Radio killed the video star
This weekend we drove to Austin to see a live broadcast of our favorite radio program, A Prairie Home Companion. Garrison Keillor and company were joined by several excellent artists, including Joe Ely, on the campus of the University of Texas. Pat Donahue educated us on the rich Texas blues heritage, Fred Newman impressed us (again) with his amazing sound effects and guest Molly Ivins told stories of Austin before it became so normal. A Prairie Home is a variety show, similar to, but far surpassing, a show like Saturday Night Live, and including more than just comedy and music. You can listen to the show here. We’ve only met a handful of people who actually know what this show is, and only one who confesses to being a fan (thanks Ross!). We fully expected to be hanging out with the 50 and older crowd at the show, but to our surprise, the audience was quite young like us.
Also, it turns out living here has made us soft-headed when it comes to elevators. We had a couple of mishaps with the parking garage elevator, the first of which almost made us late to the show. (Always remember that the elevator may not actually stop on the floor you specified.)
We had an excellent evening at a hotel close to the show thanks to Travis (and the state of Texas in a round-about way). Josiah had a nice time playing with his Aunt Amanda who came up from San Marcos to bless us. After the show we ventured down Lamar and ate a great meal at the Twin Dragon, appropriately named because it serves both Vietnamese and Chinese cuisine. The Twin Dragon’s two fists of fury were expertly employed to sock us with excellent tastes and our waiter (as so often is the case in a place like this) was a hoot.
Sunday morning we met up with a long list of friends down south at Hope in the City and had a great time fellowshipping and catching up. We even received a cool coffee mug to boot, thanks HITC!
We passed through Bastrop for lunch with Travis, Debbie, Amy, and Amanda. I was pleased to bring back home the resurrected gas edger that Travis fixed up. I promptly put it to work on our yard and I must say, the edges look great. The stuff in the middle looks not so.
That sounds great you guys!
is that the same prairie home companion that just came out in the movies? my mom was telling me that she saw some movie with same name and I was like “hey, I think thomas and rachel listen to that radio show!”
Yes, Robert Altman has directed a movie titled ‘A Prairie Home Companion’ that was written by Garrison Keillor. The movie is based on the radio show, but from the reviews I’ve heard, among other differences, the show in the movie isn’t nearly as good as the real show, which is part of the storyline. We plan to see it soon.