For those longing for spring in this land where spring eludes us well into late April, how about this Iron Range shindig? This Saturday, March 2, an event called "Green Envy" will be held from 4-7 p.m. at the Olcott Park Greenhouse in Virginia, Minnesota. The tagline: "Be the envy of all your friends, get out of the cold, and experience the greenhouse in an entirely new way."

Green Envy features live music from Virginia High School Orchestra Students, country rocker Mark Henderson, acoustic folk fun by Haugen & Hotchkiss, and finally Matt Ray and Those Damn Horses. Those of you who heard the Eveleth edition of the Great Northern Radio Show know what the Horses can do. Frankly, this sounds like a heckuva good show.

Matt Ray and Those Damn Horses headlined last fall's Great Northern Radio Show in Eveleth.

Sounds like they've got a silent auction, hors d'oeuvres, beverages that would be OK for plants and beverages that would not be OK for plants, if you catch my drift.

Tickets are $10 with all proceeds going to the greenhouse. Folks behind the scenes of the greenhouse will be hand to talk about what's going on, so whether you like plants, local politics or live music, there's something for you. If you like all of those things, well, you really don't have an excuse not to be there.

Looking for info? Call Nevada (218) 750-0389 or Lindsay (218) 749-0798.

This would be a great way to warm up your musical sensibilities for next Saturday's Great Northern Radio Show, broadcast live from the Bagley High School auditorium on Northern Community Radio.

As a shiftless blogger with dreams of an illustrious writing career I know that you, a shiftless blog reader, probably pine for the same. How about you try a contest that I help run for Dylan Days in Bob Dylan's hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota?

The B.J. Rolfzen Memorial Creative Writing Contest is named for Dylan's influential high school English teacher, a man who taught the importance of literature and poetry to two generations of Iron Range miners' sons and daughters. One of them was Robert Zimmerman, who just two years after leaving Minnesota would become Bob Dylan. The deadline is this upcoming Sunday, March 3. Find out how to enter here.

I'll clue you in that while we accept entries from all over the world, this is usually a pretty good opportunity for a new or experimental writer or poet. We've provided a number of first-time credits in our sleek, professionally-edited journal "Talkin' Blues." Winners are also invited to read their work at Dylan Days 2013.

Also, this year we're offering a creative writing workshop taught by Duluth Poet Laureate (2010-2012) Sheila Packa, who will also keynote our literary showcase. Many other surprises may be in store for this year's Memorial Day weekend extravaganza on the Iron Range.

Here's something adorable and yet just uncomfortable enough to qualify as funny. State Rep. Joe Radinovich (DFL-Crosby), newly elected from Minnesota's Cuyuna Iron Range and Aitkin County, recently spoke to a McGregor first grade class. After receiving letters from the students after the visit, he recorded this video in which he announces his candidacy for first grade class president.

Enjoy.



Money line:

"You can't just sit in class and learn math all day."

Will this confuse the first graders? Almost certainly. Does it confuse me? Yes. I am glad he did this? Upon reflection, yes, but I don't know why. If you're playing at home, add to the fun by imagining that what the aide whispers to him later in the video is "SurveyUSA has you down 17 points to McKayla."

Every year the Lyric Center for the Arts in Virgina, MN, hosts the "Range of the Arts" festival, a multi-day collection of workshops and gallery exhibits. Range of the Arts 2013 begins today.

New this year is tomorrow night's 6:30 p.m. live variety show at The Loft at 516 1/2 Chestnut Street. The event will include music, poetry, storytelling, comedy and more performed by local artists and up-and-comers. Tickets are $10 at the door.

The Lyric Center for the Arts is part of an ongoing project to renovate and revitalize the historic Lyric Opera House in downtown Virginia. This extraordinary opera house was a jewel of the North before falling into disrepair years ago. But the main components of the place remain viable and they are raising the funds necessary to refurbish the Lyric. I'm hoping that it works out so we can broadcast the Great Northern Radio Show there someday.

Find out more about Range of the Arts here.

Two big stories this past have shown that the mines and mining in general still hold a lot of sway over northern Minnesota, particularly when it comes to public infrastructure.

First, Cliffs Natural Resources rejected the most popular proposal to re-route the vital Range artery of Highway 53. The Minnesota DOT had proposed building the highway over an active mining area, something Cliffs was ultimately uncomfortable doing. (Actually, that always did seem like a bad idea).

The second-most-popular plan involves swinging the highway out east of Virginia, curling it along the backside of a mine dump and pit and routing the highway into town differently. This would open new development along the highway, while cutting off traffic to some existing businesses. Other, even less popular plans would have put the highway west of Virginia, back through Iron Junction and bypassing most of the quad cities entirely. This would ensure that the highway never has to move again, but would cost the towns untold millions in lost traffic revenue.

Then in the Star Tribune last weekend, Hibbing's ongoing battle with Cliffs over public water wells was aired. Hibbing Taconite pumping operations have drained down the water table, which has emptied two of the cities three main drinking water sources.

The draining of water in North Hibbing and the expansion of mining between Eveleth and Virginia are all things foretold in dusty old mine plans. With the highway, the original sin may have occurred back in 1960 when the state agreed to build the highway over the ore formation under the promise of paying the bill for moving it at the order of the mining company. In both cases, the mines are poised to get their way, not only because of political advantages but because people long ago acquiesced in writing laws for the mines.


I've said it before, but we're not too terribly far away from big battles over basic things like water, not necessarily because there isn't enough for people to survive, but because a small number of people seek to control it. Such is the way of our world. It's the job of mining companies to mine and they do a fine job of it. It's the job of local leaders to demand that public actions always better the lives of the people.

We ought to be speaking up about our roads and waters, not just over the limited scope of what it means to our current homes or favorite businesses, but to how our communities will look in coming years.

Timothy Collins pens this essay for The Daily Yonder about the specter of low expectations found in rural high schools. While it is mostly a persuasion piece, with a flare for the dramatic, part of its effectiveness might be found in that those of us who know rural schools might feel some of the pressure he describes.

Maybe don't try the four-year college? Maybe don't try the hard classes? Maybe don't try the technical training. After all, college is expensive and, anyway, there are no jobs.

Low expectations, seemingly benign or not, erode the community’s ability to adapt and sustain itself. Low expectations for children – along with low school funding, poverty, and diminished expectations for the community itself – are nightmarish. Even if we can’t overcome the financial obstacles for rural schools, we need to encourage children to do their best with high expectations that are tailored to their needs, potentials, and desires to show what they can do for themselves and their communities.

Give up on the kids and you tack an expiration date on your community. A community with low expectations for itself is a sad, desperate place that will be exploited until it changes from within.

Last month, when Duluth Mayor Don Ness official killed the Gangnam Style meme, northern Minnesota's response to a national trend came nearly a full year after its emergence. But one cannot help but notice that Gangnam's successor, the Harlem Shake, has not only emerged, but peaked, filtered to the small markets and died out at a much higher speed. With a debut of Jan. 30, the meme fully matured in less than two weeks. Now, not even a month later, it's fully saturated the market.

For an example of the Harlem Shake form, here is the Duluth Shake:



The speed of the meme's spread has created some unique problems. Students at Mound Westonka High School in Minnesota were suspended after attempting to record a Harlem Shake video at lunchtime. The vice principal athletic director apparently had no idea what it was, called the cops. The cops and school administration had to review the video to figure out what it was. They ended up suspending the students, obliterating the school's hopes for a state hockey tournament appearance and infuriating the community and student body in the process.

Honestly, it seems to be a case where the meme traveled so fast among internet users that it utterly dumbfounded those out of the loop. I'm a pretty connected guy, but I didn't catch the thing until Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert spoofed it -- marking the decline of the novelty.

This thing won't be around much longer, but can I just add something? Most would use this space to argue the stupidity of the Harlem Shake. I dissent.

The 30-second format of the traditional Harlem Shake video and the "required elements" (masked solo dancer, dispassionate group for first :15, jump cut to pandemonium in second :15) makes for a sort of visual poetry. What is a haiku, a sonnet? Merely the expression of art in prescribed formats, right? A good Harlem Shake video is more than just the duplication of dance moves; it's high order choreography that relies on people, place and theme. A lot of Harlem Shake videos are boring and repetitive. Good ones stand out.


For Harlem Shake videos from regional colleges, check below the jump:

This is my Sunday column for the Feb. 24, 2013 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. I previewed this column with some additional thoughts last Monday.

‘Prairie Silence’ rings true across flatlands, woods or city
By Aaron J. Brown

Having grown up shadowed by the trees and modified hills of northern Minnesota’s Iron Range, I admit to enjoying an occasional North Dakota “flatlander” joke. (North Dakotan: “My dog ran away. Yeah, it took three days”). An intern from North Dakota worked at the paper in Hibbing when I was there. She would tense up any time she drove through the woods, fearful of the encroaching forest that might LEAP OUT at any time.

But in reading a new book, “Prairie Silence: A Memoir,” by Minneapolis author and North Dakota native Melanie Hoffert, I finally realized something. The generational struggles of adapting to our changing world are just as prominent, perhaps more so, in North Dakota as they are here on the Iron Range or in the small lakes towns throughout Minnesota. We have much in common, and Hoffert’s central theme, Prairie Silence, applies as much here as it does there.

Hoffert writes that “prairie silence is:

“...the way the people of the prairie mirror the land with their sturdy, hardworking, fruitful, and quiet dispositions. They are committed to each other ... uncomplaining ... humble and quiet, like white prairie grass in the wind. They swallow their problems, their fears, their shames, and their secrets -- figuring that nature will take care of everything, somehow or other. That is, after all, how it works with the crops. And once a silence has taken hold, whatever it is, it is hard to uproot.”

Hoffert weaves her explanation of Prairie Silence with three experiences: growing up gay on a rural North Dakota farm, reconciling her deep faith with this equally deep reality, and, perhaps most importantly, finding that she loved her family, life on the farm and her community so much, but never knew how she fit into the simple, holy machinery of what she saw around her.

These intertwined threads become a strong rope that makes Hoffert’s memoir an enjoyable and deeply thought-provoking read. While her stories would resonate with anyone who realizes they are gay, they extend into even more profound questions: How on earth will we save rural America as the old way of life collapses into the new economy and flight by young people to the cities?

Social norms might make it abnormally difficult for a gay man or woman to live in a place like our own Minnesota Iron Range, but that is by no means the only reason why people leave. A whole way of life, once rooted firmly, has been torn asunder for gas stations, mini malls and box stores. Young people leave for action, opportunity and culture.

Reading Hoffert describe her hometown, where old buildings seem to disappear every time she comes home, reminded me of the toothless smile seen in many Iron Range downtowns as old buildings come down. As a bartender explains to Hoffert in "Prairie Silence": “Today the highways are nice and the cars are fancy. So: Poof! Ghost town.”

When was the last time you heard someone here on the Range say lines like these? “We’re running down to the Cities for the weekend.” “What’s the best place to get (name of food) in Duluth?” “I can’t do that, I’ve got tickets for (name of band) at the Xcel that weekend.” As a 30-something on the Range, these are the common phrases of life on Facebook or in idle hallway chat.


Here on the Range, as in Hoffart’s hometown, we abandon the aesthetic and cultural souls of our towns for a quick drive in a car that might well have a DVD player for the kids to watch. As Hoffart writes at one point about her experiences: “There are bodies, people, but the center of town is empty -- as hollow and sad as a gutted fish ... Am I partially responsible for this?”

Hoffart’s journey through her own identity, faith and experiences returning to the farm to work a harvest, is a worthy, meaningful ride. Her observations and conclusions ring like the old church bell she finds at an abandoned church near her home, not just for North Dakota, but for anywhere the land and the quiet determination of people created a new generation with a sense of place, but no place to go.

Aaron J. Brown is an author and community college instructor from the Iron Range. He writes MinnesotaBrown.com and hosts 91.7 KAXE’s Great Northern Radio Show on Northern Community Radio. The next episode will broadcast Saturday, March 9 from Bagley High School. Find out more at KAXE.org.

Hardcover:


Kindle:

Peppy longshoreman Duluth, Minn., Mayor Don Ness is trying something new this year, delivering his annual state of the city address by cable access video instead of in a glitzy ceremony. Doing it this way will cost less and allow more people to see the speech, Ness argues.

The speech, which was recorded this week, will be released on March 4.

Ness, always the showman, gave his last inaugural address at a podium carved from ice. While there was no such aesthetic feature this time, Ness tweeted a picture of him recording part of the speech from a nasty-looking snowbank overlooking the city.

Duluth might be more economically vibrant and poised for growth, but it's still Duluth. Nasty barf-colored snowbanks are unavoidable. (They do go away around May or so).

From "What if All the NFL Logos Were British" at Dave's Art Locker by Dave Rappoccio.

The Minnesota Vikings did draw the overseas game in London for next season. Perhaps a sniff of the Thames will remind them of the real vikings' Scandinavian win streak.

This morning Northern Community Radio begins its winter/spring fundraiser. As many of you know, KAXE, KBXE, and Northern Community Internet comprise a truly unique independent public media network, one that has supported me and my writing for many years. I don't ask for donations here at my blog, but if you are a loyal reader of this blog and listen to the KAXE family of programming, please become a member today by calling 800-662-5799 or pledging online.

If you are so inclined, tell them that you found them through MinnesotaBrown and, in particular, tell them that you are a fan of the Great Northern Radio Show.

I'll be on talking about how this station "breaks the mold" this Saturday morning on "Between You and Me," which airs from 10 a.m. to noon. Our next Great Northern Radio Show is coming up soon, broadcasting live from Bagley High School on Saturday, March 9. You can reserve your free tickets when you call in to pledge.

You know how I love maps, so the recent hubbub over a map project by artist Neil Freeman caught my eye. Rather than try to figure out how to reform the bizarre, arguably archaic Electoral College method of electing the President of the United States, why don't we just re-align our state borders to reflect even populations among all states? Freeman's resulting work:


(Full size map)

You understand, of course, how excited I would be to live in a state called "Mesabi" that united my alma mater UW-Superior with my home state, right? That would awesome, and my first order as warlord when the time comes.

Now, even Freeman acknowledges this can't and won't happen for a variety of reasons, but it's good for a think. Still, to harsh that buzz, the New Republic took it a step further and deduced that Mitt Romney would have narrowly won the electoral college in a map like Freeman's even though he lost the popular vote by a statistically significant 4 percent margin.

They conclude that map gimmicks won't solve the problem of the electoral college. The real problem is how you prefer to balance the interests of rural voters spread over a wide area with urban voters tied to densely populated areas.

To me, it suggests that the electoral college might best be abolished. Because it can so easily be gamed one way or the other, let popular vote elect the president and let Congress be elected from a properly apportioned map. Yes, congressional redistricting can also be gamed, but a popularly-elected president can serve as a check on that.

Meantime, I'll add "State of Mesabi" to my wishlist, as an alternate to my "State of Superior" concept.

Minnesota's Democratic Congressional delegation, including five representatives and both senators, sent a letter to President Obama earlier this month, urging him to appoint former Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-MN8) as transportation secretary.

Oberstar was a leading transportation expert in the Congress and former chair of the House Transportation Committee before his loss to Republican Chip Cravaack in 2010. Last year, Cravaack lost to current Rep. Rick Nolan, who is among the signers of the letter. Oberstar's name was floated in late January.

Nolan's office released the letter today as the president is apparently making a decision soon on who will replace outgoing Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood.

Text of the letter is below the jump:

On Tuesday, WDIO-Duluth anchor and Iron Range reporter Renee Passal made a very clever announcement that she'll be having a baby in August. She framed it in the tone and language of a "This Week in Mining" news segment.

For those of us who grew up watching "the channel" (WDIO's twin WIRT Channel 13 in Hibbing), hearing news about taconite prices and labor stoppages is a staple of news viewing. So, this was enjoyable. I encourage you to watch it, and then enjoy my accompanying "top ten" list below the jump. (Sorry, Renee).

"Top Ten Facts Missing from Passal-Nelson Baby Mining Venture"

If you learn politics on the Iron Range you grow to love verbal duels between Falstaff-like figures. That's why I enjoyed this quote from State. Rep. Greg Davids (R-Preston):

“If you want to get on the Bakk-mobile, go ahead. I’m not getting on the Bakk-mobile.”

That's from Urmila Ramakrishnan's story about an internal dispute among Range legislators over IRRRB restructuring that spilled over into the legislature Monday. Davids isn't from the Iron Range, but the fact that he's talking about the bill shows that Iron Range efforts to handle the bill in a unified way clearly broke down.

We already knew about the bill authored Rep. Carly Melin (DFL-Hibbing) to reduce and restructure the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board. Late last week, Iron Ranger and Senate majority leader Sen. Tom Bakk (DFL-Cook) slipped a somewhat similar bill into a Senate tax bill, but one that would include more members ... specifically more members from the Senate.

Bakk's new version of the bill is the one that passed the Senate and the one that, with three Range dissenters, passed the House yesterday. Reps. Melin, Tom Anzelc (DFL-Balsam Township) and Jason Metsa (DFL-Virginia) opposed the Bakk measure, while Rep. David Dill (DFL-Orr) supported his district's senator. Gov. Mark Dayton is expected to sign the larger tax bill, including the new IRRRB rules, later today.

Getting back to the Bakk-mobile for a moment. Here we see that Sen. Bakk holds the most powerful legislative position by any Ranger in recent memory. This will allow him to shape Range legislation to a great degree. Even against a rare split in Range DFL unity, Bakk has the votes to do things his way. It will be interesting to see how he mighty differently interpret Iron Range legislative priorities.

I'd further observe that this vote broke down 4-3 among the Range delegation -- with the four most senior members voting against the three most junior. Not sure what that means either, but here we go.

Tonight, Minnesota DEED commissioner Katie Clark Sieben will hold a forum to discuss Gov. Mark Dayton's budget in an event sponsored by TakeAction Minnesota. Those interested in that process may wish to to check it out.

Various forms of the budget are beginning to shape up at the legislature and that process will play out over the next few months. Everything from schools to snowplows to colleges and health care will be affected by the result.

WHAT: Conversation on the State Budget with the Invest in Minnesota coalition
WHEN: Tuesday, February 19, 6:30pm - 8:00pm
WHERE: Davies Hall, Itasca Community College, 1851 E. Hwy 169, Grand Rapids, MN 55744

The event will feature:

• Highlights from the governor's budget;
• Stories from community leaders about the impact of past budget cuts and the need for revenues;
• Opportunities to weigh in on what's important to you in the state budget;
• Ways you can get involved in future actions.

I'm very, very, very proud of my kid sister (a sophomore at Hibbing High School) Tori Brown who has today's commentary at Minnesota Public Radio. She writes about the practical realities of having Asperger's Syndrome as a high school student.

She wrote this after talking to us about our son, who also has a form of high functioning autism, as a way of helping. I suggested she submit it for publication and it was accepted. Now it can help others as well. Way to go, Tori!

How many truths are unspoken in a place like the Iron Range, or really any part of Minnesota? Perhaps as many as remain unsaid on the North Dakota flat lands of Melanie Hoffert's new memoir "Prairie Silence: A Memoir." Hoffert's debut book is an excellent read, one that absorbed my long weekend. I'll explore it next Sunday in my newspaper column, but here is a passage that stood out but didn't quite fit the piece I wrote:

"Sometimes I wonder if I will be the last generation of my family to live on the land, to know the land. And sometimes I wonder if I am the first generation of a larger kind: the first generation of people to finally and permanently leave the land, the small towns, and the Lutheran churches where they still make coffee by mixing a raw egg with the grounds. The first generation to realize that the world of rural America -- both the good and the bad of it -- will never again be as it once was. The first generation to look back and say, with sadness, I cannot return."

But Hoffert does return, and her experience makes for a fine book. I also did not have room in the column to commiserate with Hoffert over her experiences dealing with mechanical problems on the farm. Those passages very much remind me of times my dad or others in my family attempted to explain engines to me.

I should know. I grew up around machines. I know the sound of the mechanical language, the smell of the shop. But something about the machines remains out of my reach, like a voice telling me to move along.

Stay tuned for Sunday, but you can probably tell that I recommend the book.

This is my Sunday column for the Feb. 17, 2013 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. A version of this piece aired Saturday on KAXE's Between You and Me. The Academy Awards ceremony is tonight.

‘Lincoln”: An ode to gradual change
By Aaron J. Brown

Early in "Team of Rivals," Doris Kearns Goodwin's book about President Abraham Lincoln, the historian explains how two works of fiction released before the U.S. Civil War told important truths about those times.

One would seem obvious: "Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” This story of life in slavery mobilized abolitionists the world over leading up to the Civil War.

The other significant novel of that time was “Moby Dick, which I reread recently. Kearns Goodwin explains that “Moby Dick” depicted a multicultural crew sailing the massive globe as a matter of routine. Slavery was an alien concept in this novel, isolating the American South as a global anomaly. The world is big; we’ve got to get along. Old power, like Captain Ahab, is sometimes wrong and sometimes crazy. This concept was not the point of Moby Dick, but the book was popular because this truth was becoming more widely understood.

Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals" served as the basis for Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-nominated film "Lincoln," which competes tonight for several Academy Awards. Like “Team of Rivals,” the film shows us how gradual, perceptible change can build to great moments that are later described as monumental.

In “Lincoln,” we see Daniel Day-Lewis play Abraham Lincoln during a brief period – the time between Lincoln’s re-election in 1864, through the passage of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery, to Lincoln’s 1865 assassination. Day-Lewis is a leading contender for Best Actor this year and his performance is truly remarkable; utterly morphing into the oft-portrayed and sometimes-lampooned Lincoln with subtle humanity.

But it was this notion of “change” that affected me most. Before I saw the film, I watched a YouTube clip of an old man appearing on a 1950s game show to tell his story of seeing the assassination of Lincoln at Ford’s Theater. People I know were alive in the ‘50s. This man was alive when the real-life scenes in “Lincoln” took place. These were not ancient times; this was our recent past.

The Congressmen who passed the 13th Amendment, and they were all men, were still mostly racist and certainly sexist. Only some voted “Yes” out of a sense of human decency. Most amendment backers – certainly all of the swing votes – voted “Yes” simply to end the divisive debate and score a strategic blow to the Confederacy. It would be decades before everyone could vote in this country, and a century until anything resembling equal rights prevailed across the land.

The world of “Lincoln,” from the marching bands to the color of the streets and grass, is not so different from our own. Here we see the White House. The Capitol Dome as we know it today was nearly finished. One thing stood out: the scene where Congress demanded that two aides run to the White House to get President Lincoln’s opinion on a matter under debate. The aides had to physically run as fast as they could to reach the president in the time necessary. They ran across the whole of the relatively quiet city streets, across the lawns of important buildings, directly into the unguarded White House, up the steps and burst through the doors of the Oval Office with no human interference whatsoever. President Lincoln looked up, listened, wrote a note, and they ran it back to Congress the same way.

I went to Washington, D.C., as a child in 1988. The bustling city hummed with importance. Thinking back, there were no cell phones, though black and white computers could be found tucked into prominent corners of fancy offices. The idea that you could watch videos or interact with people on those computers was on no one’s mind, though. The idea that you could do so with portable devices that everyone carried would have been pure science fiction. And yet today, we expect nothing less in Washington, D.C., or even in the waiting room of a small clinic in Hibbing, Minnesota. We have a black president. The world is still big. We still have to figure out how to get along.

Lincoln did not predict the future; but he felt the change and reacted with compassion and as much speed as was possible. Few have such ability. Their work is important. This was my lesson from my favorite movie this year.

Aaron J. Brown is a writer and community college instructor from the Iron Range. He writes the blog MinnesotaBrown.com and hosts 91.7 KAXE's Great Northern Radio Show on public stations. The next show broadcasts live at 5 p.m. Saturday, March 9 at Bagley High School.

Looking for something to do on the Iron Range this weekend? Here are an assortment of options, all of which roughly coincide with e-mails that have lingered in my inbox until this present and pressing moment.

How about a snowmobile race? We've got solid snow pack all over the Range and if cross country skiing isn't your thing, hell, add a motor. That usually does the trick.

Amateur and professional cross-country snowmobile racers will converge on Hoyt Lakes, Minn. [at 9 a.m.Saturday] to compete in the East Range 100 snowmobile race. The race will be sanctioned by USXC (United States X-Country) Snowmobile Racing and will be held on a closed course in and around Hoyt Lakes. The cross-country format will include racing on White Water lake, local woods, seasonal roads and various other terrain in the race format.

... “We have been seeing an average of about 150 riders at every event so far this season,” said USXC circuit owner Brian Nelson. “Though the Pro class is our premier class, the majority of our racers are amateur racers out having a good time.”

More at IronRange.org.

The MacRostie Art Gallery in Grand Rapids is hosting an exhibit for the rest of the month entitled "Mineview."

As both an architect and artist, Aaron Squadroni finds that the process of art-making is a form of research and inspiration for his work as an architect. Similarly, his architectural designs influence and motivate has artistic explorations. By closely examining his surroundings through photography, collage, drawing, and painting he finds new ways of engaging with buildings and the environment. His exhibition at MacRostie Art Center will consist of hand drawn images and mixed media works that focus on a landmark that is an integral part of northern Minnesota's identity: iron mines.

More on that here.

You could always write this weekend. That's what I'll be doing.

For writers and poets, I got this link for poets to submit work for consideration in becoming Minnesota's state poem, at least according to City Pages. This relates to a whole back story and controversy over whether it's even appropriate to have a state poem, but I expect the author of the "state poem" won't mind the publicity. The deadline is Feb. 22.

This reminds me that we're still taking poems and short stories for the Dylan Days B.J. Rolfzen Memorial Creative Writing Contest. The deadline for that is March 3 and the topic can be anything, though it's always nice to see Minnesota stories and poems in the international mix.

Jason Davis's popular KSTP "On the Road" segment heads to the Iron Range to talk to Jan Gadzo (pronounced Yahn Gahdso) about potica.



Jan Gadzo is an amazing person with an amazing story. I kept lots of notes from talking with him about his experiences fleeing the former Czechoslovakia. Here's a guy who knows what real problems are, and who solves them with delicious ethnic food. Can't beat that. (For the record, it looks like he's lost a fair amount of weight in the video, good for him!)

I'm writing now for the Saturday, March 9 edition of the Great Northern Radio Show on Northern Community Radio, broadcasting live at the Bagley High School auditorium in beautiful Bagley, Minnesota. Reserve your free tickets now!

We just found out we're up against a big men's hockey game between the University of Minnesota Gophers and the Bemidji State Beavers in nearby Bemidji. So it will be a hopping night in Bagley and Bemidji as our unique show rolls on in.

Please join us in Bagley, or make plans to listen live on the radio and KAXE.org. Here's our press release:

Great Northern Radio Show hits the road

KAXE/KBXE program to broadcast live from Bagley March 9

BAGLEY, Minnesota -- The Great Northern Radio Show, a unique live variety program produced by Northern Community Radio (91.7 KAXE/90.5 KBXE), heads to Bagley on Saturday, March 9.

The show will broadcast from the Bagley High School auditorium from 5-7 p.m. on 91.7 KAXE on the Iron Range and across northern Minnesota, 89.9 Brainerd and 90.5 KBXE Bemidji. The program will also be streamed live at kaxe.org. Admission to the live performance is free, but reservations are requested by calling KAXE at 218-326-1234. Audience members are asked to be seated by 4:30 p.m. Walk-ups are welcome on a first come, first served basis.

The Hobo Nephews will unveil new songs at our show.

Written and hosted by Minnesota writer Aaron J. Brown, the Great Northern Radio Show features music, stories and comedy about modern life off the beaten path.

“We’re excited to come to Bagley,” said Brown. “We’ve put together one of our best musical lineups and Bagley is the home of KBXE, Northern Community Radio’s new station serving north central Minnesota. We want to meet our new listeners and highlight this great area.”

The Great Northern Radio Show is a modern incarnation of the classic radio variety show, featuring an eclectic mix of material fit for audiences of all ages and styles of humor. What makes it different is its strong focus on northern Minnesota and the way it includes the off-the-beaten-path location of each show as a central part of the program.

Mary Bue

The March 9 show will feature Minnesota’s own Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank, performing as part of their release tour for their new album “Number One Contender.” Also headlining is the exciting Duluth-based singer/songwriter Mary Bue and her accompanist Kyle Maclean. Exciting young talent like Bemidji singer/songwriters Sonny Johnson of Bemidji and Katie Wig of Brainerd are also among the scheduled performers.

The Great Northern Radio Players, a rotating group of actors from northern Minnesota, will perform original sketches about life in the Bagley area. Bemidji-area comic actress Sara Breeze leads this show’s troupe.

Sonny Johnson

Great Northern Radio Show regulars include director Shelly Nowak and associate producer Kelly Gustavsson, both of Hibbing. House music is by Nickolai Koivunen of Zim. Longtime Iron Range broadcaster Scott Hanson provides foley sound. The show is written by Brown, an Iron Range native who lives in rural Itasca County, with additional material from Hibbing native Matt Nelson.

“Each show is unique, exciting and unpredictable,” said Brown. “Whether you attend the live performance, where you get to see behind the scenes, or listen on the radio, you’ll have a great night of entertainment.”

Katie Wig

The Great Northern Radio Show started in 2011. After its Hibbing debut, the show has broadcast from Bemidji, Brainerd, Eveleth, and Bigfork. After Bagley, the Great Northern Radio Show heads to the Reif Center in Grand Rapids on June 29.

“Our show lives on the road,” said Brown. “Our only home is northern Minnesota and we hope to play every place here that remotely resembles a theater before we’re done.”

The Great Northern Radio Show is rebroadcast on independent public radio stations around the state and is available as a podcast. Find out more at www.kaxe.org. The show is underwritten by the Iron Mining Association of Minnesota and made possible in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Amendment.

The Sax-Zim Bog birding festival begins Friday. It's full, so don't get any ideas. We've talked about my Zim roots and the bog before.

Reading this story from the Duluth News Tribune hit an odd chord for me. Most of the quotes by the various people in the story could be swapped out for quotes I've given as the PR guy for Dylan Days in Hibbing, so long as you swap out the species of birds for "Bob Dylan."

Just keep doing your thing, birds. And also Bob Dylan.

Business North has broken the story that American Consolidated Media, owner of many small daily and weekly newspapers in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin, will close its Hibbing printing and production plant. The Mesabi Daily News, Hibbing Daily Tribune, Grand Rapids Herald-Review and others will now be printed at the Duluth News Tribune's new printing facility in Duluth's Air Park, according to the Ron Brochu story.

The story indicates that printing plant employees will have the opportunity "to seek" positions with Forum Communication, parent company of the DNT.

There are many interesting angles to this story. One, the DNT and these northern papers have long competed against one another. How will this affect that competition? Two, this new arrangement will further affect turnaround time for the AMC papers. Early deadlines just moved earlier still. Three, the printing plant almost seemed cursed from the outset. It's position on the north side of Hibbing subjected it to the force of the mine blasts at Hibbing Taconite, which sometimes threw off the press calibration. These papers are very important to the communities they serve, but the woes of the national newspaper industry weigh heavy here.

Finally, the AMC plant in Hibbing was remodeled from an existing building that many following Range politics and economic development would know: It's the chopsticks factory. Or it was.

UPDATE: The company issues a statement through a story run in all its papers this morning.

As some of you know, my wife Christina is also a blogger, and a more successful one at that. While I traipse through the back woods of the internet she has a national reach with her frugal living site Northern Cheapskate. Today, she shares a free Kindle download for the book "I Wish I Knew That: U.S. Presidents."

In her post she briefly describes something I did as a child and I will share it with you now as a Pre-Presidents' Day holiday memory.

In second grade I won an invention contest and got to take a trip to Washington D.C., where I met my senators and congressman, ate in the Senate club restaurant, stood behind the lectern where tonight President Obama delivers the State of the Union address. Being a nerdy kid living in a trailer house on an Iron Range junkyard, this was probably the most influential trip of my whole life.

The immediate aftermath was considerably more adorable than it was significant, however. Using my family's set of encyclopedias, purchased from a door-to-door salesman, I poured over the chapters on the United States government. I taught myself about the branches of government, the cabinet, the Supreme Court, the whole works. I began appointing small toys -- dinosaur erasers, pencil toppers, $.10 teddy bears from the fabric store where mom bought fabric for our clothes -- to positions in a government.

The fuzzy owl with glasses, deemed most wise, was my president. An alligator was his vice president, to balance the ticket. The Supreme Court was mostly made up of pink Pterodactyl erasers. I took greater care in appointing appropriate animals to the various cabinet positions, right on down to HUD and FEMA. Congress, comprised of 435 members, was far too large to fill with my toy supply, but I did appoint a House speaker and caucus leadership, with the assumption that they represented a far larger body of unseen toys.

It didn't stop there. I made a capitol building out of Popsicle sticks, painted it white, and crafted a stage on the roof from which the president would deliver important speeches.

My government fell when I left for college. It got left behind when my mom moved. Otherwise I'd be assembling it right now for a picture to show you. Maybe it's better just to remember.

I do know that this free book deal looks like something I would have loved as a kid.

Essar Steel Minnesota has announced a purchase agreement with Arcelor Mittal for the taconite pellets it plans to produce early next year. The new Essar plant is now under construction near Nashwauk on Minnesota's western Mesabi Iron Range. A press release was sent out earlier today, compiled here in the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

I have a thing for maps. It's a cliche, of course, for a fellow of my profession. Something about an easy way to pretend to be smart. But I love maps. When I roll out the new version of this blog later this year, I want to include an interactive map somehow. I don't know how yet. I just know I want one.

Anyway, Business Insider has this: 36 Maps That Explain the Entire World. A bold claim, partially true.

This is my Sunday column for the Feb. 10, 2013 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. A version of this piece aired on Saturday's "Between You and Me" program on Northern Community Radio.

Romancing the Range
By Aaron J. Brown

Life boils down to moments of consequence. With Valentine’s Day approaching (it’s this Thursday, for those affected) I was recently asked to name my most romantic moment. You know, for conversation. That’s easy.

My most romantic moment occurred on a hot summer night in Hibbing, Minnesota, the central hub of Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range.
It was the annual Mines and Pines Jubilee street dance on Howard Street where a chance meeting connected me forever with my wife, Christina.

Let’s pause for a moment and consider Iron Range summer street dances. I imagine other places have street dances, too, but our blue collar mining region relies on them as a sweaty handhold for the passage of time.

Usually Range street dances are scheduled around Independence Day, but several city festivals speckled throughout the summer create a functional street dance season. In this, people traverse northeast and southwest along Highway 169 to drink upon the yellow lines painted down the middle of some gritty town’s most respectable street.

It’s not that everyone from the Iron Range goes to all the street dances; it’s that everyone goes at least once in their lives and some never leave.

So on this July day in 1998, the Hibbing street dance had been pulsating for some time. Some of you might know the scene. Three bands play along the mile-long span of Howard Street, spaced so that those standing next to the high powered amplifiers can only hear that band, but everyone else is keenly aware of three bands playing at the same time.

The bars have set up folding tables along the sidewalks, frequented like lemonade stands staffed by the most adorable children in human history. My underage friends made plans to acquire some of the nectar, something that did not then interest me. I wandered the streets hoping to see something, or maybe someone.

My belief in a higher power is really only possible because sometimes the coincidences are unbelievable. The shuffling cattle of revelers parted like a sea before me and this girl I kinda’ knew from somewhere was standing right there. And she smiled.

I should say I had already met Christina before the street dance. We had met the previous month at the Hibbing Daily Tribune; she was the cub reporter on the city desk, I was the even greener freelance writer. I had taken a shine to her one night writing a story about a no-hitter thrown in a Legion baseball game while she worked late to avoid the heat of her apartment. She regarded the meeting as insignificant at the time, and really, I don’t blame her for that.

That night she had already fended off advances from an unknown miscreant dripping rum out his pores, tending as the third wheel to her newlywed friend and her husband. I had abandoned hope of finding anything of value or purpose not only in that evening, but in the entirety of the Iron Range. And in this moment, our eyes met and we walked together thenceforth. Our three children now sleep in the other room. We blog and tweet into the night on land that’s been in our family for generations.

I cannot stress enough how the word “romance” juts out like bones from the swamp in relation to the concept of an Iron Range street dance. Just this past month Hibbing officials made arrangements for additional security at next year’s street dance after a racially charged parking lot melee at last year’s event. We took in Keewatin’s Fourth of July fireworks this past summer, steering clear of the dull neon haze hovering over the downtown like the lights of a city through distant fog. Last year I listened to the earnest complaint of a fellow Iron Ranger that the way the holiday fell on the calendar might disrupt the scheduled semi-formal brawl between Eveleth and Gilbert partisans.

I say all of this knowing that it will in no way deter next summer’s street dances. Wouldn’t want that. These street dances must go on, for from this sea of chaos true order can arise.

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

The Scenic Range News Forum, a weekly newspaper on the western Mesabi Iron Range, will be sold this spring to the publishers of Duluth-based Business North.

Ownership of the Scenic Range News Forum will change hands in a transaction scheduled to close on April 1.

Cynthia and L.L. Johnson have reached an agreement to sell the weekly newspaper to longtime area journalists Beth Bily and Ron Brochu, who also own the BusinessNorth regional business-to-business newspaper.

Bily, of Itasca County, was editor of the Grand Rapids Herald-Review from 2002-2006 and has worked as a freelance writer and editor for several regional newspapers and other publications. She has been co-publisher of BusinessNorth since 2010.

Brochu, of Duluth, was news editor at the Duluth Budgeteer, city editor at the Duluth News Tribune and executive editor of the Superior Daily Telegram before joining Bily as BusinessNorth co-owner.

“We look forward to continuing the community news tradition Cynthia and Lea (LL Johnson) have established along the West Range,” Bily and Brochu said.

Scott Stein will report government and community news. He has been a reporter and editor for area newspapers and magazines for the past 15 years covering business, government and writing features. He's also been a columnist and freelance writing consultant. He currently works at the Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm.

The weekly newspaper’s coverage area stretches from Coleraine/LaPrairie on the west to Keewatin on the east.

"The Scenic," as we like to call it, is a quality small weekly paper which does a good job of compiling the day-to-day news of a coverage area that includes very small towns, mine pits, lakes and forest. While it runs a handful of columnists and an occasional editorial, most of the paper contains local information that is hard to find online.

This is an example of how papers can survive and even thrive by retaining local ownership and keeping low overhead. Beth Bily is a friend and former newspaper colleague and I know she'll take good care of the newspaper run by the Deal family for half a century before the Johnsons (also great folks) ran it.

Changes to the composition of the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board are in store after redistricting and the fall elections made it constitutionally impossible to convene. Urmila Ramakrishnan, legislative correspondent for the Mesabi Daily News and other northern papers, reported the story earlier this week.

Law currently requires that half the board be comprised of legislators whose districts were 50 percent located on the Iron Range. Now, with one less House member and a big combination of Senate districts, that's not possible to follow.

New rules relax the "purity" rule to a third and eliminate the citizen board members, currently appointed by the governor, House Speaker and Senate Majority Leader, respectively.

Normally, it would be worth howling about the loss of citizen representation, but in practice those positions never panned out the way they were supposed to. The IRRRB has always been composed mostly of local Iron Range legislators who, with the commissioner, have authority over the region's unique taxation of mining revenue in lieu of local property taxes.

Citizen board members were introduced under Gov. Tim Pawlenty to add new perspective to the board, and while many fine people have served in this capacity, I can't recall many instances where they didn't vote along with the majority of the legislators or raise any major protest to board action. The longest serving among them, Joe Begich, is himself a former state representative and Iron Range political regular.

Really, your options are to keep the board as elected representatives (accountable to the voters) or create a system of electing board members, a monumental task that would make Minneapolis council races look like a leisurely recumbent bicycle ride through an organic garden. It'd be good for business here at ol' MinnesotaBrown.com, but probably an unholy nightmare that would end in prison for many an ambitious township board director.

UPDATE: Also, IRRRB Commissioner Tony Sertich was confirmed by a Senate panel Wednesday to continue in his job leading the state's most unique region agency.

A typical UMD student when not wearing parka.

A website called DateMySchool has named the University of Minnesota at Duluth as the U.S. college with the hottest student body. Hotness, in this case, has been measured by the number of photos from that college that have been downloaded at their creepy website.

I attended the University of Wisconsin at Superior across the bridge in the gritty railroad port town of Superior, Wisconsin. Our school was for hot people who want a small private school experience at a public school prices.

I enjoy that this Huffington Post slideshow features young woman at UMD wearing a winter coat and squinting into blowing snow. That's pretty much how it goes.

UPDATE: I now see that the "hot" ranking referred to here is from a year ago. So, whether UMD is still the "hottest," though still irrelevant, is at this time unknown. Perhaps, unknowable. 

Well, there's this. A young woman in Duluth has always wanted to be a mermaid. One $3,000 synthetic tail later, SHE IS ONE. And she's finding a way to pay for that tail as a guest mermaid in hotel pools and special events. WDIO has video.

The legend of mermaids comes from ancient sailing tradition. Some believe they were just porpoises or manatees, whose calls were mistaken for human before the sailors saw only the tail slip beneath the ocean. They are often associated with tragedy, but I'm sure this one will turn out well.

No chance to be first on this story, but at least I get to use my Bullwinkle/"North by Northwest" photo art again. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is cancelling the 2013 moose hunt because of massive, sudden decline in the moose population.

We talked about the moose crisis here before. And before that. And last year. It's no laughing matter; the population has dropped by half as animals are dying for reasons not entirely clear (parasites, climate change or a combination of the two, says the DNR).

Maybe it's because I just re-read "Moby Dick" recently, but it occurs to me that the head of a moose kind of looks like a whale.

Anyway, no moose hunting in Minnesota this year. The DNR won't re-open hunting until and unless the population recovers.

UM-Duluth's Labovitz School of Business has a new study out today projecting the possible economic impact of new mining projects in northern Minnesota. It paints quite a picture of the region's mining economy. This is from the press releases (emphasis mine):

Duluth, Minn., Feb. 6, 2013 – A recent report outlining Minnesota’s mining industry found that in 2010, the combined economic impact of iron ore mining and non-ferrous minerals development was more than $3.2 billion statewide. That impact has the potential to more than double with the expansion of mining, supporting more than 27,000 jobs in Minnesota and producing $7.7 billion for the state’s economy if all projects currently under consideration move forward. The report was developed by the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) Labovitz School of Business and Economics as they studied the mining industry’s strong economic impact on the state as well as the significant opportunities for growth.

According to the report, proposed expansions to existing iron mines and new mining projects under consideration, both iron and non-ferrous, would support an additional 15,500 Minnesota workers and contribute an additional $4.5 billion to the state’s economy if all move forward. These numbers reflect annual operations only and do not include the jobs or economic impact of construction of new facilities.

If expansions of existing mining operations and development of projects currently under consideration take place, there will be a significant boost to the economy from construction as well. Construction of proposed expansions and new projects, modeled over a period from 2012 through 2016, have the potential to contribute an additional economic impact of nearly $5.3 billion to the state’s economy and to create an average of 2,423 jobs a year for five years. The report predicted that employment could range from 1,964 in 2012 to a peak of 3,190 in 2016.

2016. At least the standard "wait five years" local economic development maxim has been reduced to three and a half. That's progress and, well, that's measurable. Here's the study. Let's see! You all know what I think about all this.

Tarnations! The U.S. Postal Service is dropping Saturday home delivery in August. Now my Time Magazine won't come until Monday, which is the same day my new e-edition of Newsweek is waiting to be downloaded on my iPad but that I usually don't download because who has that kind of bandwidth? We have limited bandwidth! I opened my Newsweek the other day and President Obama's voice came out. Wife says, "I thought you already watched that?" I did! It's the Newsweek. It's talking to me. Bandwidth!

I am caught between two very disparate worlds, each unable to serve my specific situation!

I guess I'll just have to rely more on the local paper, which ran a "Dear Abby" promo as a skybox on the front page layout.


Boom. That happened.

So I guess life will get better when the FCC follows through with recent plans to create a universal wifi network across the nation. Nope, that's not likely either.

You and me, reader. We'll get through this.

You think you know a place, or people, and you really don't. History is layers upon layers of truth that is only knowable through a quasi-scientific estimation. And you know who I think represents that best? Our fellow northern Minnesotan, Bob Dylan. He theorizes in most recent interviews that the closest you get to the truth is art. Which is work, of course. His work in particular, but maybe the closest we get is in doing something we know how to do as long and as well as we can. 

Dylan didn't say a whisper to the Star Tribune for their recent big profile of the hometown folk rock bard, and the story - like countless others before - dances around elements of truth to make some guesses about who Dylan is and why he does what he does. It goes on. Not bad, I suppose.

I happened to be reading that story when I saw this MinnPost account of the 1924 Milford Mine disaster on the Cuyuna Iron Range near Crosby. Hear the words of the last miner scrambling up the ladder as the mine filled with water. Hear the four-hour drone of the emergency whistle as its dead operator was draped across the lever under the dark muck below ground. And, of course, know the families left behind, telling their stories and keeping the reality of this event as alive as possible, for as long as they can.

Some people want to build a recreational trail out to Milford, so folks can see the mouth of the mine.

Or how about this, a short documentary about the Finns and their role in the 1907 Iron Range labor strike by my colleague Britt Aamodt for Northern Community Radio. I am now regularly explaining the reason this place is called the Iron Range to young people in my college classes. Some folks these days think unions are for big guys yelling at political gatherings. If you challenge that assumption, a guy like me produces a graph showing that union households built the middle class. I'll show you a graph.

But these folks -- men and women -- who founded the labor movement and first cut the rocky ground of the township where I went to school, which I would visit last week to talk about Twitter -- these folks know the truth. And they are all gone.

Who is Bob Dylan? What is the Iron Range? The more we want to know, the less we can find. Do something. Just do something.