Contemporary Authors- Garrison Keillor

I was thinking about the phenomenon of people spending the rest of their lives listening to the popular music they were into when they were in High School. Don't get me wrong, it could be the best music ever. Your taste very well be impeccable and you may listen to the greatest popular music to come from that four year period. But it's a bit like eating only grapes. They may be the best grapes ever but...variety is not only the spice of life, it's necessary for proper nutrition both mentally and physically. That's why I encourage everyone to get into everything.

There are some ways out of that trap.  One is by going into a more grown up genre like Classical music or Jazz.  One is to keep listening to new popular music, although one gets a little Death in Venice eventually (I remember from my teenage years that the creepiest person in any Goth club was inevitably the guy over 25.)  I would recommend the former road to musical freshness personally.  Although I've remarked to those around me recently how in my estimation from what I've heard, this is kind of a golden era for popular music.  There is so much good out there.

And I was also thinking about how I gravitate toward "The Classics" in my reading (and in my music for that matter.)  Partly because it's easier to find greatness there.  Partly because my sensibilities vis-a-vis religion and beauty are more in step with the Pre-Modern.  But what prevents me from being a staunch Classicist is the knowledge that 1) there is an ocean of lost masterpieces buried in the sands of time, but more to our point here 2) all classics were once new. 

And seeing as to how doing features on this blog seems to keep me posting with regularity (I am increasingly a fan of structure), I thought I might start a new feature where I give a little sketch of a contemporary author who I think is great, who you might also enjoy looking into their work.  Some of them will be major establishment authors who you may have heard of (as is the case this week), some of them you may not have heard of.  All of them, I assure you, I think you would enjoy.  I would urge everyone to patronize our living artists.  It's good for you and good for society.

Garrison Keillor

Garrison Keillor is most famous (and probably most likely to be remembered) for his radio show A Prairie Home Companion.  It's a variety show with an old-timey feel to it, including humorous radio dramas and musical variety acts. It's a lovely way to spend a Saturday night. In the third act of each week's show Keillor gives "The News from Lake Wobegon," which is a monologue about life in a small, fictional, mid-western town (That is to say, the town is fictional. They aren't monologues about living in a fictional town like some weird meta-fiction.) The monologues are remarkable in that they are sublime and transcendent at an astonishing rate for a weekly occurrence. Keillor started the show in the 1970s, and while he isn't completely responsible for Public Radio in America, it certainly wouldn't be what it is were it not for his influence.

He also hosts the radio program The Writer's Almanac in which he talks of major events in literary history from that date and closes with a poem by a famous poet. One of the aspects of Keillor's career that I find most inspiring (which I imagine shows from the focus of my blog and podcast) is his devotion to the arts and pointing toward greatness. Even while having literary ambitions of his own, so much of what he does is to point toward other great works. He has also put out some excellent anthologies. His Good Poems collections are excellent, a must own for any household, and one of my most likely gift giving options.

His essays are also a very good starting point for newcomers to his work. I'm hard pressed to think of another contemporary author who will most likely be remembered with the title "American Humorist" in the tradition of Twain, H.L. Mencken and Ring Lardner. If you've never read or heard Garrison Keillor, first you'll need to leave your cave. I would recommend his radio show as a starting point which, if you can't find on your radio dial, the Prairie Home Companion website assures me:

Every Saturday, from 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. (Central Time) visit www.prairiehome.org to listen to a live audio Web stream of the show. You can hear a rebroadcast of the live stream on Sunday, from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. (CT)

You can subscribe to The Writer's Almanac on iTunes as a daily podcast.  It's only a few minutes long and most days will give you an opportunity to work something into a conversation or introduce you to something you were not previous aware of. Also, I would recommend you go down to your local library and check out a few of his anthologies and collections. He wrote columns for a time for Salon.com which you can check out at the link, but I'm noticing that he isn't doing that anymore at the moment. He is one of our more charming modern authors.  I would recommend his work to anyone.

Thursday News in Review!

NPR News

This week Garrison Keillor had a stroke. Keillor is one of my big three, the other two being Ira Glass and Robert Krulwich, of the info-tainment I spend a lot of my time soaking in. It's expected that Keillor will make a full recovery which is very good news. Although it did remind me that Keillor, who I believe is approaching 70, if I live a long and healthy life, will probably die before I do. It will probably have similar effects on me as Michael Jackson's death seemed to have on the world around me.

Keillor started his show, A Prairie Home Companion, in the 1970s. It is a splendid and smart musical variety/skit based variety show. If you've never heard it, you're totally missing out, but it is easily fixed. I would be surprised if you managed somehow to make your home somewhere in America where it is not broadcast. The popularity of the show has a lot to do with my beloved NPR(on which it is aired) being the amazing radio network that it is. But don't let's mourn the living. Keillor lives!

Obama News

Well, let's jump right onto the hot button, eh what? It's been a busy week in the life of Barak Obama and, I daresay , in American history. There was a very strange opposition at the beginning of the week to President Obama telling America's children very similar things to what I say on here all the time which is: study hard, take responsibility, and seek to better yourself (although if I had the ear of the nation's youth, speaking as a college graduate, I would highly encourage them to save their $200,000+ in tuition and be an auto-didact instead of going to college. Use your socialized library for your education. That, my Calvinism, my past extensive LSD abuse, my total defiance to conform my beliefs to one political party's approved set of beliefs, are just so many many reasons why I'll never be President. Kids, for extra-credit, see if you can come up with more reasons why Paul Mathers will never be President!) I really liked the President's address to our nation's children and am a little disturbed to imagine the type who would forbid their child from hearing it.

Which brings me to a larger point on President Obama and a segue. One of the aspects of current American political culture that I find most disturbing is the antagonism. I don't think either of the major political parties are out to destroy America. I think that they have different points of view, some are useful in some places, some are not so good in some places. The idea that if you're a Republican, the "lib-rull" is your mortal enemy (and, I hasten to add, vice versa) strikes me as not only silly but dangerous. United we stand and divided we what...? I think this week I had a bit of a wake up call as to how far such attitudes have progressed.

Which brings us to Joe Wilson (who, last night, I was calling Joe Louis when telling Laurie about it) who, last night, felt compelled in a fit of uncontrollable emotion to shout "you lie" at the President during his speech. My dog Schubert exhibits more self-control. No president has ever been treated with that sort of disrespect by a representative in the House. Some have said already that Joe Wilson just ended his political career, but I grew up in the district represented at the time by Bob Dornan (who now fills in for Michael Savage when he is periodically put under sedation and cattle-prodded back into his iron cage by his handlers) so I am no stranger to representatives acting in ways that make my pit bull blush with shame. And, of course, American history is full of people shooting at each other because they disagree, so there is precedent for atrocious behavior in politics. In fact there is a long tradition of it. My thesis is that that does not mean it's a good or helpful way to act.

Again, I've heard the religious right applauding Joe Wilson this morning and to them I really have to quote Romans 13,

"Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed."

That's a command from Scripture; and Paul was writing under the rule of Nero when he penned those words. So it's probably safe to assume that Paul disagreed with his ruler politically on a few points.

Regardless of your political affiliation, ought we really resort to shouting down and name calling? Ought we throw all manners and decorum to the wind? I've also read Christians who make the argument of "well, the Left did it to Bush." Really? Does that make it okay? Is it a race to see who can sink the lowest? In politics we do unto others as they've done unto us? And while I'm on my high horse, let me say a quick word about Hitler analogies. About 7 years ago I wrote a long letter to a record producer, who used a portion of his emailing list as a political opinion piece, explaining why it was wrong for him to compare Bush to Hitler or anyone else for that matter. It cheapens the argument. Hitler was Hitler, and if we are diligent and wise, and Lord willing, we will never see one like Hitler again. Bush was not like Hitler, nor is Obama. Hitler was Hitler. Hitler was awful. We can learn a lot from what happened in Nazi Germany; but Nazi Germany was Nazi Germany and is not modern America. Please, let's not make the evil that Hitler did meaningless by playing the Hitler card every time we're uncomfortable with the conversation.

Jonathan Edwards wrote about this world and turning one's eyes toward Heaven:

"Is not what we have heard of that blessed world enough to make us weary of this world of pride, and malice, and contention, and perpetual jarring and jangling, a world of confusion, a wilderness of hissing serpents, a tempestuous ocean, where there is no quiet rest, where all are for themselves, and selfishness reigns and governs, and all are striving to exalt themselves, regardless of what becomes of others, and all are eager after worldly good, which is the great object of desire and contention, and where men are continually annoying, and calumniating, and reproaching, and otherwise injuring and abusing one another- a world where justice, and oppression, and cruelty- a world where there is so much treachery, and falsehood, and fickleness, and hypocrisy, and suffering, and death- where there is so little confidence in mankind, and every good man has so many failings, and has so much to render him unlovely and uncomfortable, and where there is so much sorrow and guilt, and sin in every form."

How Edwards describes the world in that passage was pretty much (although Laurie only very recently introduced me to this passage in particular) what led me to be a Christian. I heard the doctrine of Total Depravity and thought, "yep, that pretty much sums up me and the world as I have experienced it!"

My point is: don't be the world. In Philippians Paul writes, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." And in Galatians, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another." And Proverbs says "A man of wrath stirs up strife, and one given to anger causes much transgression." And James "Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God."

Don't leave your religion at the door when it comes to politics; and don't be so overwhelmed by politics that you lose sight of the real work which is the advancement of the gospel and giving glory to God.

Now, I can also point you to some claims that Joe Wilson's claim may be unsubstantiated. In fairness, for those who are gearing up to write me off as a "lib-rull," and in spite of my recent post on health care reform, I have to admit that I was on the phone with a very dear friend of mine in New York the other day and we both seem to have come to the conclusion, independently of one another, that the very best we seem to be hoping for today, at this point, is that whatever they end up doing doesn't make our situation worse than the one we, the uninsured, are in right now.

As I understand it, the health care reform, should it actually pass in some of the forms I've heard mentioned... well, let me put it this way, at least once a month we scrape the back of our cupboards, and after the first of the month we usually have a balance of next to nothing. Meaning, if the reform passes in such a way that requires me to purchase health insurance in any way, we will likely lose our house, our pets, and who knows what else. We can afford nothing extra, but on paper we're still not poor enough to qualify for our state's current government health care. Personally, I was more reassured by Obama's speech to the children. However, I want to make it perfectly clear that I still stand by everything I've written on the topic. Even if I lose everything, so what? Am I living for stuff?

Beatles News

The Beatles video game and boxed set of remastered material came out this week as, I seem to be alone in noticing, the major figures associated with the Beatles catalog who are not McCartney and Starr are now dead. I've seen so many articles in the past few days on the new Beatlemania assuring me that 1) it exists and 2) my gosh, anyone with a half a brain is crazy over the Beatles right now. Yes, I really did just say that.

As you can probably imagine I am not terribly overwhelmed by the work of The Beatles. I think they are extremely overrated. There is such a wealth of great music in human history that you could be listening to. Really, are you suggesting that the band that produced Octopus' Garden and The Magical Mystery Tour movie is the zenith of music? The songwriter who went on to pen Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey and Silly Love Songs is the greatest songwriter of our time? I think the two Beatles with talent died first, that they did their best work in their solo careers anyway, and that even that wasn't really all that great. I loved The Beatles in junior high. I also loved The Moody Blues. Hopefully one grows out of that sort of thing. I find the bulk of McCartney's work completely asinine. I like Ringo best as an actor. And, yes, I love the work of Yoko. Mainly they are a band over which I probably won't change the station if they come on - although I don't know why I would be listening to a station that plays them in the first place. And finally, while I don't hate them, I do have a bit of glee in passing this story on to you.

Africa News

600,000 people have been effected by the massive flooding spanning 11 countries in Africa this week. Around 160 are dead from the disaster, but did you hear about it on the news? Why not? Did you hear about the new Beatles release on the news? How about Ellen going on Idol? Yeah, we have that kind of news.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/284710,un-nearly-600000-affected-by-west-africa-floods.html

Beethoven News

Sheesh, how about something nice for a change? It's been a rough week for nice news; and at the end of this post I don't know if I need a drink, a shower, a nap or all three, but I know that I'm seriously questioning the wisdom of me doing a weekly news roundup, what with my high blood pressure and all. The Philadelphia Inquirer gives us this piece about a sort of small classical music club venue that is doing very well on the East Coast. It gives the performers the freedom to do different material, to not have to, for example, find something to fill the rest of a performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations with other material to make the price of a classical concert ticket seem worth it - seem like a full evening out. It allows for more audience interaction, conversation with the performers. And such venues are drawing top tier performers. It's kind of wonderful. Sort of like a jazz club for classical music.
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/20090908_Classical_music_finding_intimacy_and_freedom_in_nightclub_venues.html