The DJ Rollie D Story

Public Radio really has put an interesting spin on radio.  Rather than music 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year, or doing the same thing with talk radio, it finds a way to mix the best of both worlds and create a truly unique experience for the listener. Over time, listening to several different public radio stations, most recently KAXE, has helped me find some really interesting shows that are always worth another listen and that you may very much enjoy yourself.  Here are some of those shows The Splendid Table I first stumbled across The Splendid Table when I was looking to diversify Free Range Sports Radio last December.  The gist of the show is that it's basically a cooking show that goes on a "world tour of food", at least that's what I understood from the few episodes I listened to.  It takes your average cooking show and blows it out of the water.  You can listen to the show  here This American Life Hosted by Ira Glas...

Here's what you do in your college public speaking class.  These videos are me when I gave the speeches.  We were asked to pick a community issue, from which I chose the EBT Program and how it needs reform, and then I later collaborated with Andrew Olfelt to give a speech on education reform here in America.  I hope you enjoy the speeches :) Speech of Introduction - Given 9/9/2016 Informative Speech - Given 10/7/2016 Team Persuasive Speech - Given 11/18/2016

In just two short days many of us will be sitting down to a table with our family members to enjoy a meal together as well as play games, watch football, share what we're thankful for, and then fall asleep into a turkey coma mid-afternoon.  Yes that's right, it's Thanksgiving.  Man this year has flown by.... Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.  One of the reasons is the absence of gift-giving, which removes the obligatory parts of Christmas and Easter and turns the holiday into more of an authentic celebrate it with your family type of thing.  Christmas shopping has more than crept into the holiday, but most of us are still able to ignore it and wait to catch those doorbuster sales until another day, and while I work for a company that needs me on Thanksgiving night and I don't mind it that much, I do applaud the Mall of America for deciding to be closed this year.  Definitely a possible sign of them trying to reverse a trend we've seen over the...

Snow is something many of us seem to be bi-polar about, myself included.  We love it when the first snowfall of the year graces it's way through our area, but by March we're sick of it and ready for Spring.  It coats the roads, causes car accidents, and sends people to supermarkets in droves, because everyone's worried that this will be the last time they ever make it out of their house for the next few days, which never really seems to be the case thankfully. Regardless of that though, lots of us love a good snow.  Think of the things we have to be thankful for when the snow flies.  We are now able to go (if there's enough snow), sledding, skiing, have snowball fights, and build snowmen. There are tons of things to do when that first winter storm hits, and we should enjoy it while we can.  I've been regretting not being able to take part in Winter activities these past few years due to my numerous prior commitments, but maybe this will be the y...

Ok so first of all, some of these locations don't have much for tourism, but they do have some picturesque places to pull the car over and get out and stay a while, or at least they're pretty neat to drive through.  Minnesota is a beautiful state, and there's definitely "More to explore in Minnesota" as the commercials always/used to say. So, without further ado, here are the ten spots in Minnesota you should plan to drive through or stop by on your next roadtrip through the state #10: Two Harbors Located just about half an hour from Duluth and awfully close to sights such as Gooseberry Falls State Park, Palisade Head, and the Split Rock Lighthouse, Two Harbors is definitely worth a stop. Complete with an old time train station and several other old-timey locations that add to the beauty of it's historic downtown, Two Harbors is sure to be a fun time for all. #9: Grand Rapids Be sure to check out the Forest History Center and the Dam w...

Sometimes we all just need a good laugh, and so I thought I'd share some of the sketches that I caught at various times throughout the campaign that really made me laugh and I hope you'll laugh at/with them too.  Some of them are not the best for young children to watch, so please keep that in mind if you are viewing these with small children "Hillary Clinton In Summertime" from the 5/16/2015 episode of Saturday Night Live "Abilify For Candidates" from the 10/3/2015 episode of Saturday Night Live "Democratic Primary Debate Cold Open" from the 10/17/2015 episode of Saturday Night Live "Donald Trump Would Make A Good Family Feud Contestant" from the 11/18/2015 episode of Late Night With Seth Meyers "Sarah Palin Endorses Donald Trump" from the 1/23/2016 episode of Saturday Night Live "Bern Your Enthusiasm" from the 2/6/2016 episode of Saturday Night Live "Ben Carson...

Country music artist Toby Keith has released a lot of interestingly lighthearted songs in his time on the mainstream radio waves.  We've had the catchy I Wanna Talk About Me , which used to be something my sister and I would love to sing over and over again, the song that's more focused towards the drinkers with Red Solo Cup , and even the people down in the Trailerhood .  It's safe to say that a lot of the music from Keith, especially over the past fifteen years, has been focused on this more lighthearted material that doesn't exactly make you think too deeply about what you're hearing. Despite all of that though, Keith has managed to write some emotionally touching pieces that help him to come across as being unashamed of his roots, and while there are around five or so of them, there are two that were released between 2000 and 2005 that stick out to me and have always been worthy of another listen, and they tie into the place we as Americans call home and...

So to start off this blog post, a little story that kind of sets the stage.  Yesterday I was in Bemidji in the morning for a last minute On The River hosting gig and pulled an all-nighter to make sure I made it out there on time, as I thought it would be good for the show to be new since it was being preempted that night for election coverage.  I found myself taking my time getting home yesterday, even stopping at a beautiful park in Lake George to conk out for an hour so that I could finish the drive home and stopping by Walmart in Detroit Lakes to stretch my legs and avoid the getting out of work rush.  It was around 4:30 when I got back to Fargo and I decided to go to the Fargodome last minute, which was the voting location for NDSU and the surrounding area and cast my vote.  I guess it wasn't too late to register after all, and I felt a strong obligation to myself suddenly to make sure Donald Trump didn't get into the White House. Finally making it into t...

If they haven't already, voters will head for the polls today to cast their vote for a candidate that they feel is the best candidate to lead the US for the next four years.  Most are likely to choose either Republican Donald Trump or Democrat Hillary Clinton, and others will choose someone from a third party like Evan McMullin, also known as that Republican not too many of us have heard that much about, or Jill Stein from the Green Party. I'm not here today to shove my opinions down your throat, but to encourage you to get to the polls, and get there before it's too late.  The state of the US is hanging in the balance, and one of these people will get elected and hopefully be able to fix it. And if you want to try and get your favorite candidate elected, all you have to do is go to a polling place and vote. If you're like me and chose not to register or didn't notice the filing deadline to register, that's our bad and we now have to sit this one ...

Christian band Mercy Me have some true talent in their band and format.  They've successfully done full-blown rock numbers ( Shake ) yet at the same time been able to hone in on a slower song ( Word of God Speak ), or produce something truly unique that you wouldn't expect from them like their song Greater , which is quite similar to what you'd hear from Rend Collective . The music is appealing and there are definitely times where you just can't help but sing along in your car, or in your basement, or perhaps in your kitchen.  If I had to make a prediction I'd say there's at least two more albums we'll see from them in future years before they consider disbanding or going on hiatus.  To sum it all up, their music is some of the best in the Christian genre. One of the band's songs speaks out to me particularly, and it came to me at a good time.  It was around July of 2015 that I was going through some stuff and feeling pretty down and not sure wh...