 |
Prairie Home Trip to Iceland
The May 20 broadcast originates from Reykjavik, the beautiful capital city of Iceland, out in the middle of the north Atlantic. Half of Iceland's 297,000 people live in and around Reykjavik—which means "smoking encouraged" in Icelandic. It's a volcanic island, so if our broadcast is interrupted suddenly, that may be the reason. The Vikings came over in the 9th and 10th century to settle this rugged island, but what do I know? I've never been.
The famous Fostbraedur Male Choir, and Diddú (Sigrún Hjálmtýrsdóttir), one of Iceland's most popular singers, join me and all the Prairie Home Companion regulars for this show, along with the Sage of Southwestern Minnesota, the Silver Tongued Poet of the Potato Growers, Mr. Bill Holm, who is proud of his Icelandic heritage and will help us understand the place.
Dusty and Lefty will fly over, too, and also Guy Noir, and Jim and Barb of the Ketchup Advisory Board. Tune it to see if Icelanders sit in silent puzzlement or if they clap and stuff.
| | | |
Sponsors for our trip to Iceland
Sign up here for our weekly e-pistle about what's happening at A Prairie Home Companion! Heck, while you're there, sign up for the daily e-mail from The Writer's Almanac too
A national holiday in Lake Wobegon is always gaudy and joyful. But what is going on between Clint Bunsen and Miss Liberty?
Everyone is here—Pastor Ingqvist, the Sons of Knute, Sister Arvonne of Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility and her ocarina band, the Norwegian bachelor farmers, Dorothy and the Chatterbox Café, Wally in the Sidetrack Tap—as crowds converge on the little town to celebrate American independence, even as the chairman of the event broods on the great question of the day: Shall we struggle on valiantly here or shall we burst the bonds and find beautiful life in the golden west?
|
Scripts and bits from A Prairie Home Companion celebrate the secret society of men and women who possess excellent spelling and punctuation skills. (You know who you are.)
Selections include "The Six-Minute Hamlet," a tribute to Emily Dickinson, a Guy Noir adventure that exposes an MFA scam, a riveting "Professional Organization of English Majors" drama, and guests Billy Collins, Robert Bly, Roy Blount Jr., and Calvin Trillin.
|
| |
