Saturday Night Radio Drama - Louis Macniece - The Dark Tower (two productions)

The Dark Tower 2017

The Dark Tower 1946

I hadn't known about this radio play in verse by Louis Macniece for which Benjamin Britten was commissioned to write the music just after Peter Grimes made him famous before doing that research into the composer over the last two weeks.   The notes for the new production say:

Louis MacNeice's iconic verse drama, widely acknowledged to be the finest of his many works for radio and one of the most critically acclaimed radio plays of the 20th century. The play is inspired by the mythical quest in Robert Browning's mysterious poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came", but includes strong autobiographical and even satirical elements. At its core is original music by Benjamin Britten, to whom MacNeice dedicated the published script.

Here are the credits for the original production:

 

Role       Contributor

Writer  Louis MacNeice

Producer Louis MacNeice

Composer Benjamin Britten

Roland Cyril Cusack

The Mother Olga Lindo

The Tutor Mark Dignam

Sylvie Lucille Lisle

Sergeant Trumpeter Harry Hutchinson

Gavin Frank Partington

Blind Peter Ivor Barnard

The Soak Robert Farquharson

The Stentor Laidman Browne

The Steward Howard Marion

Crawford Neaera Vera Maxime

The Priest Alexander Sarner

And for the 2017 production:

Performer BBC Concert Orchestra

Roland Harry Lloyd

Gavin Matthew Tennyson

Sergeant-Trumpeter Jude Akuwudike

Mother Lucy Robinson

Tutor/Steward Adrian Scarborough

Soak Jonjo O'Neill

Blind Peter Nicholas Murchie

Sylvie Manjinder Virk

Priest/Officer/Stentor Sam Dale

Neaera Hannah Genesius

Barmaid/Clock Voice Georgie Glen

Young Roland William Gidney

Director Robin Brooks

Producer Fiona McAlpine

You may recall that I have recently had my sister's 14-month old puppy at my place.

What you may not know is that the first two weeks of December here in Maine have been decidedly colder than average and we've had a snow cover for a while now.   Put those things together and you'll understand that I've been bringing the dog out on a leash, sometimes in the early morning hours.   I don't know if the puppy taught my 17 year old cat or the cat taught the puppy that while I might be able to ignore one of them if they wake me up at 2:30 AM,  I can't ignore both of them and the consequences of not bringing the pup out is more than I would probably be willing to risk.   So I've been out many nights in the bitter cold sometimes with the wind ripping through my clothes as I wait for the puppy to find exactly the right spot and moment to take a dump.    And in the meantime she has to push her fluffy muzzle into the snow to find the mice she imagines are there and to pull me around   to check out every leaf she sees in the pale moonlight as well as every place she'd found suitable over the past week.   

One of the unanticipated consequences is that my ever louder repetitions of her name to call her distracted attention to the business at hand has reminded me in rhythm and sound of Dave Saville trying to get Alvin the chipmunk's attention so his trio of chipmunks can sing the song.   And once that similarity occurs to you,  the whole repertoire of chipmunk songs I imbibed unintentionally as I heard them on the scratchy old AM tube radios of the late 1950s and early 1960s replays.   I swear I hear them as clearly as possible with static,  over and over again as my eyes roll even shut and I try to fall back asleep.   

I'm sparing you a youtube.  I've probably said too much, already.  

So, it's been that kind of run up to Christmas.   It's too bad the puppy doesn't have that memory because she would love to chase chipmunks.   I'm told she goes wild when she sees animals on TV,  I don't own one so she missed that experience while she was with me. 

The old cat is  still waking me up most nights.  Unfortunately she's well beyond mousing because it's been a really good year for mice and my live traps have caught dozens of them, I release them as soon as I get up.  I don't know why they're coming here, every bit of food I've got is safely sealed up in glass jars and closed coolers so they're not finding anything to eat.   I feel extremely guilty about having to set them free in the snowy landscape, though my brother points out the ones he catches are dead.   They can't tell me which they'd prefer.  

So what's the point of this?   It's just an animal and ear worm post with a seasonal slant.  That's all. 

Magnificat del 5º Tono - Hernando Franco (1532 - 1585)

 

Cappella Cervantina - Director: Horacio Franco

Hernando Franco was one of the foremost composers in Mexico in the 16th century.   St. Juan Diego probably knew nothing of him but it's almost certain that Franco knew of Juan Diego and his Marian visitation.   It's the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe and a day of remembrance of the victims and survivors of the American genocide against Native Americans. 

Almost Mid Advent - St. Francis Bergoglio Changed A Lot More About Christmas Than People Realized And Women Have Led The Way

Lighting The Way To Christmas With Laudato Si  from last year when Good Pope Francis was still with us. 

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The Cosmic Advent Wreath

Elizabeth Davis rsm explores with us the meaning of the Cosmic Advent Wreath, grounded in “deep incarnation” and the way to create our own to mark the passage of the four weeks of Advent:

The Vimeo is a little sluggish on my computer but that could just be my underpowered computer.  

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I don't think it's any accident that it's Women who seem to be leading the way to this new dimension of Advent and Christmas.   A lot of the Cosmic Christ Christology in my experience comes from the theology of Elizabeth A. Johnson.  And I really like how the order of Roman Catholic Womenpriests don't reject what is good in the official RC Church even as they are excommunicated by the guys.   Why should they acknowledge that?    Here's what got me started on this.

Based on the Encyclical Letter, Laudato Si’, The Sisters of Mercy of Newfoundland partnered with other Sisters of Mercy around the world in re-imagining our Advent journey.  They then offered us the Cosmic Advent Wreath, an adaptation of the traditional Advent Wreath which is used in many homes and churches. 

Rooted in “deep incarnation” the Cosmic Advent Wreath invites us into a radically different relationship with the world, a relationship where everything and everyone matters.  It brings Pope Francis’s encyclical letter Laudato Si’ to life in a new way.

Greens, fabric, or sand are options on which to set the wreath.  Candles  may be arranged in a circle, a spiral, or arc, and a variety of objects may be used between and among the candles: greens, rocks, shells, berries, whatever stirs your imagination and creativity. Diverse colours for the candles (blue, amber, red, green, white) invite us to embrace a new level of shared consciousness born of science and religion.  You may choose to tie coloured ribbons around white candles to reflect and celebrate the four major births of the cosmos that have brought us to this moment in history, and the final coming together of all in divine love.

Week 1:  Birth of the Universe. We pray with God’s incarnation in the creation of the cosmos (blue candle). 

“God’s first 'idea' was to become manifest – to pour out divine, infinite visible forms.  The 'First Flaring Forth' (Big Bang) is now our scientific name for the first idea; and 'Christ' is our theological name.  Both are about LOVE and BEAUTY exploding outward in all directions.” (Richard Rohr)

“God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.  And God saw that the light was good.” (Genesis 1:3-4)

“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established… (Psalm 8:3)

Week 2:  Birth of the Solar system.  We pray with God’s incarnation in the creation of the Solar System (amber candle). 

“This vast ocean of our solar system is like a womb, that has unfolded over some five billion years to become galaxies and stars, palms and pelicans, the music of Bach and each of us alive today.” (Brian Swimme)

“O God, you established the luminaries and the sun; you have fixed the bounds of earth; you have made summer and winter.” (Psalm 74:16-17)

“ I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and Earth.” Genesis 9:13)

Week 3:  Birth of Jesus, the Christ.  We pray with the incarnation in the person of Jesus the Christ (red candle).

Christ and Jesus are not exactly the same. In Jesus, God’s presence became more obvious and believable in the world. “By his incarnation (the Christ) inserted himself not just into our humanity, but into the Universe which supports humanity. The presence of the incarnate Word … shines at the heart of all things.” (Teilhard de Chardin)

 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh and lived among us.” (John 1:1,14)

“Christ is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on Earth were created.” (Col. 1:15-16)

Week 4:  My Birth into the whole Cosmic Body of the Universe.  We pray with God’s incarnation in each being – human and other that human (green candle). 

“We have the power to create a new world, and we have the power to destroy this one. How we choose depends on how we grasp this moment as the kiss of God, impelling us to stand up and speak.” (Illia Delio, OSF)

“For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” (Psalm 139:13-14)

 “Ask the animals and they will teach you; the birds of the air and they will tell you; asked the plants of earth and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you.” (Job 12:7-8)

Christmas Eve:  All is One.  We pray with the coming together of all as One in Divine Love (white). 

“In union with all creatures, we journey through this land seeking God, for ‘if the world has a beginning and if it has been created, we must inquire who gave it this beginning, and who was its Creator.’ Let us sing as we go. May our struggles and our concerns for this planet never take away the joy of our hope.” (Laudato Si’, 244)

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have gazed upon and touched with our own hands—this is the Word of life.”  (1 John 1:1)

Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

In him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, things visible and invisible.

All things were created through him; all were created for him. 

He is before all else that is. In him all things hold together.

In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,

and through him, to reconcile everything to himself,

whether on earth or in heaven,

making peace by the blood of his cross. (Colossians 1:15-20)

It's A Little Early But The Snow Has Me Feeling Christmassy - Patrick Cornelius - Christmas Gift

 

Christmas Gift by Patrick Cornelius. Live at the Jazz Gallery 2011, featuring Miles Okazaki, Aaron Goldberg, Peter Slavov, Obed Calvaire. CD Release concert for "Maybe Steps" on Posi-Tone Records.

Tom Cotton Is A Lying, Racist, Bloodthirsty Bastard And Probably More Dangerous Than VD Vance

 

Tom Cotton, who the goddamned NYT thinks is worth having on its op-ed page to lie, has presidential ambitions and he could probably get the Republican-fascist nomination and he'd, then, have the support of the entire media, including the Putch Sulzberger run Times.  

I'm listening less and less to the MSNBC kind of lawyers because they get caught up in the bull shit of legalese and their profession and miss the truth.   Allison Gill is one of those I listen to, instead. 

Randy Rainbow And, Well, I'll Call Them The Randrew Sisters Have A New Christmas Song Out

 

The Gospel Is Radical - I'll Risk Violating CR To Post Nearly All Of This

I loved this article and what it reports. 

Calling it a "politically divisive display," the Boston Archdiocese has asked a local suburban parish to remove a Nativity scene that substitutes images of the Holy Family with a sign criticizing the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign.

"ICE was here," reads the large sign that accompanies an empty manger outside St. Susanna Church in Dedham, Massachusetts, referring to immigration raids conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

"The Holy Family is safe in The Sanctuary of our Church," the sign adds. "If you see ICE, please call LUCE," referring to an immigrant assistance network in Massachusetts.

Reported last week by local and national media, the Nativity scene at St. Susanna's prompted strong online reactions. ICE acting director Tod Lyons told Fox News Digital that the scene was "abhorrent" and that it added to a "dangerous narrative" that he said has resulted in a 1,150% increase in assaults on ICE officers.

Hundreds of people from across the country also flooded the parish Facebook group page with angry comments while parishioners defended the provocative manger display. 

A large sign says, "ICE WAS HERE". "The Holy Family is safe in The Sanctuary of our Church," a smaller sign adds. "If you see ICE, please call LUCE," referring to an immigrant assistance network in Massachusetts.

"It sure seems like it's hard to have a conversation with people," Fr. Stephen Josoma, the pastor of St. Susanna Church, told National Catholic Reporter. Josoma said the parish office received numerous calls where people started cursing as soon as he picked up the phone.

"It's not a conversation," Josoma said. "You say 'Have a nice day' and hang up. You can't do much more than that."

Josoma spoke with NCR a day before a spokesman for the Boston Archdiocese said that the parish manger scene should be removed and the manger restored "to its proper sacred purpose."

"The people of God have the right to expect that, when they come to church, they will encounter genuine opportunities for prayer and Catholic worship — not divisive political messaging," Terrence Donilon, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said in response to NCR's inquiry.

Donilon said in an email that the Catholic Church's canonical norms "prohibit the use of sacred objects for any purpose other than the devotion of God's people," adding that those objects include images of the Christ Child, which Donilon said "are to be used solely to foster faith and devotion."

Donilon added that St. Susanna Church "neither requested nor received permission" from the archdiocese to "depart from this canonical norm or to place a politically divisive display outside the church."

In a prepared statement provided Dec. 8 to NCR, Josoma and members of St. Susanna's parish council said they were waiting for "an opportunity of dialogue and clarity" with Boston Archbishop Richard Henning before reaching any final decisions regarding the Nativity scene.

 They defended the parish Nativity as "faithful to the Gospel and Catholic teaching" and a "prophetic reflection that challenges the faithful to find new paths to bring the Good News announced that first Christmas to all of God's people."

They also pointed out that the Vatican itself displays different themed Nativity scenes each year highlighting social issues to contemporary life. 

"Some of these have also been controversial (like one focused on the plight of refugees in 2016) all moving beyond static traditional figures and designed to evoke emotion and dialogue," the statement said, adding that it was the parish's hope to similarly evoke dialogue around an issue that is at the heart of contemporary life.

"That some do not agree with our message does not render our display sacrilegious or is the St. Susana Church is one of several churches that have changed their traditional Nativity displays this year to highlight immigration concerns. One church in Illinois depicts Roman soldiers wearing ICE vests, the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph donning gas masks and the Christ Child’s hands bound with zip ties.

In his interview with NCR, Josoma said the Gospel is clear about treating immigrants with respect. He noted the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' recent "special message" where the bishops expressed their solidarity with migrants amid the federal government's immigration crackdown.

"And we've had the privilege of assisting 10 refugee families to resettle in the area since 2018," said Josoma, who added that those families originated from Burundi, Afghanistan, Honduras, Guatemala and Myanmar. 

Josoma said that his parish's Pax Christi Peace and Justice Group has used the parish manger scene in previous years to also highlight issues pertaining to migration, gun violence and climate change.

"Every year we try to hold up a mirror to the world and say, 'If the Incarnation took place this year, what would that look like?'" said Josoma, who added that the idea is to reflect the celebration of Christmas and the Incarnation with the reality of "the world around us."

Our mother was a member of Pax Christi,  she'd have wanted her parish to do something like this if she were alive today.   I'm posting this in honor of her memory with a significant anniversary coming up. 

Peter Ticktin, A Lawyer For The Criminal Tina Peters

who was convicted and is in prison on state charges for her breaking elections law in that state, is going to try to get Trump to illegally pardon her so as to get the inevitable case.either brought by her when Colorado doesn't let her out of prison or by the state when the feds try to spring her so the corrupt Republican-fascist majority on the Roberts Court will overturn federalism in that detail to benefit one of Trump's fascist thugs.  THE WORST THING ABOUT THIS IS THAT WHAT SHOULD BE ABSOLUTELY OUT OF THE QUESTION CANNOT BE RULED OUT AS HOW THAT CORRUPT COURT WILL COME DOWN ON THIS.   According to this account,  Ticktin has called for her being broke out of prison by Trump goons, in clear violation of the law.   If Colorado can allow such a lawyer to keep his law license,  that discredits its entire legal system and exposes them to being as corrupt in that as any of the worst states, such as Florida in that regard.   I'm hoping Colorado will prove to be better than that. 

I might be wrong about that sentence above in all-caps,  what's the worst is that such a corrupt Court should have the power to do what they're doing in so many cases,  overturning the law to favor the worst president in American history - and there's no question about that - because they're Republicans and fascists,  white supremacists who are putting that white supremacist wet-dream of a white supremacist, millionaire and billionaire oligach in the position where he is destroying everything with the impunity they've given him.   No Supreme Court should be allowed to get away with such a thing, no more than the Taney Court should have been when it overturned federalism in the Dred Scott decision.  That Lincoln's decision to ignore the Taney Court during the war should have set the model for what came after,  the Marbury usurpation of power should have been abolished then,  it must be now.   If we go through another civil war and the pro-democracy side wins without cutting the damned Supreme Court down to a size compatible with democracy,  the pro-democracy side will  have ultimately lost, as it now is clear,  the last civil war and the subsequent civil rights struggle of the last century was won by the slavers through Supreme Court fiat.  

Speaking of Pedos, Jeffrey Epstein Was A Big Supporter of Gorsuch and Kavanaugh Being On The Court

 and colluded with Republicans in the Senate and Steve Bannon to get them on, coaching them how to discredit Dr. Blasey Ford in the case of his fellow sex criminal,  Brett Kavanaugh.  

No, I Didn't Know About This Documentary

UNKNOWN TO ME when I wrote that post about Benjamin Britten's disturbing relationships with young teenage boys,  it was more than two of the boys in question who had talked about their relationship with Benjamin Britten.  This documentary,  "Britten's Children" revealed things which seem disturbingly suggestive of pedophile abuse today but which, apparently, they didn't see that way as of 2004 when the documentary was made and the interviews with a number of the, then, adult boys were conducted.   None of them accused Britten of having sex with them, none of them accused him of molesting them,  one of them notes that back when he had an intense relationship with Britten, what looks suspicious to us now wasn't nearly as suggestive of pedophile abuse.   By the time the documentary was made and considering the frankness with which these now adults discuss their relationship,  it's doubtful that all of them would have been reluctant to reveal if more had happened than they talk about.  If there were others,  there doesn't seem to be any evidence I've found.  

The intensity of the relationship leaves me extremely uneasy but I have to conclude that unless there are actual accusations of rape or molestation,  the evidence is that things never went that far.   I don't think what they describe, in the absence of an actual sexual relationship,  can fairly stand as an attempted seduction.  One thing I think is pretty clear is that Benjamin Britten stayed shockingly immature in such matters.  I think maybe in his late operas, starting with the surprisingly experimental late opera Cerlew River,  Britten was trying to come to terms with some of those feelings.  But, whatever the evidence is,   I doubt that I'd have ever felt comfortable if an adult male had acted like Britten did when I was a teenager and I was certainly attracted to some adult men.  It's common for teenagers to feel sexually attracted to adults.   There should be a rule that no adult should act like that with a child, even if because you have no way to know how the child would see it and it is, at the very least, unfair to them.  

One thing I did find really disturbing is how Britten, who was notorious for suddenly and definitively ending relationships with adults with whom he had been very close to, did the same with some of the boys he'd had as close relationships with,  David Hemming talking about how, when his voice suddenly broke in the middle of a performance of The Turn of the Screw and that was the end of his relationship with Britten, an experience echoed in one or more of the interviews is pretty shocking.   That he would treat children the same ruthless way he treated adults - sometimes with provocation (as with Charles Mackerras) sometimes for no reason admitted - doesn't do much for my opinion of him as a man.   Some of the really great composers were less than admirable as human beings.  And I do think that Britten was a remarkable composer, certainly the best opera composer since Verdi and one of the great composers of settings of the English language.  Like my feelings for Mahler, I like his vocal music a lot more than his instrumental music. 

I'm left where I was Saturday afternoon when I wrote that I don't know what to make of it, especially in relation to Britten's music, especially Death in Venice.   If you want to come to a conclusion on this issue, you should listen to what these witnesses have to say. 

Little Bobby Wants To Send Mentally Ill Kids To Be Slaves On Farms

FOCUSING ON RFK jr's horrors for the general population has hidden the full extent of his upper-class neo-Darwinist depravity.    I'll start by saying that having him as the Sec. of Health and Human Services has convinced me that that position is one that should BY LAW be closed to those who are lawyers.  They should have had to have had a career in some aspect of public health as a health professional.*

Anyway, this is the video where I found out about this monumentally bad idea that is entirely what a privileged, rich-boy asshole like Little Bobby who I doubt ever spent a day in his life as a farm laborer, certainly not an entire season, romantically imagines will be a no-cost way of getting the mentally ill remote from where most people can see them.  The woman who made this video certainly knows what she's talking about.  And she's 100% accurate that his scheme isn't anything but enslavement of the mentally ill. 

I will add that I've known several kids who grew up doing farm labor who developed some serious mental health problems,  one who murdered three women - just to suggest to you how therapeutic farm labor can be.   Of course most people who do farm labor don't become mentally ill criminals but I doubt their working in the fields or in barns has anything to do with that,  most of the townies I have known all my life who never worked in the fields never went nuts either.    Little Bobby went nuts due to him growing up in affluence and privilege and moral decadence, going to prep-schools and Ivy League universities and becoming an ambulance chasing lawyer-liar.   Only I think his amorality is what really turned him into a psycho-killer.    And, yeah, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

This is a man who should have never had any say in any aspect of health or mental health policy,  he's a stinking ambulance chaser who has made millions off of lying about health care.   And now he's killing untold numbers to gin up fake info as government documents he can use in court to make millions more. 

* The Secretary of Education should be someone who graduated from public schools at the minimum and should have been a teacher in public schools, K-12 and a graduate from a public university or college.   The secretary of Agriculture should have been someone who was involved with small farming and I mean real small farming, not the corporate-billionaire-millionaire frauds who by laws drafted by lying-lawyers get to call themselves small farmers so they can steal public funds meant for real small farmers.   I think most of the cabinet positions should be barred to lawyers,  these days probably including the so-called Attorney General. 

This Is The Leadership The United States Free Press Rejected In Favor Of Trump

 including that Hollywood guy Murrow imitating jerk, Clooney.  

The media, including the "entertainment division" freed to lie with impunity is the enemy of egalitarian democracy, the only legitimate form of government there is. 

And to Clooney,  good bye and fuck off.