rla on December 17th, 2014

Lamplight 101 It gets darker, but the light is coming. We can wait in line hoping that it can’t happen here, “all I have, and all I know is this dream of you, which keeps me living on”, waiting for the clouds to rain down righteousness in the holy hour of candle-lighting, “And these one and all tend inward to me, and I tend outward to them.” All this and more in this Advent/Solstice episode.

rla on August 28th, 2014

Walt Whitman

"You settled your head athwart my hips and gently turned over upon me"

Lots of music this week: love songs, many from Motown, but also Frankie Lymon and the Mothers of Invention (great lovers, they) and Donovan and Otis and Dylan. And then one of those passages that got Walt Whitman banned. We today recognise the sexual ambiguity, but you are invited also to attend to the love-making between the Ego and the Soul.

rla on November 7th, 2011

We are attending to the Autumn Energy of Departure: life seems to diminish, and calls us to depart on a new journey, first into darkness, and then springing into new life. But first, the Calling out of the Wasteland, and the testing to see if we are really ready for this journey. It’s threatening only to the ego.  So let’s look at some Wastelands, some methods of Calling and being Tested.

The Fool


Attend to the fools, the jesters and the jokers. Fools in love, idiot winds, and three kinds of professional jesters, including the modern-day Stand-up Comic. Besides regulars Dylan, Ray Davies, and RLS, we have guest appearances from Frankie Lymon, Mothers of Invention, Danny Kaye, the D’Oyly Carte, Jonathan Swift, and a few others. The only way to be cool, is to let yourself first be a fool.

And take a look at our podcast on the Tarot Fool.

Essential Recordings 1955-1961 (Frankie Lymon and the Teenages, “Why Do Fools Fall in Love?”)

Cruising With Ruben & the Jets (Mothers of Invention, “How Could I Be Such a Fool”)

Blood On The Tracks (Bob Dylan, “Idiot Wind”)

The Maladjusted Jester (Danny Kaye, “The Maladjusted Jester”)

Other People S Lives (Ray Davies, “Stand-up Comic”)

Magical Mystery Tour (Beatles, “Fool on the Hill”)