Canto 3 of the Inferno, wherein Dante is challenged by the Gates of Hell, passes through the area of the non-descript souls, who have done nothing with their lives and spend eternity being stung to follow furiously behind meaningless banners, and then is ferried over the first river of Hell – but faints as soon as he gets across. Music by Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Amiri Baraka, Robert Johnson, Randy Newman. You are invited to attend.
Three parts to the show: a story illustrating that “Evolutionism” and “Creationism” are not opposing views; Canto 2 of Dante’s Inferno, as he backs out of the journey and then consents to the journey, now for the right reasons; Leonard Cohen’s “Paper-Thin Hotel”, illustrating the lesson Dante also must learn, “You go to Heaven once you’ve been to Hell.” Also included is the impromptu opening moments, when the Sky News failed to appear, and RLA offered a different kind of “sky” news. You are invited to attend.
Series Four of Evening under Lamplight is taking us through Dante’s Inferno, bringing to life this great story, this great poem. We start in the middle, and e start lost. You are invited to attend, to jump into the middle of things, and to find yourself lost
As we come to the final parts of “Song of Myself”, Walt Whitman rushes us along, since he can stay “only a minute longer”, and we must put the poem aside and move on into the future. But there’s time to talk about the merits of being inconsistent, about barbaric yawps over the rooftops, and of what happens when the poet disappears as the book comes to an end – but then stops some where (beyond the words on the page), waiting for us. And so, we come to the end of our journey through “Song of Myself” and to the end of Series Three of Evening under Lamplight. What will Series Four bring us? We’ll find out next time, and meanwhile, you are invited to attend.
Bridie Jackson and The Arbour giving us “Scarecrow” (see picture), and two Border Ballads, “Clerk Saunders and May Margaret” and “Edward, Edward”, enact the way dramatic voices give strength to the writing. Dylan’s “She’s Your Lover Now” shows that even more. And Whitman tags on with his contribution to the discussion, too. With incidental music by Janet Harbison, Jeannie Robertson, and Elgar. You are invited to attend.
We start with a tribute (of sorts) to Lee Andrews and the Hearts (pictured), then preview Louis Barabbas’ new album Gentle Songs of Ceaseless Horror, before moving on to our theme, taken from Robert Frost’s insistence on the need for literature to be “drama”, with support from Wendell Berry, Randy Newman, William McGonagall and Taj Mahal. It all leads into our (brief) look at Walt Whitman this week, supported by the Beatles, and the whole show closes with Michael Brecker. A broad enough range of items for you? Come along; you’re invited to attend.
First we attend to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and their songs celebrating self-pity. Then there are the Incredible String Band’s energy projections wishing you well, and the usual wisdom from Walt Whitman, about soul-body connection, being a hero at work, sympathy or the devil, walking around “pocketless of a dime”, and much more. Guest appearances from Robert Louis Stevenson, Alexander Pope, Ram Dass, and more. You are invited to attend. (Heard first on Cambridge 105.)
A succession of varied tangents arising from Whitman’s poetry, taking us to Godspell, dynamic education (which includes destroying your teacher), a Greek castration myth, and a Zen fable, which leads into songs by Dylan and Louis Barabas and the Bedlam Six. We bring in Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Book of Job, Jesus vs. the do-gooders, and the cowards rushing around the vestibule of Dante’s Inferno (see picture), who were, as Whitman says, “virtuous out of conformity or fear”. Randy Newman comments on following the flag, and Sly and the Family Stone share Whitman’s love for “everyday people”. You are invited to attend.
Whitman reminds us that we are on “a perpetual journey”, and he comes with us as far as he can, then sends us off on our adventure. We look, this evening under lamplight, at various angles of life as journey, with Andy Stewart, Stevie Wonder, Broceliande, Ray Davies, Béla Fleck, Jefferson Airplane, String Driven Thing, and talk from Joseph Campbell and RLA’s CD Journey through the Seasons. You are invited to attend.
You are invited to attend The Athena Connection, looking at what it means to be a Mentor, passing on to others the spirit of Athena, goddess of weaving and tactics (and tact). What do we do with Athena’s inspiration? – dance with it, or deny it, like Arachne, that spiderwoman. We take a few breaks along the way for music by the Greek dance band Athena, some Dylan, some Rolling Stones, also Malcolm Guite and a Scottish weavers’ song, and another dose of Walt Whitman, leading to the “unnameable ardors of my breast” with Mozart’s Queen of the Night.
