As we enter the Advent Season, aware of the darkness growing around us, but aware too that the Light comes to us through this darkness, we reflect on whether to go gentle into that good night (pausing to visit one of the inmates of Dante’s Inferno, who refuses to go gentle, refuses even to acknowledge that it’s dark), and we spend time celebrating the legacy of Leonard Cohen, that voice of courage who knew that even the darkness has cracks and that’s how the light gets in. You are invited to attend.
To celebrate episode 150, we’ve given Dante a rest and just play around with some songs and verses. But it’s a muted celebration, as the American election results came in just as we were planning the show. Join our community for something that will touch you, and, I hope, also uplift you. You are invited to attend.
[UPDATED to the proper audio file. Now here’s the post-Hallowe’en episode.] Broadcast on Cambridge 105 the day after Hallowe’en, this episode defies the pseudo-scariness of Hallowe’en by offering a much more chilling, and a much-closer-to-home scariness, as we accompany Dante and Virgil on their journey through the Inferno, stopping now at the region of those who have been violent against themselves, or rather, the region where we can find ourselves when we are violent against ourselves, metaphorically turning ourselves into lifeless thorn bushes, beset by the Harpy monters (pictured here), who keep wailing in our ears counsels of defeat: “You’re no good”; “Give up now”; “Abandon your journey, destroy your dreams.” All this and more. You are invited to attend.
Minotaur, centaurs, landslides, boiling blood: all this and more when we come with Dante and Virgil to the area of the Inferno dedicated to Violence. And, as always, music to match, including, of course, a tribute to the Nobel Laureate. This is the expanded version, containing the discussion of Violence and Donald Trump that there was no time for when the show was broadcast on Cambridge 105. You are invited to attend.
In this episode, Dante learns that violence stinks, and he needs to sit for a while and acclimatise his nose to what he’s about to encounter. He learns that harming people’s possessions is as bad as harming people themselves, and ruining our own things is as bad as ruining ourselves. Lots of examples here to play with, and lots of interesting music to play. You are invited to attend.
Dante’s macabre/comic dialogue with two heretics becomes the occasion for us to judge how well our interpretation of what’s going on around us allows us (in Gil Bailie’s words) “to live fully and deeply and meaningfully, relating to the real world”. Come along: you are invited to attend.
Dante and Virgil come to the Gates of Lower Hell, but are blocked by devils and then the Furies (who are flying around in the picture here, but in the poem are just jeering from the walls of the city). In the poem, we attend to how Dante and Virgil manage to get the gate open. In our life, we attend to how we manage to descend deeper into ourselves when the resistance is so strong we feel we might be turned to stone. Lots going on here. You’re invited to attend.
Tune in as Dante crosses the River Styx, a marshy area filled with anger of various sorts. What happens when he meets the reflection of his own anger, rising up and threatening him? You are invited to attend and find out.
We’ve been having some heavy shows as we descend through Hell with Dante, and so having a cold gave me the excuse to lighten up a bit and re-broadcast a show from the end of 2015, the kind of show that keeps you smiling throughout. With my guests Neil Henry and Andrew Ab, we play around with Professor Longhair, Soupy Sales, “Grizzly Bear”, “Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear”, a sentimental Christmas carol redeemed because we attended to it, Afroman, Fraggle Rock, whistling with a robin, a Yiddish radio commercial from the 1940s, a mock commercial by the Who, Danny Kaye, Shel Silverstein and Dr Hook, the Kinks, and Tommy Cooper. You are invited to attend and join us.
Canto 7 now with (1) those who took money to two contrary extremes – misers and wild spenders, (2) Dame Fortune and her Wheel, (3) the angry, ripping each other apart, and the sullen, eating mud and making bubbles under the water. As usual, we go round and round with Dante and all these images, with various interesting and relevant pieces of music. You’re invited to attend and join us.
