Friday, November 28, 2008

Charles Laughton Reads Jack Kerouac
















Here's a little something for the holiday weekend, from a blog entitled Hootsbuddy's Place:


Charles Laughton Reading Jack Kerouac


Per instruction, you'll need to slide the bar to the 35 minute mark to pick up the Laughton reading of a scene from Kerouac's Dharma Bums, which, though brief, is quite good. Also Laughton tells stories about the sculptor Henry Moore, modern art, Chartres Cathedral, Psalm 104, and so much more. He categorizes all as religious experiences which indeed they are.

Happy Black Friday.


best,
Don
at

11 comments:

  1. Ed BakerNovember 28, 2008 at 11:04 AM

    hey I just mentioned thwe other day on Lally's blog where he lists Charles L I sya

    Charles Laughton our Greatest 20 th Cenury actor and pointed to just one film The Beach Comber

    now to listen to this two of my favorites

    ReplyDelete
  2. Charles GramlichNovember 28, 2008 at 12:07 PM

    I just realized I have to do some shopping today. OMG, that's horrible. I hate going out on this day.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Issa's Untidy HutNovember 28, 2008 at 12:30 PM

    Ed:

    Let me know if you like the audio ... I was really moved by his account of Chartres Cathedral and the tour he got ...

    C, I guess it could be worse, you could be working like me ... no, wait, it's still worse, you have to go shopping ... Don

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousNovember 28, 2008 at 4:34 PM

    imagine all them emotions re Notre Dame Cathedral especially after CL Quasimodo! first time I went in I was B O G G L E D

    the reading that you linked too well I got undr -whelmed with/by the holiday tone of it at the opening

    and never got into the second hour where what I wanted to listen to was / in fact only got about 5 mins into it...then "booked"
    besides:
    all holiday's too divisive so, I don't celebrate any ..

    so I went over to see what JM hasin current Otoliths... neat!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Issa's Untidy HutNovember 29, 2008 at 6:19 AM

    A:

    Yes, hence the instructions to "slide" to minute 35 ... holiday spirit always being a bit of a drag -

    But beautiful, inscrutable haiku:

    "what JM has in current Otoliths... neat!"

    Don

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousNovember 29, 2008 at 7:12 AM

    here is what I got second hour of John Birge's program:

    http://americanpublicmedia.publicradio.org/programs/giving_thanks/
    and


    my slide don't work /it "can't demultiplex" /into
    35 mins of fst day winter

    ReplyDelete
  7. Issa's Untidy HutDecember 2, 2008 at 7:09 AM

    A: Sorry you had to sit through the first part, must have been tedious.

    How was the Galway Kinnell?

    Don

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousDecember 7, 2008 at 7:56 AM

    Thanks for the link. I see from the comments that about half of everybody had neither the time nor the patience to find a "pearl of great price" but those who did, like you and I, found it worth the trouble.

    It's too bad that simple audio streams must compete for attention with their more glamorous video cousins. I'm a big fan of radio. People like Ira Glass, Terry Gross, Blob Edwards and Garrison Keillor have been doing loads of great work for years. And they're still at it.

    Maybe someone with good taste will some day put up a good YouTube site (or free-standing) with a menu of gems like the ones we like. FORA TV is doing it for video speeches. Check it out.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ed BakerDecember 7, 2008 at 9:04 AM

    I grew up watching radio...
    on Sunday nites STILL
    I think a pbs station from 7 pm til 10 pm plays old serials..


    WOW just looking at this list I drool!
    Red Ryder! Uncle Miltie!

    Fibber Magie and Molly! The Great Gilder Sleeve! Amos and Andy (not the tv guys)

    baseball football on the radio...Redskins/Giants..

    the prize fight from Madison Square Garden, etc this Lewis/Schmeling fight just 5 year before I was born, will give you an idea... http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/fight/sfeature/sf_radio.html

    and here is the Ild time radio link

    http://www.otr.net/



    in 1949 or 50 we got a television set.. first one on 7 th Street, N.E.

    was all live tv shows not too long when broadcasting went of we (and some of our (Grocery store) customers used to watch the test patterns of the 3 channels...


    I forgot what I was replying to!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Issa's Untidy HutDecember 8, 2008 at 6:43 AM

    John Ballard: Yes, the pearl was "it" - I was very moved, how he told the story and its resonance for him all those years later -

    Thank you very much for the FORA.tv link. High quality. I'll be adding it to the website.

    Ed, yes, watching the radio, I would add Jean Shepherd to that list of radio greats ... although he was late, one of the last to the table. Though Keillor, among some of the others John mentions, gives us hope that the medium will find its level, ironically probably through the newest medium, the net.

    best,
    Don

    ReplyDelete
  11. Ed BakerDecember 8, 2008 at 6:49 AM

    and poetry on the radio?

    Cid 'invented' it in Boston..

    and, here in D.C the same A.U. station that has Diane Rhems
    http://wamu.org/programs/dr/
    (a national treasure) has Old Time Radio for 3 or 4 hours Sunday nites

    ReplyDelete