Iceland review - 2006, Blaðsíða 36

34 ICELAND REVIEW
Some states have a clear political history, but these things change.
I object to the characterization of people by their politics. Most of
my friends are Democrats but I know lots of Republicans. I don’t
confuse politics with character.
EW: I read your review of the book American Vertigo in The New
York Times. You seem to be pointing out that after touring America,
the French writer Bernard-Henri Levy misinterprets much of what
he sees, and by focusing on iconic images and places, misrepresents
the US in the book. You’ve had the opportunity to interact with
Americans from across the country while traveling for your show.
Where would you go to get a true sense of the US?
GK: I think you would get a better picture, a more interesting
picture, than Levy did if you traveled by happenstance – if you simply
wandered and went where impulse took you. This would be a much
more interesting book than setting out to see cartoon aspects of the
country. Dealey Plaza in Dallas holds a certain morbid fascination for
everybody (as does the lap dancer in Vegas, the Hollywood movie
star…) but we shouldn’t confuse it with the country we live in. It’s a
small piece of American history. But my main objection was that it
was hugely pretentious, and the style was maddening to read.
EW: What are some of the biggest misconceptions that Europeans
have of America?
GK: I’m not in as close touch with Europe as I used to be. I used to
live in Copenhagen. When I lived there, and that was some time
ago, I think the view of America was mostly from television, so they
thought of us as being illiterate, uninterested in books, obsessed
with sex and pornography and obesity and guns. They thought of
us as dominated by fundamentalist, apocalyptic evangelists. They
didn’t see the diversity of the US. I remember some wouldn’t come
to America because they assumed that the moment they stepped foot
in New York they would be shot.
But Danes are a traveling people. The ones who really had an
appreciation for America were the ones who had gotten in a car
and just driven. They stayed off the freeways and drove through the
little towns and made their way across the country. They fell in love
with southern towns with f lowers and honeysuckles, and people
with good manners. They fell in love with the West, the desert,
the real desert – not Vegas but the real desert – and the high plains
of Wyoming. They fell in love with California. Anybody can fall
in love with California. They came and they saw this enormous,
complicated and, on the whole, very welcoming country.
EW: Your show is based out of small-town Minnesota, and your
reverence for the area. The Midwest is not exactly the hotbed of
entertainment. What is so special about Minnesota?
GK: It’s where my friends are. It’s where I grew up. My family is
from here. That would be enough. But beyond that, my wife and
I and my little girl who is eight have made a nice life. She’s in a
school she loves. She takes swimming lessons. And she has little
friends that live next door. And when your child has this idyllic life,
you wouldn’t dream of interrupting it. When your child is perfectly
happy you just want to let her be perfectly happy.
EW: Radio stations across the country all play from the same
programming lists, be they rock, country or pop. Where does all
this uniformity come from, and does it hurt radio?
GK: Yes, it’s sort of destroying it. It comes from the fact that the
government abandoned the idea of limiting the number of stations
you could own, so the conglomerates, of which Clear Channel is
the biggest, have sucked up stations like a big vacuum cleaner. The
commercial community radio stations, those that would broadcast
your appeal for a lost dog, or community events like a high school
basketball game, have died out, but public radio has moved into
the areas that these stations once occupied. Clearly, free enterprise
doesn’t serve the local community very well. But with the decline
has come a boom with public radio and wonderful things are
beginning to happen.
EW: What do you get from a good radio show that you don’t get
from any other media?
GK: Radio can travel around with you. Lots of people listen to
it in their cars or their kitchen while they are doing other things.
It’s a companion you don’t really have to focus on. Our show is a
bit different. People might sit down and listen to it but they can
also wander to and from it. Radio has a closeness that TV doesn’t
really have. [Movies] have a tremendous power to draw people into
another reality. I think radio has that same power. It’s possible to
feel this closeness to somebody on the radio. With television there’s
a wall, and very few people break through it.
EW: Is radio still the theater of the mind?
GK: There’s a guy who does a late-night show in Minnesota.
Tommy Mischke. He’s amazing to listen to. He has the wherewithal
to go off on these long, stream-of-consciousness riffs. He hardly
plays music at all, takes very few phone calls, but he’s somebody who
has the power to go into a trance and talk. That’s a powerful thing in
radio. You can’t do it in TV where everything is closely controlled.
I guess with movies you can. I think Altman has that improvisatory,
seat-of-the-pants style, but it’s really possible in radio. And people
remember when you do it. That’s the real power of radio. It’s so
memorable. You remember what you hear.
Tickets for “A Prairie Home Companion,” and other events
associated with the Reykjavík Arts Festival, can be purchased
online by logging on to www.artfest.is
john C. Reilly, Woody haRRelSon and kevin kline in a PRaiRie home ComPanion