rla on February 11th, 2016

older WhitmanWhitman 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.

rla on February 5th, 2016

AthenaYou 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.

Kersting Man Reading by LamplightYou are invited to attend this week’s show, exploring tongue twisters, lies, truths, and other games of language. There’s a story here too, both literally and mythically true. And a great variety of music: Danny Kaye, Fraggle Rock, Gilbert & Sullivan, Leonard Cohen, Bruckner motet, Bob Dylan, CBS Jubilees, Simon & Garfunkel, Miles Davis from India.

rla on January 27th, 2016

Firesign TheatreThough disrupted by a sniffly, coldy voice, RLA substitutes for his intended show this triad of three relatively long pieces this week: Carnival of the Animals, with comic verses by Ogden Nash, spoken by Noel Coward; the Firesign Theater’s “Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him”; and an alternate version of “Desolation Row”. You’re invited to attend.

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rla on January 23rd, 2016

Walt_Whitman,_steel_engraving,_July_1854Walt Whitman comes to us “disorderly fleshly and sensual … eating drinking and breeding”, with many other interesting and outrageous assertions this week: “copulation is no more rank to me than death is”, or “the scent of these armpits is aroma finer than prayer”, and the sumptuous new word “omnifutuant” – tune in to find out what this word means. And it’s all supported with music from the Waterboys, Russian Orthodox liturgy, John Lennon, Lou Reed, the Four Clefs, the Kinks, and Leonard Cohen. You’re invited to attend.

rla on January 13th, 2016

First telephone connections, with Lou Reed, The Band, Dr Hook, then spending time with Leonard Cohen’s “Alexandra Leaving” and finally Walt Whitman and our connections expanding “much farther, and then farther and farther”. You are invited to attend.

Adam connected to God

Adam connected to God

rla on April 8th, 2015

Dante showing us the way

Afroman, The American Dream

Lamplight 109 You’re invited to attend to songs from Lovin’ Spoonful, Kinks, Randy Newman, Dylan and Dylan covered by Maria Muldaur, Badfinger, wholesome and not-so-wholesome explorations of exchanging money, and a journey into Dante’s Hell for bankers, culminating in this week’s Whitman selection, and Afroman’s celebration of The American Dream.

Your friend, Randy Newman

rla on March 26th, 2015

Lamplight 108

Angelo proposing his exchange to Isabella

Exchanges of letters, comic performances, permissions and  sexual favours;  Samuel Johnson, Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, a poem by Jesus, Walt Whitman’s erotic exchanges with the sea; Gilbert and Sullivan, Guys and Dolls, a French children’s song, the Incredible String Band and the Lovin’ Spoonful, 33 seconds of the Beatles, and finally Beethoven.

"Howler and scooper of storms! Capricious and dainty sea!"

rla on March 11th, 2015

Lamplight 107

"I saw her today at the reception / a glass of wine in her hand."

We wander around the two ways of treating others: as an It or as a Thou, something to use or something to have a relationship with. On the way we hear from The Old Philosopher (“Is that what’s bothering you, brother?”), Jimmy Cliff, the Rolling Stones, Spitting Image, Genevieve Cleghorn as Asena, Margaret Atwood’s “Rape Fantasies”, Jefferson Airplane, Dylan’s “I and I”, Whitman’s “unspeakable passionate love”, and even Country Joe and the Fish at the very end.

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Lamplight 106

Horny satyr sitting in dim oak-covert

Artemis on the hunt

“Like a pack of Satyrs, sitting in dim oak-coverts, and hearing only afar off the voices and swift feet of Artemis’s maidens” – intrigued? Attend the latest episode and learn more, and watch Whitman parade himself “hankering, gross, mystical, nude”.

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