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Sunday, May 5, 2013

A Trip to the BIG CITY

Its not often we are willing to fork over the $17.00 to go 'cross the bay'. What was that???? Why $17.00????? That is the price you pay to spend almost 20 minutes riding on a cause way, over two bridges, and through two tunnels. An experience everyone needs at least once. The Cheasapeke Bay Bridge Tunnel. Its a trip!!!!!!
OK OK OK ... so why did we do this. Last week i found out that Garrison Keillor was doing his live radio show from the Old Dominion University campus in Norfolk (for you out of towers that is pronounced Naw-Fik).
What was that.... did I hear someone say "Who is Garrison 'whats his name' and what is a Prairie Home Companion????? Some sort of live-in help?????
To answer that question i will take the blurb directly from The Prairie Home Companion website.
Program Overview
Garrison Keillor
A Prairie Home Companion started production in 1974. Live every Saturday night from 5—7 p.m. CT, A Prairie Home Companion features comedy sketches, music, and Garrison Keillor's signature monologue, "The News from Lake Wobegon."
Host Bio
Garrison Keillor, Host and Producer
Garrison Keillor was born in 1942 in Anoka, Minnesota, and began his radio career as a freshman at the University of Minnesota, from which he graduated in 1966. He went to work for Minnesota Public Radio in 1969, and on July 6, 1974, he hosted the first broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion in St. Paul. Today, some 4 million listeners on more than 600 public radio stations coast to coast and beyond tune in to the show each week. Keillor has been honored with Grammy, ACE, and George Foster Peabody awards, the National Humanities Medal, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His many books include Lake Wobegon Days,The Book of GuysPilgrims: A Wobegon Romance, and Guy Noir and the Straight Skinny (Viking). He is the host of the daily program The Writer's Almanac and the editor of several anthologies of poetry, most recently,Good Poems: American Places (Viking). In 2006, Keillor played himself in the movie adaptation of his show, a film directed by Robert Altman. He has two grandsons and in 2007, he opened an independent bookstore, Common Good Books, in St. Paul, the city where he and his wife and daughter make their home.
If you need more about this Great American Phenomenon (sounds like a good tag line.... must send it off to GK), just go to The Prairie Home Companion website and click on the different songs and skits from last nights show. Listen to them with your eyes closed!!!!!! THEN think back to when you were a kid..... remember listening to radio shows?????

The Lone Ranger, The Shadow, Amos and Andy. YES YES.... on the radio before that television thing came along. Real live radio actors. They had to work hard to paint a mental picture for you.... Real Live Sound Effects instead of computer generated and ... AND REAL LIVE AUDIENCES. No canned laugh tracks. AND you had to use your imagination.  Come on,,, i know some of you remember......

Back to explanations::: OK so why all the expense and travel (1.5 hours each way from the F&P) to go see someone you may not have heard about??????  Well, May 16 is an anniversary for Beatrice and I. No not the wedding, thats in August. But a special event that set in motion a unique set of circumstances that has had a happy ever after ending. One that just keeps on giving all year long.....like a Jelly of the Month Club subscription (Think of the movie "Christmas Vacation").  I'll  tell you all about it next.
Till then, pop over to the The Prairie Home Companion website. Take a listen to the Adventures of Guy Noir. Catch up with the News from Lake Woebegone. Listen to some great music you will not find on regular radio.
While your doing that, I'm going to take the Peach Pie (tonights desert) out of the oven and have a cup of coffee with Beatrice.
Then I'll tell you what happened May 16, 1997. A day that may not live in 'infamy', except in my mind.

8 comments:

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

It was a great show and a wonderful early celebration of our special day!

Linda said...

Glad you had fun in Noir-folk. Yeah, I was listening last night.

That ride over the bridge is fun! I don't think I'd want to do it in a hurricane, but otherwise it's very cool.

MadSnapper said...

17 dollars? yowsa... sounds like you had a wonderful time...and well worth the price of 17.00

Anvilcloud said...

My mother was born on May 16, and Sue and I were married on May 17.

possum said...

Glad you had a fun trip to the BIG city!

Montanagirl said...

Sounds you enjoyed yourselves, and that's what counts!!

L. D. said...

I didn't know he was still out there working. It is great to go and see it live.

Unknown said...

Well of course we here have heard of him and even before we moved to MN. He was always a fave, some late night drives cross country were so much more enjoyable laughing out loud to Garrison and the characters. He is at the MN state fair each year but we have not been there to see him, yet., Caught him other times and once at a book reading in a small MN town.