May 18th, 2018 by Gary Osberg
Yesterday was the first day that the earth worms were out on the parking lot and the sidewalks on campus. The smell of earth worms brings memories of fishing. The annual Osberg fishing trip is 3 weeks from tomorrow. The opener was last Saturday and I did not participate. I have never been one for getting up early and getting out there before the sun comes up. I prefer to fish in the late afternoon and early evening.
My interest in fishing is only because of my son Erik and his son Walleye Willie. (photo attached) When we purchased a lake place 45 years ago I bought a fishing license for the first time in my life. Erik was not even two years old the first summer, but his Uncle Duaine made a special short fishing rod for him and soon we were casting for Bass from our sail boat.
Earl Benson, the warehouse manager at General Office Products was the one that taught me how to fish for Bass. Erik hated the process of putting a live frog on a number 2 hook with a slip sinker, but it did produce fish. Today it is almost impossible to find frogs anywhere . Minnows, leeches and night crawlers seem to work best for walleye. My son Erik is fishing in a tournament today with a professional. I hope that he gets a big one.
This week Live From Here is back live with a broadcast from the beautiful Fox Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. Special guests include Father John Misty, Neko Case, and comedian Rory Albanese. Joining Chris in the band: Madison Cunningham, Richard Dworsky, Chris Eldridge, Brittany Haas, Alan Hampton, and James McAlister. There will also be the latest Song of the Week from Chris Thile; comedy from the acting company, Serena Brook, Tim Russell, and Fred Newman; a new batch of musicians’ birthdays; Tom Papa’s observations from “Out. In. America”; and another edition of the Instant Song Request.
It’s two hours of live radio you won’t want to miss. Tune in on your radio or on your smart phone.
“What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun, or does it explode?” Langston Hughes.
May 16th, 2018 by Gary Osberg
The second week of my two week vacation started with a trip to Anthem to visit Mary and Roger. Mary was the MPR Senior Account Executive in Rochester for many years. They spend their winters in Anthem, Arizona and their summers on a lake in Wisconsin. The best of both worlds. One fly showed up on the patio during a delicious lunch and wonderful conversation.
From there I traveled up the road to Sedona. Voted as the most beautiful spot in America many times. It is red rock country. My friend Rick owns a home near Bell Rock one of many red rocks in the valley. (Photo attached) We went to a very nice place for supper and the steak was great. Thomas took very good care of us and he recommended choosing mashed potatoes as one of the side dishes. Very special. The only problem we had was that the valet service lost my rental car. For a while I was concerned that the fellow that I turned the keys over to may not have been an actual employee, but then why would someone pull that scam to steal a brown four door Kia. Wouldn’t you hold out for a Lexus?
This week Live from Here is a look back to January and a show at the Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, California. I’m With Her sing “Game to Lose” and “Overland,” there will be performances from Eugene Izotov and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and comedian Jenny Zigrino shares a few thoughts on younger siblings. Plus: the beginning of Chris Thile’s four-part Song of the Month, January 2018; music from Gaby Moreno; a word from Low Self Esteem, Inc.; Tom Papa’s observations from “Out. In. America”; and a visit to a modern gold rush town. Tune in for this weekend’s rewind, and Chris will be back live again on May 19th from The Fox Theatre in Atlanta, with guests Father John Misty, Neko Case, and Rory Albanese.
Tonight I will be at The Paramount Center for the Arts working a table for MPR. The Kingston Trio is performing this afternoon at 1:30 and tonight at 7. I hope to see you there.
“What we do upon some great occasion will probably depend on what we already are, and what we are will be the result of previous years of self-discipline.” H.P. Liddon
May 4th, 2018 by Gary Osberg
Two weeks in Arizona was awesome. This was the first time I have taken a two week vacation since 1976. Brother Bill and my sister Kathie and husband Duaine were awesome hosts. They both bought homes in Sun City West at the right time. Kathie and Duaine have lived in Granite Falls since 1965 and there are a lot of folks from Granite that spend the winter in Sun City West. The men meet for coffee every morning except Sunday at Bashas’ Grocery. One day there were 11 guys. There are many couples that have joined the Granite Falls group from other parts of Minnesota and beyond. Next week I will share my adventures from my visit to Anthem and Sedona. My host in Sedona was Rick, a fellow Sertoman from years ago.
Next Tuesday evening at 7, the St. Cloud Reading Room Society is sponsoring an evening with author and military historian Thomas A. Hughes, Ph.D. in the Cathedral High School Library. Hughes is the author of “Admiral Bill Halsey: A Naval Life” published by Harvard University Press in May 2016 and is Associate Professor of History at The Air University’s School of Advanced Air and Space Studies. Hughes, son of Kevin and JoAnn Hughes of St. Cloud, is a graduate of Cathedral High School and Saint John’s University. His book is a definitive biography of the most famous naval officer of World War II who was seen as fearless but impetuous. Copies of the book will be available to purchase at this event, which is free and open to the public.
This week Live from Here is heading to Nashville for a live broadcast from the Ryman Auditorium with Courtney Barnett, David Rawlings, and comedian Neal Brennan. The band: Madison Cunningham, Rich Dworsky, Chris Eldridge, Brittany Haas, Paul Kowert, and Ted Poor will join Chris. There will also be a bit of comedy from the radio acting company, Serena Brook, Tim Russell, and Fred Newman; Chris Thile’s latest Song of the Week; another week’s worth of musicians’ birthdays; and a word from Tom Papa, Out. In. America. Tune in down on the public radio end of the dial.
“Life was meant to be a mystery. To be lived spontaneously from a present time, unpredictable place.” Judy Wardell
April 13th, 2018 by Gary Osberg
My son Erik and his son Walleye Willie did this report on Monday. https://youtu.be/2BIP1qDYfWc After seeing this, I decided to take two weeks of vacation in Sun City West. I hope to fly out of St. Cloud tomorrow, weather permitting. For that reason, there will be no Friday note until May 4th.
Today is Friday the 13th. The Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, NC, reported that an estimated 17 to 21 million people in the United States are affected by a fear of this day. Some people are so paralyzed by fear that they avoid their normal routines in doing business on this day. “It’s been estimated that $800 to $900 million is lost in business on this day..” source John Roach.
According to Wikipedia, the actual origin of the superstition appears to be a tale in Norse mythology. Friday is named for Frigga, the free-spirited goddess of love and fertility. When Norse and Germanic tribes converted to Christianity, Frigga was banished in shame to a mountaintop and labeled a witch. It was believed that every Friday, the spiteful goddess convened a meeting with eleven other witches, plus the devil – a gathering of thirteen – and plotted ill turns of fate for the coming week. For many centuries in Scandinavia, Friday was known as “Witches’ Sabbath.” source: Charles Panati, Panati’s Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things.
This week, “Live from Here” will kick off a three-week run at The Town Hall in New York City. Pioneering musician and songwriter and Twitter sensation David Crosby stops by with tunes from his latest album Sky Trails; Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks join Chris with loud guitars and potent lyrics — they’ll have a brand-new record, Sparkle Hard, out soon; and we’ll learn a few things from the acerbic perspective of comedian and actress Janeane Garofalo. Plus: a new Song of the Week from Mr. Chris Thile; music from Gaby Moreno, Rich Dworsky, Chris Eldridge, Alan Hampton, Alex Hargreaves, and Ted Poor; and comedy from our acting company, Serena Brook, Tim Russell, and Fred Newman. But wait, there’s more: another crop of musician birthdays packed with some very familiar names; Tom Papa’s latest observations from “Out. In. America”.; and your chance for five minutes of radio fame with our weekly Instant Song Request. Watch live at www.livefromhere.org or our YouTube channel!
“It isn’t the mountain ahead that wears you out; it’s the grain of sand in your shoe.” Lloyd Perry
April 6th, 2018 by Gary Osberg
This poem says it all.
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Long Winter
by Tim Nolan
So much I’ve forgotten: the grass, the birds, the close insects the shoot—the drip—the spray of the sprinkler, freckles—strawberries— the heat of the Sun, the impossible humidity
the flush of your face, so much, the high noon, the high grass
the patio ice cubes, the barbeque, the buzz of them—
the insects, the weeds—the dear weeds—that grow
like alien life forms—all Dr. Suessy and odd—
here we go again¬—we are turning around
again—this will all happen over again—and again—it will—
“Long Winter” by Timothy J. Nolan. Reprinted with permission of the author. |
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Live from Here this week is a live broadcast from the State Theatre in downtown Minneapolis, where winter is just barely hanging on. Joining Chris will be Shakey Graves up from the southern end of Interstate 35 with dense, ambitious songs from his upcoming album, Can’t Wake Up. Singer, rapper, writer, and Minnesotan Dessa will share songs from her latest album, Chime; and Chris will be joined by comedian and actress Rachel Feinstein — you’ve seen her on Crashing, Comedy Central, and The View. There will be a brand-new Song of the Week from host, Chris Thile, who will be joined in the band this week by Madison Cunningham, Rich Dworsky, Chris Eldridge, Alan Hampton, Alex Hargreaves, and Ted Poor. Plus: They will celebrate the very first batch of April musicians’ birthdays. Of course there will be spring sketches from the acting company, Serena Brook, Tim Russell, and Fred Newman. Plus an update from Tom Papa, Out In America. Watch live this Saturday (5 p.m. – 7 p.m. Central Time) at www.livefromhere.org or the YouTube channel!
“Laughter is wine for the soul – laugh soft, or loud and deep, tinged with seriousness. Comedy and tragedy step through life together, arm in arm… Once we laugh we can live.” Sean O’Casey
March 30th, 2018 by Gary Osberg
If I am going to get my Yukon Golds planted by Good Friday, I am going to have to remove a huge snow pile first. This spring has been very slow in coming and I for one am getting a little sick of the snow. I do have a pair of 45 year old cross country skis and every year I threaten to take them to Revolution Cycle and Ski to have them waxed, but I never do it. I am looking forward to Easter dinner at with family in Minneapolis and as of right now the weather app on my phone does show sun and 36 degrees for a high. I trust that you will have a great weekend.
Live from Here this week is one final March rebroadcast before the touring schedule kicks off in earnest. It is a rewind to December and a show at The Town Hall in Manhattan. Spoon turn things up on “Hot Thoughts” and “Do I Have to Talk You Into It”; Cécile McLorin Salvant sings “The Gentleman is a Dope” and “I’ve Got Your Number”; and Carmen Lynch joins Chris with insights on dating, money and happiness, and aging parents. Plus: there will be the Song of the Week tribute to NYC, “The Dreamchasers,” even more music from Sarah Jarosz and Julian Lage, a look at First Drafts of Famous Songs, and Bertrand Falstaff Heine’s take on the performance art of the New York subway. Tune in this weekend. On April 7th there will be a new show, live from Minneapolis! (And make plans for the next few weekends: there will be live video at www.livefromhere.org and over at the YouTube channel, every Saturday evening in April.)
“Three-fourths of the people you will meet tomorrow are hungering and thirsting for sympathy. Give it to them, and they will love you.” Dale Carnegie
March 22nd, 2018 by Gary Osberg
One of my underwriters in Sun Valley, Idaho told me that is raining now, but snow is on the way for this weekend. In years past there have been years when spring was well on its way here in central Minnesota on the fourth Friday in March. Not this year. The forecast is for another snow storm coming thru late Friday and Saturday.
Sun Valley was discovered by Count Felix Schaffgotsch about 80 years ago. Averell Harriman, the chairman of the Union Pacific Railroad, had asked the Count to go west and try to find a suitable site for the creation of a ski resort similar to those that he had visited in Europe. The railroad needed “destination places” to encourage rail travel. The Count was advised to take a trip to Ketchum, Idaho, a mining town in central Idaho. Upon arrival, the Count wired Harriman, “This area combines more delightful features than any place I have seen in Switzerland, Austria or the United States for a winter resort.” Within days they purchased a 4,300 acre ranch and the Sun Valley Resort opened in the winter of 1936. The “chair lift” was invented in Sun Valley. You can visit www.sunvalley.com for information on the resort. When you get there be sure to tune in to KWRV 91.9 Classical MPR.
Live from Here this week is the second March rebroadcast of a recent show in San Diego. Nickel Creek play a few selections from their catalog and debut “No Place Like Home”; Fantastic Negrito turns in scorching performances of “Honest Man” and “In the Pines”; and Maria Bamford joins us with stories on dating, stand-up comedy, and mental health. Plus: Chris and the band play Vulfpeck’s “Fugue State,” Madison Cunningham sings “When Love Loves Alone,” Chris will go inside the minds of baseball’s star players and announcers, and Tom Papa checks in from Out In America. Join us for a look back this weekend and stay tuned for the next live broadcast, April 7th from the State Theatre in Minneapolis.
“Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.” Thomas a Kempis.
March 16th, 2018 by Gary Osberg
Happy St. Patrick’s Day Eve. The Irish Band, Ring of Kerry, is performing tonight at the Fillmore Auditorium in Sartell. Tickets are available online at www.granitecityfolk.org I will be right here on campus at The Great Hall working the table for The Rose Ensemble Their “Welcome The Stranger” honors the lives of the twin Saints Benedict and Scholastica. One of Benedict’s rule is “All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ.” Tickets for this event are at www.csbsju.edu/wow.
The origin of the song “Danny Boy” is an interesting story. The tune is known as the “Londonderry Air” and it originated in the northern most county of Ireland. The story goes that sometime in the 1600 hundreds, a blind harpist, Rory Dall O’Cahan, was traveling home after having finished a gig at a castle in the Valley of Roe. He had a little too much to drink, and he fell asleep in a ditch along the road. He was awakened by the sound of a fairy playing the most beautiful tune he had ever heard on his harp. He returned to the castle and proceeded to play the first rendition of what became known as the “Londonderry Air.”
In 1851, Jane Ross heard a blind fiddler, Jimmy McCurry playing the tune at a fair and she wrote the notes down. The tune spread all over the western world. Many tried to come up with words to the tune, including some of the best known poets of the time, but none seemed to work. Finally an Englishman, Fred Weatherly, a teacher and a lawyer who had written nearly 1,500 songs in his lifetime, was sent the tune by a sister-in-law who lived in America. Over a three month period, Fred had lost his father and his only son. His sorrow is reflected in the words that he wrote, especially the second verse. The song was published in 1913.
“But if you come and the flowers are all dying. If I be dead, as dead I might well be. You will come and find the place where I am lying and kneel and say an “Ave” there for me. And I shall hear , though soft you tread above me and all my grave the warmer, sweeter be, and if you bend and tell me that you love me, then I shall sleep in peace, until you come to me.”
Live from Here this week is the first of a run of three rebroadcasts by turning back to last October and a show at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. Fiona Apple sings “Fast As You Can” and “Every Single Night”; Dan Auerbach plays “Shine on Me” and “Stand By My Girl” and joins Robert Finley on “Get it While You Can” and “Medicine Woman”; Hilary Hahn plays Max Richter’s “Mercy” and teams up with Chris Thile and Paul Kowert for a little Bach. Nick Offerman stops by with a song dedicated to his wife. Plus: Madison Cunningham’s “All At Once,” and a word about Non-Essential Oils from our acting company. Tune in tomorrow at 5pm CDST and either your Classical MPR station or your MPR News station or 11am on Sunday on your MPR News station. Join the gang back live on April 7th from the State Theatre in Minneapolis.
“There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” Leonard Cohen
March 8th, 2018 by Gary Osberg
On June 12, 2005 Steve Jobs delivered the Commencement address at Stanford University. He told three stories from his life, “Connecting the Dots”, “Love and Loss” and “Death”. Steve was 50 years old at the time. You can go to YouTube and search by “Steve Jobs Commencement” and watch it.
A year earlier Steve phoned Walter Isaacson, author of biographies of Einstein and Benjamin Franklin. Steve wanted Issacson to write his biography. Steve died in October of 2011 from pancreatic cancer. The book “Steve Jobs” was published in November of 2011. The book has 571 pages and it is a “great read”. Especially for all of you other recovering entrepreneurs.
The lessons from Steve’s address are:
- “You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”
- “The only way to do great work is to love what you do” and
- “Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.”
Live from Here this week is live from ASU Gammage Auditorium in Tempe, Arizona with The Wood Brothers, Phoebe Bridgers, and Bobcat Goldthwait.
“Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.” Steve Jobs
March 2nd, 2018 by Gary Osberg
“Walleye Willie” has had a good winter of fishing. One Saturday he caught a 14” inch crappie, a 9” bluegill and a 26” walleye.
William Harley Osberg will celebrate his ninth birthday tomorrow. The big party will be poolside at a motel in Wadena. One year we celebrated his birthday at the St. Cloud Holiday Inn & Suites, like we used to do every winter. That tradition was started by friends that wanted to do something nice for the Osbergs.
We had a purchased a farm on Cedar Lake, west of Upsala in 1973 and beginning in 1974 we would invite a bunch of classmates and their families to camp on the beach and celebrate the Fourth of July. It went on until we moved to Charlotte, NC in 1988. In 1976 we had thirteen rigs from a two-man pup tent all the way up to a 35 foot motor home with a color TV. Ronnie would bring his converted school bus the weekend before the 4th and stay until the weekend after. After many days of having a camp fire, Ronnie would bury a kettle, containing a beef roast, in the dirt under the fire site early in the morning and that evening we would have a feast. This was a scouting tradition. The kids loved staying up all night, in their sleeping bags around the campfire. Many of them said it was better than Christmas.
Our friends decided to repay us by planning a weekend at a motel with a pool and we ended up at The Holiday Inn in Saint Cloud, always on the second weekend in February. The first year that we did it we had to sneak the food into the hotel, since the hotel policy was “no food or drink in the rooms” Today if you go there on any weekend during the winter months, there is a smorgasbord in front of most of the pool side rooms. It is a blast. Thank you to Dick Anderson for changing the policy and providing a winter break for all of us. Now the host at the Holiday Inn is Leo Sand.
This week Live From Here is back at the famed Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul with another live broadcast. From Cannon Falls, Minnesota girl to Nashville songwriting star, Caitlyn Smith is on hand performing songs from her new album Starfire; old friends Väsen are back for some barn burning instrumental tunes; and comedian and actress Mary Lynn Rajskub joins Chris for sketches and stand-up. Plus: this season’s 14th Song of the Week from Chris Thile; a barrel full of music from the house band (Madison Cunningham, Rich Dworsky, Stuart Duncan, Chris Eldridge, Matt Johnson, and Chris Morrissey); a duffel-bag-full of scripts from the radio acting company, Serena Brook, Tim Russell, and Fred Newman; and Chris will travel even further into yet-uncharted musician birthday territory. All that, and a new “Out. In. America”. segment from our traveling correspondent, Tom Papa. It’s two hours of high-wire radio you won’t want to miss. Tune in on your local public radio station or watch live (Saturday, 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. Central Time) at livefromhere.org!
“If there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in despairing of life as in hoping for another life and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life”. Albert Camus
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