BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (WCCO) — Taking the plunge, way up in the air — that’s what some couples have decided to do on this Valentine’s Day.

The couples were married on the giant Ferris Wheel at Mall of America on Tuesday. The ceremony was at 8:30 a.m. and each couple sat in a different gondola.

They were picked through a contest, in which they had to submit their engagement story.

Along with the wedding, they each received a two-night stay at the Crown Plaza Bloomington, as well as dinner.

The couple with the best overall engagement story also won a $200 gift card.

In celebration of Valentine’s Day, the Mall of America is offering free Ferris Wheel rides all day.

Editor’s note: Mall of America spokesperson Bridget Jewell said while 12 couples were expected, only five came to tie the knot Tuesday. She said they usually expect one or two no-shows with an event like this.

The annual Valentine’s Day event is for adults only. Visitors will get a glimpse Tuesday evening into the romantic rituals of the Apple Valley zoo’s critters.

The cost is $175 per couple and includes the tour, dinner in Discovery Bay, and a keepsake.

All proceeds benefit zoo conservation programs. Advanced registration is required.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Justin Vernon and his band won the competitive and diverse category of best new artist, beating Nicki Minaj, The Band Perry, J. Cole and Skrillex. Vernon talked about writing for the inherent reward of writing songs, not for trophies.

Backstage he said it doesn’t mean he wasn’t honored and grateful for the award. Vernon said he was nervous and felt like he didn’t deserve to be at the Grammys. Bon Iver also won best alternative album.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Adele is rolling deep in Grammy awards. She brought home six more Sunday night, including Album of the Year for “21.”

But with all this success, only a year ago, Adele didn’t know if her career in front of the microphone could continue.

Adele was still a rising star when we first met her in Minneapolis, when she recorded the Cities 97 Sampler back in 2010.

She was supposed to hold a concert last summer at First Avenue, but she had to cancel that performance because of throat problems. Several months later, she performed a make-up concert at the Xcel Energy Center but shortly after, she called off her whole tour.

“When you have vocal bleeding, you simply can’t perform,” the singer said.

She thought she had a bad bout of laryngitis. But when things didn’t get better — doctors found out she had something much worse.

She had a benign polyp on her vocal chord. Dr. Steven Zeitels treated Adele.

“This is not at all pre-cancerous, this is a thoroughly benign event, and they tend to happen in people who have to use their voice considerably,” he said.

Adele described the surgery to remove the polyp to Anderson Cooper on “60 Minutes.”

“They put a laser down your throat, cut off the polyp and kind of laser your hemorrhage back together,” she said.

The surgeon used cutting edge technology to fix Adele’s vocal chords, wave lengths of light to shrink the blood vessels.

“The laser technology is called a KTP or a greenlight laser. It is exactly the technology that I used with Steven, Steven Tyler, and it’s exactly what I use to treat almost all cancers endoscopically,” he said.

The surgery was very delicate.

“The level of precision is profound, you can turn down the power and take care of the tiniest vessel that is giving a singer tremendous difficulties and you can turn it up and take care of an extremely rare form of an aggressive cancer,” Zeitels said.

After the surgery, doctors told Adele she couldn’t speak for two months. It was hard for her to keep quiet.

“I had a note pad and I also had an application on my phone, you type the word and it speaks it,” she said.

The singer has recovered and her prognosis is good.

“She’s looking great, in terms of her vocal functions,” Zeitels said.

Sunday, as she accepted her Grammy, she thanked the men who might make future awards possible.

“Seeing as it’s a vocal performance, I need to thank my doctors, I suppose, who brought my voice back,” Adele said.

The surgeon has also treated Cher, Julie Andrews and Lionel Richie.

The singer, who also made a triumphant comeback from vocal cord surgery on the Grammy stage, sobbed as she won the night’s final award, album of the year, for “21.” It was last year’s top-selling album with more than six million copies sold and remains lodged at the No. 1 spot on this year’s charts.

Her victories tied her with Beyonce as the most wins by a woman in one evening.

“Mom, gold is good!” Adele shouted as she took the album of the year trophy.

The celebration of Adele, a big-voiced, soulful singer, came on a night where the Grammys marked the loss of one of music’s great female voices — and one of its most prized talents overall. Whitney Houston died the night before the Grammys, casting a shadow over music’s biggest night.

But while her death lent a somber overtone to the evening’s show, it did not overwhelm it, perhaps best proved by the show’s closing number, a rollicking jam session featuring Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, and Dave Grohl among others.

The night’s other big winners were Grohl’s Foo Fighters, who won five Grammys. They noted that they made their album “Wasting Light” in a garage.

“To me this award means a lot because it shows that the human element of making music is what’s most important. Singing into a microphone, learning to play an instrument and learning to do your craft, that’s the most important thing for people to do,” Grohl said as the band accepted their best rock performance trophy for “Walk.” ”It’s not about being perfect. It’s not about sounding absolutely correct. It’s not about what goes on in a computer. It’s about what goes on in here (your heart) and what goes on here (your head). … Long live rock ‘n’ roll!”

Among the evening’s performances was a dance-heavy number by Chris Brown, and performances by McCartney and Springsteen, who kicked off the show by performing his new song “We Take Care of Our Own,” a rousing song that references the troubles of the nation.

But the evening’s most moving moment came as Jennifer Hudson — who has called Houston an inspiration and one of her biggest idols — emerged to sing one of Houston’s signature songs, “I Will Always Love You.” Dressed in black, with only the accompaniment of a piano, Hudson appeared to fight back tears as she sang the song, ending with the line, “Whitney, we will always love you.”

The show started off on a somber note, as host LL Cool J appeared in black, and told the audience: “There is no way around this. We’ve had a death in our family.”

He then led the audience in prayer to “our fallen sister.”

“Heavenly father, we thank you for sharing our sister Whitney with us,” he said, as celebrities like Lady Gaga and Miranda Lambert bowed their heads in prayer. “Though she is gone too soon, we remain truly blessed to have been touched by her beautiful spirit.”

He then introduced a clip of a glowing Houston singing “I Will Always Love You.” In his performance of “Runaway Baby,” Bruno Mars also mentioned the death: “Tonight we’re celebrating. Tonight we’re celebrating the beautiful Miss Whitney Houston.”

And Stevie Wonder said: “To Whitney up in heaven, we all love you.”

The show, as usual, was heavy on performances more than awards. Among those was Chris Brown, who was performing on the stage for the first time since he dropped out of 2009′s broadcast; his attack on Rihanna the night before led to both of their absences, an assault charge for Brown and a career low.

But 2011 marked an amazing comeback for Brown and he was rewarded with two planned performances during the show, the first time he and Rihanna performed at the same event since the attack (she sang solo and with Coldplay during the ceremony).

Brown also won best R&B album: “First and foremost, I gotta thank God, and thank the Grammys for letting me get on this stage and do my thing,” he said “All my fans, I love you. We got one. Thank you.”

Justin Vernon, whose band Bon Iver beat Nicki Minaj, The Band Perry, J. Cole and Skrillex for best new artist, accepted the award with admittedly mixed emotions.

“It’s really hard to accept this award. Well, there’s so much talent out here, like on this stage. There’s a lot of talent that’s not here tonight. It’s also hard to accept because when I started to make songs I did it for the inherent reward of making songs, so I’m a little bit uncomfortable up here,” he said. “But with that discomfort I do have a sense of gratitude. I want to say thank you to all the nominees, all the non-nominees that have never been here and never will be here.”

The Grammys did their best to keep a tone that balanced the many moods of the night: The Foo Fighters performed in a tent outside the Staples Center, where the awards were being held, amid a throng of bouncing fans; but moments earlier, Alicia Keys and Bonnie Raitt paid tribute to Etta James, the legend who died last month.

There was also a tribute to the recently reunited Beach Boys that featured Maroon 5, Foster the People and Mike Love, Al Jardine and Brian Wilson, the three remaining members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band, all pitch-perfect as they brought the groups California rock sound and harmonies back to life.

Glen Campbell, who announced his retirement last year after disclosing he had Alzheimer’s disease, also performed with The Band Perry and Blake Shelton, singing his classic hit, “Rhinestone Cowboy.”

The Foos and Brown also returned for another dance-themed performance, a first for the Grammys. It also featured deadmau5, David Guetta and Lil Wayne.

And with Lady Gaga not performing, Minaj stepped in to give the night’s most bizarre/headscratching performance. The rapper-singer’s number included a clip that referenced “The Exorcist” and a stage show that had her levitating on stage amid a church-like background, with hooded choir members and religious imagery.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

With an opening prayer and a moving tribute from Jennifer Hudson, the Grammy Awards played the part of impromptu memorial for Whitney Houston just a day after the six-time Grammy winner was found dead in the bathtub of her Beverly Hills hotel room.

“We’ve had a death in our family,” said host LL Cool J shortly after Bruce Springsteen opened the show by singing, with obvious poignancy, his new single, “We Take Care of Our Own.”

Cool J led the crowd in a prayer for music’s “fallen sister,” as the Staples Center crowd bowed their heads. He declared the night one to “celebrate and remember,” and played a clip of Houston performing “I Will Always Love You” from the 1994 Grammys.

Much later in the show, following the “in memoriam” segment, Hudson, the actress and former “American Idol” finalist, performed a tribute to the 48-year-old Houston by singing her hit ballad “I Will Always Love You.” It was a tender, simple performance that encapsulated the glamour and vocal power Houston embodied.

She sang the last words of the song as: “Whitney, we love you.”

Bathed in a solemn spotlight, Hudson performed in a sleek black gown, accompanied only by piano. She received a standing ovation while portraits of music luminaries who died in the past year were lit above her.

That Houston’s death came so soon before the CBS broadcast meant “a full-blown tribute” wasn’t possible, said Grammy show producer Ken Ehrlich. He turned to Hudson on Saturday evening to hurriedly assemble a performance that Neil Portnow, president of the Recording Academy, said was pulled together in hours of frantic phone calls.

“Musicians, by nature, improvise,” said Portnow on the red carpet before the show.

There were numerous nods to Houston throughout the night, including comments from Stevie Wonder (“I just want to say to Whitney up in heaven, we all love you, Whitney Houston”) and Rihanna (“Make some noise for Whitney!”).

But the Grammys didn’t just honor Houston. It also took time to pay tribute to soul and blues icon Etta James, rap godfather Gil Scott-Heron and “Soul Train” creator Don Cornelius.

But as attendees arrived at the Grammys, Houston was on everyone’s mind. She had been expected to perform at the pre-awards gala Saturday night thrown by music impresario Clive Davis.

“Whenever there’s tragedy, family pulls together — and this is my family,” said producer Jimmy Jam. “There’s going to a little bit of everything tonight, and that’s how the emotions should be.”

“I’m glad we’re all together to grieve together,” said singer Bonnie Raitt.

For those who were particularly close to Houston, the evening was a difficult one. Just days before, on Thursday, R&B singer Kelly Price performed a duet of “Yes, Jesus Loves Me” with Houston at a pre-Grammy celebration — Houston’s last performance.

“I’m here,” said an emotional Price, a friend and a frequent collaborator with Houston. “She gave the genre of R&B music a gift that can never be denied.”

Heartfelt reaction swept across genres.

“Few people will ever touch the world as much as Whitney Houston,” said country star Billy Ray Cyrus.

Musicians who grew up in the 1980s recognized the loss a soundtrack to their youth. R&B singer Ledisi burst into a warm, impromptu rendition of Houston’s “How Will I Know” on the red carpet.

The Grammys were far from alone in honoring Houston. Reaction continued to pour in on social media. BET, MTV and VH1 ran tributes to the singer Sunday. Oprah Winfrey said she would remember Houston in a two-hour tribute Thursday on the Oprah Winfrey Network.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

WALKER, Minn. (WCCO) — New Orleans has Mardi Gras, Munich has Oktoberfest and northern Minnesota has The Eelpout Festival.

It’s an all-out party on ice, Feb. 16-19, featuring games, booze and fish on Minnesota’s third largest lake.

Thousands head out to the ice, hoping to catch a prehistoric looking creature.

“The eelpout is a really unique fish,” said Jeff Andersen, a local fishing guide.

“They’re like an eel,” said Jamie Tatge of Chase on the Lake resort, “and they’ll spin around your arm.”

“And then they got beady little eyes that are spread across the head,” added Ken Bresley. “The point is, they’re a mess.”

Bresley founded the Eeelpout Festival 33 years ago, while trying to think of ways to attract winter tourists to Walker. At the time, no one wanted to find an eelpout at the end of their fishing line.

“It had so many negatives,” he said, “we knew that was the answer. We could turn all these negatives into a positive.”

Eelpout usually swim toward the bottom of deep, cold lakes.

But this time of year, they come up to spawn.

“Like a snake, they slither around. It’s kind of a goofy looking thing when they come out,” said Andersen.

Most of the games – like the Polar Pout Plunge and Pout Luge – take place behind Chase on the Lake resort.

There’s even a Bikini Ice Fishing team.

“You don’t usually see people out in bikinis like having fun going fishing,” said Dijon Bouchard, one of the team members.

People do eat the eelpout. It’s known as the poor man’s lobster.

And when you pull one up, you dance.

“When you catch an eelpout, we call it the Eelpout Shuffle.”

They expect as many 15,000 people on Leech Lake next weekend to fish, drink and dance.

“It is something that until you’ve actually experienced it you’ll never understand it,” said Tatge.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Coroner’s officials say they will not release any information on Whitney Houston’s autopsy at the request of police detectives investigating the singer’s death.

Capt. John Kades says an autopsy on Houston was schedule Sunday but that a security hold prevents him from releasing any details on its status or whether any probable cause of death has been established.

Beverly Hills Police Lt. Mark Rosen said Sunday that his agency may release more details about Houston’s death Saturday afternoon on Monday, but it will depend on whether detectives feel comfortable releasing any information.

A member of Houston’s entourage found the 48-year-old singer unresponsive in her hotel room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel Saturday, just hours before she was supposed to appear at a pre-Grammy gala.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

ROSEVILLE, Minn. (AP) — Lottery officials say a winning ticket sold in Faribault County is worth nearly $1.3 million.

The ticket for the Gopher 5 game was sold for Friday’s drawing. The ticket matched the winning numbers of 3, 4, 17, 29, and 34.

The store that sold Friday’s winning ticket will receive a $5,000 bonus.

Lottery spokeswoman Jenny Canfield says it’s the second million-dollar ticket sold in less than two months. She says a Duluth player won a jackpot worth $1.2 million on the day after Christmas.

Gopher 5 drawings are held on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Players pick five numbers from 1 to 47 for a chance to win a jackpot of at least $100,000.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

We were at the Chilly Open in Wayzata as some of the metro’s most die-hard golfers braved the cold to experience the links in the winter, with some modifications. We also checked out a Winter Walk Off event where people are encouraged to text and use social media while they walk.

In our weekly Best of Minnesota segment, Matt Brickman headed to Amore Victoria in Uptown to check out one of the best spots in the Twin Cities to have Valentine’s Day dinner. Mama V and Frank Vascellaro also made some mock chicken legs.

Check out the videos below.

Making Food With Mozza Mia Restaurant

Text While You Walk At Winter Walk Off

Lake Home And Cabin Show Hits Minneapolis

Die Hard Golfers Hit Chilly Open In Wayzata

Best Of MN: Best Valentine’s Day Restaurant

Mama V’s Mock Chicken Legs

DeRusha Eats: Eating Spots For Singles

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Twins baseball has become interactive, but not only on the field. It’s also now on the Internet, and it’s taking baseball to a whole new level and making it personal.

When the season starts at Target Field, you’re sure to hear a few familiar sounds. They’ll be coming from your phone.

Social media isn’t’ just changing the way the media covers sports, it’s changing the relationship between fans and players.

“It was actually last year, I was sitting on the bus with Michael Cuddyer. I kept going through web sites and he said why don’t you go on Twitter you can follow those websites or those people and just get everything right there?” said Twins pitcher Glen Perkins.

Once the game is over, players put down their bats and gloves and pick up their cell phones.

“I think it helps for the fans to feel somehow connected with us and makes it a little more personable,” Pitcher Brian Duensing said.

Because the players aren’t always on the mound, Perkins shows us what he’s up to when he’s out of uniform.

“I didn’t want to write about baseball. I’d like to think of myself as more than a baseball player, so I try to do the stuff that I think is interesting,” he said.

The players share and they receive. If the players have a tough night, they’ll hear about it directly from fans in 140 characters or less.

“Last year was a rough year and I got a lot of Tweets saying ‘keep your head up,’” Duensing said. “It’s actually really encouraging because sometimes you feel like you’re letting everyone down and when you get tweets it reassures you they’re behind you.”

It’s not just the guys on the field getting involved, members of the team’s front office is logging on, too.

Fans are turning to social media for the latest news on the team. Dave St. Peter, whose Twitter handle is “@TwinsPrez,” said fans deserve to hear what’s going on straight from the source.

“I think it’s important that we’re speaking to our fans,” St. Peter said. “A lot of fans are on Twitter that are asking questions and I was worried unless I was sending a response to answer – they weren’t getting answered.”

You won’t find all of the Twins players on Twitter. Only about 20 are signed up.

“My technology savviness is non-existent,” said pitcher Matt Capps, who does not tweet. “I thought Twitter was a yellow canary bird for the longest time.”

Twins fans will have a new hashtag to follow this year. Perkins started “#ThingsCarlSays.” He’ll be tweeting one-liners from fellow ace, Carl Pavano.

Here is a list of the current Twins who actively use Twitter.
Follow the Twins baseball season on WCCO through our Twins Blog.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Looking for the perfect place to take your significant other for a Valentine’s Day dinner?

WCCO-TV’s Matt Brickman solicited your ideas for a great restaurant to check out. Your votes took him to Amore Victoria in Uptown.

Check out the video for his story.

TeenNick is inviting viewers to “Party with Degrassi” at screening events in Bloomington and four other U.S. cities as the network debuts 14 new half-hour episodes.

The event will be held Wednesday evening in the Mall of America Rotunda. Fans will have a chance to interact with stars of the show, walk the orange carpet and watch an advance screening of the premiere episode, “Underneath It All” Part 1.

“Degrassi” addresses teen issues faced by a group of young adults at Degrassi Community School. New episodes of the award-winning dramatic series will begin airing with the premiere episode Monday, Feb. 20.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Music is so present in many of our lives, it’s easy to take for granted. For a group of Twin Cities youngsters, it’s not that simple.

Students from Northern Voices, a school for children with hearing loss, got a chance to experience music Friday on one of Minnesota’s biggest stages, Orchestra Hall.

“We have to basically teach them how to listen, team them how to talk,” said Angie Schnellman, a teacher who has been with Northern Voices since they opened in 1999.

The students have varying levels of hearing loss, but all wear cochlear implants or hearing aids.

“We don’t really know how they hear things,” said Schnellman.

It’s easy to figure out, though, that they love music.

“I can see their faces now, and they’ll just be like ‘Oh my goodness, that’s a tuba, there’s the saxophone!’” said Schnellman.

After two weeks of talking about music in school, the 3-year-old to 7-year-old students got a chance to get their hands on the real thing, and they took full advantage of it. They banged on snare drums and ran bows across violins and cello, all with a smile stretching from ear to ear.

Sherry Schaffer’s son Frank is part of the class at Northern Voices. He was born profoundly deaf and wears cochlear implants, but that hasn’t slowed him down a bit.

“He’s our youngest and arguable our most confident,” said Schaffer.

Friday was as much a treat for Frank as for his mom, who says watching her son enjoying music, never get old.

“I still tear up because it’s so fantastic, what we all get to appreciate on a daily basis, and he gets to as well,” Shaffer said.

The program the students attended is put on by the Minnesota Orchestra’s Volunteer Association.

Saturday, you can see three of her award-winning short films as well as Ratcatcher, Ramsay’s first feature. My second favorite Ramsay film, Ratcatcher is a movie that plays heavily on contrast. Think: Scotland’s lovely, wet emerald grass vs. pyramids of black garbage bags; the hardships of a 12-year-old’s working class youth vs. the quirkiness of his daydreams. It’s wonderful.

On Wednesday, you can see Morvern Callar, a movie about a young woman who finds her novelist boyfriend dead (by suicide) on Christmas Day. In an effort to recreate her life, she steals her late beau’s unpublished book and tries to sell it. The endeavor eventually takes her out of her supermarket job and south to Spain. Meanwhile she tells no one of her boyfriend’s death and she leaves the Christmas tree — with its schizophrenic blinking lights — up and on. Although a respectable film, Morvern Callar is the Ramsay film I liked least.

The movies I’ve mentioned so far are all gorgeous and brutal, and, at least for this American blogger, delightfully Scottish. However, none of the films (including Ratcatcher, which I liked quite a lot) as are brilliant as We Need to Talk About Kevin, which comes out Friday – Today! if you are reading this blog the day it alighted on the Internet.

Time to talk about Kevin. It plays at 7:30 p.m., and it’s a nightmare you shouldn’t miss.

What’s it about? Basically, it’s the story of a mother (played amazingly by Tilda Swinton) who gives birth to a beautiful boy named Kevin. But to his mother’s great misfortune, Kevin lacks a conscience; he’s a psychopath, a time bomb, a future teenage mass murderer who will make his mother’s private hell into a painfully public one.

The movie’s structure is artfully built around one act of carnage that I just can’t spoil. It’s something that would make headlines in any city, but it’s done such an archaic way that it’s almost humorous.

Kevin, as you might have guessed, is not easy to watch.

Devoid of compassion, Kevin is a constant torment to his mother, who is a successful, cosmopolitan woman, both intelligent and ambitious. But the constitution of her character quickly crumbles under the contempt of her son’s actions.

Examples of contempt can be seen in the following. Every time his mother says, “I love you,” Kevin flings back “Na na nana na na nana.” When she wallpapers a room for herself with exotic maps (her dreams, really), Kevin tells her the maps are stupid and, when she’s gone, takes a paint-filled squirt gun and desecrates her space. It gets worse. He refuses to use the toilet and will poop his pants (diapered 6-year-old devil that he is) as soon as she changes him. And as Kevin gets older, his ego and amusement at others’ suffering morphs into something truly gross. When he’s blessed with a little sister, Kevin ends up hiding her pet in the flip-switch-waiting jaws of the garbage disposal.

Thus begins the bloodbath. Visually, Kevin is drenched in red: tomatoes, red paint, blood, ruby-colored balloons and balls. The color is everywhere – lurching, popping, highlighting, burning. It’s almost oppressive, really. And the mother in our story is always trying to clean it up, despite the fact that the messes keep getting bigger and bigger. But what can she do?

She’s stuck. Raising a child – a psychopath, no less – is something she can’t handle at all, but she also can’t seek help. Kevin acts very nicely around his father and thus plays his parents against each other. If the mother leaves the family, she’s an outcast: miserable. If she tries to make Kevin normal: she’s miserable. And if she seeks outside help for her son, she has to admit to herself that something is horribly wrong with her life, perhaps even her parenting: and she’s miserable.

Speaking of misery, that word basically describes the movie’s tone. If you want to level some criticism against Kevin, you could say that it’s a bit one-track. However, I don’t think the movie would be as creepy or disturbing if it lightened things up – even if done so as a matter of contrast. Because when the credits roll, it’s that droning sense that sticks with you.

By now you might have an idea if Kevin is something you want to see on a Friday night. I’d have to recommend it just based on the fact that I could hardly control my unease while sitting through it. The strength of the film’s metaphors allows you to know what’s happening just based on intuition, making the movie into a sort of cinematic mystery game not totally based on chance or guessing.

Mike Augustyniak tells us it’s supposed to be uber-cold Friday, so why not consider, if only for a few hours, a nightmare that some mothers must face. If anything, the film might move you to talk (or at least think) about Kevin if you see him alight in your life.

Tickets to all of Ramsay’s movies are $8. You can also get into all of them for $15, which isn’t bad for three features and three sorts.

For more information on Ramsay, head over the Walker Art Center’s website.

Rob Davies plays the jug for the Roe Family Singers. They’ve been together for several years and have taken the title of “America’s Great Best Jug Band” twice, but lost last year.

“I’m a recovering trombone player,” said Davies. “We’ve been playing together every Monday night at the 331 Club for six years now.”

NewsRadio 830 WCCO’s Edgar Linares Reports

The band has a total of nine members and they’re all gearing up for this weekend’s big event.

Davies said Minnesota has a long tradition of folksy and Mississippi Bluegrass style of music. He said that’s reflective in the number of bands that registered in this year’s battle.

“There’s literally 30 to 40 jug bands that applied to get into the jug band battle this year,” said Davies.

As many as 20 bands in the “Waffle Iron League” will play on Sunday. Groups are competing for a 1937 Waffle Iron with names of past champions engraved on it.

“It’s the Stanley Cup of Waffle Irons,” said Davies.

It’s a good time and it’s for a good cause. The competition is a fundraiser for the Cedar and West Bank School of Music.

The big show starts is on Sunday at Cabooze on 917 Cedar Ave. South in Minneapolis. Bands will compete from 1 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and there is a $5 cover at the door.

“This Will Have Been: Art, Love and Politics in the 1980s” opens Saturday. It features about 140 paintings, photographs, movies and sculptures. The exhibit highlights famous artists Keith Haring, Jeff Koons, Robert Mapplethorpe and Julian Schnabel.

The artwork reflects icons from the decade, including Jesse Jackson, Ronald Reagan and Andy Warhol. The pieces also reflect on important issues during the 1980s, like nuclear proliferation, the AIDS crisis and feminism.

Chief curator Helen Molesworth says it’s time for American culture to revisit this period of history and discuss its legacy.

The exhibit runs until June 3. It also will show at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

ST. PAUL (WCCO) — On Sunday night, the music world comes together to honor the best of the best at the Grammy Awards and many will be watching to see if a Twin Cities man brings home a few awards.

Stokley Williams, the lead singer of the group Mint Condition, is nominated Best R&B Song and Best R&B performance for helping out Kelly Price with hit song “Not My Daddy.”

Williams grew up the Twin Cities and still lives here.

The song dominated the R&B charts for weeks last year. It was co-produced by members of Mint Condition, who grew up together in St. Paul.

“For me, it’s about the power struggles in a relationship; you might have strong personalities … and just the balance of that. You hear the guy say look I got one Mama, I don’t need two,” laughed Williams. “So its like be my mate, not someone who is trying to control me, that kind of thing.”

Mint Condition had a great 2011 touring Europe with Prince and performing in concerts with singers Anthony Hamilton and Jill Scott. Not bad for a band that first hit the national stage in the early 1990′s with hits like “Breakin’ My Heart.”

Williams also sings with a jazz group in France and is regularly flying around the world. So, what’s his reason for keeping a home in Minnesota?

“It is a firm base, there are real people here. A waitress is really a waitress here. You know, I’m cool with that,” he said.

And when he’s home, he’s with his wife, Sylvia Williams, and their two young children.

“On Sundays we always have a family dinner. We get everybody all together. You know the parents and the kids, it’s our time to re-establish the connection,” said Stokley’s wife.

Sylvia Williams is busy, too. She’s a professional baker and runs her own business, in addition to taking care of their kids.

Stokley Williams is planning to be in the audience with his fellow Grammy nominees on Sunday.

Organizers of the 2012 .EDU Film Festival say they need short films and videos from young filmmakers.

Categories include music videos, documentaries, experimental films and animation.

Entries are due by April 16.

The .EDU Film Festival is now in its fifth year. Last year, nearly 300 students from 30 schools and organizations participated.

This year’s festival will be held May 18 at St. Anthony Main in Minneapolis.

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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — No doubt there will be plenty of people watching Adele’s first performance at the Grammys Sunday. Frank Vascellaro and Mark Rosen’s mothers, Rosalie and Doris, will certainly be watching.

We sat down with our ‘CCO grannies to see what they thought of this year’s Grammy nominees.

You can laugh along to their reactions to the songs and the artists, as well as their predictions by watching the video above!

(credit: Magnolia Pictures)

Pssst! Want to win your Oscar pool? Well, it often seems to come down to picking the right candidates in the short film categories.

Most people pick those winners blindly, typically picking the title that sounds the most like your average Oscar winner — metaphors and gerunds score highly on this scale.

Luckily for you, the Lagoon Theater and Shorts International will be presenting the ten movies nominated in the short animated film and short live action film categories this Friday, for one week only. So there’s no excuse to enter your pool uninformed.

Here’s my preview of all nominees and a few educated guesses as to which ones will win. But seriously, don’t take my word for it. See them for yourself.

(Note: The animated shorts program also features four extra “highly commended,” but not nominated, titles — Nullarbor, Amazonia, Skylight & Hybrid Union.)

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ANIMATED SHORTS

● Dimanche (Sunday) — One of two shorts produced by the National Film Board of Canada in this year’s competition, Dimanche is a wry, slightly cracked look at a boy trying to fight the tedium of Sunday trips to church and grandparents’ countryside homes. He takes to placing coins on train tracks. Nostalgic without being cloying.

● The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore — At 15 minutes, this is the blockbuster epic of this year’s grouping. With nods to Hurricane Katrina, The Wizard of Oz and Reading Rainbow, Lessmore is as arch and dandy as its Wes Anderson-ish title suggests. I thought it wore out its welcome by the time it reached its epilogue, but maybe the forthcoming iPad app will make it snap for me.

● La Luna (The Moon) — Pixar’s only nomination of the year, thanks to the utter critical failure of Cars 2, La Luna is a lovely storybook tale of a boy who joins his seafaring father and grandfather to see the family line of work in action. Stressing magical realism, La Luna stands alongside WALL-E and Up in Pixar’s warm, irony-free legacy.

● A Morning Stroll — But if irony is what you seek (and the voters who gave Logorama the trophy two years ago might be), than A Morning Stroll is your best bet this year. A simple chicken joke gets three versions — one set in the 1920s, one set in the current day, and one set in the future. The second and third sections are borderline strident, but the silent movie-ish beginning might resonate in this, the year of The Artist.

(credit: Magnolia Pictures)

● Wild Life — The other movie from the National Film Board of Canada, Wild Life shows the consequences of a British lad’s ill-prepared relocation to the hinterlands of Alberta. With delicate brushstroke-style images and a poetic, disjointed story approach, Wild Life feels the most fully-rounded of these five.

WILL WIN: La Luna, not just because it’s one of the best in this group, but also because some (read: not me) might say Pixar got “snubbed” in the animated feature category.

DESERVES TO WIN: Wild Life has the most evocative animation of the five, and also has the storyline most likely to appeal to adults regardless of their overall feelings about cartoons.

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(credit: Magnolia Pictures)

LIVE-ACTION SHORTS

● Pentacost – As one of my fellow movie buffs suggested, this has the feel of a British Advertisement Award winner, but not so much an Oscar winner. An altar boy named Damian (o rly?) screws up a service and his father punishes him by forbidding him to watch soccer for pretty much ever. But then he gets a second chance thanks to a very important visitor. Basically one long lead-up to its punchline.

(credit: Magnolia Pictures)

● Raju — It’s to Oscar voters’ credit that the live-action short category has often managed to avoid simply voting for the most socially conscious candidate, regardless of its formal level of quality. This year, though, the most obviously socially-minded nominee — about a German couple who try to adopt an Indian orphan only to find themselves trying not to invoke the phrase “First World Problems” — is also one of the most well-produced.

● The Shore — The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore of this category, in that it’s the most obviously expansive and well-funded. However, its excessive length (31 minutes) almost ends up working against it in that its story — about a childhood misunderstanding and a long-deferred reunion — feels somehow shortchanged and preemptive. Still, it’s got Ciaran Hinds, which in this category is some serious star wattage.

● Time Freak — A snarky, one-joke entry about an awkward young man who invents a time machine. It couldn’t be more obviously a student film, but you know what? The last few movies that have won in this category have also been snarky, one-joke shorts that feel like student films. It still feels a little out of its league in this company, but you stand warned that it could be a sleeper cell.

● Tuba Atlantic — This Norwegian short has already won the Student Academy Award (for whatever that might be worth), and that’s not the only thing going for it. A black humored tale of a craggy, sea-weathered man trying, in his last few days of life, to get in touch with his estranged brother on the other side of the pond is canny, with a perfect balance of slapstick and sentiment.

WILL WIN: Tuba Atlantic, which also stands to benefit from its placement at the tail end of the program. The punchline will send voters out on an undeniable high note.

DESERVES TO WIN: Tuba Atlantic. As a Norwegian, I’m admittedly biased, but see if the protagonist’s increasingly vicious ways to pick off those pesky seagulls don’t win you over.

STILLWATER, Minn. (WCCO) — Dog lovers around the world will be focused on New York for the annual Westminster dog show next week. One of the most surprising dogs will come from Minnesota.

You may have heard about Delsin when he was lost for a night, but his story goes so much deeper than that. It’s about a woman and her beloved pet, their trip from the country to the very big city, and a near-death experience — mixed in with a chiropractor and acupuncture.

Running free on a farm in Western Wisconsin, Delsin and the rest of Anne Nichols’ pack of dogs are in their element. After all, they’re Bernese Mountain Dogs, and they were bred to work.

“Their background is both drafting as well as some droving of cattle,” said Anne.

Delsin, however, is also at home along Main Street in Stillwater.

“He’s much more extroverted than I am,” she says. “I’ve been know just to bring him down to Stillwater to walk him in the strip in Stillwater, because he just has this fan club that wants to say ‘Hi.’ They don’t know who he is or anything, they just want to say ‘Hi.’”

What these fans don’t know is that Delsin is one of the most decorated dogs in the Midwest, a 9-year-old Bernese who’s been winning awards since he was 6 months old, and a grand champion who’s won shows from California to New Jersey and is now getting ready for the big one at Madison Square Garden.

“This isn’t the easiest show,” she said, “but it is the show. It’s the Super Bowl.”

Like many athletes, one way Delsin is getting ready for his big competition is by going to the chiropractor.

Veterinarian Heather Evans adjusts Delsin before all of his big shows, but this time she has some extra work to do. He needs extra adjustments and extra acupuncture treatments, because Delsin took a bit of a side trip.

About a month ago, Desin got lose. He got out a back gate while Anne was watching her nephews at her brother’s house, and got lost in Bloomington.

He was later found safe, but not completely sound, after getting stuck in a fence.

“His muscles were very sore in the shoulders,” said Anne, “his whole back was out, his pelvis was also quite sore.”

Now, he’s on the mend, almost exactly a year after giving Anne another scare. He needed emergency surgery when his stomach twisted and bloated. Only half of dogs survive the surgery, but Delsin did.

In his first show back, he not only won, he became the oldest Bernese ever named Best in Show. That’s when she decided to enter the best show.

“It’s one more adventure that I can take with the dude,” said Nichols.

They’ll be one of the most unusual pairs at the show, which is watched by millions on cable, and features high profile show dogs that tour the country with hired trainers. Very few of the dogs are beloved house pets. And very few of the owners are also trainers.

“You know you think horse racing, you have your pro jockeys,” said Anne. “Well, I’m your non-pro jockey.”

Win or lose, Nichols said this will be Delsin’s last show. He’s already two years older than the life expectancy for Berners. But he loves the spot light of the show ring, and Nichols just wonders how he’ll measure up to the best of the best. So, on Friday, they’ll load up the minivan, and hit the road for a big adventure in the Big Apple.

“How cool … He’s used to walking down Stillwater. Now he gets to walk down Times Square,” said Nichols.

The Westminster Dog Show is Monday and Tuesday at Madison Square Garden. The 2,000 dogs that qualified are all Champions or Grand Champions, and 17 are from Minnesota.

Watch the previous story.

Men’s Health Magazine is ranking St. Paul as the 10th best U.S. city to find eligible women.

NewsRadio 830 WCCO’s Edgar Linares Reports

“That’s absolutely correct!” said Julia Adams from St. Paul. “I know a lot of single women. I know them from church. I know them from the neighborhood. They’re good looking, hardworking and they’re tired of the bar scene. I think that’s good for guys to know.”

The rankings are based on ratio of single women to single men, the percentage of college-educated women, percentage of gainfully employed single women and the number of women who work out regularly.

Minneapolis is ranked 17th, Washington D.C. is at the top of the list and at the bottom is Las Vegas.

Men living in St. Paul agree their city is a hotbed of quality ladies.

“There’s a lot college girls walking around,” said Jason Moey. “There’s a lot of nice looking ladies.”

Jason and other ladies believe the ranking should be higher at fifth or sixth.

Find the Men’s Health Magazine story here.

ROSEVILLE, Minn. (WCCO) – Somebody could win a life-changing amount of money after the Powerball drawing that will take place Wednesday night.

Officials with the Minnesota State Lottery said that nobody in the 44-lottery Powerball network won last Saturday’s $200 million jackpot. The next drawing is Wednesday night, and officials said it will rise to about a $250 million prize.

Officials said it’s the first time in three months that the jackpot has gotten this high. The last time a Powerball prize was near the mid $200 million range was Nov. 2, 2011, when it got to $245 million.

Interested gamblers have until 9 p.m. to purchase tickets for Wednesday night’s drawing. A reminder from lottery officials: It’s now $2 for one Powerball ticket.

(credit: Paramount)

Alfred Hitchcock and James Stewart. Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro. Woody Allen and Diane Keaton. Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune. John Ford and John Wayne.

There have been any number of great director-actor pairings throughout movie history. But none of these cinematic love affairs (such as they were) can hold a candle to the union of Josef Von Sternberg and fellow émigré Marlene Dietrich.

Dietrich and Von Sternberg’s incomparable six-year, seven-film stint making movies together resulted in some of the most opulently over-the-top melodramas in Hollywood history.

Their movies together are a “best of both worlds” proposition. They have all the visual poetry and Jazz Age abandon of the best 1920s silent films, as well as Von Sternberg’s eye for vertiginous set design.

And at the same time, they boast one of the first undeniably distinctive voices to grace the silver screen — nearly every Eurotrash movie that’s ever come out in the wake of Morocco, Shanghai Express and The Scarlet Empress owes some small debt to Dietrich’s, um, unique delivery.

Though Von Sternberg had three wives over the course of his life (not simultaneously), Dietrich was not one of them. Without meaning to cast any serious aspersions on the personal lives of either, one comes away from these films wondering if the one didn’t inform the other.

At the very least, Von Sternberg clearly poured so much of himself into these collaborations with Dietrich that it feels like you’re watching the consummation of their marriage, from 1930′s The Blue Angel, which set the tone with its tale of the ultimate temptress, all the way through 1935′s The Devil is a Woman, the title of which screams “postnuptial.”

The Trylon Microcinema in Minneapolis is presenting all of their movies together this month, and I can think of no more perfect way to treat your Valentine than to sit down together, watch Dietrich slip off her gorilla costume, don a blonde Afro wig and proceed into a disinterested rendition of “Hot Voodoo.”

At the very least, see the wedding sequence from Scarlet Empress with the one you love. If they’re still by your side after witnessing Von Sternberg’s hellish depiction of wedding bells and gauze, you’re probably in it for the long haul.