About Jim Walsh
Jim Walsh is an award-winning author, journalist, writer, and songwriter from Minneapolis. A columnist for the Southwest Journal and regular contributor to MinnPost.com, his work has appeared in Rolling Stone, the Village Voice, St. Paul Pioneer Press, City Pages, and many other publications. He is the author of Fear & Loving in South Minneapolis; Bar Yarns and Manic-Depressive Mixtapes: Jim Walsh on Music from Minneapolis to the Outer Limits; Gold Experience: Following Prince in the ’90s; and The Replacements: All Over But The Shouting. A father of two (Henry and Helen!) and sometime teacher at the Loft Literary Center, Walsh is the ringleader behind the longtime singer/songwriter showcase The Mad Ripple Hootenanny. His new band, Jim Walsh and the Dog Day Cicadas, has recorded two releases, “Songs For The Band To Learn” (2017) and “Shout It Out To You” (2022). He lives in Minneapolis with his partner Mary Beth Hanson and their two cats, Rumi and Rilke.
Articles written by Jim Walsh
Not Just Trying to Make a Living
Hank Sherrod reps those hurt by police and prisonsThe first headline on Hank Sherrod’s eponymous firm website says what he does: “I Hold Law Enforcement and Jails Accountable.” The second says why he does it: “I Don’t Like Bullies.” “People that I represent, for the most part, feel abused,” explains Sherrod. “They are arrested for something they didn’t do, or they get assaulted because they had the temerity to talk back to a police officer.” These clients, Sherrod says, wind up in a deposition, where they see the police …
Serenity Now
Before launching a career in aviation law, Vanessa G. Aaron sailed the worldDuring the COVID pandemic, Vanessa G. Aaron and husband Ed took social distancing to new lengths. For two years, beginning in September 2020, they sailed their boat, Serenity, up and down the Eastern Seaboard and into the Caribbean. “I love new experiences. I love new adventures. I am a constant learner and a very curious person,” says Aaron, now an associate at Bullivant Houser in Portland. “I will look at things like, ‘I wonder what it’s like to do that?’” Aaron had graduated …
A Star is Reborn
Josie Leinart’s acting chops serve her well in law and on social mediaThe best actors make it look easy. Josie Leinart knows there’s more to it. “A lot of people don’t give actors enough credit for working hard,” says Leinart, a corporate and sports attorney whose credits under the name Josie Loren include appearances in film (17 Again), television (Hannah Montana, NCIS, The Mentalist), and a four-year starring turn in the teenage gymnast series Make It or Break It. “My god, it is hard work,” she says. “It is countless hours of being in scene, study …
The Lesson
What Tracey L. Brown learned from her famous fatherGrowing up in Washington, D.C., in the 1980s, Tracey L. Brown was a preteen Prince fanatic whose parents paid for her to take clarinet lessons. She hated them. After four weeks, she says, “I told my father I wanted to quit, and he said I needed more stick-to-itiveness.” The clarinet lessons went away. But the term stick-to-itiveness? That stuck. “He always used it,” says Brown, of her late father Ron Brown, a trailblazer in the Democratic Party who served under President Clinton as …
‘I Still Love the Game’
The basketball exploits of Julian X. CamperIt was only last year that 32-year-old Julian Camper set aside his dreams of playing professional basketball. A burly 6-4, 260-pound power forward/center who starred for the Division II Cal State San Marcos Cougars as a full-scholarship senior in 2015, Camper has spent the last decade playing pickup basketball in his hometown of San Diego, with regular summer forays to Los Angeles for the legendary pro-am Drew League. There, he’s competed against semipros and pros like the Chicago Bulls’ …
From Nothing to NIL
Why CK Hoffler navigates the wild west of name-image-likeness lawFor more than a century, the NCAA maintained the purity of college sports by ensuring that, in this increasingly lucrative field, athletes retained their amateur status by getting paid squat. That all changed in a big way in June 2021, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in NCAA v. Alston that it is illegal for the NCAA to limit education-related payments to its students. Meaning NCAA athletes, some of whom are internationally known, can now profit from their name, image, and likeness (NIL, for …
Yes, And …
Brian Breiter on improvisation, storytelling and getting beyond a “Just the facts” mindset“Grown-Up Theater Kids Run the World” read the August 2023 New York Times headline, referring to the likes of MSNBC host Chris Hayes and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Brian Breiter wouldn’t disagree. His eight-week-long Improv for Trial class, which he teaches with actor Joseph Limbaugh, comes with a similar headline: “All the world is a stage, and so is the courtroom!” https://youtu.be/6qgyeGthhBE?si=8FTSFW9YyZAvK3Lp “We’ve taught nearly a thousand lawyers …
The Sting That Doesn’t Leave You
Robert Le was ready to become a restaurateur; then he discovered how employees were being ripped off“When I was a kid, my mom would always wait for me and my sister to go to bed,” remembers Robert Le. “Around 10, 11 o’clock at night I’d hear all these papers rustling, and I’d open the door to my room. My mom would have all the bills on the kitchen table, and she would be calling each [collector], saying, ‘You charged me late fee $15, can you take it off? Take it off, please, till next month?’ “I had no idea. Your mom loves you, but she actually sheltered you. So when …
Nothing for Granted
Sheree Hoffman accentuates the positive—even about her battles with cancerSheree Hoffman has been diagnosed with breast cancer twice, necessitating a lumpectomy, infusions, radiation therapy, diagnostic ultrasounds, mastectomy and breast reconstruction, as well as drastic changes to her life and family law practice in Memphis. But you’d never guess it from the optimistic lilt in her voice. “Honestly, I was one of those people who was lucky to be born with a positive attitude,” she says. “I really mean that. I don’t concentrate on the negative, always …
Setting Up a Special Needs Trust in New York
For parents and other caregivers, creating a trust for a child or adult loved one with special needs can bring peace of mind and security. But setting one up is more difficult than a basic trust fund. It's Important to Plan Ahead for Success “We have a phrase at our practice: ‘planners win,’” says Moira Laidlaw, a certified elder law attorney with Hollis Laidlaw & Simon, who handles trusts and estates, Medicaid planning, and special needs planning. “It’s particularly true in the …
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