In Lincoln Park more pubs showing US vs. Italy than the Cubs game, which would be notable except that the Cubs pubs were at capacity whereas soccer fans enjoyed more elbow room. Ate at a yummy Algerian creperie and saw a Prairie Home Companion. Thinking of the agency of the fictional (Guy Noir) on the “real” and vice versa (Xtian Texan as NPR axeman).. all Altman for that matter.. why I like his work.. this one was slightly less cacophonous, less spooling and quixotic.. tighter editing for a larger release? (and a spare 90 minute-ish.) Holding the regional humor throughout instead of front-loading it would have pleased this regional crowd even moreso, (one zinger of a Midwest in-joke, GK sings an advert ditty for Jens Jensen fish sticks- in Norwegian, no less- though Jens Jensen is not a 21st century fishmonger, but a 19th century landscape architect whose innovative notions of allowing design to honor local wilderness, rambling creeks and prairie plants spread his name around the parks of the Midwest (Humboldt Park, for one)), but as it was people were applauding the screen, a dynamic I’ve never understood.. what exchange is to be had there? Is this how familial we’ve grown to the medium? Nevertheless, if the oughts go down in the books as the era of “truthiness,” this film will have an important place in that history.. though the WMD fiction was never this entertaining.