Residents of northern Minnesota's Iron Range know the iconic image of the Iron Man Memorial situated along Highway 169 in Chisholm.

This statue, the third-tallest free-standing statue in America (a very distant third, behind the Statue of Liberty and the Arch of St. Louis), was dedicated in 1987. It took 11 years to commission and complete the statue, the concept of which was actually proposed as early as 1947. The goal was to honor the iron miners of northern Minnesota who had immigrated from almost four dozen nations to build the American empire of the 20th century.

And it is a great tribute, though I've never been a fan of a creative choice made by the sculptor at the behest of local backers. The Iron Man is slumped over, to show the weariness miners felt as they left the mines to return home. This was meant to show the burden placed upon workers, the physical toll of their labor.

To me, born in 1979 as the Iron Range economy was beginning to crumble, the Iron Man always seemed to reflect the decay of the region itself:  Sad, defeated, standing on past accomplishments with little to look forward to. It didn't help that in the '90s they built a McDonald's in Chisholm whereby the Golden Arches now frame the Iron Man as you approach from Hibbing. The original intent of the statue always has to be explained; the actual impression given to countless tourists and commuters is entirely different.

But over the weekend I encountered an image at the historical photography clearinghouse Shorpy that bears the same name, a photograph titled "Iron Man 1941," that conveys an impression I very much prefer:

This is my Sunday column for the April 29, 2012 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

Death by sitting
By Aaron J. Brown

As I sit here now I realize I’m going to die soon.

I mean, sooner than later.

I mean, sooner than I would if I were standing right now. And how am I supposed to stand up and do this? I have a deadline, you know. All my desks are built for chairs. Chairs are widely available around here. Look there’s one now! Right behind me! I’m sitting on it! Therefore I choose to keep writing and accept my terrible fate.

What I’m talking about is a study published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine that reviewed the cases of 200,000 Australians. It shows that sitting for prolonged periods is directly tied to earlier mortality. Exercise can help reduce this risk, but does not completely mitigate the risk of sitting more than 11 hours a day.

(I gleaned this study from one of my favorite blogs, TYWKIWDBI.com, via a story in The Atlantic magazine. I figure Australians are a lot like Midwesterners, endearing accents and propensity toward beer among the unifying factors).

Adding an edge to the news, the study is actually determining the risk within the next three years. So regardless of your age or activity level, prolonged sitting increases the risk that anyone, anywhere will die within three years. If you buy a Twinkie and put it on a shelf you could eat it in three years. But if you sit and watch that Twinkie age, you yourself would be less likely to survive than the Twinkie.

OK, I’m standing up now. I started this in the sitting position, but now I’m typing at the kitchen counter. Does this mean I will live longer? I do not know. I do know that I smell food. Christina is cooking pizza tonight and the seasoned dough is rising in the bread maker. That bread maker is right next to me.

I do not know if this is scientific, but I believe that standing here will increase my risk of eating all the pizza. I am not referring to an appropriate serving of pizza, but rather the entire pan of pizza, devoured as a wolf would strip the flesh of a wounded deer. I would eat this pizza, release a guttural scream, and then slump onto the couch where, according to a recent study, I will probably die in less than three years.

Or maybe not? This is all so raw right now, early data, maybe I’ll live. Maybe?

I’ve been exercising again lately. Well, I did exercise last week. We got a gym membership. I’ll go again this week; kind of hard right now with the kids in school. I’ll drive there often in the summer time. Of course, we live a half hour from the gym which means that any exercise I do will come with an hour of deadly sit time. This is a paradox.

Then, also, there is the sitting time in the locker room while I wait for privacy because even though I am a grown up person I can’t change in a locker room without remembering that I hate changing with sweaty strangers now even more than I did when I was in school. Most of our lives we are told not to be naked. Wear clothes! Cover up! But then all of a sudden we are supposed to be naked in semi-public spaces and that is normal. Only weirdos think that’s weird. What kind of shirt is that guy wearing? Is that a shirt. My God, that is not a shirt. Do not look. That would be weird. Why am I here?

I am here to exercise, to make up for all the sitting, for which there is only one outcome, the cold release of death’s own hand.

Have a seat? No, thanks; I’ll stand. But for how long I do not know.

Aaron J. Brown is an author and college instructor from the Iron Range. He writes the blog MinnesotaBrown.com and hosts the Great Northern Radio Show on public stations like 91.7 KAXE.

If you could do something over, what would it be? If you could live something over, what would you choose? The topic of the Saturday morning call-in and music show Between You and Me on Northern Community Radio this week is "Do-Overs." I argue, humorously, with my typical self-deprecating memoir, that do-overs are not possible.

My essay references Cop-Tur, the Go-Bot, and my teenage romantic failure(s).

Tune in to Between You and Me from 10 a.m. to noon on 91.7 KAXE (Grand Rapids, Aitkin and the Iron Range), 89.9 (Brainerd) and 90.5 KBXE (Bemidji and Bagley). You can stream it live or hear the archives at KAXE.org. My essay often runs in the first half hour. The show is guest hosted this week by Gail Otteson and Michael Goldberg.

Finally, you can download the entire broadcast of the Great Northern Radio Show recorded live from the Chief Theatre in Bemidji on April 7.

Right click HERE to download the file directly to your computer. You can then load it onto iTunes or the program of your choice for use on your digital device.

It's a large file, about 107 MB, so make arrangements for that. At two hours, it's a good option for a long drive or flight, a quiet afternoon or evening. It's fresh, new Minnesota music and humor in the old format which has enjoyed a long run over at A Prairie Home Companion and the resurgence of The Muppet Show. I explained our show in detail yesterday.

Today, President Barack Obama announced that Duluth native and Hibbing-raised Bob Dylan will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States. MPR has the story.

From the White House press release:

"One of the most influential American musicians of the 20th century, Dylan released his first album in 1962. Known for his rich and poetic lyrics, his work had considerable influence on the civil rights movement of the 1960s and has had significant impact on American culture over the past five decades. He has won 11 Grammys, including a lifetime achievement award. He was named a Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Art et des Lettres and has received a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation. Dylan was awarded the 2009 National Medal of Arts. He has written more than 600 songs, and his songs have been recorded more than 3,000 times by other artists. He continues recording and touring around the world today."

This gives us something new to celebrate for Dylan Days, May 24-27, in Hibbing, and for the folks at Dylan Fest in Duluth May 18-26. I recently wrote an entry in the string of commentary about Dylan and his Minnesota roots.

The latest edition of the Great Northern Radio Show aired live April 7 from the Chief Theatre in downtown Bemidji, Minnesota. We rebroadcast the show on Northern Community Radio last Saturday morning.

The show is now available via PRX for independent public radio stations in Minnesota, thanks to the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. This show is truly an effort to create a special program in the spirit of modern life off the beaten paths of Minnesota.

You can listen to the show right here with this embedded player:




There have been delays in the podcast at KAXE.org. If you check there Friday it should be up. I'll post an update when it's ready. UPDATE: Download the file here. Right click and save to your computer to add to your iTunes and/or digital player.

The Brainerd Bemidji show was a blast. Local actors Sara Breeze, Greg Gasman and Mark Christiansen were versatile pros, turning in great work with only 36 hours of rehearsal time. We also had the Pinetones, an a capella quartet, helping out on some custom sketch music.

We like to feature young talent from the area. Singer-songwriters like Sonny Johnson and Analisa Huschle, along with vocalist/actresses Iris Kolodji and Kaija Roy, really stole the show at times. Anishinaabe hand drummer Nate King opened our show and helped set the scene, a stage set amid the headwaters of the Mississippi and the ancestral lands of the Ojibwe people.

Veteran local songwriter Jim Miller, accompanied by wife Kristi on mandolin, had the biggest ovation of the night after his performance, marking the long road back from his stroke a couple years ago. For the Bemidji music scene his comeback has been a true inspiration.

Authors Anton Treuer, Neil Johnson and Marsh Muirhead each provided valuable perspectives; Neil even chipped in on a sketch.

Marc Gartman and Two Many Banjos were terrific. Gartman is a fine songwriter and vocalist. In all the hubbub over Trampled by Turtles being on Letterman this week I neglected to mention that the band's banjo player Dave Carroll was on our stage just a couple weeks prior with Two Many Banjos. Anyway, Two Many Banjos provides some "umph" at key moments in the show.

Naturally, we kept the steady presence of our foley man Scott Hanson and keyboardist Nickolai Koivunen, with able work from stage director Shelly Nowak and set/lighting/manager Kelly Gustavsson.

This show represents a lot of creative progress, with more yet to come. Our next show is Saturday, June 16 at the Chalberg Theater on the campus of Central Lakes College in Brainerd. If you are a musician, performer or have a Brainerd-area story or point of interest, please let me know through the contact page here at the blog.

UPDATE: I had a Freudian slip, mixing up Brainerd for Bemidji in the show description. Obviously the last couple weeks I've been more focused on preparations for the Brainerd show on June 16. The person who first pointed this out to me was Matt Nelson, my writing collaborator, who I neglected to mention entirely. Thanks, Matt -- for both!

Duluth's own Trampled by Turtles appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman last night. They did a great job. It's been wonderful to see the northern Minnesota arts scene share the joy of seeing these guys make it to the big stage.

This week we talked about scram mining, mining revenue politics and growing marijuana in abandoned old mines, but what of the future of mining? Mashable reports that a group of very wealthy, eccentric (which is rich person for "crazy") entrepreneurs and adventurers are planning to mine asteroids. Oh, they've got a plan alright.

I think it's so great that children who live on these asteroids will have the option of staying close to home, reassuring their alien parents that the lives they lived are meaningful. It is now imperative that the legislature pass laws streamlining the laws of physics, hastening the job creation these asteroid mines would represent.

UPDATE: Video of their performance here.

Duluth-based band Trampled by Turtles will be on the Late Show with David Letterman tonight, 10:30 CST on CBS. I grew up watching Dave and I mean seriously watching his various shows while I was a teenage radio DJ. Drifted away in recent years, mostly due to schedule changes. Might be a good night to check it out again.

UPDATE: The Duluth News Tribune has a story including an interview with the band. Their new song "Alone" has been a frequent play on my iPod recently, the video of which is below:

The Detroit Free Press is reporting that a biotech company is exploring an abandoned copper mine in Michigan's upper peninsula for the cultivation of medical marijuana, recently legalized in the Wolverine State.

Stop what you are doing. Watch this video from the Detroit Free Press:



Is this the future of northern Minnesota's Iron Range? They're talking about 300 "farming" jobs in an old mine. We've gone bonkers for a lot less around here.

Oh, man. This story references Bubble Boy. I have no words. I am watching the video and writing this.

Apparently pro-mining forces are arguing that the pot might get in the way of nonspecific future mining. Dude, after a bit we'll clear that mountain with our minds. We'll call it minding. If it wasn't grown it was probably minded. Woah. 

Well, I have long called for an economic future that involves bringing younger, creative people to the Range to self-generate a new economy. Ends? Means? You decide.

Dylan Days in Bob Dylan's hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota, announced the winners of the 2012 B.J. Rolfzen Memorial Creative Writing Contest over the weekend.

As always, it's an interesting mix of midwestern, national and international writers.

I help coordinate the contest, serving as one of three fiction judges, editor of the journal and co-chair of the Dylan Days committee. It occurs to me I've done this for more than a decade now. Can you hear the "sigh" out there? On the internet?

It's important for small towns to invite art and literature into their places. So many artists are hungry for an audience, and opening your community to the world elevates the talent that exists around us. So, while our fiction winner might have been from Montreal, writers from the Minnesota cities of Pequot Lakes, Mankato and Mountain Iron weren't far behind.

The contest is named for B.J. Rolfzen, an influential English teacher from Hibbing High School and Hibbing Community College who taught a generation of the sons and daughters of miners about the power of words and poetry. Though some of them never wrote much after school, one of them became Bob Dylan. So, that's how that works.

Dylan Days will be held May 24-27. Our literary event will be Friday, May 25 at the Hibbing Memorial Building Little Theater, the same venue where a young Bobby Zimmerman used to play with his high school garage band.

The smelt are running. And if that means nothing to you, perhaps the running of the smelt puppets will get your attention. Behold the fruits of hipster rule in Duluth. Are you not entertained?

Over the weekend, Peter Passi of the Duluth News Tribune continued his coverage of Rep. Tom Anzelc's bill to end an unusual privacy provision on the books at the IRRRB.*

The rule was adopted without debate four years ago and shields much of this unique state agency's loan agreement data from the public, something that is not the case in other government agencies.

The story also details a dispute over whether the privacy provision was put in place to benefit Excelsior Energy, the company that was on the hot seat at the time Sen. Tom Bakk tucked the rule into that conference committee bill in 2008. Excelsior officials say they didn't request the change and Bakk said it was then-IRRRB commissioner Sandy Layman who did.

If that's true, then the privacy restrictions would better be classified as a response to the embarrassment of a legislative auditor's negative report on the Excelsior loans than a favor for Excelsior. In either event, the current language is indefensible. The ways in which public loan money are generally used should be public, no matter who receives them. While there might be elements of corporate data that could plausibly be considered private, the general execution of those loans should be reviewable by citizens.

The counter argument, that developers wouldn't want to work on the Range because of this bill, remains laughable and should be treated as drivel. The only reason this bill is on the books is because the agency was burned under a series of bad decisions made in previous years. Covering up bad decisions does not improve the fortunes of bad ideas. A solid business plan would still be eligible for IRRRB loan support and would be equally likely to succeed or fail on its own merits.

Notably, Commissioner Tony Sertich said this in the story:

“My position is that if we’re spending public money, the public has a right to know where it was spent,” he said, maintaining that the agency has been open and up-front about every loan it has made.

But he said the IRRRB also collects sensitive private data to do risk assessments that must be treated with care.

“I would like to see this whole issue resolved,” Sertich said. “I want to see if there is a way we can craft a solution that makes the use of public dollars public and that still allows private money to remain private.”

Sertich expressed his hope the issue can be resolved during the current session, in an effort to restore public trust in the IRRRB.

That's workable, as I see it. If a company asks for a $1 million loan and the IRRRB grants it, the people of the Iron Range should know what it's for and how it was ultimately spent. If it was spent on jobs, steel beams and dirt work, I think people would be pretty happy about that. If it was spent on a cavalcade of Twin Cities law firms who also happen to be lobbying firms, then the people have a right to know that's where it went. If the company wants to spend their own money for such purposes, they could do so privately.

So the bill has advanced in the House and has a chance of passing. The lack of a Senate sponsor, however, is holding back the bill. No Range senator has stepped forward, nor has any other DFLer. Sen. Tom Bakk seems particularly intent on keeping it out of his caucus. Republicans seem to be somewhat open to the idea, but possibly not enough to actually carry the bill. There might only be one more week to resolve this, and it will be amid the fervor of the Vikings stadium debate and bonding bill negotiations.

This seems a worthy cause for one of the Republican Senators on the IRRRB to champion. Sen. Gazelka? Sen. Carlson? Now would be a great time for some bipartisanship. I don't see this as a partisan issue but rather one about power and the public good.

* DISCLOSURE: I am a friend of Tom Anzelc's and have run his legislative campaigns during his time in the State House. The opinions expressed here are my own.

This is my Sunday column for the April 22, 2012 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. I've included some photos I took during my visit to Magnetation that did not appear in the newspaper.

A magnetic pull to the future
By Aaron J. Brown

Along the shore of the Lind-Greenway Pit a rusted steam shovel stands sentry over a landscape marked by decades of mining and the quiet that comes after mines close. This antique now serves a useful landmark for workers and writers alike, as a rebirth of iron mining and processing walks the western footprints of the giant Mesabi.

Matt Lehtinen, President of Magnetation, recently took me on a tour of the Grand Rapids, Minn.-based company’s Itasca County properties. Magnetation has generated headlines and hundreds of Iron Range jobs over the four years since it broke ground on its first scram mining plant near Keewatin. The scram mining operation collects overburden left behind from 1910 until the ‘60s, when the richest natural ores were exhausted and replaced by the lower-grade taconite used in today’s steelmaking.

Lehtinen said the steam shovel was an apt metaphor for his company’s goals: to reclaim value from material abandoned as waste. And the amount of activity on these tired old mine sites now owned or leased by Magnetation is eye-opening.

Those familiar with traditional taconite mining can probably picture the massive 240-ton haul trucks toting jagged rock between giant processing plants and mine pits bigger than most towns. Magnetation’s operations hearken photos I’ve seen of old mine days: diesel excavators scrape ore right off the ground to load smaller trucks – about 40 tons each – which then zip down tree lined dirt paths into smaller processing plants. The biggest difference is the sophisticated technology inside, still sporting fresh, brightly-colored industrial paint, and the fact that few, if any, of the workers speak Finnish, Croatian, Slovenian or Italian with the same authority as their ancestors.

The company now operates two ore recovering and processing sites in Keewatin and near Taconite. It’s also opened a railroad load-out near the old Jessie Mine in Grand Rapids which feeds an steel plant in Mexico. Additional mining is also planned there. In addition, they are currently expanding a new extraction site with Steel Dynamics near Chisholm.

And while the company is profiting from its scram mining operations with the high demand for iron ore, it’s also girding for changes in the marketplace. Lehtinen, scion of a mining family, said industry experts predict a decline in iron ore prices around the year 2015. Key to Magentation’s efforts to survive this is a new processing plant that will produce iron pellets similar to the ones produced at taconite plants, although derived from a different process.

Lehtinen showed me the site near the Jessie Load-Out where the plant might be located, but they are also considering sites in Superior, Wisconsin and Indiana where he said permitting environments are more favorable. So far, Magnetation has capitalized quickly on relatively easy permitting for scram mining. Building a plant or reopening old mines – another long term goal – would require the more detailed permitting process that has slowed down other projects, such as the nonferrous mines on the east Range.

One big difference here is the fact that Magnetation seeks only to mine where there has already been mining and will not expose sulfides. A recent bill by Rep. Tom Anzelc (DFL-Balsam) would help them acquire permits, Lehtinen said, but he also said redundancies in the process must be removed. The issue is time. A delay in getting the pellet plant into operation could threaten their business plan if ore prices dip, Lehtinen believes. Nevertheless, the company purchased the potential plant site along with more than 1,000 acres of land in Itasca County, the ore is close, and Minnesota officials desperately want to keep the plant here. Itasca County seems the logical place for Magnetation to locate its plant.

Add to the equation Lehtinen’s hopes to mine mid-grade ore just below the ground near the Lind-Greenway pit where that old shovel coughed its last gasp, and you can see the implications. One plan would even dewater the infamous Canisteo Pit for mining, long a contentious issue for water-logged homeowners in Bovey.

Magnetation has encountered growing pains as well. Dust blowing off Plant 1 caked Keewatin, to the point that one summer one could not own a white dog within city limits (a pink dog, yes, but not a white one). Red stains on the highways first reminded people of the bustling mining economy of the early ‘50s, before reminding them also that such work was inherently dirty. Lehtinen took great effort to point out the many dust control and cleaning techniques now employed to avoid that happening in the future. Hay bales are spread everywhere and workers rinse the tires of every truck that leaves the property. They’re the process of rebuilding and paving many of their high traffic roads on site.

Like other promised developments, the company has also enjoyed significant IRRRB financial support in getting off the ground. This is the agency that manages the Iron Range’s unique mining tax source that services in place of many local property taxes. Thus, Magnetation’s flirtation with other states for its pellet plant has angered many, and locating elsewhere would cause a ruckus.

While Magnetation relies on its modern technology to stay profitable, the core of its current efforts are more like red ore mining than anything seen since my grandfathers were my age. The shovels, trucks, trains and concentrators are running, and will as long as the company achieves vertical integration with its pellet plant.

“We’re not interested in a big flash in the pan,” said Lehtinen. “We’re interested in a sustainable business plan through the up and down cycles of this industry.”

If that proves true, one of the biggest new companies on the Range in the 21st century might not be one of the lofty proposals that now live in schematic drawings circulated in economic development circles, but a local company that built itself on the bones of what was already here.

Aaron J. Brown is a writer and community college instructor from the Iron Range. He writes the blog MinnesotaBrown.com and hosts the Great Northern Radio Show on public stations like 91.7 KAXE.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this piece contained errors. Matt Lehtinen is President of Magnetation, not CEO. The Mexican steelmaker that buys Magnetation concentrate is Altos Hornos de Mexico, not AK Steel. AK Steel is the potential customer of the future Magnetation pellet plant.

MPR recaps last nights MN-8 DFL debate between Rick Nolan, Tarryl Clark and Jeff Anderson. Once again, differences appear to be stylistic and biographical, with only a small amount of political separation.

Listen to Dan Kraker's story below:

If tonight's political brouhaha in Duluth isn't your thing, maybe try the Spoken Word Event scheduled at 7 tonight at the MacRostie Art Center in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. They're opening a mic for new and favorite poems in honor of National Poetry Month. The MacRostie Art Center is located on 1st Ave. NW downtown, just off Highway 169.

Tonight, the three candidates seeking the DFL nomination to face Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN8) in this year's race for Congress will meet in a forum in Duluth. The event, sponsored by Duluth Community Action and others, will take place from 7-9 p.m. at Somer's Hall at the College of St. Scholastica.

The candidates, Jeff Anderson, Tarryl Clark and Rick Nolan, have appeared at several forums before, but this is the first forum held in which it is clear that all three will proceed to the DFL primary next August. No one has to couch words; they are competing with each other over who would be best to run against Cravaack and unite DFLers on that mission.

The dynamic of the race is clearing up.

Who's going to have the DFL endorsement and the grassroots organization that comes with that? Rick Nolan. His delegate base will easily carry the convention on May 5.

Who has the most money? Tarryl Clark. Not even close. She raised almost $321,000 in the first quarter of this year and has $418,000 cash on hand, outraising even Cravaack. Nolan's sitting on about $40,000 after raising $77,000 in Q1. Anderson's account resembles that of a state house candidate. This means Clark will get to flood the airwaves with friendly, happy commercials in a race in which many primary voters are starting with little knowledge of the candidates.

And who has the most to prove in a forum like tonight's? That'd be Anderson. A polished speaker who has the most "8th-districty" narrative (Ely native, Duluth business person, National Guard vet who supports mining), Anderson will remain in the mix purely based on the Range and Duluth's importance in the electorate, though he simply must prove himself capable of competing with Nolan and Clark, who have earned front-runner status in very different ways.

So while I won't be there tonight, some of you in Duluth might wish to take this one in. I'm betting it might be a little different than the ones that have been held so far.

The Great Northern Radio Show aired Saturday, April 7, live from the Chief Theatre in Bemidji, Minnesota. We had a blast and I think the show turned out well.

Northern Community Radio will rebroadcast the show from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, April 21 on 91.7 KAXE (Grand Rapids, Aitkin and the Iron Range), 90.5 KBXE (Bemidji and Bagley), and 89.9 (Brainerd, Crosby and Fort Ripley). The live stream is available all over the world at www.kaxe.org.

We'll soon be offering the show to other radio stations. Tell your local independent public station you'd like to hear the Great Northern Radio Show. It's free to them and good for all.

Very soon, probably Friday, I'll be posting the links to our show podcast as well. We've been tinkering with a website and related projects and eventually hope to have a slick system figured out for getting the show to you in multiple formats.

There were many great photos taken at the event. Audience members David and Kris put together this video of the credits showing the people who made the show possible.

We have a winter storm warning here in Itasca and north central St. Louis counties. Most Range schools are cancelled. The community college didn't cancel, but I can't get out of my driveway so let's call that an intervention by a higher authority.

It's a great day for a drill on how well this blog would survive a coup or alien attack.

Result: Oh, pretty good, so long as the satellite internet keeps working!

If that had gone out I'd be figuring out how to become a pamphleteer. I'll have to check the rummage sales for a printing press. So what we learned is that Plan A is blog, Plan B is pamphleteer. These plans are structurally similar, so I feel that I am almost ready for the Hunger Games prequel coup. But is anyone really ready for the Hunger Games prequel coup?

I'd have shared a picture of the view out my home office window, but it is a wall of white, icy snow pasted to the glass. It looks like the sort of marbled paper you use on resumes. There's your picture.

There were lots of power outages overnight and many stories of flashes of light, exploding transformers, lightning and impassable roads on my Facebook feed today. Mark your calendar. I learned about the boys school cancellation and the road conditions more quickly and completely from my phone and social media than I did from the radio or TV today, all this while living 27 miles out into the woods. This was a first.

Another weekend of county political conventions in Minnesota's Eighth Congressional District has put an exclamation point on a political reality. Former Congressman Rick Nolan of Crosby will win the DFL endorsement on May 5.

Perhaps portending the 21 consecutive wins by Nolan in local contests, the other DFL candidates Tarryl Clark and Jeff Anderson had previously announced they would run in the primary without the endorsement. And while the two are still speaking to DFL delegates, they are not working these conventions as hard as Nolan's team.

Tarryl Clark is certainly prepared for a primary run. While Nolan was racking up delegates, she's been racking up money: a whopping $321,000 in the first quarter. Normally that'd be enough money to clear the deck, if it weren't for her anemic performance in early grassroots contests like the straw poll and county conventions. She's barely winning any delegates at all. Clark is betting that her supporters (along with those she picks up with a TV blitz) will turn out in the primary.

As previously discussed, Anderson is running in the primary with hopes of forming a specific coalition to win a three-way contest. He's situated himself as the pro-mining, pro-natural resource development candidate in the DFL field, something that's already won him several endorsements from Range DFL officials. That has not, however, translated to delegate success, which is why he, too, pulled back from the endorsement fight and is focusing on the primary.

I was a delegate at the Itasca County DFL convention on Saturday. Some in our county insist upon the walking subcaucus system for delegate election, which is always confusing to newcomers and veterans alike. I've led subcaucuses at three such conventions now and it has always turned out in unexpected ways. I ended up proposing an Itasca Uncommitted delegation, which was dominated by Nolan supporters. All of our state and congressional delegates ended up being Nolan supporters or Nolan leaners. (Note: I am not endorsing in this race, nor will I be a delegate at future contests).

I estimate that seven of Itasca's 11 delegates will be Nolan supporters, if not more. This is significant only because that seems to be Nolan's rough margin of victory everywhere he goes. Nolan carried the "old" Minnesota SD5 convention (The Range) in Hibbing as well, after his string of surprise wins over Anderson in Duluth and Ely in previous weeks.

The questions of the race heading into the convention and summer primary campaign are thus:

• Can Nolan translate his grassroots success into the 40 percent he needs for a clean primary win?
• Can Clark translate her big fundraising into real support in an electoral contest against an endorsed candidate?
• Can Anderson win big enough on the Range and in Duluth to overcome the opposition, picking up at least some support elsewhere?
• Can the winner then turn around and run well against Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN8) in the sprint from August to November?

In a way, the primary prevents Cravaack and allies from training their attack on one DFLer. But they will be able to conserve their resources for a fight once the primary is over. The DFL nominee could emerge a tested, formidable juggernaut or else become hobbled and unlikeable. Most of the big political watchers rate this a pure toss-up. I'd say until the strength of the Eight District DFL organization is better understood that's a fair rating.

This is my Sunday column for the April 15, 2012 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. I read a shorter version of this piece on Northern Community Radio's "Between You and Me" Saturday, April 14.

Dylan’s Minnesota story shows poetry in motion
By Aaron J. Brown

This 1978 quote from Bob Dylan opens the March 2012 cover story in Twin Cities Metro magazine:

“The earth [in Hibbing] is unusual, filled with ore. There is a magnetic attraction … maybe thousands and thousands of years ago some planet bumped into the land there. There is a great spiritual quality … that is where I grew up.”

For people in Hibbing, this means two important things. One, it refutes the persistent myth that Bob Dylan hates his hometown. Two, the date shows that Dylan’s affections for where he grew up were not born of later-in-life nostalgia. In ’78, Dylan was not yet 40 – squarely an adult but not terribly far removed from his youth. He was old enough to know what he meant; young enough to remember.

So let’s stop the self-defeating scorn, my fellow Iron Rangers. Let’s stop dismissing a guy because someone, somewhere heard he said he hated Hibbing, and therefore was some kind of traitor. I wouldn’t even bring this up if I weren’t hearing the same old tired talking points from people under the age of 20. They must hear it somewhere. So let’s just stop.

Again in the Twin Cities Metro Magazine story, Dylan is quoted from a 1978 interview saying “I feel Minnesota more than I feel New York or L.A. … My work reflects the thoughts I had as a little kid that have become super-developed.”

Truth is, Dylan left the Iron Range during a 50-year period in which most people left the Iron Range. They leave yet today, streaming south for Duluth, the Twin Cities and Texas; west to North Dakota and California. We see this on Facebook. We see this in our families. They go hungry or they go educated; usually both. They go for jobs. They go for excitement. Some go because they hate the Range and love to leave. Some leave because they love the Range and hate to watch it die. They go the same.

And yes, some of us stay, most by choice. I have stayed, first for family and increasingly as some sort of avant-garde literary experiment. But I have also learned the danger of living amid the temples of your youth, the constant inward gaze which fogs the reality of your situation. How easy it is to drive through Nashwauk, forgetting that the sprawling Hawkins pit is even there. How easy it is to drive through Hibbing along the Beltline and fail to see the decay. How important it is for us to realize these things and react.

Dylan has essentially said what poets have said for ages about life. A vibrant life needs action, and no early action is more resolute than leaving your hometown behind. In fact, it’s the easiest thing to do. Staying and changing your hometown is harder. I’m trying really hard to think of a successful example. Atticus Finch? Oh wait, he’s fictional. Also, he failed.

Fifty years. That is how long ago Bob Dylan released his first self-titled album. It was a motley collection of traditional and folk songs that got him noticed and paved the way for “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They are a’ Changin’” and the roller coaster of the 1960s. The Metro story, penned by a cadre of writers, quotes a critic who says that the chubby-cheeked Dylan on that first album is sort of the missing link between the middle class misfit Robert Zimmerman from Hibbing and the iconic, mysterious Bob Dylan from The Universe.

Fifty years. That was the last time the population of the Iron Range grew. The Iron Range mystique, of back-slapping, taconite-shipping, snowmobile-riding, economically stagnant self-preservation – the whole works – was formed and cemented in this time. It is only because fifty years is most of a lifetime that people now think it’s always been this way.

You have to understand, we are all here on the Iron Range because, more or less, a planet really did bump into the land, that we are iron-tinted stardust on ground that has stood sacred since humans first measured time. That’s worth noting. That’s worth writing songs about. That’s worth building a community around. That’s worth some pride. Dylan did it in his way. What will we do?

A lot of people leave when confronted with this question. I think it’s worth considering alternatives, don’t you?

Aaron J. Brown is a writer and college instructor from the Iron Range. He writes the blog MinnesotaBrown.com and hosts the Great Northern Radio Show on public stations like 91.7 KAXE.

A couple northern Minnesota stories caught my eye this week and I'm here to argue that they're related.

First, there's this Ron Brochu story from Business North about Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board Commissioner Tony Sertich speaking in Duluth. Brochu picked up on a subtle quote that shows the substantive change in policy Sertich has sought to enact since becoming commissioner:

“I would rather create two jobs at 50 small businesses than find one new business with 50 jobs,” said the former Minnesota state legislator. “We’re looking to turn our eyes inward, looking more at our existing businesses and asking ‘How can we help you grow?’ We need to be more strategic. We need to leverage existing relationships more.”

You build success from the ground up. Magical solutions will not appear, and big projects will fail in roughly a proportional rate to their "fancifulness." How about we conserve and direct our resources toward quantifiable success and community growth?

Then there was this Dan Kraker story on Minnesota Public Radio, "Duluth not welcoming, young transplants looking for work say." While the evidence of Duluth's "unwelcoming" attitude seems based on the opinions of a handful of college students having trouble getting hired, the story does show Duluth's efforts to change its course.

To help build Duluth's talent base, the city needs nothing less than a fundamental change in its culture, Mayor Don Ness said.

"I think there has been, at least traditionally, a sense in Duluth that we're not a community that wants to grow, or we're a community that doesn't believe that we can grow,' said Ness, 38. "That's what we're trying to change in Duluth." 

I don't think true Gen Y transients are necessarily ever going to have a perfect experience in northern Minnesota. It's just too cold in the winter, for one, and come on ... grow up. Big Bird won't be around to make things easy for you everywhere you go. Create your own community value. Entrenched interests will never willingly change the culture; rather, a handful of visionaries simply need to invite the kinds of elements that will introduce change. These new people will need to be active, not passive, members of the community.

Combining what Tony Sertich said in Duluth about the interconnectedness of the Range and Duluth with the young professional outreach in the Duluth story, we see a shared problem. In fact, not only should the Range be included in the "unwelcoming" discussion, but our problems up here are considerably more difficult. With older demographics and a dogged determination by leaders to more or less keep everything the way it is, young professionals on the Range face more challenges. Heck, we don't even have Trampled by Turtles.

On that subject, I will go out on a limb and say that the progressive bluegrass band Trampled by Turtles is a pretty good example of a way forward. A homegrown, self-made success story this band has grown to national prominence while maintaining hearty Duluth roots. This sort of thing can be done, you know. There are many glorious things about northern Minnesota, inspirations that can propel people toward creativity.

With that, I must share today's story about Mayor Ness's crowd surfing fail at Trampled by Turtles Day in Minneapolis. It also rings of metaphor on this day.



How about Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak looking like a festival pro? Nice. But at least Don TRIED to crowd surf. There is great importance in this.

I'll be returning to my commentary role on Northern Community Radio's "Between You and Me" call-in and music program this Saturday morning, speaking on the topic of poems and poetry for National Poetry Month. I'll be discussing 50 years of Minnesota's most successful poet, Duluth and Hibbing's Bob Dylan.

You may recall that I am involved in a little event called Dylan Days, May 24-27 in Hibbing, Minnesota.

You can hear "Between You and Me" on 91.7 KAXE Grand Rapids, 89.9 Brainerd, and 90.5 KBXE Bemidji, covering a swath of land from northwestern Minnesota to the gates of Duluth. The show airs 10 a.m. to noon and streams live on kaxe.org.

I'll have news on the rebroadcast and podcast of last Saturday's Great Northern Radio Show soon. In summary, we had a wonderful time doing this show in Bemidji and I'm very proud of it. You'll want to hear it if you missed the live broadcast.

MPR's Paul Tosto condenses the debate over nonferrous mineral mining into a simple story. It's a great primer if you want to know what this whole deal is about.

Star Tribune columnist Gail Rosenblum pens a story about a Mankato man originally from the Iron Range who developed a master prank that lasted years.

A world traveler, Jim Moore, selected a North Dakota couple at random and sent them handwritten postcards from all over the world. The joke was that he pretended that he knew them, giving just a little, but never much information about how or why.

The family grew to love the unusual updates, always wondering who "Jim" was. Moore enjoyed that he was giving the gift of handwritten mail to people he thought would appreciate it. It went on like this for seven years.

Earlier this year Moore passed away from a rare form of cancer. Friends informed the family of the prank. The families exchanged stories about the joys of Jim's humor. Moore was a friend of my wife's at Nashwauk-Keewatin High School and later at Hibbing Community College. I was able to talk to him a couple times years ago. Quite a guy, and what an endearing and quirky legacy he left, depicted well in Rosenblum's piece.

I usually comment on the opening of the baseball season. It's a time for hope and good feelings. But I was busy with the radio show this weekend and the Twins are awful, just awful. They are going to lose 100 games. Their pitching is bad and they have no offense. Their most expensive players are damaged, probably forever.

In fact, I was sketching out a monologue for my live radio show last Saturday that was a list of comical reasons one shouldn't change the station to listen to the Twins. It wasn't funny. Do you know why? There was no real danger of anyone turning the station to the Twins. That just wasn't going to happen.

I could look to one of my favorite movies, "Major League," for inspiration. Everyone knew the Cleveland Indians were really bad at the start of that movie, but a plucky group of character actors pulled the season back from the brink. But in that movie the team's owner was a gold-digging widow who wanted to move the team to Florida. She provided a catalytic spark that produced an opposing effect. Our team owner is the scion of a bland banking family. He seems very nice. Why change anything?

At first I was amused at the "Big Lebowski" spoof the Twins put out this year called the Big Hrbowski (featuring portly Twins vet Kent Hrbek). Now I believe there is some kind of deeply embedded irony in this message.



Twins fans will abide.

UPDATE: Fresh info on how to see Tall Ships 2013.

In 2010, the talk of Duluth and the surrounding region was tall ships. Masted wooden sailing vessels sailed into Duluth for a week of maritime festivities. Was it a big deal? Yes, according to a press release on WDIO.com:

Tall Ships Duluth 2010 was the single largest event in the region's history with an estimated direct economic impact of $15 million in addition to millions of dollars of worldwide publicity.

Visit Duluth is announcing that tall ships will return July 24-30, 2013. In fact:

While it may be difficult for some to imagine a Tall Ships festival larger than 2010, with over 225,000 visitors and nine Tall Ships, we are planning an even bigger event for 2013.

We will have to search deep within ourselves to conceive of numbers larger than nine and 225,000. Some have said such numbers are theoretical. The known world will end and a new one will begin.

Tall Ships.

UPDATE: Tickets now on sale.

Here's a fun list of the most scenic cities in the Rust Belt. I know, I know. But Duluth is Number One and it's a nice list. If I had to move to a city (and I don't, and so I won't) I'd probably follow a list like this right down the line.

The list comes from a site called Rust Wire. That's right, a website with news about the Rust Belt. It was founded by former newspaper editors! Breaker, breaker, Big Rusty, this is Little Rusty haulin' blog up the 5-3.

An internal polling battle is afoot in MN-8.

Last week Tarryl Clark released an internal poll showing a tight-three way race for the DFL nomination in Minnesota's Eighth Congressional District. Her poll also involved some follow-up questioning that she said showed voters would be inclined to support her once they knew more about her.

The next day I heard from one of her opponents, Jeff Anderson, showing a March 27 internal poll his campaign had conducted. Like Clark's, his poll shows a tight three way race upon initial questioning, a large number of undecided voters, and follow-up surveying that he thought boded well for his cause. As you might expect, Anderson's poll contradicts some of the arguments Clark made in her polling memo. This is part of the memo from D.C.-based Lincoln Park Strategies (emphasis mine):

Our survey of likely 2012 primary election voters1 reveals an extremely close race for the DFL nomination in Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional District. At this time, former Congressman Rick Nolan leads with 19 percent, and both former State Senator Tarryl Clark and Duluth City Council Member Jeff Anderson garnering 16 percent support. With four months remaining before the primary, this race remains wide-open as most voters (49 percent) have yet to decide on which candidate to support.

Over the next four months this race will come down to who has the best story to tell and who can make the strongest connections with undecided voters. Our polling shows Councilmember Anderson in a strong position given his background and lifelong connection to the district. Indeed, not only does Anderson currently enjoy a lead in the more populous section of the district2 (21 percent support, followed by Nolan at 17 percent and Clark at 13 percent), after hearing a brief description of each candidate’s background, 29 percent of undecided primary voters would be more likely to support a candidate of Anderson’s background compared to just 5 percent favoring a candidate with Nolan’s background and 3 percent favoring Clark’s.

Additionally, Clark could have some problems with her issues of residency as voters start to tune into the race. Not only does our polling show that 83 percent of voters feel it is important for a candidate to reside in the 8th district if they want to run for Congress, a strong majority of respondents (61 percent) say that they would be less likely to support a candidate who moved to the district in order to run for office (including 52 percent of Clark supporters).

What's interesting is that the two polls do seem to agree on one thing. Without prompting, the candidates seem to be locked in a three-way scrum down in the teens and 20s. Most people haven't made up their mind yet. The DFL endorsement is one thing that will probably influence the contest. Advertising and campaign strategy is another.

Further, Clark used her poll to dig at Rick Nolan. Anderson used his to dig at Clark. We are watching these candidates try to figure out how to carve out an electoral coalition to get them to the 38-45 percent necessary to win the DFL primary in August.

As before, I've posted the memo Anderson sent me below the jump (click on post title).

This is my Sunday column for the April 8, 2012 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. A version of this piece aired on a recent episode of Northern Community Radio's "Between You and Me."

Confessions of the kitchen clueless
By Aaron J. Brown

The trailer house where I grew up was like a proletarian U-Boat. I learned to dash through like an able bodied submariner, which naturally meant I was to pass through the kitchen as well on my way to the torpedoes. The kitchen was where the food was, so it was important, but I never took much interest in where that food came from or how it was prepared. I had other business in the submarine.

My mom ran hot and cold with meals; home cooking many dishes but then surrendering to my preference of macaroni and cheese. So I learned to cook macaroni. Pan. Measuring cup. Spoon. I learned to cook grilled cheese. Knife. Griddle. Mostly I recall eating large blocks of sliced American cheese in lieu of sandwiches. Eventually I figured out how to cook soup from a can, ravioli from a can, and by my senior year of high school I had mastered instant mashed potatoes. During college, it was not uncommon for me to mix up a bowl of Potato Buds and pour in a can of corn and call that a Friday night. Left alone, that’s exactly what I’d do today.

But it’s been a long time since I’ve had Spudcorn casserole. During college I brought my girlfriend over to meet my family on a Sunday morning. To impress her I cooked pancakes and they actually turned out pretty good. My family knew it must have been serious. She returned the favor one day and the pancakes turned out in such a way that they could be balled up and bounced. So when we got married I was given very specific kitchen duties. I would cook macaroni and cheese and I would cook pancakes. Our children know that, with only the rarest of exceptions, the sight of me in the kitchen means one of those two things.

Christina is pretty handy in the kitchen and has the gadgets to show for it. I fail to understand what most of them even do. Once, I filled up what I thought was a pretty good travel mug with Diet Coke and she stopped me before I left the house.

“You can’t use that,” she said. “That’s a gravy mixer.”

“But it would work,” I replied. “Why can’t I just use it anyway?”

“Because every woman on the planet knows what that’s for and you’ll look like an idiot,” she said. And that was basically true. It took me a country year to figure out the new can openers when they converted to side openers instead of top openers. And of course, there was the sad end of the pancake griddle.

The non-stick surface of the griddle had been wearing out before the night I was to cook pancakes for dinner. I have a particular recipe for blueberry pancakes that I’ve developed over the years. In my rush to get the batter right I hurky-jerkied the griddle out of the corner cabinet and broke the plastic handle that leveled the griddle, something I fixed quickly with masking tape.

I heated up the griddle but when I poured on the first batch of pancakes they stuck like caulk. When the floppy high grade flipping spatula failed to peel up the cakes I panicked and went to a metal spoon. What was left of the non-stick surface scraped up in flakes all over the smoking sad pancakes. Within moments the griddle’s career had ended suddenly, like that of a veteran NFL lineman whose knees give out for good just as the team misses the playoffs.

I used a pan to finish the pancakes but I was rattled. I hadn’t botched pancakes so badly in a decade. We picked up a nice new griddle from the store and it’s since been smooth sailing. But I have no idea what would happen if I had to contend with the rice maker, or the bread maker, or the array of Pampered Chef whatsits in the drawers.

Probably I’d serve triple cheese sandwiches, with a side of Spudcorn casserole.

Aaron J. Brown is a writer and college instructor from the Iron Range. He writes the blog MinnesotaBrown.com and hosts the Great Northern Radio Show on Northern Community Radio.

Today's the big day! Tune in as I host the Great Northern Radio Show, 5-7 p.m., on the Northern Community Radio network: 91.7 KAXE in northeastern Minnesota, 90.5 KBXE in north central Minnesota, 89.9 in Brainerd, and streaming live worldwide at www.kaxe.org. The show will broadcast live from the historic Chief Theatre in downtown Bemidji, Minnesota. Tickets are free and there are a few seats left, but you'll want to arrive early as we expect to fill the hall.

We've got Two Many Banjos, Jim Miller, Annie Humphrey, young up-and-comers like Analisa Huschle, Kaija Roy, Iris Kolodji and Sonny Johnson, Ojibwe hand drummer Nate King, the Pinetones and music and comedy from the Great Northern Radio Players. Special guests are expected. It's live radio, so anything is possible, including hilarious failure.

You can follow the Great Northern Radio Show on Facebook. I'll be providing some colorful behind-the-scenes commentary at my Facebook and Twitter feeds. I hope you enjoy the show. A lot of people have worked hard to put this together and I am very grateful for the opportunity.

LIVE FEED from KAXE.org (Show runs from 5-7 p.m.)

Hey everybody, listen to this smooth talking gentleman exclaim the virtues of Bemidji:



I'm in Bemidji today and tomorrow getting ready for Saturday night's Great Northern Radio Show, live from the historic Chief Theatre from 5-7 p.m. You can listen live on 91.7 KAXE-Grand Rapids and the Iron Range, 89.9 in Brainerd and the new 90.5 Bemidji/Bagley. We're streaming at kaxe.org and will be archived, podcast and (we hope!) rebroadcast on other stations shortly thereafter.

Here's our promo video, if you missed it:

As reported last week, we now know that the three DFL candidates for Congress in Minnesota's 8th Congressional district will likely compete in an August primary to face Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN8) next fall. Tarryl Clark's campaign has sent me a memo touting Clark's fundraising success (with numbers to be released next week) and highlights from an internal poll they put in the field. They like what they see. Here is the exact wording of the polling memo:

The Landscape

• Among primary voters it is currently a three-way tie between Tarryl Clark and the two other candidates: Rick Nolan and Jeff Anderson. But voters move en masse to Tarryl Clark when they learn more about her record of advocacy on behalf of Minnesota’s families and communities.
• The critique that Tarryl Clark is not from the district has no power. It does not diminish Tarryl Clark’s voter share.

The Reality

• The first three months of 2012 marked our strongest fundraising quarter to date, even better than the $228,147 raised in the third quarter of 2011.
• Our campaign is the only one raising the money necessary to take on a well-funded incumbent. Clark ended 2011 with a dramatic financial advantage over other DFL challengers, reporting $275,377 on hand at the end of 2011, compared with the $35,867 for Nolan and the $13,188 for Anderson. 
• Tarryl Clark’s fundraising is competitive with that of Representative Chip Cravaack. Clark finished 2011 with $275,377 on hand to Cravaack’s $514,879. Clark outraised Cravaack among individuals in the 4th quarter, highlighting her grassroots strength.

The landscape of this race combined with the financial reality shows that Tarryl Clark will be the nominee to take on Representative Chip Cravaack in the fall and win the 8th Congressional district seat. Clark and the campaign are eliciting an overwhelmingly positive response from the people in Minnesota’s 8th district. The voters are excited to have a voice in electing someone who is fighting for job creation and standing up for our families and communities, while actively raising the money necessary to take on Representative Chip Cravaack and his Koch brother-funded super-PACS.

I've asked the Clark campaign for the script on those questions. "Prompting" means that respondents get a spiel of some sort before being asked their opinion a second time. Nevertheless, I think that it's probably accurate to say that none of the candidates begin this race with a strong advantage in name ID and that the "prompting" done by the next four months of DFL campaigning will greatly influence the result of the primary. Also, one advantage of fundraising prowess is you get to release internal polls like this.

UPDATE: The Clark campaign won't be release their script for this poll as it reflects "campaign strategy." In other news, Clark's opponent Rick Nolan announced another labor endorsement this afternoon, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. This puts him with the most labor endorsements, followed by Anderson and Clark, who has the Steelworkers. Nolan remains the frontrunner for the May DFL endorsement, which will frame the primary from that point forward.

The PDF of Clark's selected highlights from the internal poll is below the jump. (Click on this post's headline)

Music plays a central part in this Saturday night's Great Northern Radio Show (live from the historic Chief Theatre in downtown Bemidji, 5-7 p.m.). But the show's attitude comes from our live sketches and textured conversations between and about the people of northern Minnesota. I write most of the sketches for the show, with contributions from Matt Nelson, who usually pens one of his own.

I don't dare divulge the precise nature of the sketches or my monologue this week, but I thought you might enjoy some visual clues.

Call 218-326-1234 to reserve your free ticket to the show. Tickets at the door will be first come/first served. The show starts at 5 p.m. Saturday, April 7, and we ask that everyone be in their seats by 4:30. You can listen live at 91.7 KAXE in northeastern Minnesota, the new 90.5 KBXE in Bemidji and north central Minnesota, 105.3 Brainerd and streaming live at www.kaxe.org, where next week you'll be able to access the podcast.

Soon after the show will be offered to independent public radio stations around Minnesota and beyond. Tell your local public radio station you want to hear the Great Northern Radio Show! Because we are funded in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund the show is offered at no cost.

This Minnpost commentary by Steven Dornfield answers the question, "Why has the quality of the state legislature declined?" Where are the statesmen and stateswomen? Why is compromise more difficult than ever? Why are bright, talented people avoiding runs for office, or leaving after a term or two?

To summarize, the answer is because it is often an awful, low-paying job, unforgiving to families or people with careers. It demands year-round political work. It's politically impossible to raise the pay. It seems impossible to make it not be awful. Therefore we get a lot of people who like or are abnormally tolerant to that sort of thing. So ... partisan ballot initiatives and weird fishing regulations and blogger sex romps, here we go.

I don't think this applies to every member of the legislature. There are DFLers and Republicans both who have reputations for bright ideas and collegial behavior. But they are either a minority or they are silenced by the nature of the beast. The sad thing about the legislature (and probably all of politics these days) is that it takes well-intentioned people and turns them into partisan gladiators incapable of seeing themselves change for the worse. Has this always been true?

I expect it will get better someday, but only after a serious event or groundswell movement demands as much.

My God in Heaven this is beautiful. A nine-minute YouTube video has cured me of my indifference toward Grand Rapids, Michigan. This film was apparently produced in response to a news story describing Grand Rapids, Mich., as a "dying town." Not dead yet, as you can see.



You know it's good because all I can think about are the things we could do for an Iron Range film of this kind. Great art inspires high thievery.

The Great Northern Radio Show broadcasts live this Saturday, April 7 from the historic Chief Theatre in downtown Bemidji, Minnesota.

One of the exciting things about this show is the large number of rising northern Minnesota musical artists we've booked. This is really a cross-generational show with some of Bemidji's youngest talent playing alongside some of the most experienced.

There's singer/songwriter Analisa Huschle from Bagley who's coming home from college in South Dakota for this show:



There's Kaija Roy from Bemidji. She's reading a Bronte poem here, but she'll also be singing, playing guitar and acting in our show this Saturday:



I'm looking forward to Sonny Johnson being in the show. Like Kaija, he's a senior at the Trek North school in Bemidji. He's going to be performing some original music along with some supporting guitar in other acts. Here he is riffing on Jimi Hendrix, something our engineer would probably discourage him from doing in our show.



And we're welcoming back Iris Kolodji, one of the breakout stars of our Hibbing debut last October. Iris will be performing in sketches, singing a duet with Kaija and has a solo prepared for the show. Here she with her cover of Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" from our Hibbing show:



Technology isn't always the best thing for society, but it's pretty nice for radio producers. All of these young people have recordings and original music up on YouTube. It's a great way for me to find new talent for the show, a technique I plan to use to find talent for our next shows in Brainerd, Eveleth and Bigfork.

Call 218-326-1234 to reserve your free ticket to the Saturday show in Bemidji. Tickets at the door will be first come/first served. The show starts at 5 p.m. Saturday and we ask that everyone be in their seats by 4:30. You can listen live at 91.7 KAXE in northeastern Minnesota, the new 90.5 KBXE in Bemidji and north central Minnesota, 105.3 Brainerd and streaming live at www.kaxe.org, where next week you'll be able to access the podcast. Soon after the show will be offered to independent public radio stations around Minnesota and beyond.

Tell your local public radio station you want to hear the Great Northern Radio Show! Because we are funded in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund the show is offered at no cost.