After writing the last post, I somehow ran across a planned 2006 film version of A Prairie Home Companion to be directed by Robert Altman and star Tom Waits, Lily Tomlin, Meryl Streep, Lyle Lovett, and GK himself. Huh? I’ve been a Keillor apologist/defender/scholar for many years – surely in part due to my intensive immersion in Minnesota Public Radio during my formative years – and this move is truly baffling. This kind of celebrity collision is exactly the kind of thing Keillor supposedly lives in fear of. His whole schtick depends on his outsider status. Even though APHC has some amazing rockabilly, bluegrass, and folk-rockers on from time to time, and even though Keillor has some of the edgiest politics in the mass media, he has always somehow maintained his ground firmly on the uncool side of the hipster divide. You simply can’t continue to be uncool after you complete a project with Tom Waits and Lily Tomlin. Right? Remember when he quit in the late 80′s and ran off to live as an expatriate in Denmark or Finland or Scandanorweeden with his new wife? That was because he had become a media darling and couldn’t pull off his folksy attitude anymore. Sort of like the situation Michael Moore is in right now…
Yes, I listen to too much public radio. Probably enough to justify an entire category that I shall hereby dub “pledge central.” Have I mentioned my bootleg vintage Ira Glass tape yet? (thanks Mel)
