Endicott Redux

Radio interview...today!

I've been terribly remiss in not mentioning before that I'll be on the radio talking about myth today -- at station KWMR out of Pt. Reyes, California (90.5 FM), 11 a.m. California time. If you're not in northern California, you can also hear the interview online through the station's website.

The painting to the right is by mythic artist Mark Wagner, who hails (like me) from Pennsylvania but now lives and works in northern California. Visit his Hearts and Bones Studio to see more of his magical art.

On the Radio

 

Young Adult fiction was the topic of discussion on the Open Book program on BBC Radio 4 yesterday -- beginning with an interview with China Mieville (discussing his new book Un Lun Dun), followed by a discussion of historical fiction for teens with Caroline Lawrence and Mary Hoffman (author of the Stravaganza children's fantasy series), and ending with an interview with Irish writer Derek Lundy, the latest author to be billed as "the new JK Rowling". There's also an interesting discussion of the adult novels of Frances Hodgson Burnett (best known now for The Secret Garden and her other children's books). You can listen to the program on-line any time during the next week by using the Radio 4 website's Listen Again feature.

And while you're on the Listen Again page, check out Landlocked in Krakow, a strange and charming program on the popularity of traditional sea shanties in landlocked Poland.

Two items of interest coming up this week: On Tuesday at 4:30 (UK time), fairy tale historian Marina Warner discusses her favorite books on A Good Read. And on Thursday at 11:30, Terry Jones moderates a discussion between Philip Pullman and Enid Jones (Pullman's former schoolteacher), discussing Pullman's development as a writer, their long friendship, and the "His Dark Materials" trilogy. You can listen to these programs live on-line at the time of broadcast, or use the website's Listen Again feature any time during the following week.

The art above is by the Swedish painter Carl Larsson.

Hear it on the Net

The BBC's Bloodlines program (a series introducing new short story writers) has a first-rate audio reading of a new Susanna Clarke story, "The Dweller in High Places." You can hear the piece here in streaming audio or here in Real Audio Player. It's a lovely little piece about an English schoolgirl's most unusual encounter. (via Neil Gaiman.) The BBC keeps these audio files online for just one week -- so don't wait too long to listen to it.

Feeling Blue...

The Whitworth Art Gallery at the University of Manchester (UK) has an interesting exhibition running now until April looking at The History of Indigo. The exhibition includes a tablet containing the oldest known indigo dye recipe (circa 600 BC), a blue child's tunic from 7th century Egypt, and the world's oldest surviving pair of blue jeans from the American West circa 1880. Indigo was once considered a magical dye because it involved a mysterious-seeming fermentation process. Folk custom once dictated that indigo be handled only by old women because fertile women were believed to interfere with the "fertility" of the dye. In ancient Britain, warriors sought to enhanced their strength by the ritual practice of staining their faces blue with indigo (also known as woad). In ancient Persia and other parts of the Middle East, a blue-stained beard was a sign of virility -- a custom believed to have influenced the French fairy tale Bluebeard. And here's a tidbit for Pre-Raphaelite fans: William Morris' odd nickname, Topsy, was actually a shortening of Blue Topsy, referring to the blue artists' smock he was fond of wearing (modeled on Breton working men's smocks). He loved indigo, and used it so often to dye the fabrics he designed that his hands were regularly stained blue.

For a short history of indigo, listen to the BBC Radio 4 program "A Blue to Dye For," which aired on Women's Hour this week. (You can listen to the program on-line through February 20th.) For more information, try the Plant Cultures website -- and also the Indigo Page, a site dedicated to the use, understanding, and historical importance of indigo. "Blue," they say, "is the colour of the unreal, the surreal, and the heavens; it is said to represent truth, death, and the Gods, and thus stands as the cornerstone to ideas of spirit in many forms."

For a history of the Bluebeard fairy tale, try Bluebeard and the Bloody Chamber, an article in the Endicott archives. And finally, here's a charming Indian folktale about the creation of indigo. It comes from the Panchatantram, an old, old collection of Sanskrit fables.

Radio Ballads

 

The BBC Radio Ballads were ground-breaking documentaries created by producer Charles Parker and musicians Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger in the late 1950s, weaving voices from various British communties (railroad men, fishermen, miners, boxers, Gypsies, people with polio, etc.) with songs written for and about them. Parker defined radio ballads as "a form of narrative documentary in which the story is told entirely in the words of the actual participants themselves as recorded in real life; in sound effects which are also recorded on the spot, and in songs which are based upon these recordings, and which utilise traditional or "folk-song" modes of expression." 

In 2006, Vince Hunt and Sara Parker (Charles Parker's daughter) re-created the spirit of the original broadcasts with a new series of Radio Ballads. They visited "steelworks, shipyards and fairgrounds, crossed the countryside with fox and hare hunters, talked to musicians who'd been caught up in the Troubles and to people living with HIV/AIDS" -- and then worked with contemporary folk musicians to create songs for and about these communties.

Now a live stage version of the 2006 Radio Ballads series will be presented at Glasgow's Celtic Connections festival this evening, featuring musicians Kate Rusby, Karine Polwart, John Tams, Jez Lowe, Chris While, Julie Matthews, Bob Fox, Barry Coope, Andy Cutting, John McCusker and Andy Seward. In you're in or near Glasgow, the event starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. (More information here.)

And for all the rest of us, the event will be recorded and broadcast on Wednesday night (January 24) on The Mike Hardy Show (Celtic Connections) on BBC 2 at 8 pm. If you're not in the UK, the show will be available for listening on-line here (for one week following the broadcast date).

To read more about the original Radio Ballads series, to hear clips of Peggy Seeger and others discussing the series, and to listen to the programs themselves (both the original 1950s series and the new 2006 series), follow this link to the BBC 2 Radio Ballads website. There is also a CD from the 2006 series, Songs from the Radio Ballads.

On the Radio

England's BBC 4 is running a terrific program this morning called "The Folk Voice," hosted by the great Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson. (It's program #2 in the 4-part series The Singer Not the Song.)

Here's the description: "If it were not for the work of a handful of collectors in the early part of the 20th Century traveling around the country, painstakingly recording the music of the working class, many of the songs which had been orally handed down from generation to generation for hundreds of years would have been lost. Norma Waterson and Martin Carthy, who have been leading figures in the folk revival since the 1960s, discuss the artistry of the folk singer."

You don't have to live in England to hear it; all BBC 4 shows are available for listening on-line anytime during the week following the first broadcast. Click here to go to the web page for the series, then click on the January 16 broadcast to hear the show.

On the Radio

England's BBC 4 Radio has been running a few programs that fantasy and mythic arts fans might enjoy -- available for listening on-line anytime during the week following the original broadcast. "The Natural History of Beatrix Potter" looks at the landscapes that inspired the writer/artist's classic children's books and her work as a naturalist and conservationist. The first show in the series aired last Sunday, and the second will air tomorrow at 7:45 pm (UK time). (The new movie about Potter is no doubt stirring up interest in her poignant, fascinating life story.) "Under the Skin" examines the centuries-old theatrical tradition of "playing skins" -- that is, playing a cow, cat, goose, etc. in the fractured fairy tales of English Christmas pantomimes. The show (which aired on December 28th) provides a different, more humorous look at animal-human metamorphosis, a subject discussed in the current issue of the Mythic Passages web journal.

Knitting Poetry

    

Since there seem to be a lot of knitters and hand-weavers among our readers, I'd like to recommend a radio series that's been running on BBC 4 this week in England: Knit a Poem, in which poet Gwyneth Lewis looks at the links between knitting, poetry, and the wider world. Even for a non-knitter like me, it's been a delight. (I particularly recommend the December 13th show on knitting and mathematics.) You can hear these shows on the BBC 4 website by clicking here. But do it quick, because they only keep these broadcasts on-line for a week.

And if you'd like to learn more about knitting and weaving in mythology, a knitter of my acquaintance recommends The Knitting Goddess by Deborah Bergman. There's also a web page devoted to stories, tales and mythology about weavers and spinners. And here's an old nursery rhyme that comes from the Icelandic tradition: Now you have come to your fourth year / Your work you will begin - / That is learning the three arts: / To read, to knit, to spin.

At least I do one of the three.