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An Iron Ranger in a strange land
As readers of this blog know, I subsidize my blogging by begging readers to buy my book “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range” (available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble). Last week I took the “Overburden” road show to the Twin Cities for the first time. It was an exciting trip and I’m now…
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End-of-life planning for my inky friend the newspaper
The amount of journalism done on the state of journalism is exhausting to read. There’s so much of it! And so many ex-journalists producing it! But most of it is thoughtful, researched and, well, pretty much common sense in the end. Highlights I’ve seen recently: Clay Shirky writes a detailed postmortem on the “dying” newspaper…
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Brown on the Air: ‘Final Edition’ and RISK!
In a rare double whammy, I’m promoting two radio appearances today. Today at 5 p.m. I’ll be a guest on the 91.3 FM KUWS (Superior, Wisconsin) program “Final Edition,” a roundtable discussion about journalism in northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. The topic is “blogging” and I’m on with Barrett Chase of “Perfect Duluth Day” and Beth…
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(Re)Introducing MinnesotaBrown
(There might be some new traffic on the site today, so forgive me for reintroducing myself and this blog). You know, there are lots of blogs. There are lots of political and news blogs. There are lots of blogs written by authors trying to sell their books. There are lots of blogs written by media…
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Voters overwhelmingly rename Range Delegation "Range Delegation"
For the past several days I’ve been conducting a poll on this blog about a humorous, ideally affectionate nickname for the Iron Range’s DFL legislative delegation. I was getting tired of typing all those words. Well, I don’t know what happened. Maybe the malaise over the massive budget deficit, maybe the cheekiness of the nominated…
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Blogger vs. WordPress
For those considering starting or moving a blog, I was sent this interesting comparison between the two major free hosting services: Blogger and WordPress. Everyone’s got their favorite for different reasons. MinnesotaBrown is a Blogger blog with a custom template. It’s easy to use, which is why I’ve stuck with it despite the chattering of…
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OMG! Charles Gibson knows who we are
The top story on the Duluth News Tribune website when I logged on this morning was that Charles Gibson talked about the Duluth News Tribune on ABC World News last night. It’s cold in northern Minnesota today, get it. I must admit, if Charlie Gibson talked about ME on World News I would be plastering…
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Greater Minnesota bloggers unite!
I’m passing along an interesting press release below. Join me, fellow off-the-beaten-path bloggers! Minnesota Voices Online The Blandin Foundation and E-Democracy.Org have partnered to offer “Minnesota Voices Online,” an online forum for Minnesotans using new media technologies to build community – particularly across Greater Minnesota. Learn more and join from http://e-democracy.org/mnvoices Are you telling local…
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Ring in the new
Starting this week I’m going to change the posting schedule here at MinnesotaBrown. My weekly column for the Hibbing Daily Tribune usually runs Sundays and I’ve traditionally posted it here that day as well. Well, Sundays are terrible traffic days so I’m going to post the column on Mondays from now on. This will put…
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Happy 2009!
The new year was rung in with all my old traditions: Watching the Gophers lose an obscure bowl game to an obscure team, Dick Clark counting down when he should be resting, and trying to stay awake long enough to acknowledge an arbitrary passage of time. Happy 2009, folks! Related posts: No related posts.
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The Iron Range blog experiment: a year in review
Happy New Year’s Eve, everyone. Here are the most viewed posts from this blog in 2008, according to Google. 1. Go to Hell, KSTPAfter Twin Cities ABC affiliate KSTP did a misleading hit piece on Ironworld under the guise of “investigative journalism,” I gave them the business. The day the story ran I was getting…
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A brief Iron Range Christmas story from MinnesotaBrown
One Iron Range Christmas Eve just after LTV Steel’s taconite mine and plant shut down in 2002, my dad’s family gathered in full force — as we always do — at grandma and grandpa’s house just outside Eveleth. The house pulsed with children, raw heat and wine vapors as what represents normal in our world.…
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Snow and paper
Today, northern Minnesota is buried in snow drifts as a quasi-blizzard blew through Sunday. Inside the house I’m buried in 100 papers (on the same topic) to grade. Shoveling. Grading. It’s all about moving white things from one pile to another. So, let’s just call this a snow day. I’ll post under the following conditions:…
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I’m married to a famous cheapskate
Business North ran this Beth Bily feature story in its November/December edition about my wife Christina Brown, the Northern Cheapskate. Her blog is much more successful than mine. There is a huge audience of readers looking to save money using the internet. The Northern Cheapskate has crafted a niche as someone who finds good deals…
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Moving pictures: My first vLog goes national
I wrote last month about my invitation to join PurpleStates, a public policy project that is collecting viewpoints and reports about the national economy and sharing them in short video segments. They found a blogger from each of the 50 states and are running their vLogs over a 50-day period. I was selected as Minnesota’s…