August Willemsen

Even een korte recensie.

Kan je een stotteraar voor de radio (of podcast) interviewen? Een hardnekkig haperende August Willemsen verscheen voor de VPRO microfoon in 1999 en die Marathon van drie uur is nu als podcast uitgekomen. (feed)

Ik kende Willemsen niet alleen van de vertalingen uit het Portugees, maar ook van een aantal gedichten die hij in Paradiso had voorgedragen. Wat je er bij krijgt in het interview is heen en weer gepraat over zijn alcoholisme. De AA in Australie duwden hem naar contact leggen met Hogere Machten, maar daar moet hij niets van hebben...

Meer Het Marathon Interview:
Ernst van de Wetering,
Isaac Lipschits,
Ger Harmsen,
Het Marathon Interview met Kerst 2010,
Michiel van Erp.

Moby Dick - Entitled Opinions

For the die-hard quality podcast lovers this week is a most splendidly happy one: Entitled Opinions is back. Last Tuesday with a great discussion of Moby Dick with repeat guest Andrea Nightingale. (feed)

Moby Dick is so much more than a novel, or an epic. It is an artful description of man's search for God, meaning and the essence of his being - man's or God's. This is not a claim of my own, but trather what one learns from Robert Harrison and Andrea Nightingale's discussion. For those who have read Moby Dick with Hubert Dreyfus's philosophy course at Berkely (Philosophy 6) this comes as no surprise.

Today Entitled Opinions moves on in full swing with a discussion about Classicism in America.

More Entitled Opinions:
Two issues of Entitled Opinions,
Heidegger,
Pink Floyd,
Alexander the Great,
Athanasius Kircher (Giordano Bruno).

More Philosophy 6:
KQED - all things shining,
Heidegger in Podcast - news,
Heidegger in podcast,
Philosophy 6 - Berkeley lecture series.

SciFi and realism - Making history with Ran Levi

Making History with Ran Levi (עושים היסטוריה! עם רן לוי) takes, every once in a while, an excursion into the world of SciFi literature. Usually to discuss the life and work of one writer of SciFi or another, but this time a subject slightly differently. (feed)

SciFi, obviously, needs to be a work of fiction which relies on science and some kind of imaginative extrapolation where science could bring us. Needless to say, both the extrapolation as well as the fiction stretch the science quite a bit, but to a certain extent, the science still must be accurate. Ran Levi kicks off with an example, the TV series Space 1999, which has the moon get marooned in space and he tells how none other than Isaac Asimov took exception with the scientific inaccuracy in the story. It shows that bad science can wreck an otherwise good piece of fiction.

Another example is that of Larry Niven's Ringworld, which seemed to me very sound as I read it, but which has a serious flaw as Levi explains on the show. In the rest of the series Niven went to great lengths repairing his scientific inaccuracies. But as Levi also shows, if the SciFi writer will do everything to make his science OK, his fiction might falter. And that is the conclusion of this entertaining show: the science needs to be accurate, but to certain extent imagination should be allowed to stretch it, even beyond accuracy, for the sake of the story. It seems like an impossible hole.

More Making History with Ran Levi:
The history of Anesthetics,
Social Engineering for hackers,
Ran Levi, then, now and about the Long Now,
Of nightmares and sleepwalking,
Mass Extinctions.

Mark Leslie on the Writing Show

For a long time, the 'Getting Published with...' section had not appeared at the Writing Show (feed). In this section, host Paula B speaks with aspiring writers and follows up on their current project. How is the writing progressing? And when the writing is done, how is the search for an agent or a publisher going? The idea is to show the entire process from conception to publishing.

Although I find this the most fascinating feature of the Writing Show, it has also a disheartening quality to it. It shows how hard the writers struggle with their work and ultimately how tremendously difficult it is to get published. It has been two years since we last met Mark Leslie on Getting Published and as he just reappeared, we learn he has, still, yet to finish the novel he was working on. A Canadian Werewolf in New York has mostly been lying around and needed to give way to other projects.

Leslie is full of confidence. He reminds us of what has been said by many writers, it is always good to let a finished (or nearly finished) novel lie for a while. When you return to it, not only will you view it with fresh spirit, you are likely to have grown as a writer and as a person and will be able to improve on the work so far. This is how Mark feels and with this new zeal he will finish the book and tell us about it in his next appearance on the Writing Show.

More The Writing Show:
Short Story Beginnings,
Getting Published with Jean Tennant,
Getting Published with Janice Ballenger,
Getting Published with Mark Leslie,
Psychological Aspects of Writing.

Comedy podcasts and philosophy - Saeed Ahmed guest post

I have been writing about academic podcasts on philosophy for quite some time. After getting a bit stuck on the notion of "synthetic apriori," I have decided to take a diversion and have been sampling funny podcasts.

Not surprisingly, there is plenty of philosophy to be found here. The series I previously posted about, WTF by Marc Maron, provides an example.

Mark talks about a heavy "WHAT THE FU**?" and a light "what the fu**?" The first, according to Marc is "external", like when you are surprised or shocked by something. The latter is "kind of an internal thing," like when you are ready to take a risk. Take that, Bishop Berkeley.
He even covers the notion of temporality when he discusses leaving his cats for more than a few weeks, and they don't treat him quite the right way when he comes back. "They probably think I died and are bit confused when they see me". "Is it really the same guy, they may wonder." Martin Heidegger must be turning in his grave, but in sort of good way. (feed)

I am getting addicted to Maron's musings and interviews (he is a very good interviewer, and generally interviews other comedians). But if he is not for you, there are a number of other good comedy podcasts out there.

On Comedy and everything else, one of the regulars asked "has someone ever dared you 'if I give you a million bucks, would you do a naked handstand in times square.'" "What kind of a question is that; I don't acknowledge it as test of moral standing, and don't enter the hypothetical." Now if it truly were a million, then perhaps he would enter the discussion. (feed)

A couple of others:
Comedy Death-Ray Radio (feed)
Nerdist Podcast (feed)

And they are all free, although contributions are welcome, as many of these comedians are not regularly employed and do these podcasts between gigs.

Saeed Ahmed

King Lear - Entitled Opinions

If I did not write about each and every issue of the eminent podcast Entitled Opinions it is more likely that the show went over my head and I did not feel qualified to write something about it than that I could not recommend it. This podcast is one of the most exciting, yet challenging offerings around. Each and every subject is taken on with the utmost intellectual seriousness and taken to as deep as host Robert Harrison and his guest can take it.

Similarly, the last show about Shakespeare's King Lear with guest Steven Orgel, is diving straight into the deepest water. From the quality of Shakespeare as a writer in general, using quotes from Wittgenstein, Orgel and Harrison take on the play King Lear as the specific work to discuss. On must know the play and in this respect I was helped by the fact that in the past I have heard two other podcasts about King Lear, one was a 2008 program of BBC's In Our Time, which spent much time on the history (both context and reception) of the play and the underlying folk tale. Next to that I picked out the lectures pertaining to King Lear from a Shakespeare series at Berkeley. In the Berkeley course more talk is spent on the content of the play.

Harrison and Orgel's discussion take the middle ground between these approaches. They do not dig too much in the historical context of the play, though they do refer to it, as well as to the history of its reception. Neither do they go through the play and deliver the tale and the drama - they rather take it for granted one is familiar to that. They go straight for the sheer jewels: the complex characters, their complex relations and the meaning of the tragic ending, with Cordelia's death and Lear's slide into total lunacy. With these three podcasts one can make some real study of King Lear.

More King Lear:
King Lear in Podcast.

More Entitled Opinions:
Albert Camus,
Unabomber world views,
Byzantine Culture,
Jimi Hendrix,
Nietzsche.

Classic Poetry Aloud

I asked for recommendations to podcasts with poetry and got them immediately. The most simple and straightforward of those is Classic Poetry Aloud (feed). In this podcast each episode consists of a classic poem from English literature read to the listener.

The podcast description of each episode contains the name of the poet, the year of his birth and death (or hers for that matter), the name of the poem and the text of the poem. The episodes will also, usually carry the portrait of the poet. And so, one can look, listen and read and contemplate. The choice is tasteful and the reading done quite well, although a tad too fast for this non-native speaker. I also felt that the reader had a better connection with some poems more than with others, but it surely is far from easy to read poetry.

This formula in its simplicity seems complete and evident (though I'd appreciate if the date of the poem could be added). Nevertheless I entertained thoughts of additional material. Why not add an introduction to the poem, why not let some discussion of the poem follow? But that would alter the nature of the show from pure poetry experience to a cerebral literature show. So what about music, just to get you in the mood? Same problem actually; it would influence the listener's reception of the work. And so, as pure as it is, it should stay. And the listener should be aware, should prepare for listening. And perhaps loop the episode. All in all this is quite the podcast experience.

Poetry on Podcast

There are several ways I have seen literature (in the widest sense) find its way to podcast. The most straightforward is the audio book on podcast. I have reviewed several of the productions by Librivox which have an enormous amount of books from the public domain read by volunteers and supplied on free podcasts. A little bit more can be found in the example of Julie Davis on her podcast Forgotten Classics who reads the books and accompanies them with comments that amount to a literature lesson. An example that I recommend wholeheartedly is the Uncle Tom's Cabin reading she did.

Other examples are podcasts that perform the literature, either through audio-drama (I have reviewed a couple of Dutch examples) or the author giving a reading performance of his work as Dave P. does on Namaste Stories.

One can also talk about literature, as does George Miller on Podularity. Right now I am listening to his interview with Hillary Mantel about her book Wolf Hall which is a fictional account of the life of Thomas Cromwell. Another podcast that talked about literature just recently was Open Source where Christopher Lydon spoke with poet Rick Benjamin.

Now there is the literary genre that I have hardly run into on podcast and which, if you think about it, demands podcast: poetry. I have done one amateur podcast that was named Irving Poetry Podcast and there is poetry performance (though with a tongue in cheek) on the Dutch Ronflonflon. What is there other than that? There should be a world of poetry on podcast.

Dear readers, do you know of any you can recommend?

Petty frustrations - Namaste Stories

The latest story on the fictional podcast Namaste Stories (feed) is full of innuendo. More than ever Dave P plays his magic. As always the podcast is filled with a certain atmosphere that just hangs there and is not made explicit by any one sentence of the tale. And it is not just the music or the fatalistic voice of the narrator - although they undoubtedly add in.



In The Spoiled Brat that aboding presence is woven into the descriptions, the lines and the actions of the characters Melissa and Casper. This is what makes literature powerful: subtext. You will have to look beyond the subject of Capser and Melissa's conversation, the spoiled brat. What really matters is why they discuss him and not what their expressed convictions are, but what they tell us. The more they emphasize the brat is spoiled, the more they are envious of him and the more they reject him, the more they are attracted.

In the seeming consensus of their dialog, their petty frustrations are played out. Their repressed sexuality, the dissatisfaction in their relation, their failure of accomplishment. And all of this is expressed with utterly unconvincing self-congratulatory self-righteous bourgeois judgmental statements or silently and childishly hidden aggression. What a feat.

More Namaste and Dave P:
Surviving those family dinners on the holidays,
The new direction of Dave P,
New York Coffee Cup,
Namaste Stories, podcast as an art,
Namaste Stories, fiction podcast.

The Death of Edgar Allan Poe - The Memory Palace

The wonderful history podcast The Memory Palace (feed) has its strength mainly in its narrative force and in its short episodes. Nate DiMeo takes five minutes to tell small, humane, tales in history. Apart from history drama, one could also call it micro-history.

Micro-history is not necessarily lost in oceanic waves of the larger scheme of history. DiMeo shows this for example in his latest production This Ungainly Fowl. This is the story, as far as it can be reconstructed, of the last 24 hours in the life of Edgar Allan Poe. These hours are unrecorded and utterly unclear. It begins as Poe finds himself on a train to Baltimore and it ends as he is found dying in the street, in some other man's clothes. There are several theories as to what happened and The Memory Palace offers one of them.

Not only does this attempt to give an answer as to what might have happened to the great writer, but also tells a thing or two about daily life in contemporary US in general and in Baltimore specifically. This serves as an illustration and a tale that, no matter how small, touches relevance in the greater seas of history. This, for an otherwise fine history podcast to begin with, serves as a lot of extra credit. This podcast is worth following for everyone.

More The Memory Palace:
A Great Escape,
The Memory Palace,
Ferris Wheel and other historic experiences,
The hollow earth,
The Memory Palace - history narration.

A Great Escape - The Memory Palace

The Memory Palace (feed) is a fantastic, short history podcast one absolutely must listen to. No matter how deep or how faint your interest in history is, or wherever your favorite subject lies, The Memory Palace is a five minute delight you should be able to squeeze in your playlist twice a month.

If you wonder where to start, try the last episode 'Dig Set Spike'. Host Nate DiMeo tells the tale of a German prisoner of war in Arizona, during World War Two. The man thinks of escape and rejoining the war. His comrades in the camp feel the same and they invent and carry out an ingenuously devised escape plan.

The ever present sense of irony in DiMeo's tone of voice and in the soft and subtle music that accompany the narration, one detects immediately that this plan simply must go wrong. It seems infallible though and then, the thought crossed my mind, the irony might be just that it succeeds and that these dedicated and sympathetic men will rejoin a bad cause. Or else. But I shouldn't give away the surprise.

More The Memory Palace:
The Memory Palace,
Ferris Wheel and other historic experiences,
The hollow earth,
The Memory Palace - history narration.

Byzantine Culture - Entitled Opinions

In a fascinating double edition of Entitled Opinions, Robert Harrison had a two hour conversation with Panagiotis Agapitos, Professor of Byzantine Studies at the University of Cyprus, about the history, literature and culture of Byzantium. For the history I think you'd better check with the podcast 12 Byzantine Rulers and several issues of MMW at UCSD. From there, the addition of Entitled Opinions is that of insight in a forgotten treasure trove of culture.

It is a question that possibly gets a beginning answer on these podcasts why Byzantium is largely ignored in the Western Perspective. In addition from professor Agapitos we learn of the great influence of Byzantine culture on ours. And when you come to think of the high standards it had during the Middle Ages, it is only natural that such is the case. Haven't we all read the romances? But shouldn't we know that the roots go back to Byzantium?

While on the subject of literature, Harrison and Agapitos take us further in an inspiring conversation about literature in general. I was thrilled by their opinion literature is actual three dimensional as opposed to film which is two-dimensional. I tend to agree, but I am sure a whole generation tends to think otherwise. It may seem that film is more immersing and it is very valuable to learn why literature may be more so. If only to be drawn to read Eco's Name of the Rose rather than see the movie - no matter how splendid.

More Entitled Opinions:
Jimi Hendrix,
Nietzsche,
Romanticism,
Sartre's Existentialism,
Five Free Favorites of Jesse Willis.

The Ferris Wheel and other historic experiences

While we are on the subject of history podcasts that excel in narration, we should not only note the lengthy Hardcore History, but also the remarkably concise Memory Palace (feed)

In The Memory Palace Nate DiMeo delivers five minute histories bringing the data to life, just as Carlin so aptly does. His latest tale was of the Ferris Wheel in Chicago. How the organizers of the world fair in Chicago needed a special attraction that could in some way rival the Eiffel Tower. But Paris was unparallelled, how can Chicago possibly compete? DiMeo portrays the confusion and panic and the solution: The Ferris Wheel. He tells the tale as if we are ON the wheel. And you almost cry when it must come to an end.

This was episode 13 and is entirely representative of this beautiful podcast. Just as with Dan Carlin: you do not have to be in love with history to appreciate this. And if Dan Carlin is prose. Nate DiMeo is poetry.

More The Memory Palace:
The hollow earth,
The Memory Palace - history narration.

Surviving those family dinners on the holidays

The stories of the fictional podcast Namaste Stories (feed) have a surrealist feel, but they seem profoundly real as well, autobiographical perhaps. In any case, there is a persistent personal perspective in these stories by Dave P.



In the last story (Wall of Gurus), I could very much sympathize with him. It was a Thanksgiving Dinner with the extended family; the posed idyll, the obligations of the occasion, the codes of good manners. In short the tensions rises to a breaking point and it starts to take tremendous efforts not to led this forced togetherness explode into a raging row. It could be Christmas or Passover just the same. What's up next? Shavuot - the vicious cycle never stops.

More Namaste and Dave P:
The new direction of Dave P,
New York Coffee Cup,
Namaste Stories, podcast as an art,
Namaste Stories, fiction podcast.

Arnon Grunberg - Voor 1 Nacht podcast

Van lezer Erno Mijland kreeg ik opnieuw een podcast-tip. Deze keer raadde hij me aan om te luisteren naar KRO's voor 1 nacht (feed). Marc Stakenburg interviewt uiteenlopende gasten op een tijdstip dat de radio wel een uur voor een vraagesprek kan inruimen: na twaalven.

Erno stelde het al voorop: niet elke uitzending is even sterk en dat ondervond ik ook. Stakenburg wil nog wel eens wat al te oppervlakkig blijven en er is dan een buitengewone gast nodig om iets bijzonders te creeren. Die gast had hij op 16 Februari in Arnon Grunberg. Wat uiteraard bijdraagt is het feit dat ik Grunberg erg bewonder, maar ik had hem ook al eens op televisie gezien en daar leek het nergens op. Bij Stakenburg is hij echter ontspannen en openhartig waardoor we een goed doorzicht op sommige aspecten van zijn persoon krijgen.

Wat mij echter oon interesseerde en daar kwam de uitzending niet aan toe, is Grunbergs joodse identiteit en wortels. Nu ja, je kan niet alles hebben en in elk geval is alles wat wel aan de orde komt zeer de moeite waard met name Grunbergs recente werk, waarvoor hij in Afghanistan, Peru, Beieren en Irak heeft verbleven.

The hollow earth at The Memory Palace

The Memory Palace (feed) is a podcast that one must listen to. The less said about it the better. This is a podcast of experience one must undergo without me giving away anything of it.

But if you are still here, know at least this: episode 8 of this series is out and is titled The World Within The World and you will enjoy yet another tale Nat DiMeo dug up from history. It is about a man who posed as a doctor and dwindled into believing in his own fantasies. Told with DiMeo's style that is to apt for ironic tragedy.

If you are missing episode 7 from the feed (as I do), know then that you can download it from the site anyway (L'il Nipper - the file). I guess there is something wrong with the file that prevents feedburner from properly channeling it through. Do not let this technicality stop you from listening.

More The Memory Palace:
The Memory Palace - history narration.

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The Memory Palace - history narration

History is not only about facts, it is also about narrative. And so, history podcasts, no matter how many facts they need to relate to, they must forge them into a narrative. Narration, in turn, is an art. There are narration podcasts such as the fictional podcasts Namaste Stories, 7th Son and New World Orders, or like podcasts that retell existing tales such as the Celtic Myth Podshow and Forgotten Classics and there are narration podcasts that apply narration in a particularly artistic way to history. One such podcast is the podfaded Your History Pocast and another one I just discovered: The Memory Palace (feed).

Host Nate DiMeo has a wonderful voice and style for this purpose. Soft, warm and slightly flat, that gives for a humane and modest atmosphere which allows for the history to get the greatest impact. You know the story that is being told is history, is true and so the mode of telling needs no added emphasis or dramatization to let the story's effect come through. DiMeo seems to understand this very well and the result is fantastic.

These episodes come out rather irregularly; one or two per month. They are very short, less than five minutes each. As off episode #7, a series has started about bad jobs. DiMeo describes the life of a nine year old that works in a mine in Pennsylvania in the nineteenth century as the first bad job. He makes a request to his listeners for more examples. This is an excellent podcast and I am eager to find out what comes next.

The new direction of Dave P

The narration podcasts I keep following are those by Dave P. Namaste Stories and The New York Coffee Cup come out rather irregularly. The short, five to twenty minute narrations by Dave P carry a very unique style and atmosphere that is both emotional and distanced. The tales observe and attach to people and emotions, trying not to judge them. The diction and the music is very suitable: restrained and passionate at the same time.

So it is always interesting to see what Dave P comes up with next and aside the two podcats he has begun publishing visual work. He is dabbling in the art of animation and this work in progress can be followed on the blog Namaste-Wood.



More Dave P on this blog:
New York Coffee Cup,
Namaste Stories, podcast as an art,
Namaste Stories, fiction podcast.

New York Coffee Cup

Dave went to New York on two missions, each of which was difficult enough to cope with, but to combine them should be deemed impossible at the outset. One mission was to guide thirteen year old daughter Georgette around and let it be her trip, along her rules, the rules of the Apple Store, the ice cream parlor, sleeping in and the vibes of 'you are not going to embarrass me dad, are you?' The other was to confront the past life in New York, from beyond Georgette's time and beyond Georgette's capacity to fathom. This mission was ruled by grief, by guilt and old scares, enough to make an innocent podcast listener cry, terribly confusing and taxing for one to whom these memories and emotions are his own unfinished business.

The New York Coffee Cup podcast is not one of stylish fiction, as is Dave's other podcast Namaste Stories. This time we are reading the dairy, we are listening in on an audio blog, with the confusion as raw, unpolished and direct as real life. Dave reports silently whispering into his recorder as events unfold. He does so in his familiar serene voice, but more naturally and more shaken, than in Namaste Stories. My heart goes out to him, as the hours creep by, he tries to keep control, gives in, gives up and somehow, if weakly, manages to reach out to both goals.

The events are long passed. It happened in August; just a few days in New York, but the podcast hasn't rolled out till the end yet. Now we are at episode #26 and in the middle of one of the cataclysmic confrontations. One of the truly important reasons Dave came to New York after all, with all due respect to Georgette. Unfinished business, stuck up emotions and guilt, but as things go in real life, the solution, if there is one, out of reach and petty frustration dominating. My heart goes out.

The Premium Pill - paid podcast review

With such a large supply of free podcasts, why would you want to subscribe to a premium podcast? Even if it is only $1 per episode? The excellent comedy podcast The Bitterest Pill is going to let you find out for yourself. Did you enjoy one pill a month? How about getting four? Normally it costs $4, but in January 2009 you can try out for free. (The Bitterest Pill premium trial)

So I signed up. Of course paypal was making me go through the motions, even if the charge is nil and needless to say, being a non-American, as usual with on-line payments, this involved a lot of extra steps that failed a couple of times. However, don't ask me how, I managed to get subscribed to the premium podcast, so just sit back and enjoy. Enjoy, because the fun starts right away: The Bitterest Pill, premium free trial for January, effectively gave me all the premium backlog of the last weeks. Wow!

I couldn't stop my player. I sat down and listened to three premium shows back to back. I was afraid it was going to be more of the same and it was more of the same, but what same. The same brilliant comedy you get once for free. Want to find out how Dan gets a ticket for a malfunctioning brake light? Buys a flat screen TV? Has the kids with his parents and can finally enjoy a night on the town with his wife - alone? Different stories, same style, same amazingly funny, dramatic, compelling entertainment. If this is your thing, $4 a month is a joke.

You know what baffles me? Dan Klass is supposed to be this failed actor and comedian. He tries to get accepted, god knows to what degrading roles. He continues to be just some anonymous dweller of Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, US, the World. Yet, his podcast proves already for over 4 years his amazing talent. The character, the timing, the drama, the comedy. We podcasters are only lucky the worlds are not connecting. Some day soon, the party must be over. Until then, enjoy.

Previously about The Bitterest Pill:
Stylized Lamentations.