We attend to the Janus myth in this his month of January, as we stand (as we always do) on the threshold between past and future, looking from this still point of the turning world at what has been and what might be. With lots of songs of various kinds interspersed. You are invited to attend.
(First broadcast on Cambridge 105 Radio)
We attend to the way they give gifts in the myths, and today: gifts as token of esteem, gifts as bribes, gifts as expressions of generosity, with a variety of musical accompaniment. You are invited to attend.
(As heard on Cambridge 105 Radio.)
More Lovers’ Dramas, including a set of Motown dramas, plus opening up Leonard Cohen’s “Alexandra Leaving”, followed by Dylan, who opens with the amazing lines: “Some of us turn out the lights and we live / In the moonlight shooting by / Some of us scare ourselves to death in the dark / To be where the angels fly”. Come along; you are invited to attend.
(First broadcast on Cambridge 105 Radio, the commercially funded community broadcaster for the city and South Cambridgeshire.)
As heard on Cambridge 105 Radio, attending to a handful of songs about lovers’ dramas, mostly on or nearly on the telephone, including a mythic song by Dylan. You are invited to attend.
We attend to the famous/notorious Powder of Sympathy, as popularised by Sir Kenelm Digby [pictured] in the 1650s, and used to cure wounds even from a distance. Do we believe these stories? Do we dismiss them, like the missionary at the beginning of Stevenson’s fable, who insists there’s “nothing in it”, or like the missionary after his adventure when he admits that there might be “something in it” after all? You are invited to attend.
[As heard on Cambridge 105 Radio]
We attend to the famous episode in the Odyssey in which Odysseus meets the Cyclops: witty, gruesome, and strange in many ways. You are invited to attend too.
We attend to the story of Rapunzel: Why is she named after a garden plant? Was her foster mother a witch? What is it about an adolescent girl isolated in a tower? Her long hair – both her outward beauty and the means she allows others to come close to her. And so on. Lots to attend to here, and with musical interludes from Donovan, Berlioz, Paul Robeson, Rolling Stones, The Fantasticks, and a clip from Fractured Fairy Tales. You are invited to attend.
(First broadcast on Cambridge 105 Radio, the commercially funded community broadcaster for the city and South Cambridgeshire.)
We attend to different aspects of tone, what it feels like when we express ourselves or when we are open to the expression of others, and bringing in a fine little Japanese fable about bringing out the tone of a musical instrument. With music from the Kinks, Taj Mahal, Duke Ellington, the Coasters, Fraggle Rock, and the celebrated Michio Miyagi on the koto – so quite a varied offering, to which you are invited to attend.
(First broadcast on Cambridge 105 Radio, the commercially funded community broadcaster for the city and South Cambridgeshire.)
We attend to all sorts of eyes: sexy eyes, dark eyes, blind eyes, killer’s eyes – with a special section on the dark eyes in Raymond Chandler’s Big Sleep. Dr Hook, Billie Holiday, Lovin’ Spoonful, Taj Mahal, Kinks, Dylan, Miriam Makeba, a song in Yiddish, and some poetry too. You are invited to attend.
(First broadcast on Cambridge 105 Radio, the commercially funded community broadcaster for the city and South Cambridgeshire.)
As heard on Cambridge 105 Radio, Evening under Lamplight attends to touchstones, those stones that can assess the true value of something – whether a coin or a personality. On the way we visit Dante’s Hell, Shakespeare’s As You Like It, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and a Robert Louis Stevenson fairy tale, with music from Theodore Bikel, John Lee Hooker, The Temptations, Jimmy Soul, The Band, and Leonard Cohen. You are invited to attend.
