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Really old pipe breaks, snarls downtown Duluth
A tall ship prepares to embark on Superior Street. A Duluth, Minnesota, water main originally built in 1887 broke on New Year’s Day, flooding a section of Superior Street in Duluth’s vibrant downtown. This is causing some trouble for many returning to work today after the holiday. The Duluth News Tribune, among others, has the…
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Dylan Days readies for 2013, calls for writers
Robert Zimmerman fronts the Golden Chords at the Hibbing Memorial Building Little Theater in 1958. (Copyright: Monte Edwardson, the guitarist pictured at left. LeRoy Hoikkala is the drummer.) I continue to work with Dylan Days, the Hibbing-based arts organization honoring Bob Dylan every year in his Iron Range hometown. The big shindig will be May…
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Nolan names former opponent Anderson, others to staff
Today, Rep.-elect Rick Nolan (D-MN8) announced several of his key staff appointments. Most notable among them: Jeff Anderson, one-time opponenet in the DFL primary and former Duluth City Council President, will be Nolan’s District Director. Anderson will oversee district offices in Duluth and Brainerd, along with yet-to-be-determined offices on the Iron Range and another city…
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Top MinnesotaBrown posts for 2012
Happy New Year from MinnesotaBrown.com! As we conclude 2012 and approach the bounty of 2013, enjoy my annual roundup of the year’s top posts. This is a comprehensive list of the most popular and my personal favorite writing from the year. Which post made #1? Which northern Minnesota politician owns the northern Minnesota internet? Is…
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This post is a living #humblebrag (I mean, shucks)
In my wildest dreams I could not imagine a story about me as kind as this one, or that such a thing would appear in a publication entitled “Wilderness News.” Aaron Brown could easily be dubbed the Garrison Keillor of the north. He possesses a keen eye for the attributes that make Minnesotans Minnesotan—specifically, Iron…
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COLUMN: Apocalypse Then: Meet the top words of 2012
This is my Sunday column for the Dec. 30, 2012 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. The complete list of top words from the Global Language Monitor may be found here. Apocalypse Then: Meet the top words of 2012By Aaron J. Brown Some say 2012 has been a rough year, but consider this. I used…
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The writing life at MinnesotaBrown.com
This is just a reminder that this blog is just one of several ongoing writing projects. You can hear my Northern Community Radio commentaries on the Morning Show and Between You and Me. My column appears every Sunday in the Hibbing (Minn.) Daily Tribune. I write and produce Northern Community Radio’s Great Northern Radio Show.…
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Iron mining has strong 2012; poised for bumps in 2013
The Star Tribune reported yesterday the strong year by northern Minnesota taconite operations and the potential for a slight slow-down in 2013. The Iron Range economy is deeply tied to national and international trends. All our line graphs roughly resemble the national ones. The difference is timing. We don’t always go up or down at…
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Nolan named to key House transporation committee
Rep.-elect Rick Nolan (D-MN8) announced today that he has been named to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Since WWII, northeastern Minnesota’s members of Congress have all served on some version of this committee. Reps. John Blatnik and Jim Oberstar both chaired the committee at different times and outgoing Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN8), a former…
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Great Northern alum headlines ‘Acoustic Cafe’ tonight in Chisholm
I haven’t been writing about it every week, but you should know that the Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm has continued its free Thursday night live music events called “Acoustic Cafe.” From 5-9 p.m. the cultural center offers free admission so you can hear the tunes and check out what’s new around the former Ironworld.…
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Looking back at the Letterman years
Though having kids dramatically reshaped how I watch late night television, I probably logged as many hours watching David Letterman in my teens and early 20s as anyone but the feed managers at NBC and CBS. It was cool to see him honored recently by the Kennedy Center for his work. CBS is re-airing the…
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What is the sound of five accordions playing A-Ha?
OK, time to change up from the seasonal music: That would be A-Ha’s “Take on Me” by five young accordionists from the KUM SONG School, filmed in Pyongyang, North Korea a year ago. (h/t Dan Lewis’s “Now I Know” newsletter, which has more fascinating back story on North Korea’s fondness for accordions) Related posts: No…
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Merry Christmas and Happy Reading from MinnesotaBrown.com
Our boys met Santa Claus at Bentleyville earlier this month. Happy Christmas Eve! I’m not really here blogging on Christmas Eve. God willing, I’m on a sled somewhere, skidding down an unsafe hill with one, two or all three of my offspring. I’m eating pickles wrapped in salami bound with cream cheese, pouring coffee down…
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Hear Great Northern Radio Show holiday special now
If you can’t get to a radio Monday at noon to hear the rebroadcast of last Saturday night’s Great Northern Radio Show originally broadcast live from the Edge Center in Bigfork, try this. Below is the embedded sound file available at PRX, where independent public radio stations in Minnesota can pick up the program for…
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Newsweek previews final print edition cover
Newsweek has previewed the final cover of its print edition. It now becomes an entirely online publication called Newsweek Global, published by parent company The Daily Beast. I went to college for print journalism, graduating just a couple years before my college ended its print journalism program. The media has changed so much in such…