Podcast in A minor

Hey there, sweet potatoes! What would you like to know about sweet potatoes, huh? Because I know a few things. And on the side — Ancient Greek philosophy and spelling bees for that mid-week shot in the arm! Aren’t you glad you came? https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/antioxidants# Encyclopedia of Healing Foods https://a.co/d/iku2aID Song and Play Time With Pete Seeger https:/...

Long song (in my world) ~ short episode! Allow me to be brief concerning an awkward song I don’t wish to talk about — except to tease a little story out of scattered phrases. Let us don our Parisian turtlenecks and costume jewels and rehearse our laments — til hell wouldn’t have it again. BLESSINGS on our feet of clay! www.livescience.com/32174-do-hair-and-nails-keep-growing-after-death.html www.s...

Hey dudes. Quick smoke break. Please enjoy these clips of songs that may or may not appear in future episodes! Don’t ask me! Life is erratic and fluid and nonsensical. SOAK IN IT.

Oh no, rattlesnake dream! Vomit dreams—wolf dreams—dreams of mysterious corpses… how many times can you dream about Noel Gallagher before you hate yourself?—the original plan was to collect YOUR dreams to share, but perhaps another day! Another song! For now, a gathering of not-boring dream poems, and my 1991 romantic encounter with the poet Randall Jarrell. 8 Spiritual Meanings of Snakes in dream...

Shimmer on, you diamonds of Neptune! For the last week of National Poetry Month 2023, we search for the meaning of poetry — in the words of the poets — and it gets thrilling up in here! Go on, let the poetry have you. Let’s cram our faces with poetica!!! (it’s the one month we can do it without looking too weird) https://youtube.com/@hipnessoutrage6774 https://www.amazon.com/Amy-Zoellers/e/B09Y2LK...

This episode might be a trainwreck, but it’s a trainwreck poetical. Happy National Poetry Month! And we indulge in an episode all about poetry forms—destined to be our most popular episode yet—with a song surrounding that villain of form, the villanelle. Ok, it’s not a villain at all. It’s actually a pretty fun puzzle to work as you try to say the thing you want to say. But National Poetry Month p...

Happy National Poetry Month Week 2! In which we explore a gallery of troubled poets—who ever heard of a mad poet? Anyone who bothered, that’s who! It’s a lot of feeling to carry around, ok? This poet gig? So we salute Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Emily Dickinson, Oscar Wilde, Dylan Thomas, and Sylvia Plath — in their respective struggles. And does insanity le...

Your mind’ll go peacock blue at an entire episode dedicated to American actor DeForest Kelley—aka sassy Dr. McCoy of TV’s Star Trek! What was Kelley’s first-ever film role? Get the straight dope on what Dr. Leonard McCoy IS and IS NOT. What are Kelley’s hidden talents—I mean, besides mooning an entire audience while on stage? What did he have for breakfast in my dream? Discover these truths and mo...

Episode 40, angel face!! And therefore, indulgent! We visit the Hotel President in downtown Kansas City—that’s Kansas City, MISSOURI, mind you, and we settle once and for all just which Kansas City those sleazy characters in the old movies are talking about. After which, a rundown of favorite Perry Mason episodes, what else? Join me for a cup of coffee in the Drum Room, followed by a nice grasshop...

TO SHREDS YOU SAY! A departure, maybe, from the usual giddy-folky cotton-candy jingles, but I like to keep it fresh, right? — on writing a song around a line from a prime time television cartoon — on how to pronounce “syrup” — on sharing an apartment with a robot — on baking as an act of love — Banana Cream Pie Sonnet — on cabbage-based fortune-telling And! “To Shreds, You Say?” by Iron Chic! http...

Alternate titles: Feast of Lullabies. . . Lullaby Largesse . . . LULLABYPALOOZA . . . Lullabies! Space lullabies….spooky and deranged lullabies from around the world AND right here…. Also: a cool project where Carnegie Hall musicians collaborate with new and expectant mothers—and fathers—to write lullabies especially for their children. Hey. Leonard Nimoy never got to hear my Spock Lullaby because...

Parallel universes ~~ but described in blandest television terms only, please, by your unhip host. Poet Anne Sexton. Funeral Pie. Redneck Heaven. All contained in a love letter to a rock star who likes to push the shopping cart. Who could it be? 10 Poems by Anne Sexton, Confessional Poet | LiteraryLadiesGuide www.literaryladiesguide.com/classic-women-authors-poetry/10-poems-by-anne-sexton www.poet...

Silent Movies—featuring Buster Keaton, heartthrob ~ old-time movie tech ~ a silent candle in his hand ~ horehound drops! headache powders! Hot soda with a dead poet ~ DRINK IT UP When Were Movies Invented? A Brief History of Motion Pictures (studiobinder.com) Did a Silent Film About a Train Really Cause Audiences to Stampede? - Atlas Obscura ~https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/did-a-silent-film...

Laudate to breakfast on Pancake Tuesday! Hooray for pancakes, donuts, coffee, Coco Puffs, sugar bowls, creamer jugs, French toast—you know I have a song about that. At LEAST. Plus a little Twin Peaks and a whole stack of breakfast poetry! @breakfastpoet @schoooled Amazon.com: A Howling Breakfast of Moon Soda: 4 Chapbooks in 1!: 9781959048015: Zoellers, Amy: Books Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and...

Oh no, Valentine’s Day is upon us again—what are we supposed to do now? And can you really be the only one who thinks this holiday is trash? No offense to the real St. Valentine. Find your guide to this Ordinary Tuesday in February in this disaffected though heart-shaped episode. Happy St. Valentine’s Day Massacre! LUVYA. Show Notes “The Untouchables” Train Station Scene: (warning! It’s a little b...

The Booze Songs! TRIGGER WARNING: songs about booze and sadness. interestingliterature.com www.amyzoellersart.com www.poets.org https://www.amazon.com/Amy-Zoellers/e/B09Y2LKG8S?ref_=pe_1724030_132998060

Let’s mine classic television for key lines and build a whole song! Then, let’s mine the lyrics of that whole song —plus another song—so we can talk about ghost stories and beat poets! These are a few of my favorite things. Perhaps overmuch talk of absinthe spoons but oh well. www.theabsinthespoon.com diydistilling.com flightwinebar.com https://www.naropa.edu/academics/schools-centers/jack-kerouac...

Lightning daguerreotypes! Poetry. Ghostographs. Charles Fort and Fortean Phenomena!! A nude portrait imprinted on a window pane in a lightning flash: the STUFF OF LIFE. amyzoellersart.com. https://www.magzter.com/stories/Entertainment/Fortean-Times/The-Face-In-The-Window-Windowpane-Ghosts-And-Lightning-Daguerreotypes https://mrsdaffodildigresses.wordpress.com/2015/03/20/the-mysterious-face-in-the-...

For the final Wassail Wednesday of 2022, shiver to the melancholy strains of “Marigold, Cold,” followed by a few recipes for hot winter’s punch. And finally, a collection of belated musical stocking stuffers: old wassail classics, a Smoking Bishop shout-out, and a few odds & ends. Happy New Year and wassail!

Bonus Episode ~ It’s Christmas Eve! Enjoy a Christmas punch recipe courtesy of Mr. Charles Dickens, followed by his roll call of Christmas ghosts in the old stories! Then thrill to Rosemary Timperley’s “Christmas Meeting.” Merry Christmas! Wassail!

Christmas Alone ~ Tragedy or tranquility? Blessing or curse? Let’s explore these questions through television specials, song, story, and the SIMPLEST recipe for hot Christmas punch ever! And find my new collection of Christmas ghost stories and collage: “Wassail to the Mausoleum Cakes” here: https://www.amazon.com/Amy-Zoellers/e/B09Y2LKG8S?ref_=pe_1724030_132998060

A wassail to Christmas cookies, long may they reign! Perhaps a token wassail, that one, only mentioning “wassailers wassailing” in the final verse, yet the song contains a strong energy of well-wishing toward the Christmas cookie. Brief discussion of wassailing traditions, consulting “The Old Magic of Christmas” by Linda Raedisch. then onward to sweet blessings for the Christmas ghost story! Which...

Let’s bring back Wassail Wednesdays! (My 2021 December obsession) with its hot drink recipes, door-to-door singing, specific songs… In this episode, the audio from last year’s first live Wassail Wednesday gives us a recipe for Cafe Grog and a musical surprise! Author link: https://www.amazon.com/Amy-Zoellers/e/B09Y2LKG8S?ref_=pe_1724030_132998060 Haunted Pudding Ornaments and more available in my...

Invisible friend says: don’t sit down on me! Invisibility. Infertility. The enigmatic Only Child. Haunted children! And a grown man who sasses an 8-year-old girl about her dead siblings! William Wordsworth: “We are Seven” and “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” Marlo Thomas “Free to Be You and Me” (LP) Mentioned: Lost Hearts by M. R. James The Old Nurse’s Story by Elizabeth Gaskell The Turn of the Scre...

How many eyeballs in that gelatin salad? And do you dare to venture into the forest of the Doll’s Eyes? Spooky October wraps up with the evil eye, eye-related superstitions, and more haunted forests! Happy Halloween! Author Link ~ Glitter & Ghosts Instagram @podcast.in.a.minor https://www.amazon.com/Amy-Zoellers/e/B09Y2LKG8S?ref_=pe_1724030_132998060 https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropolo...