his own bent, and become the sage of Minneota, a colleague of Whitman though born a hundred years too late, a champion of Mozart and Bach, playing his harpsichord on summer nights, telling stories about the Icelanders, and thundering about how the young have lost their way and abandoned learning and culture in favor of grease and noise.

He thundered with the best of them though he had a gentle heart. He was an English prof who really loved literature and he could buttonhole you and tell you he'd just finished reading Dickens again and how wonderful it was. He got himself into print pretty well and anyone picking up his "Windows of Brimnes" or "The Music of Failure" or "The Heart Can Be Filled Anywhere On Earth" will get the real Holm.

He hated Minnesota winters and maybe that's what killed him, flying back from beautiful Patagonia to the wind-swept tundra and thinking about having to shovel out his house in Minneota.

I'm glad he got to see Barack elected, which restored some of his faith in his countrymen. I wish I'd been there to catch him as he fell. I hope his Icelandic ancestors are waiting to welcome him to their rocky corner of heaven. I hope his piano goes to someone who will love it as much as he did. I hope that people all across Minnesota will pick up one of his books and see what the man had to say.

4:34 p.m. - David Doody's tribute.

7:15 p.m. - This video has just been posted on YouTube, from Holm's tribute to Paul Wellstone.

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Great moments in spontaneity

Posted at 3:16 PM on December 11, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

Much has been written here and elsewhere about this morning's final production of The Morning Show at the Fitzgerald Theater. You can read the blog downstream and also find all sorts of goodies here.

In talking with folks today, we agree that this moment was the highlight. Peter Ostroushko sang You Are My Sunshine, and a theater full of people in St. Paul, and -- I'm guessing -- hundreds of others in cars and kitchens throughout the country joined in. (Listen)

It felt very much like people were comforting themselves and others, not only against the immediate sadness of the passing of a broadcast era, but against the steady drumbeat of bad news that we're forced to endure.

The closest thing that captured the power of music as today's moment did, it seems to me, was this:

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The final curtain

Posted at 6:00 AM on December 11, 2008 by Bob Collins (15 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Icons

From a news guy perspective, here's the thing about Dale and Jim Ed's (Tom's) show: The news stinks. Everyone knows the news stinks. Every morning we wake up and one of the first things we remember is times are tough and, oh yeah, the news stinks. Then you turn on the radio and someone is on stage singing "Getting to Know You," just as someone has been singing it since about 10,000 end-of-the-worlds ago. And suddenly you realize that just because the news stinks, life doesn't; it goes on and people sing and dance.

The cynics will call that denial -- that life is simply too crushing in its burden. I will deny that.

Long-time The Morning Show producer Mike Pengra signs "the wall" backstage at the Fitzgerald Theater. Performers and speakers at the Fitz sign their names to the bricks. "This is quite an honor," Mike said as he finished. "Don't worry, we'll paint over it," the theater manager joked.

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Protests, the arts, and the consequences of an unpopular opinion

Posted at 8:41 AM on November 13, 2008 by Bob Collins (36 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Politics

Where is the proper line between the lawful exercise of one's political or religious beliefs, and the acceptable penalty for that exercise? Let me save some of you some reading time. I don't know.

But the aftermath of the Proposition 8 vote in California, which banned gay marriage, is providing a suitable backdrop to ask the question and discuss it... if we dare.

National Public Radio carried a story this morning on the protests in which people who donated the money to support the measure, are now being targeted.

"El Coyote takes your gay dollar to fund gay hatred," John Dennison shouted, pacing in front of the restaurant. He's outraged that one of El Coyote's owners, a devout Mormon, reportedly gave $100 to the campaign for Proposition 8, the gay marriage ban.

In Sacramento yesterday, the artistic director of the California Musical Theater resigned after it was revealed Scott Eckern donated $1,000 to the group pushing the amendment. He, too, is a Mormon. The resignation came after Marc Shaiman, the Tony Award-winning composer, said that he would not let his work be performed in the theater, according to the New York Times.

There is nothing in the Constitution that protects someone from the non-government-afflicted consequences of holding a political view, some people said in 2003. Then, however, it was the "right" staging the protest when one of the most popular musical groups at the time -- the Dixie Chicks -- made known their opposition to the war in Iraq. It cost them vital airplay on radio stations, record sales, and concert dates.

Is post-Proposition 8 that much different? Susan Egan, a Broadway actress, posted a letter on Facebook supporting the idea of boycotting Mr. Eckern's theater.

It's now a video on YouTube:

But now she's having second thoughts, the Times reported today.

"My actions have caused him harm, just as his actions caused harm to people he loved," she said. "We're all guilty."

According to the Times, she's not alone:

That sentiment was echoed by Mr. Shaiman, who said that some of the pain being felt among gay theater artists after passage of Proposition 8 has been self-inflicted.

"Our anger is against ourselves, too, that we were too compliant," he said. "It was beyond our ken that this could ever happen. But we were terribly, terribly wrong."

The constitutional questions are resolved in the courts, but the social and moral implications of holding an unpopular opinion are most often played out in the arts -- from blacklists and Pete Seeger, to the Smothers Brothers, to the Dixie Chicks, to a director of a small theater in California.

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Harvesting memories

Posted at 10:16 AM on November 12, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Regional history

Posting will be a tad light this afternoon. I'm heading to a neat event at the Winnetka Learning Center Auditorium in New Hope for an event that screams News Cut. The Silvertones Harmonic Group -- a 22-person group I'm told -- is honoring several of its WWII members.from 1:30-3p.m. I'll try to have an audio slideshow up later today. 7940 55th Ave. N if you'd like to stop by and forget about politics for awhile.

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The outdoors amendment

Posted at 7:05 AM on November 10, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Politics

It's not unusual that voters sometimes go to the polls and don't know fully what they're voting on. A letter to the editor in this morning's Star Tribune reveals that there's still some confusion over the sales tax increase for cultural and outdoors programs in Minnesota.

"With solid passage of the 'MPR Tax,' one wonders if there will be fewer pledge drives in the future," Jay Kurtz of Rochester wrote.

MPR is not a recipient of the tax proceeds from the sales tax increase that is intended to fund outdoors and cultural programs.

The arts/outdoors amendment got very little debate, of course, because it was overshadowed by the races for president, Senate, and Congress. Local humorist James Lileks suggests we should decide what arts is before deciding who gets the cash, joking (I think) that one receipient might be "a performance artist who stands in the park swinging his arms for 168 hours to raise awareness about International Awareness Raising Day."

In any case, as Marianne Combs and Euan Kerr pointed out last week, it will be months before the organizations see a dime.

The general consensus is that about half of the money set aside for the arts will go to the Minnesota State Arts Board. The arts board funnels money to regional arts councils across the state, who then fund arts organizations in their region. The other half is expected to go to arts education as well as the preservation of historic and cultural sites, but nothing has been determined. This past year both Theatre de la Jeune Lune and the Minnesota Center for Photography closed, citing financial troubles. (Sen. Dick Cohen) Cohen said he hopes the money will offer stability to cherished Minnesota arts organizations that might otherwise be forced to shut their doors.

Today, Gov. Pawlenty will travel the state, announcing a jobs and economic development initiative for the 2009 Legislature. With the state running a huge budget deficit, it may add more pressure to the session, when legislators check under every couch cushion for loose change. The sales tax increase is meant to supplement state budget support for the outdoors and the arts. However, the temptation may be great for lawmakers to say to both constituencies, "you've got yours."

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Live-blogging: The music of politics

Posted at 9:21 AM on September 15, 2008 by Bob Collins (14 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

I've been a disgruntled music fan ever since Mercedes Benz used Janis Joplin's Mercedes Benz in an advertisement. It was just.... wrong.

Today on Midmorning (starting at 10 a.m.), Kerri Miller and the Current's Steve Seel, along with Eric Danton of the Hartford Courant, are going to talk about the music of politics. Barack Obama has appropriated Bruce Springsteen in this campaign (several of his songs on his latest album seemed intended to be lifted for the campaign). The Clintons, of course, made Fleetwood Mac totally unlistenable forever. Has Lee Greenwood recorded a hit since he recorded "Proud to be an American"? Has he had to?

Back in 1992, Ross Perot used Patsy Cline's "Crazy."

I'll be living blogging today's hour. I'm guess some of you will have good suggestions for possible campaign songs (I'm guessing most of them will be in jest), and great analysis. So don't let me down.

10:05 a.m. - Just kicking around songs in the studio before airtime. Romney used Presley's A Little Less Conversation and Kennedy used "High Hopes." Kerri opens show with "Don't Stop." If the Three Stooges were still alive, Fleetwood Mac would replace Niagra Falls.

10:08 a.m. - Kerri's question: What songs should the campaigns use to "rev people up"? I was just recalling the Democratic convention in Chicago in 1996. The Democrats brought in the cast of Rent to provide music. I never did figure out why.

10:11 a.m. - Question: Does music really make a difference? It's aimed at swing voters, Seel suggests. "How can you pick a song that appeals to one group of people and leave another group scratching their heads about the choice?"

10:13 a.m. - Do the words have to mean anything? Danton says "no, but they shouldn't detract." Uses Born in the USA as an example. The words are an indictment of the economy in Reagan's economy.

Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
Im ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run aint got nowhere to go

10:15 a.m. Seel: Clinton used American Girl. "A gross mistake because it's a song about suicide."

t was kind of cold that night
She stood alone on her balcony
She could the cars roll by
Out on 441
Like waves crashin in the beach
And for one desperate moment there
He crept back in her memory
God its so painful
Something thats so close
And still so far out of reach

10:17 - Caller Sarah questions the use of Barracuda at the RNC in St. Paul after Palin's speech. When she thinks of McCain, she thinks of "18 and life."

Tequila in his heartbeat, his veins burned gasoline. It kept his motor running but it never kept him clean. They say he loved adventure, rickys the wild one. He married trouble and had a courtship with a gun. Bang bang shoot em up, the party never ends. You cant think of dying when the bottles your best friend

10:19 - Talking about using the song in venues and licensing fees and whether artists can refuse to allow campaigns to use songs. Danton says if there's music as background, that's covered by ASCAP/BMI licensing. But if campaigns use it in a more prominent say, the artist can refuse. Two different royalties are involved, he says.

10:22 Caller Taylor: Says he was one of the audio engineers at the RNC in St. Paul. He worked 5 weeks ahead of time preparing thngs. He was in charge of live music. The inside scoop: They hadn't made any choices to have any music at all but the pressure was so great from the Democrats so the jazz band that played all four days was only scheduled for one. They caught the band at the airport to come back and provide some music. The only other piece was the "Raisin' McCain" song by John Rich. He says the engineers wrote a song that will be available on whatsyourproblem.com. It's called "The Change." The URL doesn't work right now.

10:28 a.m. - Here's Eric Danton's blog. Top story: Britney Spears to release new album.

10:31 a.m. - I'm recalling the reaction on Twitter after Obama's speech. He played country music. Country music is practically owned by the Republican Party. Rolling Stone has a note about the choice; it didn't bother Brooks & Dunn, apparently. They were big Bush backers.

10:44 a.m. - Perhaps we can learn more about the candidates by the music they like. Here are the comparisons.

10:46 a.m. - Caller talks about how songs have become commodities. I wonder whether songwriters are writing songs specifically so they can be used in commercials.

10:49 a.m. - "What does Marvin Gaye say to you," Miller asks Seel.(It's on Obama's list of favorites). "A cry for unity," he says, after pointing out that the list of favorite music by politicians is probably not really their favorite music, but another pitch for a demographic. But if that's true, would you really name ABBA as your favorite?

10:53 a.m. Commenter asks if McCain know that Dancing Queen is about gay men? I'm not sure it is, the lyrics focus on a 17 year old girl, looking for a "king."

10:54 a.m. -- I'm surprised nobody has mentioned probably the longest-lasting campaign song in history, next to, perhaps Happy Days are Here Again.: Proud to be an American by Lee Greenwood.

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Off to camp

Posted at 9:48 AM on July 12, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Media, Tech

It's a beautiful day in St. Paul, so we're spending it indoors.

PublicRadio Camp is in session. MPR and MinneBar/MinneDemo pulled together the best-and-the-brightest from the online world, just to try an experiment on changing the way information is used.

High falutin' stuff, to be sure. And, like any experiment, it may succeed, it may fail, but ultimately something will come of it that may impact how you process information. The results may pop up on some of the more innovative Web sites.

The larger group has broken down into groups of various interests and they've been given a CD full of data -- audio of an unedited interview with a band on The Current, for example. Each group is kicking around ideas in such areas as user-generated content, political information, maps, using timelines, media sharing, laying content out in a different way, etc.

There are some Twitter feeds among the group members and I'll try to find a link to them.

In the meantime, stop back from time to time and see what they've come up with.

Updates

This group -- Jon Gordon and Julia Schrenkler of MPR are shown -- is noodling on user-generated content. Bruno Bornstein points out an important element of this. Media companies who want to do user-generated content, are going to have to "share the secret sauce," and give the audience -- you -- access to servers and content that traditionally companies have guarded. But when you think of it, what could be more public than that?

I was just with this group diagramming how a radio story is produced. Now we're talking about worldwide editing, and trying to figure out the challenge of meeting standards, without beating the creativity out of the author.

Note to self: Check with this group later.

This is the flaw of having your News Cutter telling you about this stuff. I'm decidedly not tech savvy. But these folks (above) are considering the power of metadata. They're talking about geocoding, for example. One of the notes on their board says "violent agreement." We'll check back.

update 10:45 Twitterers here (Tweeters?) include Andy Beger, the brains behind apps such as Select A Candidate (@thrym), @juliaschrenkler; Phil Wilson (@philson)

10:54 a.m. - This group has selected Neuvo Radio as its idea. I have nothing against radio, of course. I've been in it in one fashion or another for 35 or so years, but I long ago stopped thinking it was going to carve out a significant new role in the American media landscape. As one of this group's goals is "keeping/making the medium relevant," I'll keep an open mind.

But I bet what they come up with makes some use of online. We'll see. It's worth noting this group has -- at least for now -- the most members.

11:09 a.m. - The folks who were working on data have apparently merged with the "visualization group.

By the way, how would I feel with I were an old-school newsroom editor/executive? Not too good. We -- the societal "we" -- are just now beginning to recognize that "news" and "content" is becoming much more collaborative. "The people" have the tools and, for the most part, the knowledge. Traditional news media has said "we'll tell you what the news is when we've finished it." But those days are ending and it's alternately frightening and exciting to go through this change.

Take this blog, for example. And take last night's weather posts. It's run by a media company, of course, but it had no problem directing you to other media that had information (like that Willmar photo). That wouldn't have happened 5, 10 years ago; media companies were interested only in the content that they developed themselves. Now expand this a bit, and add non-traditional media sources. Voila!

Can standards of integrity and traditional journalistic values survive this? Of course. How? I don't know.

By the way, if you're looking for the model of today's event. You can read about it on the Minnov8 site.

11:27 a.m. -- Did I mention what a gorgeous day it is in Minnesota?

11:38 a.m. - One question I've been thinking about. How do you accomplish opening up this era of a more collaborative media environment, and not have it be more Twin Cities dominant. Outstate Minnesota -- possibly by choice -- is disconnected from this process as it exists now. Is it that outstate Minnesota isn't interested? Is it that the infrastructure doesn't exist. I think there are tons of stories outside of the Twin Cities and this process is perfect to get to them.

11:47 a.m. The "data" group has broken off from the "visualization" group again. I still don't know exactly where they're headed, but from the looks of things, it's going to be interesting.

I was just remarking to Phil Wilson (remaincomm) that this is the group that makes me think that if I'd paid more attention in school, I could've made something of myself. The gentleman in the black is Ivan Stegic, known on Twitter as @ten7. It takes 5 -- maybe 6 -- seconds of talking to him before you realize he's a genius.

12:26 p.m. We're wrapping up with a "science fair." The various groups are telling us what they came up with.

The "Fun with Data" group -- Says MPR needs an API (application programming interface). All of MPR's content and data could become available to all who desire it. The API would have a location, timerange and a keyword. People could use the API to develop applications surrounding MPR content.

"I think there's a lot of cool applications," Ivan said. "You could generate a cloud of words that describe content and the size of the words vary depending on their importance. You could draw a rectangle on a map and then see what all the words are for an area on a map that are important to that community. The API would reveal all of the relevant information. They could be articles or Twitter feeds. As you move a rectangle around on the map, the words would change."

Jon Gordon wonders whether MPR produces enough "localish" content to create geographic specific content. But with collaborative content, users could contribute to this. I
Bob notes: This is really an example of media companies are going to have to think in a new way -- that their content is part a whole, and not the whole.

User generated content - MPR is a "well-oiled journalism machine," so the idea is to give people tools to create content in general and, possibly, for MPR. The group went over the current process by which content is created, and analyzed where the collaborative point is. One big idea was creative copyediting. Also putting the editorial process into the hands of people, whether or not they contribute it to MPR. A key part of this is a how-to guide somewhere on the MPR site regarding how to write, produce, interview, edit etc. "It's franchising an idea," Julia Schrenkler said.

"There are a lot of things to think about in considering a story," Renee Schaefer said. What form does a story take? Is it better online? Different on the radio?

Part of this isn't really difficult. What if, for example, we simply told you -- the audience -- what stories we were working on and then asked for help. In some ways we do that now, but the editorial process happens behind closed doors.

Jason DeRusha is, perhaps, the media member doing this on a small scale now with his Good Question, segment.

If people were to contribute content to MPR -- or anyone else -- how do they get paid? Do they get paid? Maybe it's a different way of being a Public Radio member.

Where this process can make a difference, is the ability of the public to produce follow-up stories. Presently, we put out a story and then move on to another, but there's usually a wealth of information that comes back to us as a result of a story that should find its way almost immediately into another story.

Visualization group - If you're a regular blog reader, you've probably seen these applications (I think the NY Times does this) where a group of keywords get larger and smaller based on their importance. This group considered an idea where what people are talking about would make itself apparent online.

WCCO is doing something like this outside of its building in Minneapolis, with a series of projected words and such that change as the "tone" of the news changes.

This was demonstrated with something called "wordle."

So one of the people here created a version of this with colors. He took various MPR RSS feeds and found the words that occurred most often and assigned importance via colors.

These would change from minute to minute and hour to hour. Someone remarked this is the new version of the old "weather ball."

Here's an example of this sort of visualization:

code_swarm - Eclipse (short ver.) from Michael Ogawa on Vimeo.

This is called "code_swarm" that represents a collaborative software project, showing people involved and changes made.

Neuvo Radio group - Keeping radio relevant. The group says it morphed into opening up radio and production and distribution mechanisms to users to create their own content and disseminate that content.

Jon Gordon had a "radio coffee shop" idea where people could go not only to have coffee, but also to use computers and other equipment to create radio, which would then be broadcast. This is an easier process now with the advent of high-definition radio.

Phil Wilson outlined ideas for radio to become a more integrated member of the community. "What was interesting was we started talking about that could happen, and Jon and I joked about taking the 'dying medium of radio' and the 'dying industry of libraries' and putting them together."

Wilson says as they talked, they realize all of this comes down to more user involvement. Is the future of radio as a social media? "It has to be more controlled by the audience," he said.

Another idea was an audioi stream of some fashion from a place like MPR that people could download as raw information, and use it to create their own stories.

An example: the MPR series on University Avenue. It would've been even more relevant to people on University Avenue, one presenter said, if part of it were written by a resident. So why not make elements available to initiate that follow-up story. That's not to say the original wasn't relevant -- it was, to a wider audience.

Here's an interesting idea outlined by Wilson: Getting radio away from being enslaved by the clock. "Does Future Tense really need to be on at the same time every day? What if it moved around from day to day?"

It was a fascinating four or five hours and, ideally, will result in more noodling on the changing media around us. Perhaps we can start in the comments section below.

Update 2:54 p.m. At Julia Schrenkler's suggestion, I ran News Cut through wordle:

That would make a great coffee mug.

Not to throw water on things but on the way home today I remembered hearing a conversation in the newsroom this week. One person was asking another person what's the point of having text-messaging on a cellphone.

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Darkness on the edge of the E Street Band

Posted at 10:33 AM on April 19, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Icons

"Danny sends his best," Hall of Fame rocker Bruce Springsteen said at the beginning of his concert in St. Paul last month, "and he hopes to be back with us later in the tour."

But you had the feeling it was a comment borne more of hope than reality.

And, mostly, it was. On Thursday, Danny Federici, 58, who goes as far back with Springsteen as a non-blood relative can, died of skin cancer.

Says the Times:

Mr. Federici and Mr. Lopez started their own band and invited Mr. Springsteen to become a member. "This skinny guy with long hair and a ratty T-shirt was an incredible guitar player and a good singer, so we asked him to join," Mr. Federici once said.

One of the most compelling tributes to Federici, was written by local blogger Mitch Berg, on his blog "Shot in the Dark."

I'm no music expert, to be sure, so I am fascinated by the reminder of the extent to which a note soars above a word.

Chris Phillips, editor of the North Carolina-based Backstreets, a Springsteen fanzine, said Federici added to the mystique of the band.

"I've been listening to the live version of "You're Missing,' " Phillips said, "and it's a fine example of Max (Weinberg) hits the snare and Bruce points it over to Danny. And it's not that anything jawbreakingly technical is going on, but those notes Danny plays say as much or more than the lyrics. Sometimes he would bring that Jersey Shore sunshine part of the song, or maybe even some circus tones, but his music also was haunting at times, bringing in a whole different color to a song.

A video of Federici's last appearance with Springsteen -- four days after the St. Paul concert -- is on the Springsteen Web site.

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