Uninvited Guests on Between You and Me

by Steve Downing

           Historically, the classic bad uninvited guest is in most cases a relative. Either blood kin or in-law. The reason being: it’s often harder to say “No” to a rellie, though the “Yes” is rarely unanimous or unconditional. By the time “No” (or “Please leave”) becomes unanimous, the damage is done, and a lifetime of further family trouble is pretty much guaranteed.

            It’s the small stuff, isn’t it. Always the small stuff. The uninvited guest needs a 20-minute shower, then requires two towels, sometimes twice a day. The uninvited guest takes over your personal KAXE coffee mug, wanders outdoors with it, and drops it on the sidewalk. The uninvited guest eats and drinks too much, consistently, and is consistently elsewhere during kitchen clean-up. The uninvited guest, after eating and drinking too much, gets sick all over the heirloom night-table, and the hallway between bedroom and bathroom. Then has a myocardial infarction, in the bathroom. And dies. With the door locked. This does transcend small stuff, and it proves my point. You can forgive the uninvited guest for locking that door before he croaked in the bathroom. But shattering your KAXE coffee mug?

            You’re right there with me on this, aren’t you?

Tune in to our weekly conversation - this week on uninvited guests on Between You and Me - Saturday from 10-noon with Heidi Holtan.

Fishing, Culturology, Politics, Baseball, Gardening and Other Fantansies

by Scott Hall

This Thursday on KAXE's morning show, our Early Bird Guide, Jeff Sundin reports from the 79th Annual Northwest Boat, Sport, and Travel Show in Minneapolis (he'd rather be fishing). Travis Ryder covers the Culturology Calendar.  As of now, the Republican-DFL train wreck we have been anticipating this year isn't going to happen because they are not only on separate tracks but also on separate planets. Colleen and Chuck will try to make sense of it on Making Sausage.  Fred Friedman will be on the Sports Page, but after that his life will be on hold this weekend as the Twins open the 2011 baseball season in Toronto and College basketball has the men and women's final fours.  Bonnie the Plant Lady is back to help you imagine what might happen when (if?) the snow melts.

Public Broadcasting 101

Go to http://www.170millionamericans.org/

Recent controversy surrounding NPR has renewed calls in Congress to de-fund public broadcasting in America, particularly National Public Radio.

This is distressing for us at KAXE. Public radio is not the same as NPR. The public broadcasting system is more complicated than that.

Public broadcasting is a system. National Public Radio is a nonprofit organization that creates programming for the system. Some stations elect to buy programs from NPR, but NPR is not the public broadcasting system itself.

The public broadcasting system is made up of 900 local public radio stations and more than 300 local PBS TV stations. If Congress takes away the funding from the public broadcasting system, the money will come directly out of the budgets of local stations.

Here’s how federal funding works for KAXE:

KAXE receives about 20% of its annual revenue—or about $140,000—from federal funds. These funds come from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or CPB. They are KAXE’s third largest source of funding, after membership and underwriting.

About 1/4 of the CPB money going to every public radio station is restricted. We have to use it to buy programming that is distributed nationally and serves a national audience.  KAXE has always used its restricted money to buy programs and satellite services from NPR. We buy All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Car Talk and World Cafe. Other public radio stations (most of the other CPB-funded AMPERS stations in Minnesota, for example) choose to buy programs from other producers like PRI or American Public Media or others.

After that, we are allowed to use the other 3/4 of the money to operate KAXE. Federal money helps us pay for all of our other expenses, like operating our 100,000-watt transmitter, buying equipment and producing local programs like the Morning Show, On the River, the Phenology Show, RealGoodWords, Currents and Between You and Me.

For big stations in large cities, CPB funding is a smaller share of the budget. For small, rural stations like KAXE and rural public TV, it is a much larger share.

In our smaller market, government funding makes a crucial difference in our ability to do a good job for our community. NPR would be inconvenienced by the loss of government funding (it makes up about 2% of their budget), but entire stations—especially small, minority and rural public radio and TV stations—would be severely hurt by this same loss.

We hope you keep this in mind as you consider contacting your legislators, or as you hold discussions with your friends and family in and around our community about public broadcasting’s future.

.--Maggie Montgomery, General Manager, Northern Community Radio

Spring Sprang Sprung

by Robert Jevne

What does spring hold for a man my age? Technically, I am not old. It was only last year I received my first invitation to join AARP, but I have to confess that my passport to randy/rowdy spring revelry has expired. If I ever had been inclined towards spring break in Florida, I no longer would be as it would most likely interfere with my occupation as Chief Obituarian of the house.

So if spring doesn’t cause in me a bacchanalia of spirit, what does it do for me? The increased daylight does provide me with more energy and warmer temperatures make it easier to be outside for more than a few minutes. My wife and I have been walking every day through the still deep snow clear across the field out to a stand of silver maples down by the river to see if the sap is running. There are a few things I’ve been noticing along the way. Oh sure, I take note of the geese flying up-river, the tracks of some critter crawling out of hibernation, the coloration of twigs, the swelling buds, the water flowing in ribbons on top of the river ice, but what I’ve really been eyeing up is an old sagging shed to see what I can salvage from it for a chicken coop. And there’s the loafing shed with its dramatically swayed back in need of straightening and the sliding barn door which no longer slides, and of course every time I look at the dilapidated fence-lines here there and everywhere on the property I think of the heifers coming and how tired my arms are going to be digging all those new post holes before they get here. And somehow I am looking forward to all these tasks. I suspect the mysterious powers of spring hold sway over me yet…in the guise of projects The transference of energy, through me, into a thing, into a place. Strategizing, laboring, witnessing change, being surprised, tiring but maybe not even opening the paper to the obituary page…for a while.

Before my attention got hijacked by the needs of our little farmette and maybe the first sign that spring had a grip on me was that my original idea for this essay was to do a hip-hop version of the Homeric “Hymn to Demeter” that famous chunk of mythopoetry which explained everything the ancient Greek needed to know about why spring sprang every year, about the tribulations of mother/daughter relationships, and about the danger surrounding guys named Pluto who drove around in gold cars and had mysterious connections with the underworld. All set to Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring with DJ needle scratches and a rock-solid drum loop. But then I thought that might be a stretch for a rhythmically challenged middle-age white guy living on a hobby farm in northern Minnesota with a plate already overloaded with spring projects but then I thought - what the heck - its spring! Hit it Igor!

Culturology 3-24: Pecha Kucha in Bemidji

by Travis Ryder

Public speaking is routinely ranked as one of our top fears.  Maybe you're still haunted by memories of freezing up in front of your high school speech class.  (I remember one poor girl in ninth grade performing a pantomime with an open zipper.)  But a new global phenomenon has come to the Northwoods, and it has area folks volunteering for public speaking. In this feature, independent producer Doug MacRostie discovers the magic that is Pecha Kucha. The next Bemidji event is on Thursday, March 31^st, 6:30 p.m., at the New City Ballroom. 

Bemidji-area artist Paula Jensen has a sculpture on display through the end of March at the Women's Art Registry of Minnesota Members' Show, housed in the historic Grain Belt Bottling building in northeast Minneapolis.  AMPERS member station KUMD's Maija Morton visits with Jensen about this show, her work in painting and current endeavors at her own Earth Eagle Forge.  Specifically noteworthy on her website is the documentation of progress on her eagle sculpture.  The story we aired is here.

CULTURE CALENDAR

Fri., Mar. 25         

Flautist Linda Chatterton with pianist Matthew McCright present a recital at BSU's Thompson Recital Hall, 7:30 p.m.

Grand Rapids Players present Chicago, 7:30 Fri and Sat, 2 pm Sunday at the Reif Center.

Grass Roots Concert Series presents Irish trio Chulrua at the Live Well nightclub in Nisswa, 7:30 p.m.

Sat., Mar. 26       

Free digital photography workshop, sponsored by Grand Rapids Area Library.  9 – 2:30, GR Fire Hall meeting room.  Professional photographer Jon Gregor presents.  Cameras available to borrow.  Contact the Library to sign up at 326-7640.

Central Lakes College will host auditions for the children’s play The Clown Who Ran Away, Saturday at 10 a.m.  Actors and actresses in 3rd through 12th grade are invited to audition. 

Boreal Brewers annual homebrew tasting comes to the basement of the Keg ‘n Cork, downtown Bemidji, from 2 to 6 pm.  Brewers, bring 8 to 10 bottles of your finest.  Spectators 21 and up, bring curiosity and a small cover charge.

Tue, Mar. 29       

The acclaimed men's vocal ensemble Cantus performs, 7:30 p.m. at Davies Theater at Itasca Community College in Grand Rapids.

MINNESOTA HISTORY DATEBOOK

March 23, 1971: Minnesota is among the first states to ratify the twenty-sixth amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gives U.S. citizens eighteen years of age or older the right to vote in local, state, and national elections. Both Minnesota and Delaware claim to be the initial actor on the issue.

March 24, 1999: The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the rights of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe to fish and hunt in ceded lands without state regulation, as dictated by an 1837 treaty.

 

Sign Of Spring?

by Scott Hall

We were a divided country this morning - heavy snow in the southern half of the KAXE listening area closed or delayed schools in Carlton, Aitkin, Crow Wing, Cass and Hubbard counties.  Hardly a flake north of highway 200. John Latimer stuck his nose in the studio at 7 this morning to say "I told you so!"  Tuesday's forecast predicted 4 to 11 inches of snow in Itasca County and the Iron Range. John said "I doubt it."  On Monday, 24 to 30 hours before the storm, Tornado Bob said "maybe".  They were both half right. As the sun breaks through here on the Mississippi River in Itasca County, the final tally isn't in yet for the "south of 200" communities, but it looks like 8 to 14 inches when it's all over.  And it will stick around a while.  Temps tonight 5 below to 5 above, highs tomorrow in the 20s, with sunshine.

This morning, retired U of MN Extension Specialist and Maple Syrup guru, Carl Vogt (right), told us the best sap runs often follow a big storm like this one, but other factors are equally important: "overnight temps below freezing, daytime temps in the 40s, sunshine and stable high barometric pressure, and, for some reason, light winds."

Signs of Spring

This Saturday morning John Latimer joins hosts Gail Otteson and Michael Goldberg on "Between You and Me" from 10 to noon.  They'll be tracking the arrival of Spring!  Listen to 91.7 (89.9 in the snowbound Brainerd area, 105.3 in the Bemidji area, on the web at kaxe.org) and call during the program, 218-326-1234.

The 2011 MN Book Awards

by Heidi Holtan
The 2011 MN Book Awards are coming up on Saturday April 16th at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Downtown St. Paul.

Minnesota is a state that I'm proud to live in for many reasons - least of which is it's dedication to literature and books. Minnesota has many great independent publishers and one our greatest resources is its writers. Many of this year's nominees were guests this year on Realgoodwords and other KAXE programming.

During the month of March you can still vote for your favorite in the Minnesota Reader's Choice award here.

This week I feature my conversations with William Kent Krueger and David Housewright. They are both up for the award in the genre fiction category.

You can listen to the interviews I and other KAXE staff did with all of the authors I interviewed who are nominated for a MN Book Award this year:
-William Kent Krueger and "Vermilion Drift"
-David Housewright and "The Taking of Libbie SD"
-Julie Kramer and "Silencing Sam"
-Wendy Webb and "The Tales of Halycon Crane"

-Bonnie Rough and "The Carrier"
-Laurie Hertzel and "News to Me: Adventures of An Accidental Journalist"
-Chris Niskanen and Doug Ohman's "Prairie, Lake, Forest: Minnesota's State Parks" (you can hear the 2 hour Between You and Me on State Parks that includes an interview/conversation with Doug Ohman)
-Jay Weiner and "This is Not Florida: How Al Franken Won the MN Recount" (listen to Scott Hall's interview on the ampers.org site here)
-Michael Nordskog & Aaron Hautala's "Opposite of Cold: The Northwoods Finnish Sauna Tradition" You can see Aaron's essay and photos on the KAXE blog here....
-Anton Treur's "The Assassination of Hole-In-The-Day"