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Dylan Days like a rolling stone with big Friday events
Today brings the first big day of the Dylan Days weekend in Bob Dylan’s hometown of Hibbing. Dylan Days Symposium, 2-4 p.m. at Hibbing Public Library Auditorium, featuring discussion with members of Dylan’s high school band The Golden Chords, original film about Dylan and tourism featuring Manchester professor David Leaver, and the 2011 literary showcase…
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Dylan Days 2011 welcomes world travelers
Dylan Days, the grassroots arts, music and literature event in Bob Dylan’s Iron Range hometown, opens today in Hibbing, Minnesota. Here is today’s lineup: Dylan Days Welcome Reception, 5 p.m. at Zimmy’s; followed by live music from Anchorage, Alaska’s The Grunt Monkeys. Find out more about Dylan Days at the website or by following Dylan…
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Dylan Days Eve brings acoustic show in downtown Hibbing
Dylan Days in Bob Dylan’s hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota, officially opens tomorrow. Nevertheless, tonight there’s a “Dylan Days Eve” show at Zimmy’s featuring acoustic Nashville performers Brittney Lee and Josh Dunne. Lee is an Iron Range native. Find out more about Dylan Days at the website or by following Dylan Days on Facebook or Twitter.…
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The night I stole an hour from time
From 1996 to 1998, the years I was in senior high school, I worked weekend overnight shifts as an easy listening DJ at 97.9 WEVE in the iron mining town of Eveleth, Minnesota. Specifically, I’d come home from school on Friday afternoon, prepare a bowl of Campbell’s soup and cheese sandwich, take a sleeping pill…
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Iron Range past, present, future subject of new radio documentary
The following is a press release from 91.7 KAXE regarding an upcoming radio documentary about the Iron Range by Milt Lee. I spoke with Milt with for this piece and am greatly looking forward to his take on the region. Iron Range Radio Documentary Debuts on 91.7 FM“Ranger in My Heart” Seeks the Region’s People,…
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Brown on the Air: COMMUNITY MEDIA!
I’ve been talking lots and lots and lots of 5B politics around here. Sorry about that. It will all be over soon. If you’re looking for a respite, tune in to “Between You and Me” on 91.7 KAXE, the Saturday morning call-in and music show sharing the voices of northern Minnesota. The show’s topic this…
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A Prairie Home Companion seeks new host?
Garrison Keillor has benched himself as tonight’s “A Prairie Home Companion” program host. Folk musician Sara Watkins will take his place. Keillor will make appearances in sketches and perform his customary “News from Lake Wobegon” monologue, however. Speculation is that Watkins is getting a tryout as Keillor mulls retirement in the next year, though the…
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How does it feel, to be somewhat older than before?
The Wall Street Journal poses the question “Should Bob Dylan retire?” The Duluth native and Hibbing-raised musician is a favorite here as I help coordinate Dylan Days in Hibbing and have long been a fan of the man’s songwriting and songs, particularly his 1965-1975 catalog. This is not the first time we’ll be asking such…
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My secret project is not-so-secret trend
The New York Times Book Review has a story (“All Programs Considered” by Bill McKibben) that fits nicely, perhaps too nicely, with thoughts I have been having lately about the direction of my writing and media projects. You know that this blog and my columns, essays and book, are professional in that I am sometimes…
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Paul Bunyan flash mob, a folk tale
KAXE-Northern Community Radio is expanding, forming a new affiliated station in Bemidji called KBXE. Northern Community Radio is more than radio; it’s internet, news and original programming across the northern Minnesota spectrum. Anyway, to bring attention to the upcoming changes organizers staged a “Paul Bunyan flash mob,” in honor of Bemidji’s famed Paul Bunyan and…
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Sounding off on sound
I’ve been getting a great response to my humor commentary about “Sound” that was broadcast on 91.7 KAXE last Saturday. It features the first professional voice work by young George and Doug Brown (don’t worry about the budget; they work for Goldfish crackers). If you’d like to know what my radio work sounds like, take…
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Brown on the Air: SOUNDS!
What’s your favorite sound? What’s your least favorite sound? My weekly contribution to the Saturday morning call-in/music show “Between You and Me” on 91.7 KAXE joins the unique program’s rotating topic of “sounds.” I share both good sounds and bad in an essay that I originally titled “The Sound and the Furry” because I thought…
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Weathered Iron Ranger tops British charts
Bob Dylan’s new release “Together Through Life” has topped the UK charts. This is Dylan’s seventh British #1 but the first in 39 years, breaking a record for the longest gap between #1 records. Dylan Days in Bob’s hometown of Hibbing, Minn., are May 21-24. This is a grassroots celebration of music, literature and art…
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You win this round …
Dammit. On the same day the Hibbing Daily Tribune runs my column about hitting a deer with my Ford Focus station wagon, the Duluth News Tribune runs Janna Goerdt’s column about hitting a moose with her Subaru. Not only does she get the bigger, rarer and much more literary dead animal on which to pontificate,…
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The joy of context
This is the kind of headline that lights up the Iron Range: “Yes, Virginia, Menards is coming“(Mesabi Daily News, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2008) In case you’re wondering, Menards is a home improvement store. That’s a very important detail. Also, Virginia is a town on the Iron Range. Also another important detail. I’d hate to imagine…