Minnesota Brown

Minnesota Brown: Modern Life on the Iron Range

Category: Projects

  • PolyMet hearings highlight our misdirected passion

    PolyMet hearings highlight our misdirected passion

    The purpose of the meeting was to parse the language of a 2,000-page tome of geology, hydrology, chemistry and economics. That’s a tough sell. Even offered free donuts, average humans would duck a meeting of that description. But this particular meeting on Jan. 16, 2014 — first of three hearings for the PolyMet Mining environmental…

  • Pride cometh before the fall

    Pride cometh before the fall

    In the parade of the Seven Deadly Sins, it is often said that pride leads the procession. They also say “pride cometh before the fall” and that, too, is generally true. In a world of so many illusions, pride is the biggest, falsest illusion of all — so big, that it causes most other problems…

  • Controtastrophegate Crisispocalypse

    Controtastrophegate Crisispocalypse

    Where were you when you heard that they might run out of Velveeta before the Super Bowl? Maybe you were rushing the kids off to school, mindful of your long list of chores for that day, such as maintaining your social media persona. Perhaps you were on the phone with a friend or relative, chatting…

  • Oracle speaks of turbulence in 2014 predictions

    Oracle speaks of turbulence in 2014 predictions

    The Delta Connection Bombardier CRJ-200 dipped its frosty belly beneath the clouds, revealing the flat landscape of the winter bog, white canvas speckled with dark brown and black tamaracks. The captain’s voice filled the loudspeaker. “This is your stop.” The flight attendant had been nervously preparing my parachute since we took off from Minneapolis-St. Paul.…

  • Celebrating my Kirby Puckett birthday

    Celebrating my Kirby Puckett birthday

    It was my birthday this weekend. Nothing special. Let’s not get all worked up about it. My new age doesn’t end in a zero or a five. The year is indistinct: one of those years after I’m young, before I’m old, while I’m still alive. At least, that’s what I’d say if I weren’t raised…

  • Great Northern Radio Show warms up Fosston

    Great Northern Radio Show warms up Fosston

    Last Saturday, Dec. 14, we broadcast our winter/holiday edition of the Great Northern Radio Show live from the Fosston Library Arts Center in Fosston, Minnesota. The show featured Reina del Cid and the Cidizens, Katie Wig, and several talented voice actors and guests from the surrounding community. Now that it’s done, I can officially say that…

  • Bob Dylan and the Iron Range

    Bob Dylan and the Iron Range

    I happened across a 2007 essay “A Trip to Hibbing High” by the Bob Dylan historian Greil Marcus, one of the best known scholars of Dylan’s work, after his trip to Hibbing that year. I recall his visit because of my work with Dylan Days, but had not read the piece before. He describes a…

  • Failure is the theme in top words of 2013

    Failure is the theme in top words of 2013

    Language tells all there is to know about people. Death of a language is the death of a culture. Complex languages denote complex people. Languages change, so do we. If this is to be believed, our times shall be designated as the error message one gets when clicking on something that isn’t really there. To…

  • Great Northern Radio Show weekend is here

    Great Northern Radio Show weekend is here

    This “Straight Outta Compton” parody video by the Fosston-raised rapper turned big city comedian Bino White was our initial inspiration when we started working on tomorrow’s Great Northern Radio Show in Fosston, Minnesota. My radio variety program heads to this northwestern Minnesota farming town Saturday, Dec. 14 for a live broadcast 5-7 p.m. on Northern…

  • Great Northern Radio Show, live from Fosston

    Great Northern Radio Show, live from Fosston

    For the last two years I’ve been producing, writing and hosting a live radio variety program called the Great Northern Radio Show. We’re a production of Northern Community Radio, where I’ve written and produced programming for many years, but this is the show I’ve been waiting my whole life to do. Yes, it’s a take…

  • Great Northern Radio Show: Katie Wig

    Great Northern Radio Show: Katie Wig

    Brainerd-based Minnesota singer-songwriter Katie Wig was an early discovery on the Brainerd edition of my Great Northern Radio Show in 2012. She also performed in Bagley last spring. The 20-year-old recently announced she was going to focus full time on her music. That’s a bold move, and she’s starting on our December 14 show in…

  • Great Northern Radio Show: Reina del Cid

    Great Northern Radio Show: Reina del Cid

    On Saturday, Dec. 14, I bring my Great Northern Radio Show to the small farming community of Fosston, Minnesota, for our annual winter show. Our program brings music, comedy and storytelling to unique locations around northern Minnesota, exploring what it means to live a modern life off the beaten path. Each show is planned around…

  • In anticipation of life’s improbable joys

    In anticipation of life’s improbable joys

    The news wiled around the internet like whispers in the night. Did you hear about the comet? The brightest comet EVER? The one that will shine 15 times more brilliantly than the moon? It was called Comet ISON and, like most comets, it had been around a lot longer than the likes of us. Comets…

  • Great Northern Radio Show in Fosston Dec. 14

    Great Northern Radio Show in Fosston Dec. 14

    I’ll be bringing my Great Northern Radio Show to Fosston, Minnesota, on Saturday, Dec. 14. The show airs live on Northern Community Radio from 5-7 p.m. We offer free seating at the Fosston Library Arts Center before 4:30 p.m. This will be our holiday/winter special and we have some surprises in store. The show seems…

  • Goodnight Loon: Minnesota twist on kids’ classic

    Goodnight Loon: Minnesota twist on kids’ classic

    “Goodnight loon … Goodnight ox jumping over the loon … Goodnight lamp and the hungry raccoon … Goodnight walleyes, goodnight pies …” So go the words of a new Minnesota children’s book, “Goodnight Loon,” that is one part satire, one part Minnesota whimsy, and yet still endearing for the ears of kids who still grow…