Appaloosa Radio

Dr Faustus and the Bowl of Candy

This is Wilson Arz.

This week, I noticed a new commercial on TV. It was an advertisement for a well-known candy brand. In it, we see a very elderly woman and a young man sitting at a round table. Between them is a bowl of the candy. The young man reaches for the candy. Then the old woman says, “I’ll trade you — your youth for it. The young man says, “OK” and begins grabbing hands full of the candy. In the final scene, he has transformed into  a very old man and she has been transformed into a young beauty. Camera focuses on him. Off-sceen announcer asks — was it worth it? They young man grabs another handful of candy and says, “Best day ever!”

When I saw it, I was immediately reminded of a class project we did in Dr. Bertanasco’s English Lit class, where we did a very spirited reading of Christopher Marlowe’s classic drama “Doctor Faustus.”

I’m sure you remember it. The learned doctor trades his soul for knowledge and power. 

As I think about it, I like the classic version better than the contemporary commercial. Same idea, but more stuff to ponder. 

So, here’s a professional voice reading the very first soliloquy from the 1602 play, with a little bit of Franz List as background music. 

Appaloosa Radio offers

A new mystery story

The Yellow Sweatshirt

A retired municipal recreation supervisor who takes morning walks for his health, stumbles upon a crime scene, and inadvertently gets entangled in something much darker involving a local criminal defense attorney,  a plastic bag, and  murder.

Dancy’s Daughters

A truestory --- From Nell Trustmon’s  Broken Tree Tales western magazine

Western writer Nell Trustmon was invited to Medicine Bow, Wyoming to tell the life story of the three daughters of Dancy Nevin — Ruth,  Leonore, and Velma

When their hotheaded father was bound in iron chains and cast out onto the barren salt flats of 1891, the lives of the three girls changed forever. Adopted into Salt Lake City's elite, the sisters were groomed as proper young ladies—until an ominous arranged marriage threatened threatened to destroy fourteen-year-old Ruth’s future. 

Even though Dancy Nevin had been left without a horse and only a week’s worth of supplies, he managed to secretly return to Salt Lake City and, in a harrowing midnight escape, abduct his three daughters.

For weeks, the girls and their father fled across rough western trails to avoid the militia, eating only hardtack biscuits and jerky. 

Eventually, they arrived in the railroad town of Medicine Bow, Wyoming where they attempted to begin a new life.

However, yet again, dire circumstances enveloped the girls, when their father was killed during a lumber war. Now completely destitute and desperate, they found work in the kitchen of a hotel. 

When Nell Trustmon interviewed them sixty years later, she found women of extraordinary determination, resilience, and courage who had created an independent life on the western frontier. 

A true story told with warmth and humor.

Magnetic Woman

A Lies & Detection Episode

Jonas interviews Juliet Stuart Poyntz

There are people who literally are magnetic, who wherever they go or whatever they do, they draw others to them. My guest for this episode is a genuinely magnetic person.

I believe it is because of her personal magnetism, that the Communist Party came to flourish in the United States during the years before World War II. I now believe that without the presence and the work of Juliet Stuart Poyntz, the Communist left in the US would have remained a sorry collection of gripers, complainers, dreamers, and cranks. 

She was the co-founder of the American Communist Party.  She brought discipline, focus, organization, and key people to it.

Much later when she began her secret career as an active Soviet spy, she proved herself to be the most effective KGB/GRU spy working in the Americas.

The Encyclopedia Britannica lists her as: a 

·       Suffragist

·       Feminist

·       trade union organizer

·       socialist

·       politician

·       political activist

·       Communist, and 

·       spy.

To that impressive list, I would add that Joseph Stalin called her an enemy of the Soviet State, and personally ordered her execution.

Using selected text from the Lais of Marie de France, episode explores four iterations of medieval-style story-songs generated from the same text prompt.                    

FATE HAS SPUN HER WHEEL

"Into the deep woods, they had fled

Loggi and her Guigeman

She had been the second wife of Yonec

But no more

Now she had pledged herself to the noble knight

For a year and nearly a half they had been together in the dark forest

Making frequent love

To their great delight.

But then the preemption came

Fate spun her wheel.

They were no longer safe.

One Lord rises.

Another falls.

As she lay next to him, the vision came

He would die

Yonec would have his vengance

“I will die as you die. You are my love in life.

And you will be my love in death.”

A Complicated Matter

An audio story about an unexpected friendship

For Appaloosa Radio

When Stacey receives an unexpected phone call from Hawthorne, Nevada, it pulls her back into the shadow of her manipulative ex-husband, Shawn. The caller is Dina—Shawn's most recent wife, and Stacey's former administrative assistant—who has been left bankrupt, facing eviction, and raising two toddlers alone while Shawn serves time in a federal prison.

Putting aside past bitterness, Stacey flies to Nevada. Together, the two women forge an unexpected, fierce sisterhood, turning practical problem-solving, legal strategy, and a cathartic letter-burning into a path toward true independence and survival.

26 minutes

Shoes

An original audio story

For Appaloosa Radio

"Nice kicks," the veteran commented, his voice gravelly from lack of use.

De Marcus dribbled the ball between his legs, catching it with a sharp pop against his palm. He grinned, a flash of white teeth under the fluorescent hum. "Loud, right? They do half the work for you. Cost $1800, but worth it. No better ones on the planet.”

“On the planet. That’s saying something.”

“Like drivin’ a racing machine.”

“Mine were custom-made in Argentina, where I played.”

“That’s in South America, right?”

Big Mike sensed that the dialogue was developing an edge. Maybe time for a showdown. Teeny-bopper against the veteran. The crowd in the bleachers would love it.

“You gents up for a little mano-on-mano combat? We’d love to see what you’ve got. If you’ve got it.”

De Marcus was cool. “I don’t do nothin’ unless there’s something for me. What’s the offer?”

The Anaconda quickly responded, “Shoes. We’ll play for shoes. Yours for mine.”

Mike added. “Gym rules. Baskets only. No points. First to fifteen wins.”

De Marcus smiled. “Sure. For shoes. Gym rules. I’ll give him first outs.”

Appaloosa Radio offers

Dead Man’s Suit

A Southern Gothic, Ghost Story . . .

1958

Every time Harlan wore it, he thought it had a strange odor. It had been dry cleaned multiple times and no one else noticed any sort of odor. In fact, his wife, Wilma thought he looked “spiffy” in it and loved to see him in the double-breasted, brown suit with the faintest of gray pinstripes. “He looks like a movie star,” she proudly told her sister Nellie Grace Lynn. Far better in that suit than in the greasy dungaree overalls that he wore most of the time. But truck mechanics don’t wear suits to work in. They work in greasy overalls. The brown suit was for Sunday church and extra special occasions, like when they had gone to the casino and had a steak dinner for their tenth anniversary.

NO HUNNEY BUNNIES HERE

This is Wilson Arz.

We had been neighbors for years, but after his wife died, he decided that their house was just too big. So, he sold it and moved into an apartment community for seniors. A couple of months after he had moved in, I dropped by for a catch-up visit. 

Over instant coffee and stale bagels, he told me he was not happy with his move. The apartment was OK. No problems.  Just, when he had signed the lease, the agent had teased him that this was the perfect place to meet some new  ‘honey bunnies.’

My friend nearly spilled his coffee with his vehement response. “Hell, there ain’t no honey bunnies here! All the women are my age or older!”

Empty Words from an Empty Head

‘This is Wilson Arz. Recently, I felt the need to create a “political” song. Not about any particular politician, but about the greater assemblage of politicians. How about that for a 50-cent word!  

I have an even better one. 

Superfluidity --- speech that never ends, goes on forever, flowing indefinitely without purpose or reason.

Empty words from an empty head. ‘