Heads-up for 3 August 2010

The philosophy podcast Elucidations released Episode 14: Edward Witherspoon discusses skepticism. In this episode, Edward Witherspoon considers whether a disembodied brain could, in principle, have the ability to think. (review, feed)

And Lyrics Undercover has an issue digging into the lyrics of Chelsea Hotel #2 by Leonard Cohen.
For 40 years, Leonard Cohen has been a cult darling, a songwriter’s writer and a primal musical influence. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, his way of telling a story has influenced several generations of musicians. He’s a poet, a Zen master, and social critic. The current generation is probably most familiar with his much-covered “Hallelujah;” today, on Lyrics Undercover, we look at his ironic, iconic “Chelsea Hotel #2.”
(review, feed)

Ileana Melita - Het Marathon Interview

Hoe gaat zingen, vraagt Cor Galis voorafgaand aan het tweede uur van het Marathon Interview dat Harmke Pijpers had op 29 Juli 1994 met Ileana Melita. Melita, ook bekend als Mien met de bijgeluiden, is zangeres van uiteenlopende genres en tevens zanglerares in Nederland en Rusland. Zij neemt de handschoen op en legt uit. (feed)

Nooit gedacht dat er zoveel esoterische techniek bij zingen komt kijken. In Melita's woorden gaat dat met een paardenbek en zo dun als pies - als je het goed wilt doen tenminste. En als je de techniek niet beheerst kan je het na je dertigste wel vergeten. Zij had het geluk een strenge Russische opvoeding gehad te hebben, zodat ze op haar dertigste tenminste de techniek in huis had, waarna haar leraar tenminste nog iets met haar aankon. En toen het oratorium repertoire niet meer ging, had ze tenminste de mogelijkheid uit te wijken naar bijvoorbeeld de avant-garde.

Melita's lot in de muziek gaat hand in hand met haar liefdesleven. Pijpers informeert ernaar met een mengeling van ontzag en medelijden. En Ileana vertelt zonder gene. Elke man is een avontuur naar nieuwe muzikale horizonten. En bij elke nieuw muzikale horizon, hoort een nieuwe man. De liefde is in haar leven vergankelijker dan de muziek. En het leidt haar van Canada tot Rusland, van Nederland tot Zuid-Afrika. Prachtig om aan te horen en mee te beleven.

Meer Het Marathon Interview:
VPRO's Marathon Interview,
Hans Galjaard,
Bert ter Schegget,
Lea Dasberg,
Rudi Kross.

Heads-up for 2 August 2010

Ideas (CBC Radio)
The ancient philosophy of Stoicism can still direct to lead a good life, even today. Philosopher William B. Irvine offers us a refreshing look at a school of thought that teaches the importance of tranquility.
A Guide to the Good Life
(review, feed)

In the past days a lot of new poems were brought by Classic Poetry Aloud (review, feed)

The History of Rome with a episode about The Equestrian. Carcalla was killed by his Praetorian Prefect Macrinus in 217 AD. Macrinus then spent a troubled year as Emperor before the House of Severus came back to challenge his rule.
(review, feed)

Wikileaks - NPR Fresh Air

The revelations of Wikileaks are constantly on the news and on NPR's Fresh Air last month (Entering The Secret World Of Wikileaks) Philip Shenon expresses the expectation that some time in August more disclosures are to follow. (I am writing this post a couple of days before publishing so there may be more news by the time you read this) And so it is worth taking a listen to the interview with Shenon on Fresh Air.

The radio program Fresh Air is broadcast five days a week and the last two weeks' issues are available in the podcast feed, even though the entire archive is available for streaming. Unlike the BBC, NPR allows these old issues also to be downloaded. So if you want to have it as a podcast still, subscribing to NPR won't help, but you can take it from my huffduffer wikileaks feed. With the help of huffduffer I also can offer the issue as a stream embedded on the blog, below.



I was alerted to this interview on the blog Open Culture. Open Culture is a blog anyone who likes Anne is a Man, should follow as well. It offers daily great pointers to great cultural content on the web which is also free, whether it is audio or any other kind of media.

More NPR Fresh Air:
Kissinger and the president.

Heads-up for 1 August 2010

New issues today are available for the following commendable podcasts:

Veertien Achttien, a Dutch history podcast telling the history of the First World War by means of short biographies. This week about Franz von Papen. (review, feed)

Volkis-Stimme, a German comedy podcast which makes fun of the news. Today: Plastik, Pitbull & Placebo. (review, feed)

410 podcasts reviewed on Anne is a Man

Take a look at the updated podcast list. Here you can find all the podcast titles that were reviewed on this blog with a link to the latest review. There are 410 in total.

This month I will occasionally be away enjoying a couple of vacation days. I will be writing posts in advance to make sure the blog does not get into a hiatus that will last too long. By September I hope to be back on the regular track.

During the fall I will hope to get closer to the two post a day pattern that I aspire to at this blog. One of the ways I will allow myself to make more updates is to give you a daily heads up of what good podcasts came out with new promising content that day. I hope you will like the idea. If I get round to it, I will attempt to make few such posts in August already.