Prairie Home Companion Weekend

This weekend was a double-dose of Prairie Home Companion. On Friday, we went to the performance at the Fitzgerald Theatre here in St. Paul. I had been introduced to the show some 27 years ago when I was at Purdue, in Indiana, so some of the Midwestern references made sense to me. Now, as a person who lives in St. Paul, many of the other inside references made sense: cheese curds, I-94, and Hennepin County Library are some I picked out. Certainly a great part of the appeal of this show is the great number of references to details of life that we are familiar with, from the feeling of the first day of fall to deer at dusk on the highway to bagging your carry-on gels and toothpaste at the airport.
I also enjoyed the sense of production of the show: what was read from scripts, what was extemporaneous (most of Garrison Keillor's speaking was without notes), the musicians riffing and playing off each other and off the spoken parts. Keillor's monologue on Lake Wobegon was nearly sermon length, and seemed quite extemporaneous. Fabulous music by the Derailers (though I was bothered by several people taking flash pictures with camera phones - what's with that?), and the house musicians are top-notch.
On Saturday night, we joined a friend of Liz's at the last minute for the annual PHC Meatloaf Supper and Streetdance in front of the theater. Now, I'm no fan of meatloaf, but the $5 plate of meatloaf and white sides was pretty good! We enjoyed a warm night with maybe two thousand other folks, listening to Keillor mc the contests for loon-calling, loudest kid, and best Bob Dylan imitation, among other things. This sort of energy and creativity and variety is why we love living in the city. Size brings anonymity, and anonymity -- for all its benefits -- often invites the worst to come out in people. The fact that a big crowd of strangers like this one can behave well together is a beautiful and hopeful thing.