At the half-way point through Dante’s Inferno we meet the Seducers and the Pimps, whipped by horned demons in endless circles. We look at a few examples in song: Don Giovanni, of course, and three seduction songs by *Sir* Ray Davies (pictured), two by Smokey Robinson, one by the Rolling Stones, and one or two others. You are invited to attend.
Dante meets Geryon, the image of Fraud, and takes flight upon the monster’s back. We also bring in the story of Arachne, the spider-woman (in ways you might not have considered before). And special guests in the studio, Andrew AB, and Biff Roxby, who speaks about his record label, Debt Records, and gives us some worthy commentary on the music. At the end, we hear Biff on trombone in two songs by Louis Barabbas and the Bedlam Six. You are invited to attend.
Our topic this week is “Erotic Gifts and Sterile Gifts” – but it’s not what you think. Dante’s experience on the Burning Sands of the Inferno can show us how our gifts should be fruitful, and attractive, not selfish and barren. With the usual varied musical selections from Fraggle Rock, Kinky Friedman, the Kinks, the Lovin’ Spoonful, as well as Private Eye, Bach, the Carter Family and Anne Sylvestre. You are invited to attend.
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.
