A Prairie Home Companion

I don't know if you have ever heard of A Prairie Home Companion or not. I have a long history with it. I have always been a big fan of Sunday night radio shows, just something that I can throw on and slide under the covers. Radio shows almost seem to amplify your sense of hearing, you just get so much out of it.

I first heard of Garrison Keillor's radio show from Charles Kuralt when he used to do his "On the Road" segments for the CBS sunday morning news.

His did this one segment about this simple old school radio show that still broadcasted for two hours every Saturday night from the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul Minnesota. A great little variety show where they still sang their advertisments (love that) between songs by various guests. Very down home.

I soon found it simulcast on a Spokane station on Sunday nights. I always looked forward to my Sunday night bedtime stories.

Once we moved to Vancouver, it took a little while, but again I found it broadcast from a station in Seattle on Sunday nights.

Anyhow, in 2006 Robert Altman, the great Robert Altman decided to make a fictionalized account of A Prairie Home Companion into what would be his last movie. He put together one of the fantastic ensemble cast he was known for, Garrison Keillor himself, Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Kline, Lily Tomlin, Meryl Streep, and Lindsay Lohan in what I think was the only good role she has ever played.

This IS the best movie of 2006, I don't give a rats ass what the academy thought of 2 gay cowboys, this was the movie that should have won it all.

Great music!! Great acting!! Great direction!! They say Altman made all the stars sing their own songs, and they all had to do it in one take. Amazing once you watch it. It is on MC2 at 1:30 today, but if you can't watch it rent it. Hell, buy it, you wouldn't regret it.