Day Trips for Nihilists

On an Increasingly Faint Memory of your School Days

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.

On Melancholy

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

On the River as God or Gods

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

On Nonsense and Silliness, or why Wittgenstein was right

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: daytripsfornihilists@gmail.com

Photo of a serious-looking Wittgenstein:

On Bill Callahan and Authenticity

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: daytripsfornihilists@gmail.com

On Kathleen Ferrier's Vocal Timbre

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: daytripsfornihilists@gmail.com

On Emptiness

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

Tracklist: