Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jun 15 - 12:33 PM

Arkie, maybe you're right. Maybe we shouldn't use the enormous power of this forum thread to force Garrison Keillor to stop singing or to pull his program off the air. It would be cruel to use our power in that way. Thanks for setting me straight on that point. I now disagree with whomever you think suggested that.

Many people like his singing as much as you do, even among the people who've posted to this forum thread. Others think his singing isn't very good, and even some of them think he should continue singing anyway, for various reasons.

But some of us find his singing unpleasant enough, especially when he sings along with much better singers, and frequent enough that we can't stand to listen to his show any more, even though it still has many very good features. The fact that we feel that way seems to upset some people so much that they hear us trying to have him removed from the airwaves, and they have to tell us repeatedly (20 times so far in one case) that we're not allowed to feel that way, and to insult us by calling us princesses, and whiners, and hypercritical.

Don, I can certainly understand why you might think that "Some things have to be repeated until they finally sink in." I've tried several times to make it clear that I understood your point the first time, but you keep repeating the same point without further clarification or an explanation of how my understanding is flawed.

The argument you've made that Keillor's singing must be good because he's so popular could be made much more strongly for Miley Cyrus. Does that mean I can't dislike her performances?

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 18 Jun 15 - 10:37 AM

Just want to go on record in support of Garrison Keillor's singing. I think that he has a pleasant voice and I enjoy hearing him sing. I would never force anyone else to listen to his program or to his singing. I would not want him forced to stop singing or have his program pulled off the air because somewhere in this universe there is someone who does not find him entertaining. On the other hand if what he offered was more commercial, he would probably be on a major network where more stuff could be sold instead of NPR.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Don Firth
Date: 18 Jun 15 - 02:13 AM

Some things have to be repeated until they finally sink in. But it looks like there is still a way to go.

Instead of pissing and moaning here, Guest, why don't you write to Keillor (easy enough to do--PHC has a website) and tell him to shut up.

And see how far you get.

The show's been on the air since July of 1976, and it has a large fan base, so Keillor must be doing something right. So I guess everybody's out of step except you....

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jun 15 - 01:43 AM

'Nuff said on this non-subject.

Yes, 19 posts does seem like enough, particularly from someone who considers it a non-subject, and who doesn't really have a strong feeling on the subject but simply wants to tell other people not to express their feelings.

Not that you've said 19 different things. Your 19th post says pretty much exactly the same thing as your first post and most of the intervening ones.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Don Firth
Date: 17 Jun 15 - 09:04 PM

And Guest, NO ONE is saying that "nothing matters except what sells!"

What DOES matter is that enough people enjoy the show to keep listening to it--and Keillor--year after year. Otherwise, it wouldn't have lasted for decades.

'Nuff said on this non-subject.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Don Firth
Date: 17 Jun 15 - 08:56 PM

I find it pretty funny when Keillor clowns around with singers like his fairly frequent guest, opera singer Renee Fleming. She obviously gets a real snort out of it, too, as do other singers that he sings with.

And the audience plainly gets a kick out of it.

Chacun à son gout.

You will note that he always gives other guest singers on the show plenty of chance to do their own thing without him.

...two knobs on your radio....

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Jun 15 - 08:24 PM

quote: ...he doesn't really present himself as a singer...

No one here has suggested that he presents himself as a singer, whatever that means. Our complaint is that he sings more than all the other people on the show combined, regardless of whether or not that constitutes presenting himself as a singer, thereby making it impossible to listen to the show and enjoy the parts of it that are good, and it's especially that he sings while very good singers are performing, thereby ruining their performance with his flaccid singing voice.

The point that you've made in many, many other posts in this thread is clearly understood: you're saying that nothing matters except what sells. If a performer finds an audience, no one can criticize that performer; they can only choose not to listen. It's not necessary for you to keep repeating that like a street-corner evangelist. We get it. You're entitled to that opinion, and I believe it's also held by many very wealthy people who control media outlets, so it's probably not a view that is seriously threatened and in need of your courageous defense.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Janie
Date: 17 Jun 15 - 08:16 PM

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Jun 15 - 09:00 AM

So to summarize Janie's post, he's a bad singer but in folk music it's important to have bad singers singing along with the good singers so as not to be elitist.

I accept that is your interpretation, but will note, simply in the fwiw department, that interpretation and summary are not synonyms.



So. Some folks love him, some folks hate him. Some folks formerly admired him and now they don't. Some folks either don't mind or actually enjoy his singing, even while no one is asserting he is a fine vocal performer in the singing department, and some folks find they can no longer tolerate listening to PHC because his singing ruins all of it, past, present, or some combination of the two, for them.

Different strokes for different folks. I'm not an idiot for enjoying and admiring him, including the fact that he chooses to sing. Those who don't share my enjoyment and admiration are also not idiots.

As several folks have already said, if you don't like it, turn the dial.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: CapriUni
Date: 17 Jun 15 - 08:04 PM

Does anyone here remember the point in time where he switched the lyrics of the opening song from:

"I smell the onions ... I look around for you..." to:

"I smell the roses ..."?

I tuned in, once, after having drifted away for a while, and the lyric change threw me, because the show had always been part of our family dinner time (and more often than not, there were onions frying in the pan.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,Jerome Clark
Date: 17 Jun 15 - 07:54 PM

Of all the things in this sorry world to get wildly upset about, Garrison Keillor's singing is surely not one of them. I am amazed to see that one or two contributors to this strange thread apparently have spent years mulling over this non-issue, never making peace with it. Jeez, get a life.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Don Firth
Date: 17 Jun 15 - 05:28 PM

And as to Garrison Keillor being a "bad singer...."

I've heard one helluva lot worse at folk clubs, song circles--and on records!

Thomas Hampson or Leonard Warren he's not, but he doesn't really present himself as a singer. He's more of a raconteur, or story teller, writer, humorist.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: EBarnacle
Date: 17 Jun 15 - 05:10 PM

Many of us are "of an age" where we have learned that if we don't like what we are doing/hearing, we don't do it or listen to it.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Don Firth
Date: 17 Jun 15 - 04:52 PM

When I worked in radio (DJ, newscaster, general broadcasting) back in the late Sixties, Seventies, and early Eighties, I would get the occasional call from a listener who was pissed off for some reason or other at what we were broadcasting. An old time radio veteran told me early on that when some of these people called, a good response was, "You will note that your radio has at least two buttons. One changes the station, the other turns your radio off. I suggest that if you don't like what you're hearing, you use either one or the other."

One was an "easy listening" station, and occasionally someone who call up and bitch about the "bland elevator music." Another was a classical music station and once in a while someone would call and whine about "all that 'longhair stuff'." Considering the number of poeple who listened regularly and enjoyed what we broadcast, all I can think of to tell the complainers (politely, of course) is "Tough Nabiscos, Charlie!!"

Millions of people listen to Prairie Home Companion and listen to Garrison Keillor's story telling and singing, thoroughly enjoy it, and have for many years. If you don't like Keillor or the program in general, nobody's point a gun at your head and making you listen.

("Whine, whine, whine....")

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Jun 15 - 03:35 PM

That's the way I feel, too. It's a shame that what would otherwise be a great cultural artifact, with the best modern folk musicians appearing as guests every week, is instead unbearable tripe just because of one bad singer who won't shut up.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Jun 15 - 01:42 PM

My problem with GK - he's was once an excellent, spellbinding storyteller, and a wonderful outlet for music. When I listen now, I turn it off as soon as he starts singing, beyond the theme song. It's just awful. But that's not my real problem. It's when he foists himself onto the guest bands, to sing along on their songs. Extremely rude, and what is a guest going to say? This type of music doesn't get much radio exposure. Grin n'bare it!
And the show is a mess. It's little more than a sound-effects show, with some singing. In the early 80's, he was like a god on the radio. Today, he sounds like an asthmatic guy lost in the mall.
I was in an old time band. Wherever we were in the van, at the appointed time, the tour van would get very quiet, except for laughter.
It may be 20 years since I've really listened to the show. Seriously, I can't anymore. It sullies the memory, and it's an awful show. I have no idea what it's like today.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: PHJim
Date: 17 Jun 15 - 09:42 AM

While I guess there are some singers who can safely be called "bad singers", for the most part, who is a bad singer is very relative. I would rather listen to Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Iris Dement, Garrison Keilor or Karen Dalton than Josh Groben or Celine Dion, but I'm sure there are those who feel just the opposite. Whatever floats your boat.
It's Garrison's show and if he wants to sing on it, that's his choice. If he alienates some of his audience, it's their choice not to listen.
This reminds me of clips on Youtube from Pete Seeger's old Rainbow Quest show. People who don't understand the concept of the show make comments like, "I wish the dude with the banjo would just shut up."

GUEST,sorefingers has obviously spent a good deal of time listening to Prairie Home Companion. A bit of a masochist perhaps?

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Jun 15 - 09:00 AM

So to summarize Janie's post, he's a bad singer but in folk music it's important to have bad singers singing along with the good singers so as not to be elitist.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 17 Jun 15 - 02:38 AM

Enjoy him while you can!

Minnpost By Joe Kimball | 03/11/15

Keillor, 71, is appearing tonight in North Charleston, and did a Q and A with the Charleston City Paper. One of the questions:

CP: Do you ever think you'll be finished with Lake Wobegon?

GK: Certainly. Any day now. It'll dawn on me that I've said all I can say and I will say, "Thank you," and walk away.

And asked if there's anywhere else, besides the Midwest, where he'd like to live, he said: "New York City," where he and his wife have an apartment. "It's our version of a lake cabin, a pied-a-terre on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, not far from Central Park, fifteen minutes from Broadway."

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Don Firth
Date: 16 Jun 15 - 09:24 PM

Right on!

Well said, Janie!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Janie
Date: 16 Jun 15 - 09:18 PM

Folk music, at heart, is not performance music. Some people perform it beautifully and record fine albums. To the best of my knowledge, GK has never pretended to be an accomplished singer and has not put out an albums of his song offerings, representing himself to be a fine singer.

I've been listening to PHC since it first was broadcast on the public radio station where I lived - rural WV at the time, back in the mid to late 70's. Missed it when GK took his hiatus in the late 80's. Listen to it any Saturday (or Sunday when I miss the Sat. broadcast) whenever I am near a radio at the opportune time.

Terrific show. Terrific and remarkably creative person, is Garrison K. His vocal technique has improved over the years, and he is more often on pitch. I applaud him for singing and think he has earned the right by virtue of his obvious love of folk music as well as other musical genres, especially in light of the time and energy and creativity he obviously continues to pour into that show, and into our national dialogue.

If anyone understands, appreciates and supports what it means to be 'just folks' and how powerful that is, it is GK. He articulates, with remarkable insight, compassion and acceptance, the beauty, humor, contradictions, conflicts and passions of ordinary North American life.

He is an American treasure, in my opinion. He doesn't have to be a great vocalist. But he can and should sing. As should anyone who wants to do so.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Don Firth
Date: 16 Jun 15 - 06:41 PM

Plenty of taste and intelligence, Guest. But I'm selective about what I listen to, and I'm willing to make allowances, depending.

Folks suffering from "the princess and the pea syndrome" let anything bother them, no matter how slight and often go looking for things to whine about. They seem to think that being hypercritical makes them "refined."

Don Firth

P. S. I do, however, draw the line when I'm singing a four hundred year old narrative ballad with a carefully worked out lute-style accompaniment on the guitar and some nitwit tries to accompany me on the bongos....

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Jun 15 - 06:00 PM

Don: Thanks for your sympathy. Yes, it's true that life in mass culture can often be frustrating for people of taste and intelligence. Sometimes I envy you.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Don Firth
Date: 16 Jun 15 - 04:02 PM

Gee, Guest, it sounds like you keep finding cigar butts floating in the punchbowl of your life....

Ever hear of "the princess and the pea syndrome?"

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Jun 15 - 03:23 PM

I never thought I was any great shakes as a singer, but I used to get together with friends and take my turn. Then someone told me I sound like Garrison Keillor. Now I only sing at home alone.

I love his story-telling, and the radio dramas, and the fake commercials, and the show in general, and the movie about it. And he gets all the best singers to come on the show and perform. But then he sings along with them, and I just want to scream.

There's a lot of that in American music... a kind of compulsion to spoil anything that's too beautiful. Choral groups will sing beautiful songs, in thrilling, perfect harmony, but then they'll distort the melody at a certain point and make you want to puke. And in pop music there's always some neanderthal beating a drum with a stick while someone with a beautiful voice is singing. You might as well have a dog barking during the song. It's in movies, too. There'll be all these attractive, interesting characters behaving just like real human beings, and then Woody Allen appears. And audiences love it. It's as if the beauty is too much to bear and they have to have an annoying buzzer to break the tension.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 16 Jun 15 - 03:00 PM

"Garrison has a mellifluous voice" For anyone who doesn't know, not really.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,chcuk enuff
Date: 16 Jun 15 - 11:46 AM

I love Garrison - the Writer's Almanac and Guy Noir especially. The cowboys too.

As to the singing, he has a church choir voice. He is brave, I'll say that. As was sung by Levon Helm once upon a time...

"Can't Take The Way He Sings, But I Love To Hear Him Talk"

I think the audience is so square they think it's ok. I recall when he had some blues revue performing - the audience was very definitely clapping on 1 and 3. All of them, nuff said.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 20 Nov 11 - 01:17 PM

Excellent point made, Frank, as you so often do. I really like Townes Van Zandt's voice, for example, when singing his own songs. In fact, I like his singing much better than his voice, if you follow me.
Along this line, Steve Earl has a voice that rubs lots of people the wrong way, but few sing with more conviction. The early Dylan had the same kind of voice, as does your friend Mr McGuinn, although I believe Roger's tonal quality was very distinctive. One of my favorite singer/songwriters is Jay Farrar, who fronted Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt, and his voice has a mournful nasal tone that some people find annoying. To me it has that Appalachian Mountain quality that lends authenticity to the words.
I do think Garrison's voice is very like his personality, and he can be repulsively down-home and folksy at points when you aint in the mood, but for those of us who enjoy rhubarb pie, it often hits the spot.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 20 Nov 11 - 01:11 PM

I've stopped listening to PHC for the second time because of his singing and self-indulgence.

It is good to be the king.

Russ (Permanent GUEST)

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Stringsinger
Date: 20 Nov 11 - 01:05 PM

Do you like Louis Armstrong's singing? I do. No Bel Canto there.

Singing goes beyond mere vocal technique. Whether you're Jussi Bjorling or Louis Armstong, the public generally recognizes good singing when they hear it.

Vocal training can help but it not the entire picture. What is does mainly is to help save your voice.

I would be honored to sing with Garrison Keillor.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 20 Nov 11 - 12:53 PM

I like his singing. Of course, I also like Leo Kottke's singing, so take it with a grain of salt.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Stringsinger
Date: 20 Nov 11 - 12:30 PM

Garrison has a mellifluous voice and is a great story teller in the tradition of Lee Hays.
I understand his frustration at wanting to be heard as a singer and I think that all of
the disparaging remarks about him and his accomplishments are off the mark. He was out there on the line for freedom and justice while many of his detractors were sitting on their butts doing nothing.

The PHC is innovative and gave an opportunity for many fine talented people to present themselves to the public that the regular media would have ignored.

I see a lot of sour grapes here.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,DA
Date: 20 Nov 11 - 12:03 PM

Someone here said a good singer lets you see his character, that's the problem I have with GK's singing. The affectation his ego insists on puts up a brick wall. He can't let down his guard for a milllisecond. Must suck to be him. That said, I love his monolouges.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 25 Apr 04 - 07:06 AM

Giok, I knew there must be some benefit from living in the "Silicon Corridor" near sunny Bracknell (gateway to...er, nowhere special) There are so many B****y masts around here (not to mention Imperial College's ageing research nuclear reactor)I'm surprised we can't all pick up digital radio on our umbrellas and glow in the dak like the Reddibrek ads!

RtS
(Tho' we did buy it for the Britcom from "wireless" days!)

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 25 Apr 04 - 04:42 AM

RtS I live in an area where we cannot get, and have no chance of getting digital radio signals. There are many reasons for this, one is our geographical location, [highlands of Scotland] Among the other reasons there is the fact that we are a sparsely populated region, [not many votes], and when we do vote there is a tradition of returning a Lib/Dem MP. So not very high up the priority list of the present bunch of turncoats that run the country!!
I know I can get it through my satellite TV, but that's not much good if I want to listen to a vintage British comedy, and she wants to watch a soap.
Anyway this is going off thread so to justify my previous post, I love GK, I like his deep voice, and slow speech patterns, I find them soothing and the content amusing, and I like the down homey atmosphere of the PHC.
John

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 25 Apr 04 - 03:50 AM

If you have digital radio in UK, PHC is on BBC7 one evening (haven't the schedule to hand at the moment). I came upon it by accident and wondered what it was and, for once, guessed correctly.

RtS

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Cruiser
Date: 24 Apr 04 - 06:14 PM

I am listening, for the first time, to the live webcast of Prairie Home Companion. The link follows:

Live Webcast of PHC

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 24 Apr 04 - 05:53 PM

And, for what it's worth, I am an expatriate Minnesotan. I think PHC is every bit as good as it ever was. His voice and singing technique, while not star quality in themselves, are acceptable for the role they play in the show.

The one adverse comment about GK I've seen in this thread that I'd agree with is, unfortunately the man can't read poetry. A small failing, IM(not-so)HO.

And yes, as a (now transplanted) Minnesotan, I've seen his show live, and would love to do so again.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 24 Apr 04 - 05:49 PM

Richlmo said, in part:
By the way,Sorefingers,I don't remember anyone responding as many times as you have to a thread they started.

He's a troll who just has to stir the pot. Even, it appears, to the extent of calling in others of his multiple personalities to make it look as if there were people to agree with him.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 24 Apr 04 - 02:50 PM

We don't hear him often enough over here in the UK.
John

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Cruiser
Date: 24 Apr 04 - 02:44 PM

...brings folklore to the forefront. Sure he can't sing, but the fiddle and Bb bass sax playin', jokes, and Americana are entertaining. Like most NPR programs, I try not to miss his radio program.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Deda
Date: 16 Feb 03 - 12:22 AM

Personally, I am a Munchkin, and I want to go on record protesting Frank Baum and Hollywood's portrayal of Munchkinland, which are totally and grossly inaccurate. Why, my next door neighbor is over five foot two and a half! And my great uncle sang bass! The misrepresentations that we suffered because of those books and that movie -- well it just ain't right! And anyone who's ever been to Munchkinland knows right off how they got the place all wrong -- The yellow brick road doesn't begin in a big corkscrew like that. It's ridiculous. I want a lawyer.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,sorefingers
Date: 15 Feb 03 - 11:02 PM

Bull, booh to you, I don't care nuttin about G K - just doin my radio citizen bit, after all it is supposed to be 'Public'.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Sam L
Date: 15 Feb 03 - 10:36 PM

Buck--I keep trying to explain that I like and admire Keillor but can sympathize with the other point of view. Can't seem to do it, how to explain it--sheer perversity I guess.

   If PHC was associated with my neck of the woods I might prefer to dislike it, but it's not, so I get to laugh about it. It's so ...NICE. The humor is so... KIND.

   I started a thread on tips for living well, saying I was a little depressed and wanted to hear about things that are good. And I did. But at some point it occurred to me how awfully funny it would be if I got on again and said Okay I was just a little depressed but now I want to kill myself. It's not true, but if you have a certain pathology, a little Beckett humor, these things occur to you. I remember someone making a Thanksgiving toast in thanks for all the friends who are with us (nice) and also for others like FirstName Lastname, who aren't (ugly but funny, and having some truth in it).

   I think there's ultimately something ugly in denying every sort of ugliness, or even any kind of intensity, and Lake Wobegone falls into that kind of feel-good humorous mythology. All the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, nobody is an internet troll.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: BuckMulligan
Date: 15 Feb 03 - 09:37 PM

Fred, "Sorefingers" is into some sort of bashing of Garrison Keillor and of anyone who disagrees with "Sorefingers" - kind of a typical 14-year-old chip-on-shoulder thing. There's nothing to do for it, alas, except wait until hormones settle down and maturity sets in.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Sam L
Date: 15 Feb 03 - 06:49 PM

Huh? I don't follow any of that, I'm sorry. I get a vague impression you thought I was trying to argue with you, or make some sort of put-down. Not at all. I just don't happen to agree.

The only thing I could try to argue with is how people go straight to personality, personhood, and biography. Not that there's anything wrong with being interested in all that, but people take so little trouble to talk about qualities and style, particularly, and those are interesting things to hear people's thoughts about. I mean, lately I'm liking Vaclav Havel's plays a lot--doesn't mean I want to smell his socks.

    I'm not from Minnesota, and while I can appreciate that people who are might be disgusted by popular association with stuff they don't like... ...as Mel Brooks explained it--tragedy is when I cut my finger, comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die. It's not a put-down that I think this thread is very funny, It's not an argument that you are wrong in your views about Keillor or anything, it's just that I don't really care how much you hate him, so it's funny to me that you do. Fred

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,sorefingers
Date: 15 Feb 03 - 12:14 PM

Gee if it had read different I would be concerned but you wrote it...
"posting of a Keillor-bashing thread".. it ain't it's a ]Kreillor Killin' thread except for the lack of rope, he would already be cross eyed!

Can't help but notice the fact the Blob Doddle is also Minnesotan and wondering if there is a connection to SongKillor? Maybe the republicon shopowners guild decided the state was getting a bad name from all that down-an-out lovin poetry?, as if they had anything to worry about ...huh Mr Blob Grab was the biggest money maker since Levi hissef fell into a barrel of blue dye, but then rednecks were never blessed with too much brains were they?, all that shoot first ask later stuff.

Still, suppose woebegone was some kind of attempt to put the wino image in the trash can; now that it is seriously backfiring ...mmmm with Jerkinstein Fiddlin and Donohoe Guitar being so errrr original he he he he he, that some kind of backlash o the hippies may re-emerge?

Come to think of it, ain't Jesse the Giant a hippie?

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 07:54 PM

Yup, Burke. Anoka-Hennepin School District 11 serves Anoka, Blaine, Coon Rapids, Fridley, Ramsey, Andover, Champlin, Dayton, Brooklyn Park, Brooklyn Center, Burns Township, and Oak Grove Township. Which really is a pretty huge area...

Into the mid-late 40s, Hilltop (the tiny, mobile home-dominated town surrounded by Columbia Heights) was home to a golf course and the Oak Grove Riding Academy and Stables, which is a very odd thought if you've been there in the last few decades. So yeah, I guess I see what you mean about the definition of "suburbs." I still don't believe that 77th and W.River Road was as idyllic as Keillor claims, though. :)

---Lepus Rex

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Burke
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 05:28 PM

What's really crazy is taking this road that's a dead end about 2 blocks long and sticking any kind of number on it, not to mention 150th. It makes as much sense as the all those Xenia's out on the western fringe that don't link up either.

Lepus, Thanks for the links and the info. Is Brooklyn Park the Hennepin part of the Hennepin/Anoka district?

I looked back at the City County Data books that have the population statistics. Neither Bloomington or Brooklyn Park counted as 'urban centers' in 1950. Meaning <2500. Most of the centers that counted apart from Mpls. & St. Paul were <10 square miles in area. In 1960 Bloomington with 37 sq. mi. was 50,500; Brooklyn Park with 26 sq.mi. was 10,200.

Makes you think about how things like rural, urban, suburban are defined. I found more interesting comparisons but have to run.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 11:42 AM

Yeah, yeah. So it's off topic: OK, Rustic, I asked my roomate what the Hell the Red Barn was (and read Burke's post), so now I think I know what you're talking about: a buffet place, right? Did you mean the one on 49th and Central? If so, no, it's been a Taco Bell since... maybe the mid-80s? I believe it's still the same structure, although heavily remodelled to look more "authentically" Mexican.

---Lepus Rex

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 13 Feb 03 - 08:20 PM

Oh, and yeah, Burke, and it is weird that Ham Lake is now a suburb, huh? And the whole corridor between Mpls/St.Paul and St.Cloud is filling up, too. Crazy.

---LEpus Rex