keillor
I normally don’t listen to NPR’s A Prairie Home Companion… Garrison Keillor is an amazing storyteller and has one of the best voices ever, but the folksy aesthetic usually isn’t my cup of tea. I caught the first bit of last Saturday’s show though, and he said something at the beginning that really resonated with me.
[There's] one thing you don’t see at the Prairie Home Companion office that you see on the walls of all other radio show offices, and that is awards. Plaques, trophies and all of that. We don’t do “awards” here on this show. I do not go to awards banquets, which is not a problem, because they don’t give awards to people who are having fun doing what they do. Awards go to people who make it look hard, just remember that. Having fun is its own reward and you don’t get a plaque for it, so just get used to it.
March 15th, 2009 at 8:16 am
I used to listen a lot, but they broadcast from Bayfront Park 3 years ago or so. While watching how they do it was fantastic, I lost a bit of respect in this regard (and you know that I’m not a biggot or racist, so if my comment seems in that vein, please forgive me). Miami tends to forget that it is part of the rest of the country, and the rest of the country tends to view Miami as another country as well. Rather than bring that folkey, down home flair to Miami educating the locals on what the rest of the country does, Keilor and crew decided to broadcast local Miami culture to the world. We heard a 9 year old girl sing “Guantanamera” 4 times, and were entertained by the Salsa and Merengue we would normally eschew, all the while hoping for Jerry to play his chromed National guitar and Constance to pull something out of the Folk Song Archive that I’ve never heard. I was disappointed, and Prairie Home Companion lost some of its charm