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Garrison Keillor Turns Out the Lights on Lake Wobegon

nytimes.com

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Re: Garrison Keillor Turns Out the Lights on Lake Wobegon

#31

Post by technofiend »

HelloImDumb wrote: post #19
technofiend wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think GK hates anyone or anything but I remember the day I completely lost interest in PHC: it was the day an interview ran and the intro explained Garrison lives in NYC. The thing is sometimes there's not much distance between an homage and a satire. Fred Armisen's Portlandia is a good example of a show that wobbles between gently poking fun and outright mean-spirited mockery. Once I learned all the Prarie H…

GK was 45 years old when he first did a show in New York. He moved back to St. Paul five years later. The show is typically touring around the country and the world. He has split his time since 1987 living in New York and Minnesota. How does the fact that he decided, in his middle age, to live in New York at various times. suddenly change his work into mean-spirited mockery? I don't think you understand his work. You…

It's obviously a matter of perspective: for me writing an opening monologue of "Well, it's getting colder here each night in Lake Woebegone" from a Starbucks on Broadway doesn't feel as sincere as writing the exact same words in St. Paul.

I understand he's trying to depict a bucolic lifestyle and portray himself as a resident and narrator of this fictional little town. But in my opinion if you're sitting at a remove from the area that inspires these stories it's possible for another perspective to color your view. Culturally NYC and St. Paul much less Lake Woebegone are vastly different.

Nobody's saying you have to agree with me, but I do get what he's trying to do. I just find it harder to believe it's anything but entirely fiction as opposed to a tapestry woven from an underlying truth with the names changed to protect the innocent, and for me that makes all the difference.

Re: Garrison Keillor Turns Out the Lights on Lake Wobegon

#32

Post by hollerith »

tallanvor wrote: post #28
tamana wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Garrison Keillor's not adapting to the times is an indictment of the times more than it is an indictment of Garrison Keillor, IMHO.

Re: Garrison Keillor Turns Out the Lights on Lake Wobegon

#33

Post by brownbat »

robotjosh wrote: post #27

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

You mean charming radio unfriendly experiments that slowly build up deeply devoted followings over time?

Might see something out of left field from a member station, it's hard to say. Podcasts are doing alright though, probably providing more variety than NPR could ever support.

There's something about the usability or delivery of a radio station though. Low budget college stations and shock jock conglomerates are equally accessible to any user. For a niche podcast to take off, it needs exposure. People need to learn what a podcast is and how to download it.

For NPR shows, well, they were already beamed into everyone's homes. If users just dialed through the static, something they already knew how to do, they'd hear it.

Re: Garrison Keillor Turns Out the Lights on Lake Wobegon

#35

Post by kasey_junk »

robotjosh wrote: post #27

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

First NPR didn't come out with phc or car talk in the first place. They were both produced by affiliated local public radio stations and then syndicated (phc is an american public media syndicated show for instance).

Second affiliated stations are still producing great national programs. Stalwarts like "this american life" and "on the media" or newer shows like "the moth radio hour" seem to directly contradict your statement.

Re: Garrison Keillor Turns Out the Lights on Lake Wobegon

#36

Post by pjmorris »

I came to NPR and to Prairie Home Companion in college, after a childhood filled with moves, losses, and failures. I greatly enjoyed the music and the stories, to the point where I once had a Powdermilk Biscuits t-shirt, and still have a PHC tie. However, the dedications they read at intermission really made the show for me; in the notes people wrote to each other celebrating their various graduations, anniversaries, relationships, and communities, I saw a real-world analog to Lake Wobegon's strong women, good looking men and above average children. I think believing something like that was out there, somewhere, helped me reshape my life to transmute the moves, losses, and failures into relationship. community, and hope. I find Lake Wobegon to be sentimental, but in a way that matched my sentimentality. I'm really grateful for the part Mr. Keillor's show has played in my ife.

Re: Garrison Keillor Turns Out the Lights on Lake Wobegon

#37

Post by modfodder »

technofiend wrote: post #31
HelloImDumb wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GK was 45 years old when he first did a show in New York. He moved back to St. Paul five years later. The show is typically touring around the country and the world. He has split his time since 1987 living in New York and Minnesota. How does the fact that he decided, in his middle age, to live in New York at various times. suddenly change his work into mean-spirited mockery? I don't think you understand his work. You…

It's obviously a matter of perspective: for me writing an opening monologue of "Well, it's getting colder here each night in Lake Woebegone" from a Starbucks on Broadway doesn't feel as sincere as writing the exact same words in St. Paul. I understand he's trying to depict a bucolic lifestyle and portray himself as a resident and narrator of this fictional little town. But in my opinion if you're sitting at a remove…

So you don't read any Science Fiction or Fantasy.

It'd be one thing if he was born and raised in NY, but he grew up and spent most of his life in Minnesota. Surely as a writer he is able to invoke his past memories with sincerity in creating this fictional narrative. Or do you believe that as soon as he crossed the Minnesota border, all that was lost, and as he stepped into a NYC Starbucks he became a jaded cynical New Yorker.

Re: Garrison Keillor Turns Out the Lights on Lake Wobegon

#38

Post by pnathan »

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…

I think it's very likely a product of a bygone era and bygone locale. edit: removed words that added nothing.

Re: Garrison Keillor Turns Out the Lights on Lake Wobegon

#39

Post by renegadesensei »

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…

I'm black and I loved PHC. It and Car Talk were the only things that made me seriously consider donating to NPR. It was the only show I would make an effort to catch on Saturdays when I had to make long drives back and forth from NYC.

Re: Garrison Keillor Turns Out the Lights on Lake Wobegon

#40

Post by macintux »

fencepost wrote: post #11

This isn't the only long - term show to end - Whad'ya Know (notmuch.com) wrapped up a 30+ year run the last weekend in June though it was ended due to declining numbers and being expensive to produce (live audience, traveling shows, etc.).

I caught Whad'ya Know when they came to town many years ago. The musical guest was Reverend Peyton and his Big Damn Band and Jim Packard was (or pretended to be) uncertain whether he could say that on the air, so the first time he introduced them he called them the Big Darn Band.

Was overall a quite entertaining experience, but my local NPR station dropped the show a long time ago so I haven't kept up.

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