We go into the new year with one of the most requested shows from the archives, when Neil Henry and Andrew Ab came into the Cambridge 105 Radio studios for a back-and-forth play of music and discussion/reminiscence/jokes, featuring music from Professor Longhair, The Youngbloods, Randy Newman, Bob Dylan, Afroman, Junior Gorg, Ricky Ranking, The Pincus Sisters, The Who, Danny Kaye, Dr Hook, The Kinks – and Robert Burns to end with. You are invited to attend this hodge-podge of items.

rla on December 20th, 2022

We attend to different kinds of gifts and giving, in the spirit of what Lewis Hyde calls “the erotic life of property”. You are invited to attend.

[First heard on Cambridge 105 Radio]

rla on December 5th, 2022

We attend to the Japanese idea of wabi-sabi, an engagement with the weather-beaten, unadorned, melancholy, deeply satisfying aspects of life and art. You are invited to attend.

[An uncut version of the show heard on Cambridge 105 Radio]

rla on November 21st, 2022
De Quincey’s Opium Dream

We attend to dreams – daydreams, and the “dream landscape of curiously fluid and ambiguous forms”, drug-induced, or as inspiration, or as alienation and absurdity. Kinks, Robyn Hitchcock, Solomon Burke, De Quincey, RLS, Dylan. You are invited to attend.

[As heard on Cambridge 105 Radio]

rla on November 7th, 2022

As it gets dark earlier and earlier, and, it seems, on many different levels, we attend to some Night Thoughts, with Frankie Laine, RLS, Dylan, Dr Hook, Tammy Wynette, Leonard Cohen, Lee Andrews and the Hearts, Mothers of Invention, Jeannie Robertson, Robert Burns, George Gershwin, Miles Davis – and a wonderful, compassionate night soliloquy by Sherwood Anderson. You are invited to attend. [As heard on Cambridge 105 Radio]

rla on October 24th, 2022

As our contribution to the celebration of Black History Month, we attend to several literary and musical pieces from the African American tradition: Langston Hughes, Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis, Leadbelly, James Weldon Johnson, Paul Robeson, Thelonius Monk and John Coltrane, Jayne Cortez and a wonderful reading from James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”. You are invited to attend. [As heard on Cambridge 105 Radio]

rla on October 10th, 2022

We attend to a passage from Walt Whitman, full of vibrant acceptance of all people, and all things, around him, and then to the story of Pygmalion, and his confusion between a work of art and reality. How does one merge into the other? You are invited to attend. [As heard on Cambridge 105 Radio]

We attend to various aspect of giving, or asking to be given, or giving back. There are so many angles to this theme that we can attend to only a limited number of aspects. There’s a hipster song, two Dylan ballads, a French children’s song, Josh White’s wonderful voice, and more from Fraggle Rock, plus a fine Leonard Cohen piece to close. You are invited to attend. [As heard on Cambridge 105 Radio]

rla on August 29th, 2022
A fool and a knave

We continue with the theme of “the serene peaceful state of being a fool among knaves” – though it’s not always serene or peaceful. We hear George Ade’s “Fable of the Visitor Who Got a Lot for Three Dollars” and lots of Kinks songs about fools, being fooled, being aware of being fooled. You are invited to attend. [As heard on Cambridge 105 Radio]

rla on August 15th, 2022

We attend to all sorts of fools, fools in love, being fooled part of the time, Nasruddin, the wise men of Chelm, with klezmer, Ruben and the Jets, Dylan, Badfinger, Wendell Berry, and others. You are invited to attend. [As heard on Cambridge 105 Radio]