Last chance to hear Classic Ross Amico live until Thursday morning (on WPRB). Of course, you can always enjoy the rerun of Sunday night’s “The Lost Chord” (“Port of Riches”) on WWFM tomorrow evening at 6. For today: WRTI, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. ET. Stock up at 90.1 FM or wrti.org.
Tag: WWFM
-
Goat of Mendes Devil Rides Out Christopher Lee Tribute
“The Goat of Mendes… THE DEVIL HIMSELF!”
James Bernard’s music for “The Devil Rides Out” will be one of four scores that we’ll be sampling as part of a Christopher Lee tribute on “Picture Perfect,” this evening at 6 ET, with a repeat tomorrow morning at 6. You can listen to it then, or save it for later, after it’s posted as a webcast, at http://www.wwfm.org.
-
Odysseus Epic Adventure for Mother’s Day?
Nothing says Mother’s Day like angry gods, shipwreck, cannibalism, gratuitous nudity, riotous drunkenness, a blinded Cyclops, and the wholesale slaughter of one’s rivals.
Okay, so maybe I wasn’t thinking when I did the programming for the latest installment of “The Lost Chord.” But dads should love this hour of high adventure and satisfied bloodlust, as we listen to musical evocations of Odysseus’ homeward journey.
Odysseus, of course, is one of the heroes of the Trojan War, waylaid time and again upon his return by Poseidon and the frailties of his own men. It takes him ten years to find his way back to Ithaca. When he gets there, he finds his wife beset by boorish suitors all vying for her hand and his throne.
What happens next pushes all the same buttons that are still pushed whenever Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger apply the camouflage and begin strapping on their bandoliers and sheathing their big knives. In the process, there’s also some meaningful father-son bonding.
So maybe it would have been a more appropriate choice for Father’s Day. Hopefully there are some mothers out there who were also classics majors. I hope you’ll me for “Home Sweet Homer,” tonight at 10 ET, with a repeat Wednesday evening at 6. You can listen to it on Father’s Day as a webcast, if you want, at http://www.wwfm.org.
-
WWFM Anniversary & a Facebook Favor
Thank you so much for all of your well-wishes yesterday, in terms of my Facebook anniversary. I really appreciate all of your support. I enjoy being able to put together a little something every day, knowing that you’re out there, reading.
Sadly, today marks another anniversary: that of my last regular air shift at WWFM. As you may know, I anchored weekend mornings there for 18 ½ years. That was augmented with substitutions and, for a time, an expanded schedule. At its peak, I was pulling five shifts a week, Wednesday through Sunday, also writing and producing the Friday noon broadcast concerts.
Then the budget cuts came, and out of necessity the station went with a syndicated service out of Minnesota. Thankfully, finances have improved somewhat and live announcers again pepper the schedule, though I personally have only been back for perhaps two or three pledge drives. I do, however, continue to record my weekly syndicated shows, “Picture Perfect” and “The Lost Chord,” for which I am grateful, and produce special programs like the Scheide tribute, when asked. (If you missed it, you can listen to it here: http://wwfm.org/webcasts.shtml.)
I still do miss putting together the live shows. There’s really nothing quite like sharing music with an audience in real time. Also, a three- or four-hour shift allows plenty of opportunity to work on fun and/or illuminating themes and to share new discoveries. It leaves a bit of a hole in my life not to be able to do that. Hence, little diversions like the Facebook page, which I initiated last year on the eve of my last regular shift.
Which brings me to the point: I had thought about pushing for this as 2014 was winding down, but I’m a fairly laid-back guy, and I’m not all that comfortable with self-promoting. However, I’m guessing there must be at least 20 of you reading this page who have not yet “liked” it. Actually, I know that to be the case, because I see the numbers, and some days I’m getting well over 80 hits.
So I’m coming to you with hat in hand. Are there enough of you out there who would like to help me to get to 100? Sustain me through this melancholy anniversary, won’t you? Brother, can you spare a “like?”
The last piece I ever played on a regular weekend morning air shift: John Foulds’ “Keltic Lament”:
-
Irish Music on The Lost Chord
Don’t let the Italian surname fool you; my mother’s people came from Ireland. My own sensibilities tend more toward the Northern climes than to the Mediterranean.
This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we anticipate St. Patrick’s Day, with music from, and in celebration of, the Emerald Isle. We’ll hear works by Irish composers John Larchet, Philip Hammond, Howard Ferguson and A.J. Potter, and works on Celtic themes by Percy Grainger, Sir Arnold Bax and John Foulds.
I hope you’ll join me for “The Sharing of the Green,” tonight at 10 ET, with a repeat Wednesday evening at 6; or that you’ll enjoy it later as a webcast, at http://www.wwfm.org.
Tag Cloud
Aaron Copland (92) Beethoven (95) Composer (114) Film Music (123) Film Score (143) Film Scores (255) Halloween (94) John Williams (187) KWAX (229) Leonard Bernstein (101) Marlboro Music Festival (125) Movie Music (138) Opera (202) Philadelphia Orchestra (89) Picture Perfect (174) Princeton Symphony Orchestra (106) Radio (87) Ralph Vaughan Williams (85) Ross Amico (244) Roy's Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner (290) The Classical Network (101) The Lost Chord (268) Vaughan Williams (103) WPRB (396) WWFM (881)