Garrison Keillor and Amy Tan Coming to Agnes Scott in October
Decatur Metro | September 18, 2013
From Agnes Scott’s Alumnae Facebook page…
Fall authors coming to Agnes Scott
(co-sponsored by the GA Center for the Book)
- Tuesday, October 29 – Garrison Keillor reading
- Tuesday, November 19 – Amy Tan reading
Both readings will be held in Gaines Chapel, Presser Hall.
Start time: 7:15 p.m.
Event is free and open to the public; tickets will be distributed at the door (no reservations)
h/t: Decaturish
Latest from Decaturish
Wow, these events are huge. Alas, the capacity at Gaines Chapel is not. 817 max. Line up early folks!
For some reason Garrison Keillor gets on my last nerve.
Yeah, those grating midwestern, Scandinavian accents and attitudes. Makes da Bronx look good.
Keillor was great last time he was at Agnes Scott. He was something like 3 weeks past a mild stroke and totally on top of his game. Plus he was humorous about it. IMHO, Decatur is a bit Lake Wobegonish in addition to Mayberry meets Berkeley meets Alpharetta.
I find his style grating (like FM) and I don’t know why. However, his collective library of “usual humor topics” does embody a panoply of Decatur stereotypes.
I’ve never agreed with the Mayberry or Berkeley comparisons – in many ways Lake Wobegon might be more appropriate (ugh, I cannot believe I am saying this)
I was a regular listener for many years. All of a sudden the whole show started to bug me, from his insistence on bass or falsetto harmonizing with the fabulous musicians he has for guests, to the knee jerk reaction of the audience to the same stuff he’s been doing week after week, year after year (how many other humorists can get instant general hilarity merely by mentioning Unitarianism?). I read several of his books as well and ended up mildly disturbed by what I remember as deep underpinnings of cynicism and despair. My wife still loves the show and puts it on whenever she can, and I tolerate it.
On the other hand, I really liked the movie and found it to be a gentle cap to Robert Altman’s career.
And don’t even get me started about Amy Tan!!!
She was the heart and soul of the Rock Bottom Remainders, bless her.
I think you hit on what makes PHC such an irritant. The whole idea behind having musical guests is so you can shut your damn mouth for three minutes. Heaven forbid that no wind should escape Keillor’s lips for minutes at a time over the course of his two hour show, which airs in two separate dayparts in the Atlanta market.
The schtick is tired–the erudite cowboys, Guy Noir, Powder-effing-Milk… I used to listen to the show regularly and really enjoyed what seemed to be the focus of the show then, which was the stories. They’re still there, I’m sure, but good god do I not have the patience to sit through the rest of PHC’s sleepy-voiced wackiness.
I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, and thoroughly enjoyed the show for about the first 15 years but like you, found at some point that it had worn thin. In the ’80s it exerted the same exotic charm that my upper Midwest college town (and classmates) had, but I guess I’m over that now. Also, I thought the ads for Bertha’s Kitty Boutique were pretty entertaining, so if that bit could be retired (as it probably should have been), then surely it’s time to take the cowboys and the ketchup commercials out of the rotation.
And I think I’m even more turned off of PHC now simply because WABE insists on airing it twice every week. If it’s that good, then it should be worth tuning in the first time.
Don’t get me started on Car Talk reruns. There are so many great NPR shows we could be getting instead of those two cackling clowns and the replay of PHC.
+100
I hardly travel any more and lack the wherewithal to get online and explore, so I don’t even know what great public radio content we’re missing, specifically. But I know how great PHC and Car Talk were back in the day, and so feel certain we’re deprived, trapped in a mid-80s radio time warp.
What are we missing that we could get from NPR if WABE would only get up to speed? I don’t mind Car Talk reruns because I didn’t hear most of the episodes the first 100 times, and I’m lucky if I get to hear PHC one of the two times that it airs every weekend, but I don’t know could be those slots instead.
Mountain Stage for one.
Also, the splendid “American Routes”
( http://americanroutes.wwno.org/ ), which you can pick up on GEORGIA Public Radio, but not here in town, because (a) WABE won’t carry it, and (b) Georgia Public Radio is not allowed to broadcast within WABE’s range.
I’ve posted this link before about the sad state of public radio in Atlanta: http://clatl.com/atlanta/bach-off-you-npr-scum/Content?oid=1244542
The story is ten years old, but nothing mentioned in the story has changed in the intervening ten years.
So sad!
Just to bring home the sad point, just take a look at the GPB radio coverage map. Yes, nothing has changed in 10 years.
Why the map is this way … longer story than this post.
http://www.gpb.org/radio/stations
Decatur reminds me of Futureworld, where nothing can go worng.
To me, Decatur is spectacularly unlike Lake Wobegon because in LW nearly everybody has lived there for their whole lives. While Decatur can claim quite a few lifelong residents and not a few whose roots go back generations, there is a huge proportion of incomers. It may feel like an old-timey small town if you grew up in a suburban environment or a city (especially if you’re from Up North, i.e., north of I-40 or west of I-65), but the resemblance is largely superficial. It’s really not much at all like a small town where your children’s classmates’ great-grandparents have history with your own and two-thirds of them are close or distant cousins. That’s an entirely different kettle of fish.
Actually, I retract the Up North part — the kind of insular, small community I’m talking about can be found in any part of the country. That was my bitter Southern snobbery peeping out.
Decatur’s a perfect destination for Garrison—all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.
And there’s plenty of bars for Guy Noire to hang out in on dark and stormy nights…..
And this:
“People will miss that it once meant something to be Southern or Midwestern. It doesn’t mean much now, except for the climate. The question, “Where are you from?” doesn’t lead to anything odd or interesting. They live somewhere near a Gap store, and what else do you need to know?” – Garrison Keillor
It still means plenty to be a Southerner and anyone who says different lives inside a fog of nostalgia and cynicism so thick he needs a lighthouse in his front yard.
Let the congregation say AMEN!!!
Like him or not, let’s show a little Southern Hospitality. Why bang on the guy?
Also, anyone know the deal with Bill Bryson coming to the Baptist Church? I noticed his name on the marquee there recently. I am a big fan of his stuff.
Haters gon’ hate.
Bill Bryson – page 5: http://www.fbcdecatur.com/assets/files/thOutlook/FBCD_Outlook_09-00-13.pdf
I hate that I will be on the road that evening.
JimC, thank you very much. I’ll regale you with Bryson isms after the event.
Since I’ve never been able to listen to PHC faithfully week after week, I have never tired of it. When a joke or theme gets stale, it’s still new to me! But then again, I also never tire of the Andy Griffith Show and theme song.
The denizens of Mayberry can still make me laugh my head off, when I’m in the mood for that and I can still laugh at M*A*S*H* for that matter, even though I can recite the dialogue of most episodes by heart. But it’s comfort food, bland and un-engaging.
This may be sheer Decatur heresy, but Roy Blount, Jr. is starting to wear thin for me.
[GASP]
GET A ROPE.