Bob CollinsIt was your basic turn-down-the-amps noise call for the cops in Mississauga, Ontario on Saturday night where teenage hard rock band Vinyl Ambush was playing at a party. The party was over for the 75 guests at an outdoor birthday party, or so the band thought. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Arts & Culture
Over the years we’ve provided plenty of examples of the perfectly-written obituary, in which we are invited to grieve the loss of someone we may not have known. One such obituary appears today in the Star Tribune.
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A Los Angeles writer has been selected to write 125 in one week about the Mall of America and the people who shop there. Easy? Can you write one? Read more →
Alex Tizon, who wrote an essay about is family’s slave, lied to the reporter who had to write her obituary. Today, she apologized for what she didn’t know. Read more →
It’s the finest piece of write you’ll read today, perhaps ever.
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The New London-Spicer School District provides an alternative lesson plan when parents object to a book being discussed in class. The objecting students leave the room and study somewhere else. This week, two opponents of a Sherman Alexie book say that’s not good enough.
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As has been documented in this space numerous times, nobody gets more love at retirement than the nation’s high school music teachers.
The latest example comes from Foxborough, Mass., where Stephen Massey is retiring after 37 years at the school, and 46 years in music education overall.
We say again: The cool kids are in the band Read more →
What’s in a brand? The difference in how you hear something, at least where a violin is concerned. Read more →
There’s a cheaper way to look like you’re doing physical work than buying the $425 jeans at Nordstrom with fake mud.
You can actually go out and do some work. Read more →
There’s something about a radio station that connects you, Siegel said of his industry. That something is people like Siegel, with whom we shared the daily triumphs and tragedies.
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Isabella Nicola Cabrera wants to play the violin. That’s difficult when you’re born with no left hand and a severely deformed forearm. A music teacher at her school had tried to build her a jury-rigged prosthetic, but it was never going to allow her to do what a violinist really needs to do.
So it’s a good thing that the first project idea that a group of students at George Mason University needed in order to graduate failed.
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Tereasa Payne was supposed to play her piccolo in the orchestra for “The Lion King” on Broadway last night. Instead she flew to Sioux Falls, S.D., because her old band director is retiring. Read more →
Rarely has the lack of whimsy and personality in the Capital City been more obvious than last evening’s display of Prince’s purple Read more →
Heistad was the classic public radio storyteller whose work, fortunately, has reached a new audience in the last several months as MPR News has reaired some of his productions as part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the organization. Read more →
The new podcast, assuming the hosts — Robert Garcia and Adrian Bartos —
bring it all with them, could be the biggest disruption to the staid NPR brand in its history.
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