Podcast in A minor

A MERRY HALLOWE’EN! (as stated on a treasured cat-in-a-pumpkin mug my sister gave me years back!) It’s one of the most wonderful times of the year! Let us dive into American Halloween circa 1919 with Ruth E. Kelley’s Book of Hallowe’en—-then wallow in the atmosphere of Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. And for the final goody in our treat bag, we swing back to Ruth Kelley for three...

Zombies! Another icon of terror as Halloween creeps ever closer! Bubblegum zombies? Well, you’d better get in here and find out! zombie cucumber https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datura_stramonium GTTUPOD Secret Creepy Folder https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/guide-to-the-unknown/id1313915711?i=1000704452755 Atlas Obscura 5 Creepy Tales of Real-World Zombies - Atlas Obscura www.atlasobscura.com/ar...

Fantods! A feeling of deep unease! Or a little dragon creature from mysterious writer and illustrator of eerie stories, Edward Gorey. I also like to imagine them as wispy ghosts in the woods. Or star creatures. Take your pick. And what is it about their howling that makes it so much more unsettling? Expand your vocabulary of American slang….and dig some pleasing terrors this October! What Does Fan...

Halloween draws ever closer! Got the morbs yet? The what? That’s a Victorian slang phrase meaning “to sit under a cloud of despondency.” But for our purposes, we’ll dwell on the definition of “morbid” pertaining to an unusual interest in disturbing and unpleasant subjects, especially death and disease. Come along and visit some creepy, morbid sites around the globe! Then relax for some morbid poet...

Candy Corn, oh dearest October paramour…. Some love it! Some hate it! But candy corn makes her dazzling appearance every autumn on display endcaps of food stores far and wide. Look, I’m a songwriter, not an internet troll. So when the anonymous despisers of the ’corn come out and disparage her good name, I do not respond in kind. Instead, I bestow a love song upon the world. Showers of harvest cor...

It’s that time of year again—the darkness is coming! Get ready for the spooky and the horrible as we dive into Mylingar, “the murdered ones,” that is, the spirits of children “put away” by their parents long ago in cold, difficult climates. One might encounter such an entity in a Time-Life Enchanted World book, or on a Year Walk, a Scandinavian Vision Quest of old—or in the game “Year Walk,” which...

Hey, take a powder! Don’t blow your wig! Or do—welcome to the wig closet, your favorite place to hide out when the hostility of life gets out of hand. Or, a nice little nook for powdering your elaborate wig, if you happen to be a fashionable citizen of the 18th-century. Grab your bear grease and your purple cornstarch and get ready to poof!!! Ghost Story Song! https://minutewax.bandcamp.com/album/...

Happy September birthdays! This one goes out to my angel of a husband—and to my lonely inner poet—and to those buried under gravestones inscribed with their signature recipes! You heard me. Happy birthday to ALL of us!! https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/gravestone-recipes https://thisismold.com/profile/recipes-from-the-afterlife-with-ghostly-archives Transfusion Poetica by Amy Zoellers—home of...

Yep, haunted pants—what a wonderful world! Toast your marshmallows to new ditty about the mysterious “walking pajamas” of Fresno, California, et al: the Fresno Nightcrawler. Real? Fake? Certainly bizarre, and caught on camera! Dare we venture into the outdoors after dark? That all depends—upon whether you find these pants adorable or terrifying! The Fresno Nightcrawler, The Cryptid That Resembles...

Octopus boot? But yes, for a little tiny broken foot bone! What a fuss. Let’s dive into the basement stairs! The booting and crutching! Hey, I’ve been reading Anais Nin’s diaries—let’s voyeur into that. And the real cure for the metatarsal blues? Well, a blues song! But also: A Nightmare on Elm Street (the Johnny Depp one). Johnny Depp in A Nightmare on Elm Street https://youtu.be/Q-bpbsz9BHw?si=o...

Yes, weird tumors, in song! A whole extra lifetime has passed since those little weirdies encircled my inside parts—that’s a blessin’! Get the story here, and how about a little callback to episode 75, “AI Art Song”? My skeleton foot, wearing flesh for a sock…🎵 Have you ever seen your skeleton foot in an x-ray? Sexay!! Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person: A Memoir in Comics — Miriam Engleberg https...

What’s the least scary way to weather a tornado scare? Podcast right on through it! That wasn’t the plan, of course, when recording began. No, the rainy day seemed a golden opportunity to wallow in spooky stories — yes! And then the sirens wailed…. 27 Kinds of Loneliness https://a.co/d/7TALHCH The Poet’s Bowl https://a.co/d/eqakFGy Cryptid Campfire (songs) https://minutewax.bandcamp.com/album/cryp...

Happy Anniversary to my sweet gumdrop! I’m wearing your slippers right now—can you hear the magic? For the occasion, I’m dragging two old favorites out of the mothballs: “Death in the Afternoon” and “Hungarian Puzzle Box”—a little comparison of life before and after it got beautiful. Thank you for celebrating with!

National Poetry Month 2025 lends us its shimmer for just a few days more! So let’s investigate Slam Poetry—what is it? For years I never knew! Let’s find out what it is and what it ain’t, and let us all agree that “So I Married an Axe Murderer” provides the ultimate example of an exaggerated beatnik-style poetry performance cinema has to offer. And remember, be a Mensch! Slam poetry | Definition,...

Poetry Freaks! It’s National Poetry Month 2025! Let us toast the occasion with poem-to-song “Drunken Tercets,” a string-of-pearls poem filled with lines from moon poems by favorite poets, and a reading of my handmade chapbook MOON-DEVOURED from cover to cover! You can find Moon-Devoured in “A Howling Breakfast of Moon Soda—4 Chapbooks in One!” by Amy Zoellers (McAnally), link below! And don’t forg...

The food of poets! We splash again into National Poetry with a feast of poets praising food, fearing the distraction of baking, collecting poets’ recipes, and writing a grace at the age of six! It’s a feast!

Is the peacock the keeper of secrets? Would you let them pull your chariot? Get a little surreal — and discover oodles about this strutting bird with plumage of a thousand eyes. Would you tell the peacock your secrets? The Peacock by Christine Jackson https://www.amazon.com/Peacock-Animal-Christine-Jackson/dp/1861892934 The Peacock in Myth, Legend, and 19th Century History ~ Mimi Matthews www.mimi...

Flappers! Those party gals of a century ago—unflappable! Until stricken with the universal thump of human grief. Diphtheria funerals—elevator mishaps—and the terrible death of a moonstruck poet………. https://www.instagram.com/hipness_and_outrage?igsh=MTZ1b2phZmRva3pyag%3D%3D&utm_source=qr https://www.instagram.com/podcast.in.a.minor?igsh=MWMzNHZicGN3aW9yYw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr https://www.amazon.com/...

The February curse is upon us with another love song, so eat your celery to counteract the sugar hit! Meanwhile, let’s hang out with Pablo Neruda—and Jan Neruda! A peep at Pablo Picasso’s thigh poem, among other romantic surrealism! This is one hot bath loaded with rose petals…. Literary Analysis: Exploring the Poetry of Pablo Neruda by Author Pablo Neruda www.literarysum.com/pablo-neruda-a-litera...

No juice in the Christmas eggnog? Now there’s cause for a riot—especially if it’s 1826 at West Point Military Academy! Booze was banned, but these lads were determined, and the Grog Mutiny ignited. Smashed banisters, broken furniture! Defenestration!! The old knock-and-dash! Those cadets could really light it up back in the day. Enjoy this romp with a brand-new song and a couple of throwbacks to b...

Ahh, the next great Thanksgiving anthem for the ages—and episode 100! In which we answer the burning question: what the heck is Cheez Whiz? We’re celebrating a food holiday here, and everybody’s cooking the same things! Well, for the most part. Crack open your Autumn Binders to the Thanksgiving chapter—hallelujah, it’s Thanksgiving! Hey, life can be prickly. Have some pumpkin pie! Again! EPISODE 1...

Happy Halloween! Don’t you ever wish you were the sweet, unhinged aunties in the 1944 Cary Grant flick, Arsenic and Old Lace? I mean —not the murder part, of course, but their cuddly nurturing-in-overdrive, the doilies, the cakes, the foraging in the cemetery next door, the elderberry wine—ohh, that elderberry wine. (aggressive, dissonant harp-thrum). Here’s an impromptu song for your trick-or-tre...

There’s a werewolf at the window! I never should’ve opened that door… Spooky October continues! Katie, bar the door, there’s a wolfman on the loose! Let’s howl and wallow in “An American Werewolf in London,” Sabine Baring-Gould’s BOOK OF WEREWOLVES, and the Canadian coming-of-age classic werewolf film, GINGER SNAPS! And don’t miss my new collection of poetry, BEATNIK WEREWOLF, available now—link b...

Gossamer, what are you? A cobweb for a dress—not entirely warm on a coach-ride with Death, is it? For spooky October, let’s. have a haunted tea party with the poet Emily Dickinson! Shall we? Oh, let’s! https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47652/because-i-could-not-stop-for-death-479 https://halloweenhaunt.wordpress.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gossamer_(Looney_Tunes)

Hey, who is that smiling rock star in the bath tub, grinning like an angel, printed on a coffee mug for switchboard morale—and what has he to do with a secret book of poetry? How many times did I change my major in college? Go ahead—grade my German. Komm auf mich zu. Come at me, papa… The Eye of Tony Hicks https://a.co/d/4QfmhRQ YouTube https://youtube.com/watch?v=TD3hdbVbXPA&si=Bqw1fIqyA24OKBOk