Garrison Keillor Turns Out the Lights on Lake Wobegon • Hacker News Board

Re: Garrison Keillor Turns Out the Lights on Lake Wobegon

#21

Post by bcoates » Mon, Jul 04, 2016, 4:50 PM UTC

tamana wrote: post #13

brashrat wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up the same way :) ... except he rubs me the wrong way, I think he's not at all interesting or clever, a completely banal failed ironic, with a deep streak of hate inside.

Hate?

He did articles for newspapers and webmagazines in the 00s, they had an Andy Rooney-ish "I hate people these days and everything they do" thing going.

Re: Garrison Keillor Turns Out the Lights on Lake Wobegon

#22

Post by GCA10 » Mon, Jul 04, 2016, 4:51 PM UTC

I'm amazed he sustained this as long as he did. It was a charming concept when he got started ... but its frozen-in-time quality lost me after a while.

Doing a show about a weird little slice of Americana will never grow old. It's just that the slice needs to keep changing every 5-10 years.

Re: Garrison Keillor Turns Out the Lights on Lake Wobegon

#23

Post by rootbear » Mon, Jul 04, 2016, 4:54 PM UTC

solipsism wrote: post #12

I grew up listening to Garrison Keillor and stories from Lake Wobegon. Listening to it as an adult, I have to say, it's not very good quality. I guess it's impossible to keep up a high level of quality week after week for so many years. But when I listen to it I hear a man rambling almost incoherently. There's not even a reasonable arc most weeks, he just babbles until time is up and Garrison abruptly says ".. and th…

My sister and I, long time listeners to PHC, had both noticed that the monologues had declined in recent years, but we felt that they had gotten a bit better in this last year. I think Keillor wanted to go out on a high note and do his best in these final shows.

Re: Garrison Keillor Turns Out the Lights on Lake Wobegon

#24

Post by rootbear » Mon, Jul 04, 2016, 4:55 PM UTC

GCA10 wrote: post #22

I'm amazed he sustained this as long as he did. It was a charming concept when he got started ... but its frozen-in-time quality lost me after a while. Doing a show about a weird little slice of Americana will never grow old. It's just that the slice needs to keep changing every 5-10 years.

I enjoyed the musical guests. I'm looking forward to the new show, which I think will give me a lot of what I went to PHC for in the first place.

Re: Garrison Keillor Turns Out the Lights on Lake Wobegon

#25

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jul 04, 2016, 4:57 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Garrison Keillor Turns Out the Lights on Lake Wobegon

#26

Post by harvestmoon » Mon, Jul 04, 2016, 5:01 PM UTC

Personally, I am a huge fan of Guy Noir. I wonder if he ever found out the secrets that the city was trying to keep from him - or if he found the answers to life's persistent questions... Guy Noir, Private Eye.

Re: Garrison Keillor Turns Out the Lights on Lake Wobegon

#27

Post by robotjosh » Mon, Jul 04, 2016, 5:04 PM UTC

This loss stings because its not possible for the NPR of today to come out with shows like car talk and phc anymore.

Re: Garrison Keillor Turns Out the Lights on Lake Wobegon

#28

Post by tallanvor » Mon, Jul 04, 2016, 5:09 PM UTC

tamana wrote: post #13

brashrat wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up the same way :) ... except he rubs me the wrong way, I think he's not at all interesting or clever, a completely banal failed ironic, with a deep streak of hate inside.

Hate?

Hate might be too strong of a word, but I understand what he means. It may be more that he's made a willful choice not to adapt to the times.

Re: Garrison Keillor Turns Out the Lights on Lake Wobegon

#29

Post by druiid » Mon, Jul 04, 2016, 5:19 PM UTC

criddell wrote: post #2

One of the things Keillor handled so well in his story telling was the mostly insignificant but somehow important differences between Lutherans, Catholics, and the other denominations and religions. I grew up in a very small town in Ontario and it often felt like he had borrowed characters from my past (and then softened them and made them more likable).

I greatly enjoy(ed) PHC and some of his commentary about the different Christian denominations. I should say though that the one thing that was annoying was that he likes to often poke fun at Unitarians in a not so 'laughing with us' way. Counting myself as a Unitarian, I did find the bit in his last show in which he joked about the word changes for 'Marching to Zion' for Unitarians to be spot on though.

Re: Garrison Keillor Turns Out the Lights on Lake Wobegon

#30

Post by cylinder » Mon, Jul 04, 2016, 5:26 PM UTC

CPLX wrote: post #18

I found PHC style humor completely insufferable and unlistenable, but members of my family (who grew up in the Midwest in the 50s and 60s) just love it, and there's no accounting for taste of course. I always thought the show stood as sort of the perfect archetype for what you'd call "white" American culture. Which I'm pretty sure is what David Simon was trying to say in this classic clip from The Wire: https://m.you…

As a "non white" child of immigrants I had no idea what this show was that was always on late Saturday afternoons as I'd be in a long car ride with my family (they listen to NPR during the week in the car). I didn't understand why there was a studio audience or what this man with "the voice" was talking about, until I decided to research it recently amidst the buzz about the retirement. Listening to some clips now and still can't say I really understand it, but that's fine. It's funny though, I also share some nostalgia about PHC, but for me it's for the old tradition of changing the radio station in the car on Saturdays away from this show, and for so many others it's the show itself.