stereotypical single woman

“why do they call it PMS?”
“the term mad cow was already taken”

Even I laughed at that one. Last night I watched A Prairie Home Companion while working on my new hat (3/4 of the way done) and plying some singles that have been on a spindle for a couple of months (and the resulting skein was surprisingly balanced - look, no twists!) I have to say - I went into the movie with very low expectations and while I wasn’t disappointed, I definitely wasn’t pleasantly surprised either.

I’m a very big fan of APHC - the first time I heard it was about 4 years ago. I was in NYC working for the summer, it was my first weekend there, I was kicking myself for not going back to work for Utah Shakes that summer, and I was feeling like your typical midwestern hick that definitely did not belong in a sublet in Hell’s Kitchen. I was spending my Saturday evening in my bedroom, soaking my feet (being a dumbass I hadn’t brought any well-broken in comfortable shoes and was paying the price after walking through Central Park that afternoon), and was flipping through the radio looking for something to listen to and take my mind off the blisters and homesickness. And then I found a show being broadcast from Miller Auditorium, on the campus of Western Michigan University, where I had just gotten my bachelor’s a few years before. It was just what a needed to hear - a bit of the midwest brought into my small dingy bedroom on 44th and 9th.

Ever since then I’ve listened to it every weekend, sometimes on Saturday nights, sometimes on Sunday afternoons, and usually not the whole show, but I always at least catch the news from Lake Woebegone. The opening chords of Tishomingo Blues always put a smile on my face. So when I heard they were making a movie I had a sinking feeling that it was going to be like seeing your favorite book as a child on screen. You’ve created images of the characters in your mind and nothing will be able to live up to them, no matter how good the production values are. I just couldn’t handle watching hollywood people (especially Lindsay Lohan, who, on my scale of annoyances rates just slightly below Paris Hilton) step in and play characters that I know full well are Garrison, Sue Scott, Tom Keith, and Tim Russell. I actually ended up not watching most of the movie but listening to it instead - it just seemed more appropriate.