Feelgood radio (1)
An homage to Lake Wobegon. Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion is IMHO still one of the best programmes on the air. If you don’t hear it on NPR in the US, then BBC7 has an hour long version at the weekends that will give you a taster.
Then you will want to hear the full 2 hours a week from the PHC website, which has stupendous archive of past shows at:
http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/
You can podcast the News From Lake Wobegon portion of the show from there too.
Guy Noir - Private Eye, the live of the Cowboys, Ketchup Advisory Board, Powder milk biscuits? All will become clear…A variety show that exudes quality and has done for three decades and more.
How to describe it to the uninitiated? Homespun philosophy, small town shenanigans delivered by a giant of the written and spoken word, with a liberal take on life. A religious upbringing with guilt of things pleasurable, but wonderfully worldly wise, witty and a great yarn spinner. I cannot say enough to do it justice. If you know the show you will know what I mean and may well know these links I am about to paste in- if you don’t know the show then try these links and enjoy the journey!
Myspace fansite:
http://www.myspace.com/minnesotapublicradio
Behind the scenes interview with GK: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15292428
Various snippets at You Tube- find your own and enjoy them. A couple for starters:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=E0aeFnjXVwU&feature=related
GK back in 1985 at Mr Esoteric’s You Tube:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=sHfUdff8OFE&feature=related
1 comment:
I have been a fan of a Prairie Home Companion for about 15 years. I can think of no other radio show that makes me feel so much "at home". In fact, when my wife and I moved to the UK in 2000, I knew of no way to listen to A PHC live, so I would go to their website, stream the whole program and record it on my portable Minidisc player. We would often play the previous week's program on a Saturday evening while preparing dinner--around the same time it would be scheduled back home in the States.
I have one particularly fond memory of walking across Waterloo bridge on my way to a lecture at the London School of Economics. It was bone-chilling cold, and the winds were so strong the rain was horizontal (often a problem on the WB). I was cold, wet and miserable. I fumbled in my pocket for my Minidisc player, put on my earbuds and pressed play not knowing what music awaited me.
To my surprise, it was an epidode of A Prairie Home Companion--ahhh...instant warmth!
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