- [Announcer] Funding for "Off 90' is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(loon calling) (bright music) (upbeat rock music) - Cruising your way next off 90, pocket billiards in Rochester, the Blue Earth County History Center in Mankato, an artist and lamp maker, and we attend a music festival in Rochester.

It's all coming up on your next stop off 90.

(upbeat blues music) (upbeat blues music continues) You won't find legendary pool player Minnesota Fats in this next story, but we will give you the skinny on pocket billiards in Rochester.

If you're looking for a non-contact sport that exercises your mind, this might be it.

(rhythmic music) - I started when I was seven, so my dad bought my first stick when I was probably this high, and then there was a junior league that started in Fairmont, so I started league when I was 14, and this is my 22nd year league in pool.

So, a long time.

(laughs) 29 years.

(laughs) I wanted to be like dad.

I always watched him and went to pool tournaments growing up, and we've always had a pool table in the house, so I kind of just taught myself how to play.

And my brother who's six years younger than me started playing at the same age and started League at the same time, so then that's when it kind of got really competitive between all of us.

So, it's fun.

Obviously holidays are really fun.

(rhythmic music) - I've been playing pool for about 27 years now.

I'm 37.

I started when I was 10.

My father, Rich, taught me how to play pool.

He had a one-bedroom apartment in Faribault, Minnesota, and he had a pool table in the kitchen, actually, so we played many hours of pool right there in the kitchen of his apartment.

Yeah, I started when I was 10, but I played other sports.

I played football, baseball.

I started wrestling in 10th grade.

So, pool took a backseat to all the other sports there for a little while.

I'm just a competitor.

I like to compete.

(balls hitting) It was just another sport that you had to use your brains, and it was just the competitive aspect for me.

- My favorite thing is the competition, definitely, and pool is something that every game's going to be different, but you're going to have a different shot.

When you break, it's going to be different, so to me, it's very challenging, and you get to play a lot of different people, and you just learn so much from the other people and continue to grow and become a better pool player.

- Well, as a youth player, you can start when you're 10.

That goes all the way up up until you're 20.

When you turn 21, then you can get into the leagues, and since the leagues are in the bars in Southeastern Minnesota, then you have to be 21.

So, when you first start out, you're probably going to be in the C League, which is where most people start.

So, it goes C, B, A, AA, and then Masters.

Like I said, the Masters League is the highest league you can be in in amateur pool.

I never had a goal to be a professional.

My goal was to become a Master in the D&R Star Pool League.

So, every year in April, we have a big end-of-year pool tournament at the Graham Arena, and my goal was always to become a Master, and I got third place in the AA last year, which moves me up to the Masters level.

You gotta get like top 10%.

So, for example, my first year playing A League, I got third place out of like 350 people.

Third place, so that moved me up to AA, and then last year, I got third in AA out of about probably 24 people.

So, there's a big jump from A League to AA.

There's a lot more people in the A League.

(balls hitting) So, the Master players, they typically can break and run the balls more oftentimes than a AA player can, but AA player can as well.

It's just the Masters can do it more frequently.

- Well, my favorite thing about playing in League is trying to win the league.

Kind of your bragging rights for the year, and just kind of the comradery with our team.

I really enjoy that, and just playing against other people that I've played with over the years and kind of watching how everybody has grown and evolved.

(rhythmic music) - My favorite part of the game is you get to a table and you got to figure it out.

If there's a ball that's hidden behind another ball that's not yours, just figuring the game out, and when you can figure it out and run that table, it's a great feeling.

- The pool community in Rochester is great.

Probably the spots Rooster's, Rooster's Too!, Tavern 22 has just opened up.

Those are probably the main spots.

I actually moved from Mankato by myself when I was 21, and the pool community is actually the people that I only knew when I came over here, and so I've got to know a lot of people, and the Midwest is really known for pool players, so we have so many great players that play around here.

(balls hit) The challenge of playing pool on a part of a team is holding your own, holding it up, because let's say we're paying a points tournament, and you miss one shot and the other person runs out, you just got zero.

So, it's really to play smart.

Play defense, play offense if you have to.

A lot of times, you're going to lose.

It's frustrating, and try not to get mad.

Just try to be positive, 'cause I think that could really bring the team morale down, and you keep positivity going.

- I have the most fun when I'm on a team.

At the end of the year, there's a team tournament, and there's five guys or five girls or a mixture.

It's just the camaraderie of the sport, and you know if you miss a shot or lose a game, you've got four other people that you can rely on to pick you up.

So, the team aspect is a great part of it.

There's a lot of young kids now that play pool, and a lot of these young kids are better than us older, older guys and girls because they put all their mind to it.

Pool is a great sport.

If you don't enjoy contact sports, you can play pool, and it'll teach you sportsmanship.

It'll teach you problem-solving.

So, I would say if you're in the market looking for a sport, and it's a non-contact sport, this would be the sport to play.

(rhythmic music) (balls clicking) (rhythmic music) (upbeat blues music) - The mission of the Blue Earth County History Center in Mankato is to provide a multi-generational exploration of history.

The museum has lots of space and interactive exhibits for children, as you'll see in this next story.

(gentle guitar music) - The Blue Earth County History Center located in Mankato is just a wonderful place for people to gather.

Our goal is that all generations can come together and experience history here.

So, the Blue Earth County Historical Society was founded in 1901, so we have been around for a while.

Our mission is to collect, preserve, and present the history of Blue Earth County, and so we do that through different things, with exhibits or with programs or with our Research Center.

The History Center is a large building, so we have the opportunity to tell lots of different stories in lots of different ways, and one of those is a changing exhibit space that we have on the main floor of the building as soon as you walk in, and this exhibit space will change once or twice a year, just depending on what exhibits we are bringing in or that we're building ourselves.

The exhibit that we're in right now is featuring Lincoln School, which is a hundred years old this year, and so this exhibit is bringing people back to when they went to elementary school, or junior high school, or even high school, 'cause it's served as multiple functions back in the 1940s and '50s.

So, that's what this exhibit is.

It's been bringing people in who remember going to school here, remember wearing gym uniforms that are on display, and some crazy stuff like that.

So, that's what this exhibit is, but it will change.

It will change this summer and it will change periodically depending on how long an exhibit is scheduled to be on display.

This is also home to the Marian Anderson Art Gallery.

She's a local artist that grew up in Southern Minnesota, right here in Mankato and down in Madelia, and she became a internationally acclaimed artist.

She worked in oil paint, and back in 2010, she donated her entire inventory of fine-art prints to the organization, and then when she passed, her archives came to us.

So, we have a beautiful collection of her original oil paintings which are just absolutely stunning.

She was not formally trained, so to see her work is just exquisite.

But you also have the opportunity to take one home with you because we have the fine-art prints.

Two of my favorite places in the History Center are the museum and our Research Center.

The museum is where you can tour and learn more about the complex and layered history of Blue Earth County.

Lots of wonderful objects are on display to help paint that picture, fun things like a telephone booth, which Superman does not come out of, but it is still a really fun phone booth that you can go in and dial a rotary telephone, which you know the little ones don't have a clue how to use a rotary telephone, to parents and grandparents who could still remember their telephone number using a rotary telephone.

Another one of my favorite things is the diorama, which is an early 1880s to 1900 diorama of Downtown Mankato.

It's a wonderful learning tool to see how Mankato was when it was originally plotted out.

This kind of puts you back in time into that time period when the downtown was very vibrant, and all of these older buildings were down there.

And there's a fun little Where's Waldo?

in there.

So, kids of all ages enjoy that.

There was a series of books called the Betsy-Tacy series written by Maud Hart Lovelace.

She was a young girl that grew up in Mankato and became a very acclaimed author of children's books, and so some of her personal effects are here at the museum.

So, there are a lot of people who will go on a Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy-Tacy pilgrimage, and they want to see all the Betsy-Tacy sites that are in the books.

So, there's a discovery lab and a cabin and a barn that the kids can explore and they can touch and they can learn and they can be able to have that shared learning opportunity with a parent or a grandparent who may have grown up with the object, and now they get to learn about how you used it.

And then our Research Center is a great place if you're a family historian or if you're doing any research on the history of the county.

It could be if you're trying to look for cemetery information or obituaries, or perhaps you are looking for a photograph to help with a project you're working on, whatever it might be.

Our Research Center is ready to assist anyone that is doing research on this county.

So, that's the idea here is multi-generational exploration of history, and that's what the History Center is all about.

(upbeat blues music) - Next, we meet Emma Waters, an artist and lamp maker from Dexter.

When inspiration strikes, she can make a table lamp out of odd things like small household appliances.

Let's let Emma illuminate us on her artistic endeavors.

(gentle music) - I've always been into older items.

I've loved antiquing.

I love the style of older items like the rotary phones, even though they're not something that's particularly used today.

I thought it would be fun to take something like that and give it a new purpose in everyday life.

My name is Emma Waters.

My lamps are a little bit of nostalgia.

I like taking old items and giving them a new life.

(gentle music) It was a few years ago.

I started off on Pinterest seeing these book planters, and so I decided to figure out how to hollow the books, and then I decided to figure out how to do the electrical work.

So, learning the electrical, it took me not too long.

My husband actually taught me what goes where, how to wire things together and how to just make sure that I don't end up shocking myself.

I've had a lot of people come up to me and ask, "Is it still readable?

Is it still usable?

Can I still open the book?"

And sadly, no, I say, "They're not ruined.

They're retired."

I do other things.

I sew.

I work with clay.

I've always been interested in 3D art.

I'm not much of a drawer, besides costume designs, but I've always been interested in making art with a purpose, making something that's not only fun to look at, but has a use.

So, making something like a lamp is obviously something that can be used in day-to-day life and be appreciated as its own art piece.

So, when looking for inspiration, I really like to go out thrifting and go to craft stores and look through items and see if I'm inspired by anything to make lamps out of something new.

I prefer to go out on my own and find the items rather than going online and looking for things that people have already done.

I prefer to start from my own mind and get that inspiration.

It might be something somebody's already done, but I find the item and I bring it home and see what I can do with it.

I get requests.

I love getting requests.

I started off just doing custom work, and I love getting custom orders, knowing that they mean something to people, and they have this purpose behind them.

So, I encourage people to reach out to me on Facebook and tell me about this idea that they have, and I can draw something up for them, and either they supply the items or I find the items, but I love.

Customs is one of my favorite parts of this job.

When someone buys one of my lamps, I just hope that it brings them a lot of joy.

I hope that it either makes them feel nostalgic, 'cause I have people, "Oh, my grandma used to have this," or "My aunt used to have that, and it reminds me of them, and they're gone."

I just want people to feel happy when they use any of my items.

One of my favorite things is working craft shows and having people come up to my booth, and the awe on their faces, and you can just see them light up, and that's the best feeling with this job, and I love when people do that, and I encourage them to come up to me and ask questions and just get excited and talk about it.

And that's why I do this.

(gentle music) (upbeat blues music) - Next, we're going to amp things up a bit.

After a hiatus, the Thaw Music Festival came back in Rochester.

With 30 bands, the festival, by design, took place at several venues downtown to show off what the city has to offer.

(upbeat music) - [Performer] Like we always do about this time.

- My name is Nick Novotny.

I am the fest director of the Rochester Thaw, and I'm a co-owner at My Town My Music here in Rochester.

Playing bands, I have organized shows through My Town in the Fest, and I make beer for a living as a day job at Little Thistle.

♪ Never breathed so freely ♪ (band performing energetic rock song) ♪ Yeah ♪ Back in college, I worked for Midwest Music Fest.

I've worked as a sound tech at festivals.

I've played a lot of festivals.

I knew the festival world from a playing side, from a promoting side, from a working-it side.

When The Castle opened, that was the kind of spark to get something going, and that's where the first year kind of came from, and it was me and a very small crew of people that were kind of putting that first one on.

Seven bands, one stage, one day.

(rhythmic music) It kind of took a hiatus for a few years during the pandemic, and in that time, I had joined up as one of the owners of My Town My Music, and that's where the idea came back.

Okay, how do we bring back Thaw?

Are we at a place with the pandemic and COVID where we can put in what has ended up being like six-plus months of work into one single day?

And where the music scene at in Rochester and Southeast Minnesota has been in the last few years, even through the pandemic, has been super resilient, and people have been attending shows more.

There's more bands that exist that are proud to call Rochester home and are excited to play in town and around.

♪ Loud, loud, loud ♪ ♪ So we cannot see ♪ ♪ Our love is fast ♪ ♪ So going down the stair with it ♪ ♪ 'Cause who cares ♪ We had over 120 bands apply for 30 slots.

- What?

- So, I played for my band Loud Mouth Brass, and so what we did is we actually made a joint application with our friend Jae Havoc, who is a rapper ♪ Well, well ♪ ♪ I guess I'll just do another lab ♪ ♪ Now ♪ ♪ And we back to brass traps ♪ ♪ The world is out of rock ♪ ♪ And on the fast track to mayday ♪ ♪ And you can't change the other facts of that ♪ ♪ Still ♪ ♪ Making a name now ♪ ♪ Bringing the funk back ♪ You know, people who maybe are into brass bands don't always see rappers.

People who are into rappers maybe don't always see brass bands, and just bringing together the hip-hop and the brass band, and Thaw gave us the opportunity to do that.

♪ Do you want to ride or walk ♪ ♪ You decide ♪ ♪ Hey, hey, hey ♪ ♪ That's productivity ♪ I'm John Sievers.

I'm a trombonist in Rochester and a music lover.

(band playing jazz music) And I play in a couple of bands in town, Loud Mouth Brass and Amateur, and just am a big proponent of live music in Rochester.

(band playing jazz music) I'm a firm believer that music brings people together in ways that they may not come together otherwise.

- And by bringing in an event like this where we have 1/3 of our lineup is based here in Rochester, everyone else is intentionally not from here, and the goal is to have not only out-of-town bands come in and see what is actually happening here in Rochester in the music scene, because there's a lot of places that'll overlook it, so much energy and there's so much just raw excitement for music in this town right now, and having out-of-town bands come in and see that not only is great for Rochester, but they'll also see what the town itself has to offer.

♪ Don't tell me how to feel ♪ ♪ I'm leaning on my door ♪ ♪ Going down now ♪ ♪ What's the deal ♪ ♪ With the floor ♪ ♪ Telling lies on me ♪ The beautiful part of this event is you'll get people from town that'll get woken up to what is actually happening here if they are not aware of what is already going on in their own city, but then we're bringing in people from out-of-town to kind of show off the best of what Rochester has with an event like this, and that's the really exciting part.

You're going to get out there and you're going to see Rochester today.

You're going to walk around the downtown.

You're going to go nab a drink at some bar in the middle of a set.

It's like the whole thing kind of forces your hand to explore the city and explore the downtown.

(audience applauds) ♪ You ain't gotta see me no more ♪ ♪ Oh, yeah, yeah ♪ (band playing rock music) (band continuing to play) It is continuing to push to make Rochester as vibrant of a city, especially in the Downtown corridor, as possible.

And so you look at the venues we're holding all the shows in.

We have a restaurant, we have an art studio, we have a wedding venue, we have a record store, we have a coffee shop, and then we have this building that we're in right now, which is a huge multipurpose venue space.

We got some incredible support from a lot of small businesses through sponsorship of the festival, and we'll take what lessons we can from this year and push those into the future to just keep building this festival and make it better and better every time we do it.

(band performing alternative rock) (band continues performing) We have an amazing production team and volunteers that are helping us make sure this whole event runs really smooth, so we're trying to make sure we have every one of our bases covered, but we couldn't do something of this scale without all of that support from all of those players in this, 'cause we can organize a show as best we can, but if we don't have people that want to attend, venues that want to help host, production teams to run the sound and lights, and volunteers to help check tickets and check IDs and all of that, we can't do that without all of of that infrastructure that has to go with it.

♪ I don't breathe ♪ (band playing rock music) The fact that we've been able to make all of this work and sell out a festival with a new format to Rochester in its first year is huge, so that part of it, it was an exciting day today when we were able to be like, "Okay, we did it.

We sold out a festival."

So, that's kind of nuts.

(band performing grunge hiphop song) (band continues performing) - So, to have this of a regional musical festival that is similar to events that happen in other cities but that haven't really happened here in Rochester I think is really incredible because we're going to bring people together for music.

It's going to have an impact on area businesses.

It's going to be something that allows people to see Rochester in a different way, as a place that maybe has a music scene, and it has a downtown destination that's for music and a thing that you should check out in Rochester.

Super grateful to people like Nick Novotny who's put the work in to make this happen.

and also organizations like My Town My Music who are just making musical opportunities grow in Rochester.

So, kudos to them for making something happen in Rochester with live music.

- I have to give props to Sam Brown who started Mid West and started Big Turn.

Thank you to everyone who bought tickets.

We sold this thing out, which is insane, but if you missed out this year, we're not going anywhere.

We'll be back, so keep an eye out.

You'll probably see some stuff from us throughout the year, and then obviously my town'll keep ripping as we do outside of the festival situation.

Yeah, we're gonna have big party tomorrow and then gear up and get ready to do it again next year.

(laughs) ♪ So good to me ♪ ♪ Baby ♪ ♪ Let me be your peace, my darling ♪ ♪ Your light in the darkest hour ♪ ♪ Let me be ♪ ♪ I'll be there ♪ - We've reached the end of this trip.

Thanks for riding along.

See you next time off 90.

(energetic music) (energetic music continues) (energetic music continues) (bright electronic jingle) - [Announcer] Funding for "Off 90" is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(loon calling)