Post to the Host
Host Garrison Keillor answers your questions about life, love, writing, authors, and of course, A Prairie Home Companion.
Generation X
April 1, 2008 | 1 Comment
Dear Garrison,
I'm a 27-year-old gen-Xer whose roots lay in grunge rock and pop punk (i once sported a mohawk for a week). Given that it catches some people off guard to walk by and see me listening to your show. Admittedly the music doesn't always resonate with me (though who can't love the Wailin' Jennies or the Boys of the Lough?) but the overall feel of the show and especially the news from your home town have made it a staple in my weekly routine. The news from Lake Wobegon surrounds my mind with an air of rare familiarity. I always get wistful when the show closes and you sing "It's been somethin' seein' you again" and this makes it hard to put in a punk album after the show is done because I like to ride that wistful feeling in silence for a bit. All this to say thank you.
Nathan C.
Golden, CO
Interesting that you say your "roots" are in grunge and punk, Nathan. Twenty-seven is too old for punk. You have to be an adolescent which, nowadays, thanks to the growth hormones in milk, starts around ten. That part of your life is done gone and now you're shopping for something else that might last you for awhile. The problem with being cool is that it's competitive and you wake up in the morning feeling suddenly uncool and no longer caring. This happens after twenty-five or so. What appeals to you about the show is the old pleasure of being spoken to and not having to respond, a childlike pleasure, but also it represents a different layer of language than grunge/punk and language, Nathan, is a pleasure that only grows with time. It's the basis of social attraction, I think, that can carry you across lines of class and education and race. And age, and perceived cultural identity. It's one thing that can haul us out of ourselves and allow us to feel life's gentle rain on our epidermis. Language is our skin. Also our lips and probably most of what we think of as our brain. Onward, young Nathan. Glad to have you with us for as long as it intrigues you.
1 Comment
|
Previous Post: |
Next Post: |
Post to the Host Archive
- The Lake Wobegon Effect
- Longevity
- Abdication vs. Retirement
- Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility
- Memory
- Sarah Bellum
- Starting Over
- Do you get to laugh?
- Keep Looking Ahead
- Big City vs. Hometown
- Awful Timing for Love
- Write Funny
- Telling a Story
- Fathers and Daughters
- Big City Yearnings
- Performing in Public
- Visiting Denmark
- Breaking into Show Business
- Moving Back with Mom
- Surviving as a journalist
- Advice for a Competitive Campaign
- A Life-Changing Moment
- In Search of a Wedding Poem
- Trying to turn a passion into a profession
- Spring Break
- American Jokes
- Norwegian Immigration to Lake Wobegon
- One thing leads to another
- All Good Writing is Rewriting
- The Goodbye To Childhood You're On Your Own Now Ceremony
- Skiing in the Alps
- Competing against the young
- Finding confidence
- The value of public universities
- Ruining Lutefisk
- A Christmas Blizzard
- Memoirs
- How do I get noticed?
- Poetry and the Fairer Sex
- Developing a natural voice
- Pentecost
- Boycott
- Anonymous in the Big City
- Thanks to Ford
- Offended
- What happened to that "Sweet Biscuit Fiddle?"
- "Tom and Sally"
- NOTE FROM THE HOST
- SFX Lady??
- Missing The Old Scout
- Live in San Diego
- So Where's Sinclair?
- This is my first big trip away from home. Any advice for a first-time traveler?
- How come the house band is called The Shoe Band?
- October 21 Cinecast
- Getting into the Radio Business
- On the 12th Floor of the Acme Building...
- Going to the Big City!
- 73 Days of Summer Vacation
- Help with a Eulogy
- Where Do I Start?
- Fantasy League Whippets
- Clergywomen in Lake Wobegon
- The more you write, the better it gets
- The Voice
- A Note from GK about Retirement
- Low Self-Esteem
- Useless Degrees
- Car Bomb
- The Dog-Ears of Summer
- Dealing with Disappointment
- Rejection Letters
- English Majors Strike Again
- 7th Grade Report
- GK Responds to Cinecast Posts
Complete Post to the Host Archive
Sarah | April 5, 2008 9:37 PM
Nathan is twenty-five & suddenly uncool & no longer caring?! What!?
Not True!: Anyone born circa 1978 exhibits a complex of Gloom & Doom!
I have meet a few, although not recently...
(by the way, I spent my twenty-fifth birthday at the 25th winnapig fest., & indulged in very special fudge squares & the sky opened up, oh & I saw ani ...she's punk right?!_b-4 that I experienced a very low period(blue like picasso?!) after grad. from college) the '98 year opened an artist portal, yet I was still so very on the fringe. My high point was playing a maiden @ a solcistice performance near the house boats at the old NSP plant... & well by chance I has a small file of photos from the event & shared them with a friend or two at the real days of the clown lounge, Turf Club U.S.A. & well some fabulous lady asummed I was well, in the fringe fest. Hmmmmm.....)
Go Nathan! During my college days, I enjoyed the salad days of indie rock. A big fan of the the clash! R they punk or pop? ask a ten-year-old
Nathan, I was virtually oblivious to the grunge movement, only that I was in college, and in those days, the media , television & trends are trapped out to a comfy college hoodie & an arm full of books. And back then, pre 1995, the internet did no roam the hallways.
YOU i presume fell into the early avenue of teen angst, indeed! Nirvana is a classic 100 years from now... Teen angst is punk, & it has returned in a classic way to are pre teens. Ten-year-olds could care less about the over done cat eyes, yet the elder ken will ruin it all?!
no! no! no! It is up to are elders to teach the young & a true movement away from the electronic influnce, un plug it for the 7 year olds! And blesssed be the generation Zerbras! (after gen y)!
I adhere to the Prairie Home just by second hand somke, my mother marge & my Step. Father tape & listen to it relgioiuosly!!