Howell Creek Radio: Recent Episodes
Joel Dueck
From an unlicensed transmitter deep within the forests of northern Minnesota, Howell Creek Radio transmits weekly addresses combining weather, personal yarns, shipping reports, poetry and literature. Read transcripts and get more info at howellcreekradio.com. No Longer Being Updated
Download MP3 audio – 7:13, 10.27 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for May 3, 2014, a continuation of the previous episode. There are lots of reasons not to like cookie-cutter suburban developments, but: there may be an upside.
Mention is made of A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Egnle and The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis, and also (somewhat obliquely) of The Spy Who Came In From the Cold by John Le Carre.
Closing music is An Old Peasant Like Me from the Prince Avalanche soundtrack.
From Ciphers, a book of suburban photography. Photo by Christoph Gielen.
Download MP3 audio – 5:14, 7.54 MB
Radio address for April 19, 2014. The gap between the ideal and the actual social fabric in my suburban neighborhood.
As I mention at the end, there’s a Part Two to these thoughts that will be coming in the next address.
Mention is made of communal ovens: here’s how it worked out in Dufferin Grove Park in Toronto, and there’s also one in Pittsburgh. A couple of Australian women blogged about the idea, and their commenters found all kinds of potential problems with it.
Download MP3 audio – 7:54, 11.21 MB
Radio address for April 12, 2014. What it means to do low-focus podcasting in a high-focus world, and how to keep it going that way.
I mention my recent haphazard writing on mystic experience and religious conversion. The extended quote in the middle is from Shunryu Suzuki’s book Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind.
The ending music is On My Way by The Melodic. (There’s also the album version, but it doesn’t have nearly enough kick compared to their live performances.)
Download MP3 audio – 12:46, 17.88 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio broadcast for February 22, 2014. A narrative of the first two legs of the trip I took in response to the signal seen on the Baie Comeau in January: a midnight snowshoe hike in the woods, and boiler-stoking our way over Heston Grade in the train.
The closing music is The Ghost of O’Donahue by Johnny Flynn.
Download MP3 audio – 11:23, 13.39 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for January 24, 2014.
Mention is made of the book The Discarded Image and (towards the very end) of “Unix philosophy”. Music is by Trentemøller.
Download MP3 audio – 8:55, 10.56 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for January 11, 2013: Weather and shipping news, visitors to Howell Creek from Vancouver, and the blue light gleaming from the icy deck of the Baie Comeau.
Mention is made of the recent cold snap in Minnesota, beatific vision, and virtue ethics.
View more shipping information and photos at Duluth Shipping News. Closing music is Stubborn Love by The Lumineers.
Download MP3 audio – 4:04, 5.01 MB – or Read Transcript
There is no radio address this week, or the first weekend in 2014, due to the holidays. In lieu of a creative monologue, I’m here to deliver a short meta-report — something I do not more than once per year — and an announcement, or perhaps a quasi-announcement…really just more like a simple, cryptic heads-up.
Creatively speaking, Howell Creek Radio will be going in a bit of a new direction in 2014. I’ve already left several clues, and I’ll leave it to you to figure it out as it happens.
Mention is made of a blog post with technical notes about recent updates to the podcast: stay tuned, it’ll be up within the next day or two.
If you have headphones on, you can clearly hear the atmospheric background music “Leviathan” by Z. D. Smith. It’s currently my favourite audio for thinking, tinkering, and producing: an ethereal yet crunchy digital mystery; the lightless, calming cacophony of the ocean floor and the relentless machinations of an artificial intelligence. You should really get your own copy at http://zdsmith.com — it’s name-your-own-price, and the rest of the tracks are free. I’m not getting anything for this, in fact he doesn’t even know I’m doing this, and I just hope he doesn’t mind.
Download MP3 audio – 8:00, 9.64 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for December 21, 2013, about the affinity I feel for a cat at work that is, for the time being, both alive and dead.
Very prominent mention is made of “Schrödinger’s Cat” — read all the details on Wikipedia, for starters. It seems likely that quantum mechanics is right about small systems existing simultaneously as a superposition of two states correct even though in reality the cat would actually be dead or alive long before you opened the box (hint: the Geiger counter is itself an observer).
There is also the obvious problem that the cat would make an ungodly racket.
An artistic interpretation of the impossibility of Schrödinger’s Cat. By Jie Qi (CC license).
Read more about the many appearances of Schrödinger’s Cat in popular culture
Download MP3 audio – 11:40, 13.83 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for December 14, 2013. We tend to place a bit of our power into things: trees, books, jewels, bullets and hats. Lose one of these talismans, and you are put to a world of trouble to get it back again.
I never really thought I’d write about the experience of losing my wedding ring, but the time seems to have come when I can talk about it reasonably. Not long after it happened, encouraged by stories such as this one, I tried posting on some treasure hunting boards, and a couple of people said they’d look but ultimately I never heard back.
The second loss (not talked about in the audio): As mentioned at the tail end of the episode, there was another time when I actually lost my second ring too: it went missing for a few months. One day my mom shows up at my door with the ring: it had been found under their piano, looking like this:
The jeweler was able to restore it to its original condition, and in the process reduce it by a half size, making it a little less likely that I’ll ever have to live through this again.
This address’s extremely appropriate and well-placed music cues are:
- The Blue World from Lady in the Water by James Newton Howard
- Wow, from Finding Nemo, by Thomas Neumann
- Treasure, from Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by Alberto Inglesias — “…those wanings of power, which are the inevitable result of old age…”
- …blended seamlessly into One Ring to Rule Them All, from Fellowship Of The Ring, by Howard Shore
- and ending with The Grey Havens, also by Howard Shore, from The Return of the King
Download MP3 audio – 13:38, 16.09 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for December 7, 2013: a glimpse into everything, everywhere, all at once.
Mention is made of the living, breathing digital experience The Aleph: Infinite Wonder / Infinite Pity created by David Hirmes, and the short story on which it is based. There is also a reading of 0016. Similarity from my in-progress ebook, Noise of Creation, which I promise is still in-progress.
The musical dimension for this episode is by Z.D. Smith, who I met through his ideas and writings on Thoughtstreams.io. You can listen and download the music at his website, http://zdsmith.com.
Bill Watterson drew this strip about what it’s like to suddenly see both sides of an argument.
Download MP3 audio – 14:51, 17.46 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for November 30, 2013, a short trip through music, the kitchen, and the woods.
Download MP3 audio – 6:12, 7.45 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for October 12, 2013, which finds me getting ready for a long drive, thinking about the radio and those static voices in the darkness, and where they might be found once radio is really dead.
Download MP3 audio – 8:45, 8.37 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for September 22, 2013. There are two kinds of people in the world: those who, at some point in their adult life, have had their world view and their thinking radically changed, and those who haven’t.
Download MP3 audio – 9:42, 9.24 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for September 14, 2013. This episode draws from and adds a bit of dimension to Habemus Papoose, in which I briefly described our daughter’s birth at 65 MPH.
Download MP3 audio – 11:01, 10.45 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for June 15, 2013. Numbers and words are my yin and yang, my law and grace. I’m trying to explore the parallel between numbers and incessant rain, and why is it that we even need them?
Download MP3 audio – 8:59, 8.59 MB
Radio address for June 1, 2013. A venture down to the lowest place in the house, floods and sinking houses.
Download MP3 audio – 6:41, 6.49 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for May 27, 2013. Getting ink everywhere but on the page, and coming back to life after being submerged in activity.
Download MP3 audio – 13:06, 12.36 MB
Radio address for May 4, 2013. What it feels like not to have words for things, or to suddenly acquire them.
Download MP3 audio – 4:22, 4.37 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for April 13, 2013. A report on the weather: of the neighborhood, of the mind.
Download MP3 audio – 7:19, 7.06 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for April 6, 2013. We contemplate the value of stolen and saved moments doing what you love in between work and sleep.
Download MP3 audio – 9:34, 9.25 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for March 23, 2013. Running to work in the morning with a heavy bag on your shoulder, and stopping by the train station.
Download MP3 audio – 8:50, 8.59 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for Saturday, March 16, 2013. We all spread out a little bit more with the passing of time and the coming of extra daylight.
Download MP3 audio – 44:46, 20.99 MB
Well, we really coloured outside our usual lines with this one! Trixie and I sat down by the fire to discuss our podcast and the survey results – the only time we’ve done so in five years of podcasting.
Download MP3 audio – 8:53, 8.63 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for Saturday, Mar 2, 2013. I discuss the possibilities and limitations inherent in becoming, and trying to remain, a landed proprietor. What's it like to suddenly be the grown-up, welcoming guests into your home?
Download MP3 audio – 9:55, 9.58 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for Feb 23, 2013. Winter gets repetitive; it is a prison, a cave, a cocoon.
Download MP3 audio – 5:22, 5.41 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for Jan 5th, 2013. The new year marks the end of Swaledale’s trials, and finds us with more tea than we know what to do with.
Download MP3 audio – 8:44, 8.55 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for Saturday, December 15, 2012. There are few things that can persuade us to go for a run in the cold, but they invariably find us out sooner or later.
Download MP3 audio – 10:40, 12.13 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for December 3rd, 2012. I went for a walk in the woods by the cabin on a moonlit night.
Download MP3 audio – 9:22, 9.72 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for Nov. 24, 2012. Every year at about this time I remember the winters I’m glad I’ve left far behind.
Download MP3 audio – 7:32, 5.72 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for November 11, 2012. I elaborate upon my ideal of a college and the search for a lifestyle of literacy.
Download MP3 audio – 4:18, 3.40 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for Nov. 3, 2012. I contemplate going to college late in life.
Download MP3 audio – 7:17, 10.37 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for October 27, 2012: the weather gets colder, and we celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving.
Download MP3 audio – 9:46, 13.78 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for October 20, 2012, in which I try to describe what inspiration sounds like.
Download MP3 audio – 5:56, 8.63 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for August 19, 2012: a short memory of a long discussion last May, and my search for a new secret bunker.
Download MP3 audio – 7:44, 11.09 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for August 4, 2012, about an outdoor concert at the Lake Harriet bandshell, and the planes flying overhead.
Download MP3 audio – 8:46, 12.52 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for July 22, 2012. The garage having remained a dusty shrine to the long construction project, we conceived of the idea of hosting a garage sale in the hottest weather of the year as a way of cleaning it out.
Download MP3 audio – 10:36, 15.03 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for July 7, 2012, about a reunion in the Northwoods with some men I haven’t seen in a long time.
Download MP3 audio – 10:15, 14.16 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for June 23rd, 2012, inspired by our recent visit to family in Niagara Falls.
Download MP3 audio – 6:59, 10.06 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for June 6, 2012, where Trixie and I long to go on pilgrimages, and in fact do so.
Download MP3 audio – 7:37, 10.93 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for May 12, 2012, about our Original Garden, which doesn’t look like very much compared to the way we imagined it. Tie-ins to Mother’s Day are subtle, if even at all extant.
Download MP3 audio – 5:46, 8.39 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for April 28, 2012, dictated verbatim from the spring wind and rain on the North Shore.
Download MP3 audio – 13:41, 19.26 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for April 21, 2012, in which our quiet, straightforward life keeps me humble by being too much to keep up with, and I hope it will always be that way.
Download MP3 audio – 6:28, 9.36 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for April 14, 2012: A reading from the first two headings of my Red Book, about Existence and Inexistence, the first two stops on a journey of exactly one thousand steps.
Download MP3 audio – 8:33, 12.22 MB – or Read Transcript
Trixie and I make plans to fly or drive all over the continent in every direction, and groundwork for the suburban apiary is contemplated.
Download MP3 audio – 11:10, 15.50 MB – or Read Transcript
City hall springs to life in a flurry of self-cancelling paperwork, and we listen to the north shore of Lake Superior call us while we brew tea on the porch.
Download MP3 audio – 6:50, 9.54 MB – or Read Transcript
After the sudden and early thaw, thoughts turn to yard maintenance which does not necessarily include scouring away every trace of unnatural untidiness.
Download MP3 audio – 10:02, 13.95 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for Feb 21, 2012, which you will have to listen to for yourself.
Download MP3 audio – 8:41, 12.10 MB – or Read Transcript
An afternoon spent in the basement, a morning spent in the Basilica.
Download MP3 audio – 15:01, 20.77 MB – or Read Transcript
Why were the Dark Ages called the Dark Ages? It probably wasn’t because of ignorance, for ignorance persists; much more likely, they were dark because of Sudden Isolation.
Download MP3 audio – 7:15, 10.12 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for June 6: Maybe if you’re denied a pile of money, you’re better able to think outside the box and focus on what matters. But who wants to be denied a pile of money. I ask you.
Download MP3 audio – 14:59, 20.65 MB
Radio address for February 18, 2011: some things not many people seem to know about Niagara Falls.
Download MP3 audio – 12:15, 16.86 MB – or Read Transcript
What if I am among those that winter separates unto Pluto rather than to Jupiter this year? The summons was to the clearing at midnight, and I had always dreaded it.
Download MP3 audio – 4:52, 6.73 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for December 8, 2010, a poem I wrote this last Sunday.
Download MP3 audio – 6:04, 8.43 MB
Radio address for December 1, 2010. It is extremely cold and snowy here now. These are just a few glimpses of surviving and micro-thriving in the middle of winter.
Download MP3 audio – 4:44, 6.67 MB
Radio address for October 14, 2010, released a few days late. Have you ever been pathetically but persistently pursued?
Download MP3 audio – 11:59, 16.62 MB – or Read Transcript
The words ‘orange chocolate’ conjure a mottled, raggled raft of feelings – feelings about things that ought to be simple but ended up being, for a long time, gnarly.
Download MP3 audio – 7:27, 10.40 MB
Written mainly so listeners will have a dim idea of what keeps me away in town these days.
Download MP3 audio – 14:38, 20.26 MB – or Read Transcript
When we write the story, we sit in the seat of God, and our understanding of God betrays itself too well.
Download MP3 audio – 6:00, 8.41 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for March 27, 2010: a weather report of sorts. Nature always skips skips skips the beat.
Download MP3 audio – 6:09, 8.61 MB – or Read Transcript
Radio address for February 17, 2010, guest-starring my Smith-Corona Super Sterling (not, as it might sound, a gun, but a typewriter). The excerpt at the end is from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, Book I, ch. XV.
Download MP3 audio – 8:05, 11.27 MB – or Read Transcript
Some things are hidden from your senses until you say “yes.”
Download MP3 audio – 5:22, 7.38 MB – or Read Transcript
How far apart we are when we start; how good it really is to come on board!
Download MP3 audio – 11:08, 15.92 MB
Hammer-swinging and lumber-fumbling are happily put on hold due to fresh snow. I form a new exclusive association based on a silly battle cry. Notion-planting is examined, and ending notes are struck on a bell, the moon, and a star.
Download MP3 audio – 9:05, 12.94 MB
Radio address for Feb 11, 2009. Some kinds of honey are a little too authentic, even for me.
Download MP3 audio – 7:49, 11.21 MB
An impression of January that is fine, lasting, and hard to convey; some poetry; and a small dose of tired but devoted thought.
Download MP3 audio – 14:11, 19.56 MB
In which ever-rarer and older Christmas songs are sampled like fine cheeses.
Download MP3 audio – 15:59, 22.42 MB
Radio address for Thanksgiving Day, 2008. The bulk of today’s address comes from Charles Laughton – a part of a 1960s recording that MPR broadcasts every year on Thanksgiving.
Download MP3 audio – 7:01, 10.11 MB
Radio address for November 20, 2008, which I saved out of the wastebasket and the cutting floor.
Download MP3 audio – 11:45, 16.59 MB
Radio address for November 12, 2008, involving Thermoclines, the Odd Days, and working in the dirt and the dark.
Download MP3 audio – 9:47, 13.91 MB
Radio address for November 2, 2008. I opened Pandora’s box the week before all these ghastly holidays, and let out a swarm of dark visions.
Download MP3 audio – 8:20, 11.91 MB
Regarding emotions-as-colors, and the coming of snow, and all that that implies. Relish the risk.
Download MP3 audio – 12:08, 16.68 MB
Radio address for October 21, 2008, on the number 23, building a house, and some lines from an old biography.
Download MP3 audio – 9:46, 13.41 MB
Radio address for October 14, 2008, involving primarily Leaves and Squirrels.
Download MP3 audio – 5:29, 7.55 MB
Radio address for October 8, 2008, involving overheard radio snippets, a spot of philosophy, and Snoo’s newfound athleticism.
Download MP3 audio – 5:28, 7.52 MB
Involving an evening walk, the two kinds of Qualms, family aliases and the value of fashion even in total darkness.
Download MP3 audio – 6:01, 8.28 MB – or Read Transcript
Back from summer break! Bear with me as I reminisce, complain just a little, and talk breifly about Saxon racism.
Download MP3 audio – 16:22, 22.50 MB
Bringing you up to speed on beards, racoons, the house project, and my first insurance physical.
Download MP3 audio – 4:29, 6.18 MB
I contemplated a summer hiatus. Thoughts on Christ’s perspective. My little sister has easy solutions for hard problems.
Download MP3 audio – 4:36, 6.34 MB
I saw a billboard on the way into work. Realtors don’t seem real in pictures, and insurance agents are downright scary.
Download MP3 audio – 4:29, 6.18 MB
I read a book over dinner that was absolutely better than nothing at all.
Download MP3 audio – 2:22, 3.26 MB
Today at the coffee shop, I had a short thought about coffee shops.
Download MP3 audio – 4:51, 6.66 MB
Our house’s plumbing is interesting, inscrutable, and a little dangerous.
Download MP3 audio – 3:37, 4.98 MB
Two predictions of summer trends that somehow feel plausible.
Download MP3 audio – 3:25, 4.71 MB
It warmed up by 40 degrees and started raining. Cities can be so inhuman.
Download MP3 audio – 4:34, 6.29 MB
I somehow have energy to stay on top of stuff. Advice to people who work at places that defy reason.
Download MP3 audio – 5:12, 7.15 MB
I finally have my hair cut by paid amateurs. Karen is my most recent Liberian acquaintance. Why does everyone have to live so far away?
Download MP3 audio – 6:08, 8.44 MB
We went skiing in Duluth. Listening to the radio at night in the car.
Download MP3 audio – 6:14, 8.58 MB
It is ok to write L-O-L if it is done judiciously. Cold air from Canada claims our souls.
Download MP3 audio – 4:52, 6.71 MB
How the weather affects movie rental patterns. Van break-down. Grace plays a jingle. What does it mean to be a man?
Download MP3 audio – 3:37, 4.98 MB
January is like three o’clock in the morning. We played some hockey today.
Download MP3 audio – 2:18, 3.17 MB
First Address. Cold and clear. Heard about my house.