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StoryCorps reception tonight
A reminder, tonight is the community reception for the StoryCorps project in Grand Rapids at 91.7 KAXE, a really cool studio and radio organization next to the Grand Rapids Public Library on the Mississippi River. There will be appetizers, wine and probably stories. My Saturday radio essay and Sunday column both highlight the StoryCorps project…
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Newspaper industry’s problems run deep
I found a great column via DailyKos (I know, I know; it’s so not cool to link to Kos diaries, but this one isn’t partisan) that explains the state of today’s newspaper industry. What Walter Brasch describes is the EXACT problem facing small dailies across northern Minnesota and bigger regional papers like Duluth and Fargo.…
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Twin Ports daily chopped down to twice weekly
According to the Duluth News-Tribune and others, the Superior (Wis.) Daily Telegram will drop from publishing six days a week to just twice. The paper’s management insists that the Telegram will focus on online content to continue serving its readers. Let me translate that: “Hey, Little Billy. Spot had to go away, but don’t worry.…
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Columnist Heffernan cut loose by DNT
Yesterday I finished reading Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road,” a novel about a man and his son searching for food and shelter in a post-apocalyptic America. They survive through sheer will, try to maintain hope despite absolutely no evidence that hope exists. Roving gangs of cannibals rule the landscape. And, with no intent to cheapen McCarthy’s…
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Dylan Days literary showcase today
Today at 2:30 p.m. I’ll be emceeing the Dylan Days Literary Showcase featuring the winners of the Dylan Days Creative Writing Contest, Toby Thompson and the world premiere of the first-ever Dylan Days One Act Playwright contest winner, Demetra Kareman’s “Lessons and Carols.” The event takes place at the Hibbing Community College Theatre. Admission is…
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‘Tangled Up in Ore: Bob Dylan and the Iron Range’
Dylan Days starts today. There’s plenty going on in Hibbing these next four days, but I’d like to point out the special Bob Dylan exhibit that opens today at Ironworld in nearby Chisholm. As Dylan Days co-chair, I played a role in the early stages of this project. But the hard work and vision came…
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More Dylan Days press, including my large head on a webcam
This morning’s Dylan Days interview on the top-rated 95 KQDS morning show out of Duluth (and repeated on the Iron Range at 105.5 FM) was rescheduled for Wednesday at 8:35 a.m. I will take the Dylan Days act to 91.7 KAXE in northern Minnesota (streaming online here) and KOOL 101.7 FM in Duluth Tuesday morning…
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Taking requests: Bob Dylan Fudge Bars
Over the next few days I’ll be responding to questions or requests that I’ve been getting via e-mail. The next few days will include idle speculation on local retail developments and the Minnesota Steel project. Today I’ll clear out an old request, the posting of the recipe for the Bob Dylan Fudge Bars that I…
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Dylan Days stokes literary flames on the Iron Range
As some of you know, I am one of the organizers of Dylan Days, an annual event celebrating Hibbing’s own Bob Dylan and the arts community of northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. This week we’re releasing the results of the Dylan Days Creative Writing Contest. The contest takes on even deeper meaning this year in the…
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Iron Ranger wins Pulitzer Prize
OK, so he hasn’t considered himself an Iron Ranger for a long time (if he ever really did) but Bob Dylan won a special Pulitzer Prize today “for his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.” What better way to celebrate Dylan’s Pulitzer than by making…
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The future of small town media in 1,000 words
A really interesting comment about local newspaper websites crossed the blog yesterday morning. As you may know, the ACM family of newspapers on the Iron Range now require readers to sign up for a free account to use its newspapers’ websites. A MinnesotaBrown blog reader responded to the change in this way: What the hell…
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The "Coleman Letters" controversy
By now, you may have read the news about Sen. Norm Coleman’s campaign distributing mass letters to the editor for supporters to submit to papers around Minnesota. (MPR, MNPublius, AP). The letters were criticizing Coleman opponent Al Franken, the leading Democrat. While encouraging supporters to write letters to the editor is common practice, the concept…
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Dylan Days wins grant for Iron Range Bob Dylan exhibit
One of my pet projects is Dylan Days, an annual arts event in Hibbing run by an initiative called “Dylan Arts Celebration,” which I co-chair. Kelly Grinsteinner of the Hibbing Daily Tribune reported Sunday about our recent $10,000 grant from Iron Range Resources’ Culture and Tourism program to create exhibit material for an upcoming Bob…
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Gen. Butt Naked to face justice
Check out this AP headline from the Star Tribune: Gen. Butt Naked, Liberian ex-rebel leader, confesses to killing thousands I thought maybe it was a deal where an after-hours copy editor slipped a goof into the paper, but this is actually real. By JONATHAN PAYE-LAYLEH, Associated Press AMMONROVIA, Liberia – One of Liberia’s most notorious…
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New look at Ironworld
For those interested, Ironworld is going through some changes this year. Check out the Hibbing Daily Tribune story. Dylan Days — one of my many side projects — is working with Ironworld to put together a Dylan exhibit next May. Stay tuned for this and potentially even more exciting news. Related posts: No related posts.