Bob CollinsAfter awhile, Twitter, like heroin, becomes problematic. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Arts & Culture
This is the second year Roger Hanson has tried to build an ice tower in Superior. Last year’s initial effort failed colossally. Read more →
Like salmon returning to their spawning ground, lovers of trivia are returning to St. Cloud this weekend for the annual trivia weekend on KVSC, the St. Cloud State University radio station. Read more →
That’s the good news. Here’s the bad news: Bidding starts at the appraised value.
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Bernie Sanders’ appearance on Saturday Night Live was the sort of “instant classic” that puts it into SNL history along with Bass O Matic. Read more →
We’re about to reach peak Wrinkles the Clown.
Wrinkles patrols the mean streets of Naples, Florida, and nobody seems to know why. Of course, he’s become an Internet hit with occasional videos.
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There aren’t a lot of comedians who end up being important teachers in the radio news business, but Bob Elliot, one half of the genius of Bob and Ray is certainly one.
His character, Wally Ballou, winner of over seven international diction awards, was as instructive to young reporters on how not to do live reports as any journalism professor. Read more →
It took a lot of effort to find a music teacher for the Lancaster, Minn., school system. The school in the town of 335 got one applicant. Now, immigration rules are sending her back to Canada, Valley News Live reports today. Read more →
Jad Abumrad, the creator of RadioLab, loves radio. So it was a little disconcerting last evening, though understandable, when he seemed to bury terrestrial radio. “I don’t know a single 20-year-old who has a radio,” he told PBS NewsHour. He passionately and correctly describes the creative beauty of radio in which the listener is a Read more →
Paul Kantner, an original member of Jefferson Airplane, was supposed to play the Medina Entertainment Center tonight with his version of the band, Jefferson Starship. But he died yesterday.
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It’s a day of commercialism and a lot of people in love don’t like it anymore. People shouldn’t feel obligated to express their love; that’s not the way love works. But go ahead and try to get through Valentine’s Day without running up a big tab.
Save yourselves while you still can, kids. Read more →
Bill Eddins, music director of the Edmonton Symphony and former associate conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra, has shut down his classical music blog, convinced that nothing is going to change in the world of classical music. Read more →
What’s so great about a big blue chicken? Read more →
Who among us hasn’t thought that if we drove a school bus, we’d be the coolest school bus driver ever?
Sorry, but Philip Bologna, of Rochester, Minn., has that distinction. Read more →
Lawsuits against Jason McLean, who owns Dinkytown’s Varsity Theater and Loring Pasta Bar, are prompting a social media-fueled boycott of the locations. Read more →