And now for something completely different . . .
This week’s episode of Texting represents a new kind of experimental podcast. As you may know, Tomek left St. Petersburg for London last week and was thus unable to record the pod in the usual way—live, cam-to-cam, in my Riverside studio. We therefore chose to dialogue about his sojourn through a WhatsApp exchange of audio clips. Typically this would involve Tomek providing me with a daily report on his travel experiences and me trying to offer some kind of commentary. Back and forth we went in this manner until Tomek returned to Russia. The end result is a travelogue in the form of a sound collage which features, among other things, recitations of London-themed poetry by Blake and Wordsworth, impromptu performances of London-themed songs by The Clash, The Kinks, The Who, and Gerry Rafferty, interviews with Tomek’s London-based friends Aidan, Aziz, and Joe, meditations on the TJ/TK Maxx dichotomy, reflections on the play Cabaret, and references to such historical figures as Lud, Boudica, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Winston Churchill, Michael Marks, and Thomas Spencer. We feel certain that you will find something in this episode to interest you. If not, well, as Samuel Johnson might say, you are tired of life.
Next week’s text = Jeff Beck’s “Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers.”
MW
"London Calling"