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Hello dear listeners. Today's episode, another in the Tall tales series here on you're listening to radio revel is an excerpt from the second novel I wrote, finished back in 1989. The title of the novel is Exile and this, the opening story, is titled The man was walking. Hope you enjoy the fragment. There'll be more to come in future episodes. Transcript can be had on the you're li...

I didn't really plan on ever going back to the Midwest. I'd moved to the East Coast years before, then to Europe, I actually doubted that I would ever set foot in the USA again. Still, circumstances after the few months I'd lived in Ávila led me and my mate to get on a plane, then a bus, and make those final visits to those haunts that I'd wandered through during the first two and...

Hey all! A quick look at both the film and some last-minute Oscar controversy / drama around a pretty standard film, The Holdovers . Transcript is available on the you're listening to radio revel blog. Anyone open to supporting me can do so on Patreon . Thanks for listening! Cheers, revel.

There was no one in front of the ticket windows, so Caroline stepped up to the first and smiled at the man working behind the barred opening. He did not look up but rather leaned a carton sign against the bars that read: “Closed, please use the next window.” Fortunately, there was no one waiting at the next window either, so Caroline simply slid to her right and smiled at the woman working behind...

Why should they get the last word? Why are their "final says" accepted as the FINAL SAY ? How did we allow any institution to reach this level of authority without scrutiny? In this week's mini-rant on mature audiences only here on you're listening to radio revel , I give my point of view about the Supreme Court of the United States, where I think they are these days, and how we&...

What if? What if you hadn't taken that trip to Chicago where you ended up meeting the person who would become your spouse? What if you'd taken that job that paid better but wasn't very interesting? What if one little thing you did or didn't do had repercussions you don't realize right now? For all mankind poses big and small "what ifs", contrasting the types of decisi...

Hey there listeners! Welcome back to  you're listening to radio revel , Season four. This is another episode in the  Tall tales series, stories of mine that I've dug out of old notebooks, revisited, given a fresh face. Today I've got two very short stories I wrote in 1987 while living temporarily one summer in Madrid, Spain. They reflect things that caught my eye, Spanish women, yet li...

The first thing I promised to you listeners in this new season of you're listening to radio revel , in the series called  Mature audiences only was "irony". Something we more mature folk should be pretty familiar with and actually pretty good at. Listen to me struggle with that very concept, irony , in this commentary based upon current events (even if the events are no longer curren...

Hey listeners! This episode of Film fancies , here on you're listening to radio revel gives me an opportunity of talking about that film that kind of went viral for probably the right and wrong reasons, as the title suggests: Saltburn . If you want to see my vegetable garden during a rain storm this mid-February, you can check out the version on the YouTube channel. The transcript is available...

Let me take you to Ávila, Spain. It's 1991, New Year's time, weather's been warmer than usual. José and Pepe get themselves into a pinch and they're way of getting out of that pinch, well, it was just about as stupid as these two men could think of. Enjoy this story, written in 1991 while I, myself, lived in Ávila. Kind of reflects what I thought of the place while I was there. You...

Welcome back to Mature Audiences Only on you're listening to radio revel. This week's episode, Ávila and the Santa Teresa , catches us up a bit with the beginning of the left-over decade, the 1990s, from Season Three. I'm going to pack up and move to the northwest mountainous region of Spain, find myself enclosed in a mediaeval walled-in city. Some adventures that lasted just a few mon...

Wish I'd been able to see this film in a movie theatre. Big, brash, colorful production, right amount of humor, majestic performances by three actresses, The Favourite is my personal favorite of Yorgos Lanthimos' catalogue. Set in the court of Queen Anne, you get a kind of crazy, sometimes funny, always human look at three women in the 18th century, navigating their own wants and needs in...

Welcome back to you're listening to radio revel . This week's episode is the first in the series I'm calling Tall Tales . This series is mainly a bunch of short stories I've written (or am writing!) over the years, stories that have not seen the light, or only barely so. This week I tell a Kafka-like story about a young man who decides to move through a process. It's based on a dream that was rela...

Do you have a favorite aunt or uncle who kind of served as an alternative parenting model? Someone who you visited regularly and who actually paid attention to your silly anecdotes, dreams, expectations in life? Such was my Aunt Maxine. She didn't have to put up with me every day, just a couple of months every summer, so she was there to animate me to follow those dreams, to encourage me to be...

Hey all. Just a quick update to announce the return of you're listening to radio revel Season Four: Mature Audiences Only . Transitioning from telling autobiographal stories from the first four decades of my into trying to relate to others who, like me, have begun or entered the sixth decade, Mature Audiences Only hopes to bring in new voices and talk about how we see the current world, how we...

Hey all. Between seasons here but still producing an update from time to time. This episode is my take on the Nicolas Cage film Dream Scenario . As with most updates, there is a YouTube video with images that have nothing to do with the narration of this episode. This time you can see the initial steps in upholstering a chair that I was restoring about five years ago. As always, you can read the t...

Back with another opinion! This time I talk about the series The Fall of the House of Usher . It's a good watch, though I spend most of the episode talking about the shortcomings. The video is one I began five years ago but never got around to producing. This is the first part of me cleaning and repairing the base of a chair, number 3 in a series of 4. A future video will show the finishing up...

Wow, Thanksgiving just got done with and Santa Clause is in every ad spot on the TV! Kind of ran out of time. There's more stories to this season, actually the entire fourth decade, but I won't get to them until Season Four, and maybe even in one of the new formats I'm planning of trying out. I'll still drop an episode now and then, won't stop looking at movies and series that...

Hey all. Last week's episode kind of got put off because of more immediate events in my household. This episode will give you a pretty good idea what happened. Hope to have you back next week! Cheers, revel.

Have you ever just been totally wrong about a person? Did you let first impressions blind you to the real character of someone new in your life? Not all sweet grandma types are really sweet grandma types. I met one of those sweet grandma types who turned out to be the type of person I wouldn't have chosen to have in my life: the Señora Antonia. Listen in to this week's episode to find out...

Hey all. Here's a story for you, something I wrote at some moment between 1985 and 1988. Not autobiographical at all, just a bit of very short fiction with some comments about rewriting the past in your life. The transcript, as always, can be had at the you're listening to radio revel blog , and you can support me on Patreon . Thanks for listening! Cheers, revel.

Welcome back to the show! You're about to come along with me as I catch a last-minute plane, then a rental car, then a ferry, then a double-decker bus, then a taxi, then the Underground, then a train, then another ferry, then another train, then a plane, along with hundreds of kilometers on foot, in my first Trip abroad . You can see the transcript for this episode on the you're listening...

Here's an intermediary episode, I talk about a series I've just finished watching, Mr Davis . I recommend it, but only if you're ready for a rollercoaster of a ride through a number of scenarios that don't get wound up until the end, though they do get wound up, a point in its favor. You can see a video of me laying sidewalk slate tiles over on the you're listening to radio rev...

Hey all. Shorter episode this time around. While there are so many stories from my time in New York City, I think they are mostly anecdotes that probably wouldn't be all that interesting if you've never been to New York City. So, I figure this is a cheat episode, but that's okay, the next one is probably more exciting to listen to. Remember that the transcript is available on the you&#...

Hey there all. You may have heard me tell this story before. You may not have. You can see a video version of the same story that I worked up for a language-learning platform I worked on a couple of years ago on the you're listening to radio revel YouTube channel . And, you can always support me on Patreon ! Cheers, revel.