Jim Walsh spent several years singing in Twin Cities bands before turning to rock journalism. In 1990 he became the music editor at City Pages, an alternative weekly in Minneapolis. Three years later, he joined the St. Paul Pioneer Press as the pop music columnist and as a feature writer, and in 2002 he left Minnesota to study at Stanford University on a John S. Knight Fellowship. Walsh returned to Minneapolis in 2003, where he lives with his wife and two children, and performs and records as his musical alter ego, The Mad Ripple (www.myspace.com/themadripple and www.myspace.com/madripplemusic).
Dennis Pernu is an editor and freelancer writer who has worked for sports magazines and biographies. In grade school he was sometimes scolded for only reading books about ice hockey. Today he lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with his wife and their two sons and four chickens.
