WA2K Radio is now on the air

Tonight's soul TV programme was about James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Sly Stone, Bootsie Collins, Stevie Wonder, and George Clinton. And their session musicians and collaborators, and songwriters.

And the political and social upheavals they lived through, reflected in some of the music.

Another good prog. Worth staying in for.

The last wolves in Britain - but if there's a legend, it's certainly more colourful!

Well, it wasn't a man with a silver bullet, McTag:

Grey Wolf
(Canis lupus)


Range and Habitat


Historically, wolves had the largest and most extensive range of all mammals, second only to humans. However, they have been extirpated from much of their former range, especially in the contiguous United States and much of western Europe.

Their former range in North America included Canada, the United States (except Hawaii), and Mexico in North America. Today, however, their range is limited to Canada, Alaska, and the northern states in the United States such as Minnesota, Maine, Michigan, Washington state, Wisconsin, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and a few other states. Many of the populations in the Lower 48 are fragmented and highly unstable, and many are wolves who have migrated from Canada. The most stable populations are in Alaska and Canada (except for the Canadian province of Newfoundland, where they became extinct in 1911). The Mexican subspecies that once ranged throughout the southwestern United States and Mexico is extinct in the wild. Captive breeding programs have reintroduced several small populations in thw wild.

Their former range in Eurasia included most countries in Europe, most of northern Russia, parts of the Middle East, India, and Nepal. They are nearly extinct throughout most of western Europe, with very few stable populations still alive in Spain, Italy, Poland, Russia, Greece and Turkey. The grey wolf was heavily persecuted in Europe up until the most recent years. The wolf became extinct in England in 1486, Scotland in 1743, and Ireland in 1770. There are very few wolves left in Scandinavia, the only known populations there are in Finland. The Indian wolf is very rare, and the genetics of the remaining animals is questionable due to interbreeding with feral dogs. There is an effort to reintroduce wolves to parts of their former range throughout the United States and in parts of Europe.

They inhabit a wide variety of habitats throughout their range, including grasslands, tundra, coniferous and deciduous forests, swamps, and deserts.

Good grief, Walter, you are entirely tooooooooo quick, like the fox.

Okay, here's one for you:

What great poet and playwright used Holinshed's Chronicles for his history background?

A drum, a drum ...

Did you notice in that extract, in old Scots legal text the use of the word "schoene"?

In the dialect, "a pair of schoen" was how footwear was referred to, until fairly recently.

My kingdom for a drum? Will you quit grinning at me?

(Hank, the Fifth, girded for the battle)

Raggedy, I love it when the 'mericans beat the Brits and the Germans to the Punch.

Hmmmm. but, PA, I thought it was Rick the trois!

hmmm. maybe, tricky Dicky, too. But, I just checked this out on the net:

Henry V - When he delivers the great speech on St. Crispin's Day (October 25, 1415), he shows his charismatic power to rally support. All of this makes him Shakespeare's great war hero. There is a darker side, though. Worried about rumors of French reinforcements, he commands that "every soldier kill his prisoners" (4.6.38). Here Shakespeare follows Hollinshead's Chronicles, his source: "mistrusting further that the prisoners would … be able to aide his enemies [Henry] commanded by sound of trumpet, that every man (upon paine of death) should incontinentlie slaie his prisoner." This goes "against the law of arms," as Fluellen complains (4.7.2), but Henry does not ignore all the rules. He does not tolerate pillage, even by an old drinking companion, and for that reason has Bardolph put to death.

We don't care, Raggedy. Neither Walter nor McTag got it; even Francis didn't pop in at the mention of trois.


a horse, a horse my kingdom for a horse!


An exclamation from the play King Richard the Third, by William Shakespeare; the king cries out, "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!" after his horse is killed in battle, leaving him at the mercy of his enemies.

XVIII.
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

After seeing Richard Dreyfuss (Oscar winning performance) in Neil Simons' movie "The Goodbye Girl" play a struggling actor forced to succumb to the director's wishes to play an effusively effeminate Richard II with an exaggerated limp and lisp, (with disastrous results), I can never hear "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse" without laughing out loud.

Ah, Raggedy. I saw The Goodbye Girl, but I can't remember one thing about it. I do remember Amadeus, however, but according to Setanta, it was not true to history.

My goodness, listeners. We wanted Europe back on board, and we drove them off with vorpal sword.

But then, it's past the witching hour in Europe, so maybe that's the reason.

Goodnight, Francis and Walter and McTag, if you'll come back tomorrow, we'll promise not to brag.


Chantecleer, herald of the dawn:


This is thought to be Sarah Bernhardt playing the part of a rooster in theatrical tales of
19th century France. It was inspired by a very rare mid
19th century picture button found in Paris

http://www.lyngaylord.com/vanity115.htm

Even Reynard the fox is asleep in his hole,
And Goethe's great poetry is still left untold.

Here's where I've planted my garden and here I shall care for love's blossoms--

As I am taught by my muse, carefully sort them in plots:

Fertile branches, whose product is golden fruit of my lifetime,

Set here in happier years, tended with pleasure today.

You, stand here at my side, good Priapus--albeit from thieves I've

Nothing to fear. Freely pluck, whosoever would eat.

did somebody mention a vorpal sword (or blade)

JABBERWOCKY

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

`Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jujub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!'

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum gree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wook,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

`And has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Calloh! Callay!
He chortled in his joy.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

ah, dj. Here you come to save the day. Your reference to Alice and Carrol reminded me of another Alice.


TINY ALICE, By Edward Albee. Directed by Mark Lamos. Set design by John Arnone. Costumes by Constance Hoffman. Lighting by Donald Holder. Sound by David Budries. With Gerry Bamman, Tom Lacy, Richard Thomas, John Michael Higgins, and Sharon Scruggs. At Hartford Stage, Hartford, Connecticut, through June 21.
Jesus said, "In my house there are many mansions." In the mansion of Tiny Alice, there is another mansion -- an intricate replica of the one in which most of the action is set. Inside the smaller mansion, we are led to believe, is a replica of it. The question is whether what's in the replicas, perhaps diminishing toward infinity, is more real than what we see; whether, in fact, what we see is a surrogate for an abstraction -- God or, as She's called here, Alice -- that is the ultimate reality. Scratching your head yet? That's because Jesus was a more straightforward guy than Edward Albee, whose 1964 parable Tiny Alice -- which does indeed contain a Christ figure -- is at once thumpingly obvious and deliberately obscure.

Come to think of it, the resuscitation of Albee's career in the wake of the Pulitzer-winning Three Tall Women constitutes a second coming of sorts. There was a 1996 Lincoln Center revival of A Delicate Balance.

Anyone understand that? I don't.

`The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright --
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.

The moon was shining sulkily,
Because she thought the sun
Had got no business to be there
After the day was done --
"It's very rude of him," she said,
"To come and spoil the fun!"

The sea was wet as wet could be,
The sands were dry as dry.
You could not see a cloud, because
No cloud was in the sky:
No birds were flying over head --
There were no birds to fly.

The Walrus and the Carpenter
Were walking close at hand;
They wept like anything to see
Such quantities of sand:
"If this were only cleared away,"
They said, "it WOULD be grand!"

"If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year,
Do you suppose," the Walrus said,
"That they could get it clear?"
"I doubt it," said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.

"O Oysters, come and walk with us!"
The Walrus did beseech.
"A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
Along the briny beach:
We cannot do with more than four,
To give a hand to each."

The eldest Oyster looked at him.
But never a word he said:
The eldest Oyster winked his eye,
And shook his heavy head --
Meaning to say he did not choose
To leave the oyster-bed.

But four young oysters hurried up,
All eager for the treat:
Their coats were brushed, their faces washed,
Their shoes were clean and neat --
And this was odd, because, you know,
They hadn't any feet.

Four other Oysters followed them,
And yet another four;
And thick and fast they came at last,
And more, and more, and more --
All hopping through the frothy waves,
And scrambling to the shore.

The Walrus and the Carpenter
Walked on a mile or so,
And then they rested on a rock
Conveniently low:
And all the little Oysters stood
And waited in a row.

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes -- and ships -- and sealing-wax --
Of cabbages -- and kings --
And why the sea is boiling hot --
And whether pigs have wings."

"But wait a bit," the Oysters cried,
"Before we have our chat;
For some of us are out of breath,
And all of us are fat!"
"No hurry!" said the Carpenter.
They thanked him much for that.

"A loaf of bread," the Walrus said,
"Is what we chiefly need:
Pepper and vinegar besides
Are very good indeed --
Now if you're ready Oysters dear,
We can begin to feed."

"But not on us!" the Oysters cried,
Turning a little blue,
"After such kindness, that would be
A dismal thing to do!"
"The night is fine," the Walrus said
"Do you admire the view?"

"It was so kind of you to come!
And you are very nice!"
The Carpenter said nothing but
"Cut us another slice:
I wish you were not quite so deaf --
I've had to ask you twice!"

"It seems a shame," the Walrus said,
"To play them such a trick,
After we've brought them out so far,
And made them trot so quick!"
The Carpenter said nothing but
"The butter's spread too thick!"

"I weep for you," the Walrus said.
"I deeply sympathize."
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Those of the largest size.
Holding his pocket handkerchief
Before his streaming eyes.

"O Oysters," said the Carpenter.
"You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?"
But answer came there none --
And that was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one.'

ah, dj. What a fanciful man was Lewis Carroll.

Do you know, listeners, that I WAS Alice when I was just a wee thing? I became every book that I read.

Well, all. I must eat. Back later, but first, this night song:

Diana Krall


There was a moon out in space
But a cloud drifted over its face
You kissed me and went on your way
The night we called it a day
I heard the song of the spheres
Like a minor lament in my ears
I hadn't the heart left to pray
The night we called it a day
Soft through the dark
The hoot of an owl in the sky
Sad though his song
No bluer was he than I
The moon went down stars were gone
But the sun didn't rise with the dawn
There wasn't a thing left to say
The night we called it a day
There wasn't a thing left to say
The night we called it a day

SALT OF THE EARTH
M. Jagger/K. Richards)

Let's drink to the hard working people
Let's drink to the lowly of birth
Raise your glass to the good and the evil
Let's drink to the salt of the earth

Say a prayer for the common foot soldier
Spare a thought for his back breaking work
Say a prayer for his wife and his children
Who burn the fires and who still till the earth

And when I search a faceless crowd
A swirling mass of gray and black and white
They don't look real to me
In fact, they look so strange

Raise your glass to the hard working people
Let's drink to the uncounted heads
Let's think of the wavering millions
Who need leaders but get gamblers instead

Spare a thought for the stay-at-home voter
His empty eyes gaze at strange beauty shows
And a parade of the gray suited grafters
A choice of cancer or polio

And when I look in the faceless crowd
A swirling mass of grays and black and white
They don't look real to me
Or don't they look so strange

Let's drink to the hard working people
Let's think of the lowly of birth
Spare a thought for the rag taggy people
Let's drink to the salt of the earth

Let's drink to the hard working people
Let's drink to the salt of the earth
Let's drink to the two thousand million
Let's think of the humble of birth

Lets raise our drink
To the salt of the earth
Lets raise our drink
To the salt of the earth.......

it's funny, the alice books have become great favourites of mine, but i never read them as a child, somehow i missed them, hard to imagine as i was a voracious reader, anyway, a very alice like thing happened to me in my first exposure to the stories, i was fairly young and on a dreary sunday afternoon the 193? movie version of the books was on tv, i was fascinated by it, but in later years was never really sure if i'd actually seen it or had imagined it

years later i discovered that the movie did in fact exist, i had seen it, and it remains to this day my favourite film version



Directed by Norman Z. McLeod

Writing credits
Lewis Carroll (novels)


Joseph L. Mankiewicz (screenplay) and
William Cameron Menzies (screenplay)


Cast (in credits order) verified as complete
Charlotte Henry .... Alice
Leon Errol .... Uncle Gilbert
Louise Fazenda .... The White Queen
Ford Sterling .... The White King
Richard 'Skeets' Gallagher .... The White Rabbit (as Skeets Gallagher)
Raymond Hatton .... The Mouse
Polly Moran .... The Dodo Bird
Ned Sparks .... The Caterpillar
Sterling Holloway .... The Frog
Roscoe Ates .... The Fish
Alison Skipworth .... The Duchess
Lillian Harmer .... The Cook
Richard Arlen .... The Cheshire Cat
Edward Everett Horton .... The Mad Hatter
Jackie Searl .... Dormouse
Charles Ruggles .... The March Hare (as Charlie Ruggles)
Baby LeRoy .... The Joker (as Baby Le Roy)
May Robson .... The Queen of Hearts
Alec B. Francis .... The King of Hearts
William Austin (I) .... The Gryphon
Cary Grant .... The Mock Turtle
Edna May Oliver .... The Red Queen
Jack Oakie (I) .... Tweedledum
Roscoe Karns .... Tweedledee
Mae Marsh .... The Sheep
W.C. Fields .... Humpty-Dumpty
Gary Cooper .... The White Knight
rest of cast listed alphabetically
Julie Bishop .... Alice's Sister (scenes deleted)
Harvey Clark .... Father William (scenes deleted)
Lucien Littlefield .... Father William's Son (scenes deleted)
Billy Barty .... White Pawn/The Baby (uncredited)
Billy Bevan .... Two of Spades (uncredited)
Colin Campbell (I) .... Garden Frog (uncredited)
Jack Duffy (I) .... Leg of Mutton (uncredited)
Harry Ekezian .... First Executioner (uncredited)
Meyer Grace .... Third Executioner (uncredited)
Ethel Griffies .... Miss Simpson the Governess (uncredited)
Colin Kenny .... The Clock (uncredited)
Charles McNaughton .... Five of Spades (uncredited)
Patsy O'Byrne .... The Aunt (uncredited)
George Ovey .... Plum Pudding (uncredited)
Will Stanton (I) .... Seven of Spades (uncredited)
Joe Torillo .... Second Executioner (uncredited)

Produced by
Benjamin Glazer .... associate producer (uncredited)
Louis D. Lighton .... producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Dimitri Tiomkin
Heinz Roemheld (some scenes) (uncredited)

Cinematography by
Bert Glennon
Henry Sharp (I)

Film Editing by
Ellsworth Hoagland (uncredited)

Art Direction by
William Cameron Menzies (uncredited)

Costume Design by
Newt Jones (as Newt Jons)
Wally Westmore

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Ewing Scott .... assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
Robert Odell (I) .... settings

Sound Department
Gene Merritt .... recording engineer (uncredited)

Visual Effects by
Farciot Edouart .... visual effects
Gordon Jennings .... visual effects

Other crew
Farciot Edouart .... technical effects
Nat W. Finston .... music supervisor (as Nathaniel Finston)
Gordon Jennings .... technical effects
Herman Hand .... orchestrator (uncredited)
Hugh Harman .... animator (segment "The Walrus and the Carpenter") (uncredited)
Rudolf Ising .... animator (segment "The Walrus and the Carpenter") (uncredited)
Howard Jackson (I) .... orchestrator (uncredited)
John Leipold (I) .... orchestrator (uncredited)
Oscar Potoker .... orchestrator (uncredited)
LeRoy Prinz .... pageantry (uncredited)
Max Reese .... orchestrator (uncredited)
Jack Virgil .... orchestrator (uncredited)