Possibly due to having too much free time and no other life, spoken word podcasts have become a little bit of an addiction, providing an easily digestible form of non-fiction and current affairs that doesn’t involve picking up a book.

None of the podcasts I subscribe to generally deal with music, although occasionally music does crop up, including Radio Open Source‘s tribute to Dave McKenna – recordings of, and interviews with, one of the finest solo jazz pianists of the past half century. Here’s a taste:

Dave McKenna: Blues (excerpt from Radio Open Source)

Listening to Lord Melvyn Bragg somewhere over northern Europe in 2006

A favourite format of mine is the long-form conversation, where two people talk for an hour or more, with minimal editing. In fact, the less production I hear, the more I enjoy the podcast. Over a couple of years, a regular listening schedule has developed that has effectively created a personalised on-demand radio station on my iPod. The lineup looks a bit like this:

• Electric Politics: George Kenney‘s weekly interview show is recommended for anyone looking for deeper perspectives on how America really works (or doesn’t). For better or worse, George’s show has done more to shape my political views over the past few years than any other single influence. Consistently illuminating
• Radio Open Source – Chris Lydon hosted the first ever podcast, and he still churns out interviews several times a week. Unashamedly “liberal” but very eclectic, some recent highlights include Mahmood Mamdani’s analysis of the Darfur phenomenon, and James Carroll on being an American and a Catholic today.
• NPR’s Speaking of Faith often posts soundfiles of its raw conversations, and I often find these more useful than the edited broadcast show.
• Knowledge@Wharton – Business and Economics themes from the staff at Wharton Business School
• In Our Time – Melvyn Bragg‘s Thursday morning roundtable about the forces shaping our intellectual world – science, theology, medicine, literature, philosphy, architecture. A show about everything, except for last week, when they talked about Nothing.
• This American Life – Andrew Dubber reckons this is the best radio show in the world. Who am I to argue?
• Rue des Entrepreneurs – Economic and business viewed through a spectacularly un-businesslike prism, every Saturday morning on France Inter
• Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4 – OK, so I have a crush on Sandi Toksvig, alright?
• 2000 ans d’Histoire – Now I’m living in France, this weekday show helps in widening my understanding of the social, political and military history of the place.
• A Prairie Home Companion – Garrison Keillor‘s inimitable descriptions of life in Lake Wobegon, Minnesota.

I should probably make more of an effort to keep up with things back home in New Zealand – for instance maybe subscribing to Chris Laidlaw’s Sunday morning show on Radio NZ National? I’ll just have to find time to fit it into the schedule…

George Kenney (Image: Chad Evans Wyatt)

A Maki Catta lemur at Parc de Lunaret

A weekend with a mysteriously non-operational internet connection was both frustrating and liberating.  An excuse to read another book and do some extra homework. On Sunday I even went to the zoo and took photos of lemurs.

But it is a relief to get the DSL working again, and to celebrate it seems a good moment to indulge in one of those mindless  internet memes that makes cyberspace a joyful, if occasionally vacuous, place to hang out.

———————-

Stolen from Benjaminbrum:

1. Put your iPod or iTunes on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the “next” button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!!
4. Tag 10 friends who might enjoy doing the meme as well as the person you got the note from.

IF SOMEONE SAYS “IS THIS OKAY” YOU SAY?
Drums of Death (DJ Shadow)

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Daystar Nightlight (Dewey Redman)

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Rising Falling Rising (SJD)

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Crucifixo (Jose and Moises Kafala)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE?
Catsongs III (Tom Milsom)

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Your Man, My Man (Betty Davis)

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
How Beautiful are the Feet of Them That Preach the Gospel of Peace (G.F. Handel – New College Choir)

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Antiphon (William Walton)

WHAT IS 2+2?
Come on Eileen (Dexy’s Midnight Runners)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Manhattan Island (Herbie Hancock)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
So Amazin’ (GTA)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
In Paradisum (G. Fauré)

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Chet Bhogassa (Tinariwen)

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Shala Shala Twist (Dark City Sisters)

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Squiglies (Kenny Wheeler/John Taylor)

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
A Change is Going to Come (Baby Huey)

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Political Song for Michael Jackson to Sing (Minutemen)

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Too Young to Die (Jamiroquai)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Harlem River Drive Theme (Eddie Palmieri & Harlem River Drive)

WHAT’S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
You Don’t Know What You Mean To a Lover Like Me (Lee Fields)

HOW WILL YOU DIE?
Lambs (The Phoenix Foundation)

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?
Trench Town Rock (Bob Marley & the Wailers)

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on my Shoulder) (The Beach Boys)

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
Bamabaraka Tunga (Ray Barretto)

WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?
Illusion (Andrew Hill)

WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
Ether Sings (Laura Veirs)

DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?
Baby Don’t Go Home (OdESSA)

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
Right on for the Darkness (Curtis Mayfield)

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
Time is on Your Side (Recloose)

WHAT WILL YOU CALL THIS POST?
1972.1.21 Alto 1 (Kaoru Abe)

Random play is great. Was walking up the hill today from Edgbaston to the Moseley shops, listening to the iPod, on random as usual.

During a quiet gap between streams of traffic, the iPod hits on Benjamin Britten‘s arrangement of For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffrey, a poem by Christopher Smart, an 18th century poet whose apparent mental illness also inspired his great Jubilate Agno series, written while he was imprisoned in an asylum in London.

For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffry
Christopher Smart (1722-1771)

For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry.
For he is the servant of the Living God, duly and daily serving him.
For at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships in his way.
For this is done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness.
For then he leaps up to catch the musk, which is the blessing of God upon his prayer.
For he rolls upon prank to work it in.
For having done duty and received blessing he begins to consider himself.
For this he performs in ten degrees.

For first he looks upon his forepaws to see if they are clean.
For secondly he kicks up behind to clear away there.
For thirdly he works it upon stretch with the forepaws extended.
For fourthly he sharpens his paws by wood.
For fifthly he washes himself.
For sixthly he rolls upon wash.
For seventhly he fleas himself, that he may not be interrupted upon the beat.
For eighthly he rubs himself against a post.
For ninthly he looks up for his instructions.
For tenthy he goes in quest of food.

For having considered God and himself he will consider his neighbor.
For if he meets another cat he will kiss her in kindness.
For when he takes his prey he plays with it to give it a chance.
For one mouse in seven escapes by his dallying.
For when his day’s work is done his business more properly begins.
For he keeps the Lord’s watch in the night against the adversary.
For he counteracts the powers of darkness by his electrical skin and glaring eyes.
For he counteracts the Devil, who is death, by brisking about the life.
For in his morning orisons he loves the sun and the sun loves him
For he is of the tribe of Tiger.
For the Cherub Cat is a term of the Angel Tiger.

For he has the subtlety and hissing of a serpent, which in goodness he suppresses.
For he will not do destruction if he is well-fed, neither will he spit without provocation.
For he purrs in thankfulness when God tells him he’s a good Cat.
For he is an instrument for the children to learn benevolence upon.
For every house is incomplete without him, and a blessing is lacking in the spirit.
For the Lord commanded Moses concerning the cats at the departure of the Children of Israel from Egypt.
For every family had one cat at least in the bag.
For the English Cats are the best in Europe.

For he is the cleanest in the use of his forepaws of any quadruped.
For the dexterity of his defense is an instance of the love of God to him exceedingly.
For he is the quickest to his mark of any creature.
For he is tenacous of his point.
For he is a mixture of gravity and waggery.
For he knows that God is his Savior.
For there is nothing sweeter than his peace when at rest.

For there is nothing brisker than his life when in motion.
For he is of the Lord’s poor, and so indeed is he called by benevolence perpetually–Poor Jeoffry! poor Jeoffry! the rat has bit thy throat.
For I bless the name of the Lord Jesus that Jeoffry is better.
For the divine spirit comes about his body to sustain it in complete cat.
For his tongue is exceeding pure so that it has in purity what it wants in music.
For he is docile and can learn certain things.
For he can sit up with gravity, which is patience upon approbation.
For he can fetch and carry, which is patience in employment.
For he can jump over a stick, which is patience upon proof positive.
For he can spraggle upon waggle at the word of command.
For he can jump from an eminence into his master’s bosom.

For he can catch the cork and toss it again.
For he is hated by the hypocrite and miser.
For the former is afraid of detection.
For the latter refuses the charge.
For he camels his back to bear the first notion of business.
For he is good to think on, if a man would express himself neatly.
For he made a great figure in Egypt for signal services.
For he killed the Ichneumon rat, very pernicious by land.
For his ears are so acute that they sting again.
For from this proceeds the passing quickness of his attention.
For by stroking of him I have found out electricity.
For I perceived God’s light about him both wax and fire.
For the electrical fire is the spiritual substance which God sends from heaven to sustain the bodies both of man and beast.

For God has blessed him in the variety of his movements.
For, though he cannot fly, he is an excellent clamberer.
For his motions upon the face of the earth are more than any other quadruped.
For he can tread to all the measures upon the music.
For he can swim for life.
For he can creep.