Secrets of the City

Yeah, they really love stories about Minnesota over there (I’m serious).

The only question I have is why?

Mum seems to be the word from everyone I talk to. Some unhappy people though.

Nice work. You make a T-Shirt making fun of him, and he bolts for jolly ole England.
Sheesh.

Don’t let the door hit ya in the ass, Garri.

SB (with all due respect)

Keillor hates hates haaaaaaates the senior VP at MPR who oversees the Fitzgerald. My money is on Keillor telling Kling “either she goes or I go,” Kling calling Keillor’s bluff, and Keillor succumbing to a fit of pique. Keillor has a short fuse sometimes — he moved to Denmark several years ago because he was pissed at the PiPress (they published his address).

Uh, I wouldn’t say he exactly runs away, as they say at The Rake but that’s probably a part of it. I happened to have lunch with an MPR person yesterday, and Sidney Falco’s assessment may be dead-on. MPR has two power centers– Kling and Keillor. They occasionally butt heads, that’s for sure. Keillor, I think, was not too happy about the sudden departure of the manager of the Fitz (married to Kate Gustafson, I think, his main producer). He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to carry anyone else’s water, but maybe that’s what he’s up to. I wonder who has lost their job in mid-management over this one– and if not, why Kling is going to bat for him or her. That’s probably the money question.

MPR, of course, is always in permanent lockdown, everyone is so afraid of Kling AND Keillor.

He should move it to a foreign city on par with St. Paul, like Cardiff or Southampton: “Yes, we’re broadcasting from somewhere far away, but not a somewhere that is particularly sexy.”

As long as he’s going – who gives a shyte where to….(no talent ass clown)

I recall an op-ed piece he wrote in 1992 about the erstewhile prez-elected Clinton. He said “at last we have a president who isn’t full of himself”

Pretty crazy statement – It’s like saying “I’m glad I moved to MN because at last I can avoid the cold weather.”

I don’t understand the anti APHC and anti Keillor vibe around here. Anybody who has had a show on NPR for 30 years listened to by millions with a steady flow of interesting music, is definitely not no talent. Maybe that just doesn’t compare with a blog that regularly is concerned with CJs latest column or what’s on the local news.

Um, cuz he threatened to sue me?

But besides that, I disagree that I must like something simply because it’s popular. At the same time, I agree with you to some degree — Keillor has done good work in the past (in particular, his New Yorker pieces were worthwhile), and some people tend to dismiss him a bit too easily.

But that’s as far as I’ll personally go. And I’m pretty sure that we’re not all that concerned about CJ around here.

IANAL but, the way trademarks work I think is that if the trademark holder does not enforce it they can lose it. Granted you’re small potatos but if someone comes along later and does infringe for profit not parody and he was shown not to enforce it in the past, he would lose. So don’t take it personally.

You certainly don’t have to like his show because it’s popular, I was mostly objecting to scoopids comment anyway.

Let me just say for the record — because I haven’t really commented on it before, hoping to let this cease and desist issue just die — but that is a bunch of fucking bullshit. There are several ways to protect trademark that don’t involve being a litigant. I’ve got heavies from places like Stanford who have pleaded with me to prove this in a court of law. I just don’t have the energy.

chris’s comment about popularity proves what I’ve known all the long…nobody makes better burgers than mcdonalds!

keillor is just another name in a long list of people who want to be perceived as folksy, tolerant, open-minded individuals but are willing to use money and lawyers to get their pouty-lipped way.

i’d like to play hockey on lake woe- is-me-be-gone this winter and see keillor sitting on the opposing bench.

Interview with Garrison Keillor. The NPR-Famous radio announcer steps outside of the Land of Lake Wobegon to tell us about how he really feels about Rush Limbaugh, Linsay Lohan, gay marriage, the War in Iraq, Jesse Ventura, the deterioration of American political debates, the Prarie Home Companion Movie, and why MTV did not actually kill the radio star.

Umm… Get over youselves mnspeak.com people. The lawsuit is, I guess, kind of funny and maybe annoying…

But it’s such a small deal. Compare that with having a worldwide audience listening to a great, funny show. (Ok… i don’t listen to it anymore…) Not to be elitist, but PHC is so much better than TV.

rex .. a link please, to some summary of the cease and desist and so on?

Dan

I never really liked Garrison until I left Minnesota. Whether living in Sacramento or DC, I’d occasionally bump into APHC on the radio dial and a brief description of snowy St. Paul would satisfy my homesickness at living in a town where flowers bloomed in January.

Plus, when you mention MN and people talk about Garrison before they bring up Prince, Dylan, or the Mall, you want to listen just to learn what sort of image he’s projecting.

Now only 26, I sporadically listen to Garrison like to an old friend. You wouldn’t believe how tough it is to hear an Ole and Lena joke in DC.

It’s yet another 180 degree ploy by the “shy” star or make that
“shy-ster from Anoka, Gary Keillor. He has once again, gleefully, got fans, the major and no doubt MPR shaken. Here’s a prima donna who likes the jerk his admirers around. Yee gads! And after MPR BOUGHT
him the Fitzgerald Theater!

Chase him out of here, I say. And take the two other puppet-masters
with him: the Twins and the Vikings. You can bet once they get new
stadiums, like Keillor got a theater handed to him, they’ll want yet
another venue.

And by the way, don’t be fooled into thinking that Billy Kling-don’s
Minnesota Radio Empire of the Air is all MPR listener-supported. Nope!
MPR gets taxpapers money. And a LOT of it.

Maybe Gary can find himself yet ANOTHER wife at his new HoBeGone,
where the women are sexy and the men are good-looking.