Posted on 12/04/2004 5:06:32 AM PST by ruthles
Garrison Keillor: Homegrown Idiot By George Shadroui FrontPageMagazine.com | December 3, 2004
It is at times remarkable to behold the commentary that attaches to the liberal view of conservatives and Republicans.
One is reminded of an out-of-body experience, as if one is viewing oneself from a ceiling but not quite sure how you got there or how you came to see yourself from that particular vantage point. But if you are a conservative who might enjoy this sensation, I recommend a recent book by Garrison Keillor, Homegrown Democrat.
Keillor is in many ways a national treasure. He is great storyteller. I have read several of his books, but I have relished his audio collections of stories from his National Public Radio Show, A Prairie Home Companion. Keillor is a man with a voice from God, his deep, halting style as recognizable as the Churchill growl or the Buckley drawl.
He looks like a cross between Madeleine Albright and Al Franken.
Is it just me or does he have a kind of Gollum thing going on?
Isn't that a prerequisite for getting hired at NPR?
All demonrats that hold close to today's party line really do have a gollum thing going...The trick is to spend a lot of time slowly waking them up! Think about any friends you have that were demonrats in a former life, that are now conservatives. Look how good they look! Hannitization may take a while, but is worth doing conversions on those that choose wisely (the second time around).
Your link didn't open to the story. Here's where the entire column is.
http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=16198
Prairie
Sorry, you must have meant to say: 'Down there with Al Franken.'
As a Minnesotan, I apologize to the rest of the thinking world. Keillor is an egotistical gas bag well beyond his 15 minutes of fame. His persona on TPHC has nothing to do with his true nature anymore than crisp, smoky bacon is the equivalent of a barnyard of ankle-deep pig sh*t.
The only redeeming value Keillor has today, is that he provides entertainment in an unintended format. He is periodically locked in a vicious feud with another local leftist columnist (Nick Coleman) over whose head is truly the biggest and whose gaseous anecdotes and phony wit ought to dominate the local Left cotillions and the endless pink fund-raisers to buy cat litter for the poor.
If Keillor didnt have a cushy stage at MPR/NPR (your tax dollars at work, BTW), hed been a goner back when he pulled up stakes from Minnesota for the big lights of New York. Nowadays, its only the talent of the booked musicians is worth a listen.
I believe CBS has found the next Andy Rooney.
Compare: http://www.asu.edu/asunews/university/univ_images/andy_rooney_103103.jpg
NPR/MPR/Keillor ping.
The Japanese pronunciation of that name is right on.
The whole "Prarie Home" thing is just another attempt by leftists to cloak themselves in Americana. 80% of those real prarie homes like their guns and their sleds, and would prefer to be left the hell alone by the government that funds this toad's podium.
Humor is a weapon for Keillor, as it is for so many professional jokesters, but beneath the smiles, his battles are deadly serious. Garrison threw off his very strict Plymouth Brethren upbringing decades ago, but he retains a lot of the tensions and strains of a puritanical outlook that he's come to hate and despise. Keillor's is a still very sectarian and "fundamentalist" mentality: for him, the Democratic party is the raft and all else is a raging sea of iniquity.
In recent years the NPR cocoon has hurt his work. Mark Twain was as bitter a man as Garrison Keillor -- probably more so and, by the end of his life, with far more reason to be angry. But Twain had to handle and hold a large and diverse audience, so he had to conceal his disappointment and resentment and hide his bitterness beneath the surface of his work, rather than simply rely on partisan jabs. It improved his work and made him a unifying and at times uplifting force in the country.
Keillor has subsidies so he doesn't have to worry about losing listeners whatever he does. Consequently he plays to a small niche audience -- or sometimes, no audience at all. He avoids the danger of being swallowed up by a mass audience, but he doesn't grow as a writer or performer. It's a pity, but past humorists, like Twain or Will Rogers were able to bridge the gap between North and South, East and West, city and country, in a way that Keillor, a very talented man, doesn't and can't.
Think Garrison is bad. Think of people who imitate him. Am a Ham operator and this guy gets on the net every evening and talks with the same "inner appreciation of his own clever wit." Eh gadds...
Maybe he is back on the booze. He had quite a problem for a while.
by the way, he failed to divorce his first wife, before he married wife #2. I think that is cleaned up now.
What did it for me was listening to one of his tales from Lake WoebeGon after the election and hearing about some woman who refuses to die until Bush is out of office.
Down-home corny stuff like his Lake Wobegon stuff works when you don't make it political. In my opinon the later Mash or All in the Family shows does not view as well today because they had a political agendia feel to them. On the other hand Andy Griffin Show back in the Black and White days or I love Lucy or the Honeymooners is humor that will last because it is nonpolitical
umm, the dirty little secret of the "elite" regions north of the Mason-Dixon is that there's as much inbreeding going on there as their is in Appalachia.
Is that why they call it "hamming it up"?
HA HA HA THAT IS FUNNY GOOD JOB !!!
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