KFAI's MinneCulture Presents

The Story of Born to Run from Joyride Media In celebration of Bruce Springsteen 's 70th birthday this week, we're going to listen to a radio documentary about the making of his breakthrough album. Born To Run was recorded between January 8, 1974 - July 20, 1975 and its laborious creation has become the stuff of legend . This one-hour music-heavy special tells the inside story and contains outtakes and alternate versions of songs from the recording sessions. Interviewees include the Boss himself, along with members of his E Street Band both past and present. We'll hear from Roy Bittan, Ernest "Boom" Carter, Clarence Clemons, Danny Federici, Nils Lofgren, David Sancious, Patti Scialfa, Garry Tallent, Miami Steve Van Zandt, and Max Weinberg . They will also recall scenes from the tumultuous tour which directly followed, as the album's final mixing continued at the studio back home. Plus, producer Jon Landau, engineer Jimmy Iovine, and manager Mike Appel ...

Poetry As Music  by Dixie Treichel Anthony Ceballos is a Minnesota poet who loves reading his work before an audience. "A live reading of a poem for me is just as important as how it is read on the page," he says. Anthony is starting to appear in a new weekly poetry segment  on  Melissa Olson 's program Sanctuary. Sanctuary: Arts and Activism airs Mondays from 1 to 2pm on KFAI. Dan Keiser, The Oak Man by  Brigitta Greene The Mendota Dakota tribal community honored arborist Dan Keiser [pictured] at their annual pow wow in September of 2019. Keiser goes by "Oak Man," a nickname he acquired during the years-long standoff over the construction of Highway 55 in the late 90s. The protest pitted environmental activists and native communities against MnDOT . A central symbol of the fight were four bur oak trees , well over 100 years old, that native communities believed to be sacred, and highway officials said needed to be cleared. The highway ultimately won o...

Jelloslave Live from Minnesota  Powered by an eclectic mix of cellos and percussion, Jelloslave paints vivid soundscapes which crisscross cultures and musical styles. Jelloslave features Jacqueline Ultan and Michelle Kinney on cello, Greg Schutte on drums, and Gary Waryan on tablas. Recorded live on June 21, 2018 at Spring Cafe at Como Lakeside Pavilion in St. Paul. Produced by Tom Garneau for MinneCulture . Prior to listening to this performance, we'll hear an audio story from KFAI's Nikki Tundel about the origin of Jelloslave and their music-making process.  Michael Yonkers Live from Minnesota  A very rare live performance by groundbreaking Minneapolis garage-surf-noise music pioneer Michael Yonkers . His highly experimental 60s recordings have earned him a cult following and were later re-released by the Sub Pop, Drag City, Get Hip, and De Stijl record labels. Playing a modified guitar with homemade effects, Yonkers creates a wall of distorted sound adding hi...

MinneCulture Podcast, Ep. 24: The Purple One from KFAI For our Season 3 finale, s tories about the late, great Prince Rogers Nelson . We speak to the fella credited with "discovering" The Artist, learn what it was like to get phone calls from Prince at 3 a.m., and we take a tour of "Purple Places" that mark Skipper's roots in North Minneapolis. Episode produced by Nancy Rosenbaum . Prince and the Technician by the Kitchen Sisters In 1983 Prince hired LA sound technician, Susan Rogers , one of the few women in the industry, to move to Minneapolis and help upgrade his home recording studio as he began work on the album and the movie Purple Rain. Susan, a trained technician with no sound engineering experience became the engineer of all that Prince recorded for the next four years. We'll hear what it was like to work with Prince for 24 hours, 36 hours, 96 hours at a stretch, as he layered and perfected his hot, funky sound .  Not So Purple Rain by X...

The Miracle of Birth by Ryan Dawes Every year at the Minnesota State Fair, droves of pigs, cows, and sheep give birth before a live audience at the Miracle of Birth Center . In this piece, Veterinarian Florian Ledermann speaks about this one-of-a-kind agricultural education exhibit and perennial State Fair tradition. Front Yard Almond Cakes by Rob McGinley Myers   Rob has always been fascinated by the people who sell refreshments and other things on the streets outside the Minnesota State Fair . He went to talk to those neighborhood vendors - especially one woman who's been selling cake from her front yard for years.  Parking on a Stick by Emily Bright With about 110,000 people squeezing into the Minnesota State Fair every day, finding a place to park can be a drag. Sure, you can take the bus, visit a park-and-ride , or bike. But many people still drive. We will learn how some nearby homeowners rent out their lawns, driveways and garages to the sweaty, ...

MinneCulture Podcast, Ep. 23: Other Duties as Assigned from KFAI There are always parts of a job no one else understands or perhaps even knows about, unheralded tasks that are void of glory and praise. On this episode , we hear from an elementary school principal and the CEO of a hip-hop record label , each fulfilling the last line on their job description: "Other duties as assigned." Red Owl Revival by Anna Stitt The town of Stewart used to be a bustling farm and railroad community. In recent decades, shops have been shuttered and young people have left. But not Jim Pessek. The 34-year-old man is determined to help turn the town's defunct Red Owl  grocery store into a museum. From Fear To Fascination  by Rob McGinley Myers Forty years ago, few people wanted to own snakes or lizards as pets. But since then, the market for geckos, chameleons and bearded dragons has boomed, fueling the success of  Twin Cities Reptiles , the largest reptile-themed pet store ...

MinneCulture Podcast, Ep. 22: Minnesota History, in Their Own Words from KFAI Minnesota's oldest auctioneer reflects on rural life, the Kim Loo Sisters face discrimination in the jazz scene during the 1930s and 1940s, and a rusticly bunking historian sheds light on the history of slavery in Minnesota. The episode was produced by KFAI's Emily Bright . A Short History of Minnesota High Wheel Bikes by Britt Aamodt Mastering a new hobby can be tricky, especially if that hobby is learning to ride a high wheel bicycle from the 1880s. The high wheels, so named because of their giant front wheels (and tiny back wheels), stood as high as a horse and competed with them for space on cobblestone streets. As we'll hear, dismounting from a high wheel bike can be a wobbly adventure.  10,000 Kids Out-Muscle Horses in 6-Mile House Pull by Matthew Schneeman Next to Minnehaha Falls sits an old house that hosts exhibits recalling Minneapolis’s past. The house itself is the site of...