Celtic Myth Podshow - podcast review

The Celtic Myth Podshow is more than just a podcast. Take look at the blog and discover that the makers of CMP are heavily involved in anything related to the heritage of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, the Isle of Man, Brittany and ancient Britons in general. Around the website, the forum and the blog, a community has developed contributing to this ever-growing wealth of material.

The community aspect is one of the strongest points in the podcast and as a matter of fact it is something that works well in any other podcast. Hosts Gary and Ruth create exactly that kind of comfortable, homey atmosphere you need to be drawn in. The point I am getting at is that you will need that, it takes some stamina to take in the core of the show. The larger part of the show is dedicated to the team's very lively reading of the old Celtic myths and legendary tales. This comes with trained voices, well acted play and careful sound mixing.

Nevertheless, even if the tales stem from an oral tradition and as a result of that should be extremely fit for podcast, I find it very hard to follow. I cannot solely contribute this to the difficulty my non-native ear has to take in the Celtic accents, pronunciation and words that mark the reading. The difficulty lies also with the uncommon style in which the tales are constructed. If I have to characterize that, I would say it has much less a narrative line than you would expect. The reading is that of a poem and the lines are more of a declarative nature, stating one fact, one name, one law, one occurrence after another, without much plot.

A case in point is the double feature of the last two episodes (18 and 19) about the story-teller Fintan. This legendary bard lives for over 5500 years, he has even lived through the Great Flood (of Noach) and in the story recounts some of his tales and passes lay and eventually dies a mythic death. There is no plot at all (that I could discover) and some of the entries in the tale seem to be there just to punctuate names and places and to interject Christian elements in an otherwise profoundly pagan epic.



What could help and I find this sorely missing, is a thorough framework to the source Gary, Ruth and the others are reading from. Tangible are the old oral elements, the modification in the writing down and the undeniably forcible insertions of Christianity and established history. We need to understand much more about the reception and development of this material, in order to properly appreciate it. I think CMP is planning to dedicate shows to this task in the future, but frankly, I needed them in advance.

Previously on the Celtic Myth Podshow:
Celtic bloodfine,
Bres the beautiful,
Let Battle Commence!,
The Celtic Myth Podshow.

De gevallen zonen - veertien achttien

Voor velen komt het verhaal van de Eerste Wereldoorlog neer op de eindeloze slachting aan het westelijk front. De podcast veertien achttien maakt duidelijk dat er veel meer is, maar in de aflevering over Käthe Kollwitz, de moeder van de gevallen soldaat Peter Kollwitz (en een oorlog later de grootmoeder van weer een gevallen soldaat), kan presentator Tom Tacken het ook niet laten om de tragiek van de gevallen soldaten en de rouwende ouders uit te lichten als datgene wat voor hem de oorlog zo diep tragisch maakte.

Peter Kollwitz is als voorbeeld naar voren geschoven, vanwege de tragiek van zijn moeder, die terug te vinden is in haar kunst, in haar dagboekaantekeningen en ten slotte ook nog in het verlies van haar kleinkind, ook op het slagveld. Maar het had onverschillig welke andere vader of moeder kunnen zijn. Bijvoorbeeld David Sutherland, de Engelse soldaat die sneuvelt in 1916.

Sutherland's commandant was Ewart Alan Mackintosh en hoewel we naar aanleiding van Tom Tacken meegenomen werden in het allesverscheurende verdriet van de ouders, is de commandant natuurlijk ook een soort ouder. EN die maakt het sneuvelen van veel dichterbij mee. Zo getuigt ook het gedicht van Mackintosh, die zelf in 1917 omkomt, 24 jaar oud.

In Memoriam

So you were David's father,
And he was your only son,
And the new-cut peats are rotting
And the work is left undone,
Because of an old man weeping,
Just an old man in pain,
For David, his son David,
That will not come again.

Oh, the letters he wrote you,
And I can see them still,
Not a word of the fighting,
But just the sheep on the hill
And how you should get the crops in
Ere the year get stormier,
And the Bosches have got his body,
And I was his officer.

You were only David's father,
But I had fifty sons
When we went up in the evening
Under the arch of the guns,
And we came back at twilight -
O God! I heard them call
To me for help and pity
That could not help at all.

Oh, never will I forget you,
My men that trusted me,
More my sons than your fathers',
For they could only see
The little helpless babies
And the young men in their pride.
They could not see you dying,
And hold you while you died.

Happy and young and gallant,
They saw their first-born go,
But not the strong limbs broken
And the beautiful men brought low,
The piteous writhing bodies,
They screamed 'Don't leave me, sir',
For they were only your fathers
But I was your officer.

(Foto: Wikimedia Commons , Publiek domein, en uitdrukkelijke toestemming voor gebruik op Wikipedia. foto gemaakt door G van den Bor, juli 2005)

Meer Veertien Achttien:
Sir Robert Borden,
Carol I,
Herbert Hoover,
Otto Weddigen,
Helmut Von Moltke.

This week on Anne is a Man!

Some of the posts you can expect this week are about

Veertien Achttien
The Dutch podcast about WW1, which I follow devoutly. Two episodes are to be paid attention to. One about the fallen soldiers and one about the range of exotic participants, from a named Pashtun to scores of Sikh, Maori, Zouave and more.

Celtic Myth Podshow
After two shows about Fintan, the storyteller, I'd like to tell you what the Celtic Myth Podshow told about him.

Globalization was started by Gengis Khan (MMW 4)
I wondered why MMW didn't pay attention to the Middle Ages in one fell swoop, but rather cut it in two. The early Middle Ages were part of MMW3 and MMW4 starts with the 13th century and then goes on beyond the Renaissance. In the latest lecture I cam to understand why: The Mongols changed the world in the 13th century and made it globalized for the first time.

Do I do Profiles?
I do. You can connect to me on a handful of them and here is where.

and more...

Over the following weekend there will be at least the following:
New podcasts of October
All podcasts list on Nov 1st

Historyzine at its best - history podcast review

Historyzine reflects the passion of its maker Jim Mowatt. We could have guessed after 12 episodes, Jim is passionate about history in general and about all things regarding the Spanish War in particular, but in episode 13 he makes it explicit. He explains what were the consequences of the allied victory in Blenheim. And he shows and tells what fascinates him about the Duke of Marlbourough.

Other than that, Historyzine's rubrics are back. The review of a history podcast (All Things Medieval), of a historic movie (The Duchess with Ralph Fiennes and Keira Knightley) and the historic roots of a word (Macaroni). Also this is done with the inspiring enthusiasm that make Historyzine such a splendid amateur history podcast.

If there has been anything missing in Historyzine it was compensated this time around. It is what in my opinion tends to haunt most history podcasts, amateur podcasts in particular. The host retells the historic facts, but spends too little time explaining their importance. It is one thing to hear some exciting facts, but it is history, where you explain why these facts matter. Jim Mowatt for the first time makes clear how the Spanish War of Succession brought down France as the Mega-Power of the day and triggered the French revolution, enabled the independence of the US and gave way for British domination of the world. This is by the way also done very concisely and charmingly in one of Historyzine's audio promos.

More Historyzine:
The battle of Blenheim,
Reliving the War of Spanish Succession,
The year 1703,
On admirals and more,
18th Century Warfare.

Zimbardo cuts - Science & the City podcast review

After I reviewed a podcast with Philip Zimbardo, a reader of this blog pointed me to the science podcast of the New York Acadamy of Sciences: Science & the City. (feed) One of their latest issues contains the voice of Philip Zimbardo explaining about the Time Paradox.

Zimbardo claims his analysis is supported by years of research and collected data, but the podcast sums the thought up in a popularized way. The idea is that people have five different ways of experiencing time, two for the past, two for the present and one for the future. Zimbardo claims that every individual is dealing with time in either one of these fashions, or alternately (I didn't get this too clear) is inclined predominantly towards either one. The central point that is being made, is how this decisively influences how each and everyone of us, makes decisions about our lives and how we experience our lives. Two of the five styles have serious tendencies towards depression and other disorders.

Interesting as this may be, the podcast left quite a lot to be desired. The basis for the audio was a much longer dialog or lecture with Professor Zimbardo, but it was cut into fragments and assembled to something that was intended (I suppose) to give a good condensation. However, this was done in a substandard way. The cuts were of different audio quality (there are open source tools to deal with this; for example Levelator) and were glued together with superfluous overlap and maintaining the line of thought in a rather tentative way. No voice over or other technique was applied to bring about more unity and cognitive order. It leaves Zimbardo sounding like a charlatan. I'll be listening to more issues of this podcast, but they need to be better than this one in order to be a serious science podcast.

More Philip Zimbardo:
at TED,
at UChannel,
and at Shrink Rap Radio (see both previous reviews).

What was has been - מה שהיה היה

If you want to get a feel of radio for the future, listen to Har Hatzofim. The Hebrew University allows tomorrow's talents to make radio today. And of course, modern radio is also podcast. The program that captured my heart was What was, has been - מה שהיה היה.



This program is a combination of history items with comedy items. And in spite of the fact that I am a history buff, I was mostly taken in by the comedy aspect. Take for example the last show (before summer recess), where even the history item (about a song from a 1930's movie about the Kibbutzim in the Yizreel Valley) had a tongue in cheek character. The song is a rather famous song of the Kibbutz movement and in the film sung by the members of Beit Alfa and other Kibbutzim from the valley, while they do their work. The podcast also plays their find: a rock version of the song.

Violently funny were the sketches and the radio play though. The radio play tells the tale of the Library of the Hebrew University trying to hire a gorilla librarian. They find the excellent candidate that doesn't smell, make noise and actually understand librarian work. Then it is discovered though, the candidate is actually a librarian in Gorilla disguise. One of the sketches features diseased politician and journalist Tommy Lapid (impersonation with some voice skill), complaining he is in hell (with all the 'Frenkim') and forced to listen to מה שהיה היה all the time.