PZ's Podcast

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PZ's Podcast episodes

April 17, 2011 Episode 43 - "The Green Pastures"
"The Green Pastures" is a 1930 American play, and 1936 Hollywood movie, that was once as famous as "Our Town". Now, for reasons of political correctness, it is rarely seen and seldom taught. Even the DVD has to carry a 'Warning' label. (Good Grief!)
How dearly we have robbed ourselves of a pearl of truly great price.
Marc Connelly's "The Green Pastures" deals theatrically with the transition in the Bible from Law to Grace. (It is not Marcionite!)
Has God's Mercy, in relation to God's Law, ever been staged like this?
I can't think of an example.
You've got to see "The Green Pastures". The character 'Hezdrel', alone, will... blow... your... mind.
35 min
April 08, 2011 Episode 42 - Bishop Bell - The Play
Bishop Bell appears as a main character in Rolf Hochhuth's 1967 play entitled "Soldiers". Bell confronts Churchill on the morality of murder from the air, especially when it involves the murder of civilians. Such a confrontation never actually took place, but the Bishop and the Prime Minister had the thoughts and stated them. The PM detested Bell.
In Act Three of Hochhuth's play, Bell loses and Churchill wins. In the moral balance, Churchill lost and Bell won. "Soldiers" is a play about the massacre of this world that is repeatedly staged by Power. As in the case of un-manned drone aircraft today. Nobody seems to care. Nobody 'gives'. Yet one day...
36 min
March 27, 2011 Episode 41 - Bishop Bell - The Speech
George K.A. Bell (1883-1958) was the Bishop of Chichester during World War II. He addressed the House of Lords on February 9, 1944, questioning the Government on the use of "carpet bombing" of German cities. Bishop Bell regarded this kind of bombing, which was intended to destroy German morale and bring the war to an end, as a war crime.
At the time, Bell was the only person in Britain willing to say such a thing in a 'national' forum such as the Parliament. He was attacked all across the board as being 'pro-German' and almost a traitor. (He had, incidentally, been the first public figure in the country to criticize Hitler's anti-semitic legislation. He had done so in 1934.)
Because of his speech in the Lords, Bishop Bell lost all chance of promotion in the Church of England.
Today, however, he is almost canonized there, and certainly within the Church.
This podcast is about Bell's speech. It also relates his theme to the current use of un-manned drone aircraft to commit targed assassination from the air -- or rather, from Las Vegas.
34 min
March 19, 2011 Episode 40 - "No Popery"
Religious partisanship is normal, explicable, and terminal.
It kills Christianity. It sure killed me.
Or maybe it wised me up.
This podcast concerns Charles Dickens' novel "Barnaby Rudge", which was published in 1841. Dickens' subject was the "No Popery" riots that took place in 1780 in London. They are also known as the "Gordon Riots".
Dickens used this astonishing episode to observe the causes of theological hatred, and its consequences.
Dickens was a conscious Protestant and heartfelt Christian,
but he was upset by religious malice.
"Barnaby Rudge" gets to the bottom of it, in 661 pages.
This podcast gives you the Reader's Digest version in 36 minutes.
36 min
March 13, 2011 Episode 39 - The Phoenix Club
Life in a Final Club!
"The Social Network" has made it high profile all of a sudden.
What it was, was fun, delightful, blessedly un-serious in a way serious world,
with a taste of Evelyn Waugh.
We loved it.
Why was the story never told?
That's a story.
Podcast 39 is published in loving memory of
Page Farnsworth Grubb, '71.
49 min
February 27, 2011 Episode 37- The Yardbirds
This is an impression of The Yardbirds,
the first avant-garde band we ever knew.
With Eric Clapton to start, then Jeff Beck,
then Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, then
Jimmy Page only, their music, especially the guitar breaks,
lived on the edge of INSANITY.
To this day, I still have Yardbirds days. They are wonderful.
There was also a personal Close Encounter, with Friends.
In this podcast I tell a story and try to give an impression,
followed by a few, well, theological comments.
Podcast 37 is dedicated to William Cox Bowman.
34 min
February 13, 2011 Episode 33 - "Mr." Priest
This podcast is about professional titles:
the more reduced in circumstances an institution,
the more high-flown its titles.
Did you know that until about 1970 Episcopal clergy were always called
'Mr." ? (They were never called 'Father', except in one parish, max two,
per city.) The later Cardinal Newman was 'Mr. Newman', and Edward Bouverie Pusey was 'Mr. Pusey'.
But don't take my word for it. Read W. M. Thackerey, read E.M. Forster. See 'Showboat', the 1936 version.
An interesting principle seems to be at work: when things are going great, the leader is just a regular person, like everybody else. He's 'Mr. Irwine', as in Eliot's "Adam Bede".
But when things begin to go south, and the world gets against you, the leader becomes: The Most Metropolitical and Right Honorable Dr. of Sacred Letters Obadiah Slope.
Anyway, I'd sure rather be Mr. Midshipman Easy!
Listen to this, and you may want to work for the car wash down the street.
Oh, and no one will believe you anyway.
Maybe if you tell 'em, Father Paul told you.
32 min
February 08, 2011 Episode 32 - Protestant Interiors II
Here's a little gazetteer of Episcopal Protestant interiors.
They're nice.
Delaware's is in the middle of nowhere, and Boston's finest is Unitarian.
George Washington sat beneath a central pulpit in Alexandria and "Low Country" farmers did the same. And don't forget the Motor City: I mean,
Duanesburg, New York. But always remember this -- even if you are actually able to visit these places, no one will ever believe you when you get back home.
They simply CAN'T exist!
34 min
February 06, 2011 Episode 31 - Protestant Interiors
This one is about Protestant aesthetics
as expressed in architecture and design.
It is 'a tale told by an idiot', however, for no one ever believes you.
Only Henny Penny says the Episcopal Church
was once Protestant and 'Low' -- right up to the Disco Era.
Memory being what it is, this is the tale of a forgotten 200 years.
The Song Remains the Same in about 200 precious survivals in
England, as well as 50 or so on the East Coast of the U.S.A.
There, the glass is clear; the design, simple; and the message, unmediated.
There, less is more.
37 min
February 02, 2011 Episode 30 - Shock Theater
Late Saturday nights was a time for little boys to howl.
"Shock Theater" came on around one!
We learned every line of the 'original' "Dracula" (1931), memorized every release date of every Mummy movie from 1932 to 1945, and, most important, got married for life to: "The Bride of Frankenstein".
This is the story of those late Saturday nights, which gave our mothers such trouble, since it was they who would have to ... wake us up for church.
31 min

About PZ's Podcast

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From "Telstar" to "Vault of Horror," from Rattigan to Kerouac, from the Village of Bray to the Village of Midwich, help PZ link old ancient news and pop culture. I think I can see him, "Crawling from…