Posts tagged "PZ’s Podcast"
PZ’s Podcast: Girl Can’t Help It and Old Man River
Film / Music / Religion

PZ’s Podcast: Girl Can’t Help It and Old Man River

by Mockingbird on May 20, 2013 • No Comments

Episode 142: Girl Can’t Help It

I’d like this one to be considered avant-garde. Like Journey.

It’s a pastoral meditation on realism and hope, geared a little from Eric Rohmer’s “political” movie of 1993, “The Tree, The Mayor, and The Mediatheque”.

This cast also gives me a chance to introduce ‘George’ to my listeners. He’s been with me since the 2nd of April. I christened him ‘George’ on the basis of a “Way Out” episode from long ago, entitled “Dissolve to Black”. My friend George, however, is nicer than the original ‘George’.

Anyway, I hope you like the music, hope you like the movie,…

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PZ’s Podcast: Easter with Los Straitjackets
Church / Music / Religion

PZ’s Podcast: Easter with Los Straitjackets

by Mockingbird on Apr 1, 2013 • No Comments

EPISODE 141

Yes, I know they’re Down Under this month, but their songs they leave behind them.

The real purpose of this cast is to ask, What’s been going wrong with our failing Christian lives — our failing religious lives — and what, to sound practical and American, can be done about it?

These days I feel like Marco Polo said he felt when he returned from his travels: He’d seen a lot and had a lot to tell. He might even be able to help some fellow travelers from falling into the kind of ditches that he had. I doubt anyone really…

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PZ’s Podcast: Lobo’s Dating Tips for Christian Guys and Journey with Boo, Me and You
Grace in Practice / Music / Relationships

PZ’s Podcast: Lobo’s Dating Tips for Christian Guys and Journey with Boo, Me and You

by Mockingbird on Feb 18, 2013 • No Comments

Episode 138: Lobo’s Dating Tips for Christian Guys

This is a small exercise in Camp, a sort of “Visit to a Small Planet”. The text is the singles of Lobo. They are so “nuanced”, in terms of romantic relationships, that it’s hard to believe they were ever hits. But they were!

You could also say that this is a further note on “Notes from the Underground (River)”, the lecture series recently released by Mockingbird.

I had to leave out one of Lobo’s best songs, by the way, because it is just too heartbreaking. But you will hear “Don’t Expect Me To Be Your…

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PZ’s Podcast: Brandy Station, Pillar of Salt, Elevator, Peaches La Verne, Hero of the War
Death / Film / Grace in Practice / Literature / Music / Prayer / Religion

PZ’s Podcast: Brandy Station, Pillar of Salt, Elevator, Peaches La Verne, Hero of the War

by Mockingbird on Feb 4, 2013 • No Comments

Episode 133: Brandy Station

This one is about the creative process, the listening to God, as I would put it; and also about the Peace of God, to bring about the reconciling of opposites in the healing of the world.

I was thinking about “Peace Train” by Cat Stevens, which put me in touch with Looking Glass, “Brandy”, not to mention “Brandy’s” follow-up (It’s wonderful, as you will hear.); not to mention the memorable garment worn by the lead singer of Looking Glass and that comfort-food voice which calmed all fear.

Why is it the music for PZ’s podcast that’s almost the most…

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PZ’s Podcast: Love in the First Degree
Grace in Practice / Literature / Poetry / Religion

PZ’s Podcast: Love in the First Degree

by Mockingbird on Jan 21, 2013 • No Comments

EPISODE 132

We’ve got to move forward, just got to. “Come on, feet, don’t fail me now.” Even in isolation we’ve got to move forward, tho’ it’s better to move forward with colleagues and friends, and “thinking together” people, like the great Kreisau Circle of 1944 and ’45. Sometimes you can’t help being alone as you forge ahead.

I got a little help here from Christopher Isherwood: some thoughts on love and religion from the last period of his life. Then Galsworthy chimed in, in a short poem entitled “Reminder”; and St. John, too.

Finally, and maybe most important, at least in the…

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PZ’s Podcast: 52 Pickup
Christmas / Forgiveness / Philosophy / Religion

PZ’s Podcast: 52 Pickup

by Mockingbird on Jan 7, 2013 • No Comments

EPISODE 131

An interesting experience recently, which recapitulated two other experiences similar to it, made me want to record this cast. It is a Christmas cast, with a salute to the New Year.

In the back of my mind was the Merry Christmas greeting that Journey put out one year for MTV. Gosh, that made an impression! Since I’ve said that the one person I wish I could have been born as (other than myself) is Steve Perry, the whole thing took on increasing resonance.

With a little help, too, from Mr. Harrison (R.I.P.) and also from Mr. Dylan, here lies, well, the…

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PZ’s Podcast: Now What?, Amberley Wildbrooks, Hotel Taft, Dissociated Chef d’Oeuvre, First Infinite Frost, and Victor Hugo
Film / Grace in Practice / Literature / Philosophy / Religion / Suffering

PZ’s Podcast: Now What?, Amberley Wildbrooks, Hotel Taft, Dissociated Chef d’Oeuvre, First Infinite Frost, and Victor Hugo

by Mockingbird on Dec 16, 2012 • No Comments

Episode 125: Now What?

You’ve got to see the Blu Ray of “The Egyptian” (1954). Not just because it displays a certain kind of ‘high water mark’ for the Hollywood studio system and its visual and musical artistry. But also because it enshrines a kind of deep insight that a person simply cannot shake after you’ve seen it.

Taking a leaf out of the J. Geils Band (“Looking for a Love”), ‘Sinuhe the Egyptian’ spends his entire life looking for something. Looking for a love? Looking for himself? Looking for an explanation? Looking for peace? He gets them all, in fact. He…

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PZ’s Podcast: Hold That Ghost, Worst That Could Happen (Zwingli), Saint’s Progress, and Done
Church / Grace in Practice / Literature / Music / Philosophy / Theology

PZ’s Podcast: Hold That Ghost, Worst That Could Happen (Zwingli), Saint’s Progress, and Done

by Mockingbird on Dec 3, 2012 • No Comments

Episode 121: Hold That Ghost

Love cannot exist in a context of fear. It can only exist in a context of freedom. Similarly, freedom issues in love — not in using. This cast is a rumination on freedom in relation to love. It’s intangible, freedom; and not substantial. Just try to Hold That Ghost! It will elude you, careen around you, and absolutely resist bottling.

In Podcast 121 Maxim Gorky will “Come to my Aid” (Simply Red), and you’ll like what he adds. Throw in something by The Young Rascals, and it’s heaven. Where Freedom enables Love, there is heaven. Mars is…

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Vade Mecum: The Garden of PZ’s Podcast
Art / Death / Film / Grace in Practice / Humor / Identity / Literature / Music / Philosophy / Psychology / Sermons / Suffering

Vade Mecum: The Garden of PZ’s Podcast

by Mockingbird on Nov 19, 2012 • No Comments

In lieu of new blurbs for PZ’s Podcast (two new episodes went up last week!), we are privileged to bring you an appreciation of and introduction to this truly one-of-a-kind project, courtesy of Fred Rogers. We’ve tried to link to all the casts that are referenced – a few are not currently available.

Followers of Mockingbird will be acquainted, at least by title, with episodes in Paul Zahl’s podcast series. Perhaps you’ve had a listen or two; possibly you have become a subscriber through iTunes and make a habit of dialing them up. I hope so — if it’s too much…

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PZ’s Podcast: The Black Castle (He’s Ba-ack!)
Art / Death / Film

PZ’s Podcast: The Black Castle (He’s Ba-ack!)

by Mockingbird on Nov 5, 2012 • No Comments

Episode 120: The Black Castle

Here’s a chance to think about “legacy”, creativity, and how the batteries get re-charged. The occasion for talking about these things is a fun little farrago of a movie from 1952 entitled “The Black Castle”, which contains characters with names like ‘Count von Bruno’ and ‘Gargon’ (played by Lon Chaney, Jr.). It’s fantastic, in other words!

The point is, however, what it kindled in, well, PZ — thoughts about the future, about “52 Pick Up”, and about the Impersonality of inspiration, which is a relief, by the way.

“The Atomic Submarine” (1959) and “Horror Hotel” (1960) also make…

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PZ’s Podcast: Horror Hotel, Les Elucubrations de PZ, Over the River I&II, and “Hoping Without Hope” Conf Preview
Conferences / Death / Film / Psychology / Religion / Testimony

PZ’s Podcast: Horror Hotel, Les Elucubrations de PZ, Over the River I&II, and “Hoping Without Hope” Conf Preview

by Mockingbird on Sep 24, 2012 • 1 Comment

Episode 117: Horror Hotel

Guess I’ve learned something new, or at least new to me, from an old and beloved source. That source is a tight little expressionist movie from 1960 entitled Horror Hotel. It featured Christopher Lee and Patricia Jessel, and was written by George Baxt. Horror Hotel, which was made in England about Americans, understands the phenomenon it is talking about, acutely. Horror Hotel understands the phenomenon it is talking about to be the drive to prolong physical life. The “heroine” and her husband, played by the sinister Valentine Dyall, are all about prolonging life. They are taking extreme…

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PZ’s Podcast: In the event of
Death / Grace in Practice / Philosophy

PZ’s Podcast: In the event of

by Mockingbird on Aug 27, 2012 • No Comments

EPISODE 115: In the event of

“What makes the melon ball bounce?” (That’s a Madison Avenue jingle, direct from the actual historic world that Mad Men is supposed to inhabit, which was produced by Raymond Scott in 1963 for Sprite.)

But it’s just a starter for the real question: What makes you bounce? What gives you that little pep and step, or at least from a grace perspective? What could prove sufficient to move you from paralysis and indecision, to truth and consequence?

Well, would it surprise you if I argued you’ve got to die, first? And really die — more or less,…

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PZ’s Podcast: Return to Form and A Slight Shiver
Church / Film / Theology

PZ’s Podcast: Return to Form and A Slight Shiver

by Mockingbird on Aug 13, 2012 • No Comments

Episode 113a: Return to Form

After a long drought, I’m back.

But the tack is somewhat new or, rather, old. The cast is a study in defeatedness, the karma of boy Watson in Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), and the “absurdist” position taken by a young clergyman, Henry Francis Lyte, in 1816 (it took). It also delineates PZ’s own position: my own defeatedness and the new hope I strangely feel. For me it’s ‘Roger Corman’ come to SK, tho’ it’s really a theology of the cross, even explicitly that.

Call this an odd turn, call it a forced turn, call it my own re-enactment…

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Grace in Practice / Literature / Philosophy / Radio / Theology

Update on PZ’s Podcast

by Mockingbird on Jul 26, 2012 • No Comments

The good news is, the podcast is officially up on the new server! The less good news is, it probably won’t be available on iTunes for a few more days. In the meantime, though, you can get three new episodes by (re-)subscribing directly to the podcast via its updated feed. It’s actually really easy:

1. Copy the link to the new podcast feed (http://www.mbird.com/wp-content/uploads/paulzahl/podcast.xml) You can copy this link by right clicking on the link and selecting copy. Or you can click on the link and copy the link from the address bar on your browser.

2. Open up iTunes and go to the Advanced menu located on the top left of iTunes. Within the Advanced menu, you will see Subscribe to Podcast as the third listing. Choose this option and a dialogue box will open up asking for a URL. Paste the link to your Podcast Feed into the dialogue box and click OK. You have now added this podcast to your subscribed podcasts.

Blurbs appeared for two of the three new episodes a few weeks ago, but the casts themselves never made it up. So the three new casts are:

Thanks again for your patience!

News

Quick PZ’s Podcast Update

by Mockingbird on Jul 16, 2012 • No Comments

As you may have noticed, PZ’s Podcast disappeared on iTunes a few days ago, due to a server-related issue. We aim to have it back up and running by the end of the week and will update you as soon as we know more. Thanks for your patience!