Letters From Quotidia: Recent Episodes
Quentin Bega
For lovers of music, poetry, and the Crack-that most Irish of nouns which may encompass, news, gossip, fun, entertainment, anecdotes and enjoyable conversation. Quotidia is that space, that place, where ordinary people lead ordinary lives. But where, from time to time, they encounter the extraordinary.
The chord sequence for Blue Moon is one I learned when first I picked up a guitar in my mid-teens. It is known as the doo- wop progression and Blue Moon is the first popular song to utilise it according to some sources. More
There is a present scientific conceit gaining ground that we are living in a vast simulation. Our seemingly authentic lives governed by our own free will- just a façade as flimsy as the setting of the song. Seems to me that such an alien technology just might as well be called God and be done with it! More
The next song is, arguably, the most overplayed, over sung, over loved and over hated of any Irish ballad. Its antecedents are not entirely Irish- I have even read somewhere that it has Korean origins- but let’s not go down that particular rabbit hole. I speak, of course, of Danny Boy.More
In my youth, beguiled by whimsical notions of the dark Romantic imagination, I would have chosen the eldritch Selkie tale; now, unquestionably, I would choose the quotidian world of Margaret and the Dutchman she loves. More
Some say, Such Is Life, were the final words of Ned Kelly as he stood on the scaffold of Melbourne Gaol. In fact, his final words were Ah Well, I suppose…which his detractors use to claim that he was just mumbling incoherently at the end. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth, Ah Well, in the mouths of Irish people has the same plangency as Virgil’s sunt lacrimae rerum- there are tears at the heart of things.More
Don’t look back in humiliation or disappointment or with a sense of failure. Don’t look back at all is probably too extreme a prescription- but don’t look back if all it’s going to do is leave welts on your soul. More
Most of us living in Western countries owe our rather comfortable lives to those who, for the past hundred years- and more- served in the armed forces, some making the ultimate sacrifice, others with life-altering mental and or physical injuriesMore
As a teenager I would visit my girlfriend (later wife) where she lived in the docks area of Belfast. Her father, a noted traditional fiddler in Northern Ireland, worked for many years at Harland and Wolff, the firm who built the Titanic. He made her a doll’s house from scrap material there, and, of course, I worked this and myself into the bridge of the song. As I say, hubris not entirely expunged. More
The Rocky Road to Dublin features a young man who leaves home to make his mark on the world, Let’s now follow him as he makes his way from Galway to Dublin and then to Liverpool.More
Sydney Carter saw Christ as the incarnation of the piper who is calling us. He dances that shape and pattern which is at the heart of our reality... Coming and going by the dance, I see/That what I am not a part of me./ Dancing is all that I can ever trust,/ The dance is all I am, the rest is dust./I will believe my bones and live by what/ Will go on dancing when my bones are not.// More
The woman I love says to give it up now/Or else I’ll go to an early grave,/But I say no and keep resisting/For taking drink’s what prolongs your days./ Seamus HeaneyMore
Welcome to Letters from Radio Quotidia the NYE2023 program where, on New Year’s Eve, we look back at the things that, at times, we wish weren’t and forwards to what we wish might be. More
Cobb was preoccupied with the thought that the Dr Strangeloves of the world would miscalculate badly and reduce us all to glowing nuclear ash. His cartoon has two men cowering under a broken concrete shelter surrounded by rubble and skulls. One man says to the other, There’s a rumour goin’ round that we won. More
The overlay of mortal sadness, of one facing execution, has seeped into the melody of The Parting Glass. 24-year-old Chidiok Tichbourne's poem to his wife comes to mind- "My prime of youth is but a frost of cares."More
Most men and women who have been to outer space attest to the perspective distance gives and how fragile yet magnificent our blue earth appears from afar. Standing on the Moon, then, gives a wide perspective on life. More
In writing this song I was recollecting, in wine-assisted tranquillity, how I felt as a teenager caught a maelstrom over the developing relationship with my girlfriend- who is now my wife- ineffable proof that even miserable sods like me can strike it lucky. More
there swimmeth One/Who swam ere rivers were begun,/ Immense, of fishy form and mind,/Squamous, omnipotent, and kind;/And under that Almighty Fin/,The littlest fish may enter in. Rupert Brooke, FishMore
The little man hissed as they left his quota now will be one less The gentle soul he missed today will count against him I would say Among the council of the damned others like that evil man (lyrics from Fete by Quentin Bega)More
August 6. It should never be forgotten. Though, who will tell those psychotic clowns who are threating the use of these obscene devices in Ukraine, Korea and elsewhere? More
Out where the world is in the making,/Where fewer hearts in despair are aching,/That’s where the West begins;/Where there’s more of singing and less of sighing,/Where there’s more of giving and less of buying,/And a man makes friends without half trying,/That’s where the West beginsMore
So Nature deals with us, and takes away/ Our playthings one by one, and by the hand/Leads us to rest so gently, that we go/Scarce knowing if we wish to go or stay,/Being too full of sleep to understand/How far the unknown transcends the what we know William Wadsworth LongfellowMore
, I’m truly sorry Man’s dominion/Has broken Nature’s social union,/An’ justifies that ill opinion,/Which makes thee startle,/At me, thy poor, earth-born/ companion,/An’ fellow-mortal!More
it’s a pity Sandburg never had a son to pass it to. I wish I had passed it on to my first-born son, but-alas-I wasn’t to know that he wouldn’t live to see his sixteenth birthday. More
Keane excavated music in a way few people did...He understood that there were particular tonalities associated with traditional music that set it apart and set him apart… Keane understood the emotional, spiritual, and lonely quality in Irish traditional music. More
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:/Its loveliness increases; it will never/Pass into nothingness; but still will keep/A bower quiet for us, and a sleep/Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing. / from Endymion John KeatsMore
But should an AI superintelligence develop godlike powers would any human be gathered into the hospitable barn? More
The boy was killed in Flanders where the bravest heroes diedThere were tears at the Grahame homestead and grief in GundagaiMore Letters from Quotidia 'cast 8 2D Baby, Bold O'Donohue/Reilly's Daughter, Stolen Folk Song Sonnet, Scots of the Riverina
The anvil must be somewhere in the centre,/Horned as a unicorn, at one end and square, Set there immovable; an altar/Where he expends himself in shape and musicMore
The daisy symbolises innocence, loyal love, and purity. The oldest daisy on record is the Bellis perennis, known as Day's eye in the Middle Ages because its petals close at night to cover the yellow centre. More Letters from Quotidia 2023 Podcast 6 The Antique Battle of the Sexes, Old Fool, Maids When You're Young
Peace flows into me/As the tide to the pool by the shore;/It is mine forevermore,/It ebbs not back like the sea.//I am the pool of blue/That worships the vivid sky;/My hopes were heaven-high,/They are all fulfilled in you.//I am the pool of gold/When sunset burns and dies, —/You are my deepening skies,/Give me your stars to hold. More
If you are howling, yowling, yelping, lamenting, groaning moaning, whimpering, weeping, shrieking, sobbing, snivelling, or otherwise indulging in some form of blubbering- then, you are caught in the coils of that universal condition known as crying. More
The old pond/A frog jumps in/The sound of water.//Yes, spring has come/This morning a nameless hill/Is shrouded in mist.//It is deep autumn/My neighbour/How does he live, I wonder.// The temple bell dies away/The scent of flowers in the evening/Is still tolling the bell.More Letters from Quotidia Podcast 3 2023
I’ve been driving for well over 50 years and in my time, I’ve driven over roads that would qualify for the title, highway to hell and I’m sure many of you could say the same.More
In Chinese culture, the rabbit is thought to be the luckiest of the twelve animals of the zodiac. It signifies forgiveness, grace and beauty. More
Route 66 was written by US Marine Bobby Troup in 1946 who didn’t see colour, only soul, according to one of the marines serving under him, it remains one of the finest songs about freedom and the open road. More
The castaways continue their songs, poems, prayers, and conversations for some hours but everyone seems to know that the end is in sight and so it is, as if by telepathic agreement that they all sing The Parting Glass. More
There is learned speculation about the multiverse where every conceivable story and outcome is endlessly played out. Where, in one iteration of existence, you rule the Big Rock Candy Mountain; in another, you are a tortured soul endlessly enacting a scene from the right-hand panel of The Garden of Earthly Delights, More
When the Deputy, who led the firing squad, called out the sequence of commands preparatory to firing ("Ready, aim,") Hill shouted, Fire — go on and fire! More
Rigged with double fore and main topsails, and three skysails, admitted by all to be one of the fastest sailing ships! But fast isn’t everything, when I captained her, she was known for always delivering her cargoes in perfect condition and order! More Letters From Quotidia the footnotes Episode 7
Eric Bogle and John Schumann are widely known as having written iconic songs about Aussies at War. I think Kevin Baker deserves to be more widely appreciated for his Snowy River Men.More
I, myself, have had varying positions on the subject but with Mark Twain now say, Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it. More
Let us start in the maelstrom of hormones turbocharging the adolescent brain that finds expression in all sorts of media from the ubiquitously crude anatomical scrawls on the doors and walls of public toilets to the sublime lines of William Shakespeare’s deathless drama: Romeo and Juliet. More
Unlike the hero of the Orpheus myth, Hardy does not turn around and thus preserves the possibility of his wife’s presence as an apparition. Setting down these thoughts made me suddenly choke up More Letters From Quotidia the footnotes Episode 3
"What will happen when the winter frost comes… will the Russians…continue the destruction of power plants. … I remember words from the letter of Father Timothy Radcliffe: ”The violence which is being wrought against your beautiful country is the poisoned fruit of lies. We Dominicans, with our motto Veritas, and our love of truth, have a special witness to give today in a world which often does not care for truth.” More Letters From Quotidia the footnotes Episode 2
Damocles was offered the chance to change places with Dionysius for a day- which he accepted with alacrity, only to discover a sword held at the pommel only by a single hair of a horse's tail hanging above his head as he sat on the throne. More
Letters From Quotidia has been a potpourri of poetry, song, and discursive musings of 220 posts over the past 22 months totalling 60 hours-did you find something to enjoy?More PSFQ 20 Since You Walked Out of My Life, Paddy Went Home Today, Straight and True, OLd Dog, Slow Burn
And greedy Fortune/with her shrill whirring, carries away/the crown and delights in setting it, there. More Letters From Quotidia Postscripts Episode 19 Anything Can Happen, She Moved Through the Fair, Dust and Dreams
I am mad with the rapture of dancing/Mad with a breathless delight./With thine arm to enfold me,/Thy strong hand to hold me,/I could dance through an endless nightMore Letters From Quotidia Postscripts Episode 18 The Ballroom of Romance, Mairi's Wedding, What Changed, My Sister?
The subjunctive mood isn’t used much now, imperatives being all the rage. But I respond to its wistfulness, its wishing, its why-are-things-not-other-than-they-are. More Letters From Quotidia Postscripts Episode 17 Diving for Pennies, Carrickfergus, From Your Spell
Welcome to Letters from Quotidia Postscripts Episode 16– a podcast by Quentin Bega for listeners who enjoyed that Irish phenomenon- the crack! in the Letters, Postcards and Postscripts from Quotidia published since the beginning of 2021. Quotidia remains that space, that place, where ordinary people lead ordinary lives. But where, from time to time, they…More Letters From Quotidia Postscripts Episode 16 Devils and Dust, Rose, Why Bother?
To see a World in a Grain of Sand/And a Heaven in a Wildflower,/Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand/And Eternity in an hour. More Letters From Quotidia Postscripts Episode 15 Who Would, Everything Goes/Restless Paces, He'll Have to Go
And so, we arrive at the heart of darkness. We are upriver, could be the Congo; could be the Mekong; could be any river on this planet, because there is always someone hunched in the gloom, face spectrally lit by a fire or a flatscreen plotting nothing at all good for us .More Letters From Quotidia Postscripts Episode 14 Big Yellow Taxi, Home, Spray
...all that remains of her is the name on her gravestone and Hardy’s memories of her. Hardy’s use of the refrain ‘the years O!’ (or ‘the years, the years’ as the even-numbered stanzas have it) calls to mind not only the passing of time but also the years marked on those gravestones, alongside the names.More Letters From Quotidia Postscripts Episode 13 Hey Joe, The Mark of Cain, During Wind and Rain
In one story a man offers his last mug of mulled cider to the trees in his orchard. He is rewarded by the Apple Tree Man who reveals to him the location of buried gold, more than enough to pay his rent for the coming year. More Letters From Quotidia Postscripts Episode 12 Drink Up the Cider, Step It Out Mary, 12th Night song
I hope that The Stream can help to affirm that the survival of our species, down the ages, has depended on a commonality among men and women that simply says- we need, want, and love one another! More Letters From Quotidia PS Ep 11 The Raggle Taggle Gypsy/Battle of Aughrim, The Night-Visiting Song, The Stream
In the furor poeticus, I got the key phrase of the song…ah, how can I put it - arse about face is the technical term that applies here. I stared at the book title- Flower swallows- - and then at the first two words of the chorus- swallow flowers. More Letters From Quotidia Postscripts Episode 10 Swallow Flowers, Hello in There, The Unknown Soldier
If there exists a God who protects nuclear-free eternal peace the blue earth won’t perish. Tsutomu Yamaguchi Amen, to that.More Letters From Quotidia Postscripts Episode 9 Airman, Hiroshima, Progress, 237 Dollars, Morning Dew
Ewan McColl wrote the song The Shoals of Herring about the hardy folk who fished the North Sea in the first part of the 20th Century. More PS Ep. 8 Standing on the Moon, The Shoals of Herring, I'm a Man You don't Meet Every Day, Joe Hill, The Parting Glass
On the seashore of endless worlds children meet. The infinite sky is motionless overhead and the restless water is boisterous. On the seashore of endless worlds the children meet with shouts and dancesMore Letters From Quotidia Postscripts Episode 7 Sea Song, The Ship Song, Sidekick
Monica loved the ocean, the reefs and the fish and being able to float amidst a paradise of colour and life. She showed us a video of swimming with sharks off the Great Barrier Reef.More Letters From Quotidia Postscripts Episode 6 Summertime, Still on the Move, It's Been Taken Away, Au Revoir, Monica
Born Under a Bad Sign. It was released, and I first heard it in that annus mirabilis for me, 1967. Another King, BB was a guitarist that I especially revered and he had a song with the lines, Nobody loves me but my mother, but she could be jivin’ too.More Letters From Quotidia Postscripts Episode 5: 51st Wedding Anniversary Song, Homebase, Born Under a Bad Sign
Dixie was a song about which Abraham Lincoln said, one of the best tunes I ever heard.More Letters From Quotidia Postscripts Edition 4 A Brief Encounter, Dixie, Two Love (2 versions)
I was told the story of a local fishing boat that had been lost at sea and how that tragedy had reverberated around the community, with so many families affected. That incident was the starting point for writing the song. Phil CoulterMore Letters From Quotidia Postscripts Episode 3 The Lifeboat Mona, Wynken, Blynken, and Nod, Donegal Danny
One of my favourite songs is The Diamantina Drover. This song looks at the Australian outback experience. The drover is an iconic Aussie character and here, the persona reflects upon the landscape, his regrets, and longings, in a uniquely Antipodean way. More Postscripts From Quotidia Episode 2 The Diamantina Drover, Fiddler Jones, Sprawling Blue Bell
After several days enjoyable but wearisome toil, I came up with a song that claims as its inspiration the poem by Edgar Lee Masters I recited earlier- The Hill. More Postscripts From Quotidia Episode 1 Let Them Not Fade Away, Days Like This, The Hill
Bad Penny A person or thing which is unpleasant, disreputable, or otherwise unwanted, especially one which repeatedly appears at inopportune times.More Trailer for Postscripts From Quotidia
Subject to the relentless force of geopolitics that is distorting the gossamer filaments of my flimsy fabrications, I need now, like the uroboros, to swallow my own tailMore Letters From Quotidia Episode 200 It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleedin'), Everybody's Story
Which May Day will prevail in the times which lie ahead of us all, the resurgence of life and hope marked by the poetry just heard? Or will that universal signal of distress, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, echo around the only world we possess? More Letters From Quotidia Episode 199 As I Roved Out, Oblivion Mountain
It’s amazing how many songs have numbers in their title: Eight Days a Week by the Beatles, One by U2, 9 to 5 by Dolly Parton- just to name three! More Letters From Quotidia Episode 198 Counting Game, 25 Minutes To Go
Now for the song My Youngest Son Came Home Today, as so many will from these latest killing fields in Ukraine.More Letters From Quotidia Episode 197 Meanwhile, My Youngest Song Came Home Today
The references to barley in the song derive from the fact that the rebels often carried barley or oats in their pockets as provisions for when on the march. This gave rise to the post-rebellion phenomenon of barley growing and marking the "croppy-holes," mass unmarked graves into which slain rebels were thrownMore Letters From Quotidia Episode 196 The Wind That Shakes the Barley
Space Oddity was first released on 11 July 1969, nine days before Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the lunar surface. And it only took 44 years for Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield to give us all a treat by filming himself singing Space Oddity while floating on the International Space Station in 2013More Letters From Quotidia Episode 195 Space Oddity, Morning Dew
Others, unfortunately, have decided that war, division, exclusion, and hate-filled rhetoric is more the goMore Letters From Quotidia Episode 194 A Pair of Brown Eyes, Forever Young
Tommy Makem does a great version of Come By the Hills on YouTube where he recites W B Yeats’ The Lake Isle of Innisfree before the repeat of the first verse. More Letters From Quotidia Episode 193 Come By the Hills, Revenge For Skibbereen
The Road goes ever on and on/Out from the door where it began./Now far ahead the Road has gone./Let others follow, if they can!/More Letters From Quotidia Episode 192 Too Old To Die Young, So Many Roads
American politicians from the fundamentalist part of the spectrum are cheering on Putin in the hopes of precipitating the end of the world and the ensuing Rapture where they will be transported to glory along with a few fortunate fellow believers. More Letters From Quotidia Episode 191 The Late Great Planet Earth, The Unquiet Grave
If you want to end the war then Instead of sending guns, send books. Instead of sending tanks, send pens. Instead of sending soldiers, send teachers.More Letters From Quotidia Episode 190 Peace is the Path, From Clare to Here
McTell wrote a new verse as a response to COVID-19 and its effect on homeless people. As he told Fergal Keane: "This is of biblical proportions, this catastrophe, and each day that goes by there is the realisation that this is no dress rehearsal, this is actually going on right now and there is nothing we can do about it, except try and follow the basic rules." More Letters From Quotidia Episode 189 The Streets of London (expanded version) Only You
The lyrics reference the disdain by his neighbours (those "sneers and jeers that you loudly let us hear"), to the execution of the leaders of the 1916 Easter RisingMore Letters From Quotidia Episode 188 Come Out Ye Black and Tans, Maximise My Clicks
The image of an Australian bushman with his swag on his shoulder and billy can in his hand is an enduring oneMore Letters From Quotidia Episode 187 With My Swag All On My Shoulder, Lady Godiva and the Emperor
In Piazza Piece, Ransom shows us a personification of death in the shape of an old man in a dustcoat. He is trying to gain the attention of a young woman. More Letters From Quotidia Episode 186 The Wild Colonial Boy, Piazza Piece
Hurling was said to be nearly extinct before being revived in 1870 and the pride of a young man glorying in his mastery of that ancient sport is neatly counterbalanced by his gentleness when playing with a child. His heart breaks as he recalls dancing with the fair maidens whose presence the evening will hallow. More Letters From Quotidia Episode 185 The Gaol at Clun Malla, The Definition of Insanity
The dawn’s early light has now banished the stars and the stripes of the magical Manhattan lights and the forecast is for a wonderful Fall day on this the 11th day of September 2001, when this great metropolis will roar back to life and the new century, the new millennium will sail on into the promise of a glorious tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.More Letters From Quotidia Episode 184 And Leave Him There Part 10
Human life needs light and love and natural things and if this means a quotidian existence where one has to forgo the depths of Faustian knowledge and the heights of Elysian experience, then, so be it.More Letters From Quotidia Episode 183 And Leave Him There Part 9
The scientists are wrong. Just as we found out, some time ago, that the priests are wrong. The experts are wrong: the town planners, the educationalists, the pundits, the technologists- all wrong.More Letters From Quotidia Episode 182 And Leave Him There Part 8
Evacuating people from North Queen Street and running them in a shonky motor over unapproved roads and across the border to an Irish army camp in Donegal, I feared the B Specials, bogeymen to our generation as the Black and Tans had been to my parents.More Letters From Quotidia Episode 181 And Leave Him There Part 7
Coming back from a successful morning’s hunt for aquatic game, I guess he pulled another prize from the water. Although, judging from what he said to me and repeated to my parents on the phone that night, I was valued at much less than the fish in the capacious icebox of his boat. IMore Letters From Quotidia Episode 180 And Leave Him There Part 6