Day Trips for Nihilists returns with an earth-shattering, light-hearted new format. But who out there will heed this? Still, the goal remains the same: finding meaning in a meaningless world. Our other mantra is: slow down, enjoy the world!

This week's meaningful encounter is with some 'alien-eyed' fire salamanders.

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Running order:

• Clunt, Appernack
• Grange Hill theme tune
• Clip from the film Dead Poet's Society
• Bagpuss opening theme and narration
• 'When I Heard The Learn'd Astronomer', Walt Whitman, excerpt from Breaking Bad
• 'The School Boy', William Blake
• 'Friends, Romans, Countryman...' speech by Mark Anthony from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (Marlon Brando)
• 'Dives and Lazarus', Vaughan Williams
• 'I vow to thee, my country'
• Intros from Indie Britpop and a Leicestershire hiphop legend whom only God can judge - 'Going for Gold' by Shed Seven, 'Return of the Mack' by Mark Morrison, 'On and On' by The Longpigs, 'Town' by Northern Uproar
• 'I like me, my wife likes me' - Del Griffith (John Candy), Planes, Trains and Automobiles
• 'Power To Believe (instrumental)', Planes, Trains & Automobiles soundtrack
• Various sounds and field recordings freesound.org

All original music by Neil Fitzgerald. All samples used under Fair Usage.

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Running order of the 'culturescape':

• A Young Blackbird Dies in My Hands, Appernack
• Hamlet soliloquy 'I have of late but wherefore I know not...' from the film Withnail & I (1989, Richard E Grant as Withnail)
• Dido's Lament - 'When I Am Laid in Earth' from Dido & Aeneas, Henry Purcell - Kirsten Flagstad
• Philip Larkin reading his poem Home Is So Sad
• Chopin's Prelude 13, Op.28 played by Alfred Cortot
• 'The Optimism of Melancholia | Slavoj Žižek | Big Think' (excerpt)
• Fading Lights Are Fading, Set Fire To Flames
• Clip from Melancholia - 'Justine and Claire' (2011, Lars von Trier)
• Richard Wagner, Tristan und Isolde prelude
• Various field recordings from freesound.org

For more info about the curator: neil-fitzgerald.com

If you have an idea for a theme, or want your music or field recording used in a future episode: [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Running order of the 'culturescape':

• Prelude from Das Rhinegold by Richard Wagner (Rudolfe Kempe, Bayreuth performance)
• opening of TS Eliot's 'The Dry Salvages' from Four Quartets
• Charley Patton, High Water Everywhere Part 1
• Hermann Broch, The Death of Virgil excerpt
• Robert Petway, Catfish Blues
• Pike, Ted Hughes (read by the poet)
• Má Vlast, 2. Vltava, ou La Moldau, Smetana (Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Vaclav Talich, 1954)
• Various field recordings of rivers large and small from freesound.org

For more info about the curator: neil-fitzgerald.com

If you have an idea for a theme, or want your music or field recording used in a future episode: [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wittgenstein was right! Being silly is necessary for human happiness.

NB. This episode contains contextualised use of the 'n' word in a sound clip from a gangster rapper* (see bold and asterisked below)

1. Photo of Wittgenstein (see below)
2. A Life in Pieces (BBC), Peter Cook, Ludovic Kennedy, Ep. 1 Partridge in a Pear Tree (1990)
3. Take The Money And Run (1969), Woody Allen
4. Annie Hall (1977), Woody Allen
5. Tim Dog, Phone Conversation with Reporter (1991)*
6. Play Better Golf with Peter Aliss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTOGP7V2ezE&ab_channel=kiuvideo (?)

• Get in touch to nit-pick and/or berate my inadequacies: [email protected]

Photo of a serious-looking Wittgenstein:

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Some reflections on the authenticity that runs like a rich seam of truth in Bill Callahan's songs. How does he do it?

• 'When It Shows' - an old attempt at song-writing by yours truly
• 'Say Valley Maker' (live) - from Rough Travel for a Rare Thing (2010) by Bill Callahan
• 'Jim Cain' - from Sometimes I wish We Were An Eagle (2009) by Bill Callahan
• 'Cowboy' - from Gold Record (2020) by Bill Callahan

With huge thanks to Bill Callahan and Drag City Records for permission to use clips from the songs for this audio essay. :)

• Get in touch to nit-pick and/or berate my inadequacies: [email protected]

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A meandering exploration of why Kathleen Ferrier's voice is so unbearably moving.

• 'My Bonnie Lad (trad. Northumbrian folk song)
• Ca' the Yowes' (trad. Scottish folk song)
• 'Ich bin der Welt abhanden gerkommen' - Gustav Mahler
• Symphony No. 4, 3rd movement (Ruhevoll) - Gustav Mahler

• Get in touch to nit-pick and/or berate my inadequacies: [email protected]

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A generally uplifting audio essay on emptiness and its consolations...ideal for day-tripping nihilists, naturally.

Tracklist:

• Hailu Mergia & Dahlak Band — Anchin Kfu Ayinkash
• GF Haas - Concerto Grosso No. 2 for ensemble and orchestra
• TS Eliiot reading an excerpt from 'Burnt Norton' from his Four Quartets
• Vilhelm Hammershoi, 'Interior in Strandgade, Sunlight on the Floor'
• Excerpt from GF Haas - Traum in des Sommers Nacht for orchestra
• Franz Kafka quote
• John Fahey - Yes Jesus Loves Me
• Excerpt from GF Haas - Traum in des Sommers Nacht for orchestra
• Django Reinhardt - Manoir De Mes Rêves
• Virginia Woolf, excerpt from 'Time Passes', To The Lighthouse (1927)
• Philip Larkin reading his poem 'Home is so sad'
• Beethoven performed by the Busch Quartet - String Quartet No. 12 in E-Flat Major, Op. 127: II. Adagio ma non troppo e molto cantabile
• Hamlet soliloquy - I have of late but wherefore I know not... from Withnail & I (1987)
• Macbeth - Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow soliloquy - Orson Welles (1948)
• GF Haas - String Quartet No. 2 (1998)
• Hailu Mergia & Dahlak Band — Anchin Kfu Ayinkash

All the above used under fair usage rights.

• Get in touch to nit-pick and/or berate my inadequacies: [email protected]

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