rla on June 29th, 2016

300px-Dante_Gabriel_Rossetti_-_Paolo_and_Francesca_da_Rimini_(1855)Dante’s Inferno, Canto 5, wherein we find the lustful, and discuss modern and the mediaeval notions of lust – is it a passion, or is it a specific kind of action? We meet the horrible judge of Hell, Minos, and many personages from legend and history famous for their lustful behaviour. And we encounter Paolo and Francesca, perhaps the most famous episode in all of Dante. Music by Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg, the Band, Bob Dylan, the Clovers, and Purcell. You are invited to attend.

rla on May 7th, 2012

We invite you to attend to Hermes, or Mercury, the trickster god, but we also see him crossing boundaries, over the edge, earthing and unearthing, and leading us through dreams to the Otherworld “where the time and the tempo fly”. Poems by Emily Dickinson, Robert Graves, and Karen Yelena Olsen, tribute to Levon Helm and mazeltov to Jim Steinman. And, as always, the Kinks, Dylan, and RLS.

Hermes Logios

rla on September 12th, 2011


Michelangelo's Jonah

You remember Jonah, right? The prophet who ran away and got swallowed by the whale? Great story, but worth attending to a little more closely. You’re invited to attend with us, to this little literary masterpiece, with lots of interesting, and even sometimes relevant, music to help us along the way.