the memory palace

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Episode 76 (Mary Walker Would Wear What She Wanted) Oct 19, 2015

Show notes

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Music*Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score.*The piece opens with Rainfall, by David Darling and Michael Jones. *Her brief love story is scored by Nathan Johnson's Penelope's Theme from his score to The Brothers Bloom.*When she lands her first gig, we start Garde a Vue, and roll into Le Roi de coeur, from Chantal Martineau.* The vibraphone piece is "Opening" by Nathaniel Bartlett. * The recurring violin piece is called Geometria del Universo by the one-named Colleen. * It ends on Romain's First Love, again by Georges Delarue, from his fantastic score to Promise at Dawn.

Notes* I read a lot about Mary, but by far the most useful and most thorough works I came upon were: Sharon M. Harris' Dr. Mary Walker: An American Radical and A Woman of Honor: Dr. Mary E. Walker and the Civil War, in which author Mercedes Graf does a great job walking the reader through Walker's unpublished memoir.

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Episode 75 (The Ballad of Captain Dwight) Aug 28, 2015

Show notes

The finale of the 2015 Summer Season.

Music

* Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score.

* There's Branches, by Keith Kenniff

* Then The Big Ocean, from Ben Sollee's score to Maidentrip.

* Then End of the World from Dan Romer's score to Beasts of the Southern Wild.

* There's The Sage, pulling once more from the dope-as-hell self-titled album from the Chico Hamilton Quintet.

* There's a loop pulled from Worm is Green's song, Brand New Day

* There's The Light, from my pal Jimmy's wonderful project, The Album Leaf. Go buy their albums.

* The piece at the end is the theme to Charlie Countryman from Christophe Beck's score.

* Oh: stuff gets heavy to Ghosts I from Nine Inch Nails.

* And finally (though out of order), playing over the fall-out from JFK's death is Now by Goldmund.

Notes

A selected bibliography.

* We Could Not Fail: The First African Americans in the Space Program, by Richard Paul and Steven Moss

* Voices of Contemporary and Historical Black Pioneers, Farmer & Shepard-Wynn, editors

* The Right Stuff, by Tom Wolfe

* Distinguished African Americans in Aviation and Space Sciences, by Gulbert, Sawyer, a… Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Episode 74 (Craning) Aug 20, 2015

Show notes

Episode 9 of the 2015 Summer Season.

Music

* Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score.

* There're too pieces from Per Storby Jutbring's album, Dance of the Diaper Fairy. Snowbound, up top, and the title track at the end.

Notes

* Hoo boy, have I read a ton of books about the space program, thanks to my stint on the writing staff of ABC's Astronauts' Wives Club last year. So, most of this piece is just "stuff I now know." However: read numerous contemporary newspaper accounts, readily available on

* Also key was the lovely prologue to First Man: The Life of Neil Armstrong, James R. Hanson's solid (if a little hagiographic) bio.

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Episode 73 (Notes on an Imagined Plaque to be Added to the Statue of General Nathan Bedford Forrest, Upon Hearing that t Aug 13, 2015

Show notes

Episode 8 of the 2015 Summer Season

Music

* Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score.

* First up (and returning at the end) is Sandra's Theme, from Heather McIntosh's fantastic score to Compliance, a very good, very disturbing movie.

* We hit Frank Glazer leading Charles Ives' Largo for Clarinet, Violin and Piano a couple of times, framing...

* Runaway from Olafur Arnalds.

Notes:

*The key to researching this episode turned out to be an article in The Journal of Southern History from 2001 by Court Carnay called, "The Contested Image of Nathan Bedford Forrest.".

* Also particularly useful was Nathan Bedford Forrest: a Biography, by Jack Hurst.

* As was Lynching in America: A History in Documents, compiled by Christopher Waldrep.

* Much of my information about the contents of the ceremony and speeches was gathered from this, the digitized journal and scrapbook of Charles Henry Niehaus, the sculptor of the monument. It's an extraordinary resource.

* And let us all read Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All its Phases, by Ida B. Wells. And let's put her on the $10 while we're at it.

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Episode 72 (Run-of-the-River) Aug 03, 2015

Show notes

Episode 7 of the 2015 Summer Season.

Music

* Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score.

* First up (and returning a bit later) is Mr. Reincarnation from Alexander Desplat's dope-as-hell score to the fairly dope movie, Birth.

* There's Lost Fur, Reprise from Carter Burwell's Where the Wild Things Are score.

* Then there's a Charles Ives piece called Remembrance, played by Yesaroun' Duo, Eric Hewitt and Samuel Z. Soloman.

* Then we hit Another Lifetime, dipping back in the Birth Score well.

* Finish up with Kierling/Doubt from Max Richters 24 Postcards in Full Color.

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Episode 71 (Zulu Charlie Romeo) Jul 27, 2015

Show notes

Episode 6 of the 2015 Summer Season.

Music

* Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score.

* First up, A Nice Day from a truly wonderful album, The Original Chico Hamilton Quintet Complete Studio Recordings.

* Then there's Ohnono/Kiwembo, Andrew Bird's contribution to Tradi-Mods Vs. Rockers - Alternative Takes on Congotronics, Vol. 1 (which is a great rabbit hole to go down).

* Anita gets introduced to Hay Tantos Muertos, by Marissa Nadler.

* Then falls in love to Hymn of Silence by Silencio

* Then there're two pieces from Nathan Johnson's score to The Day I Saw Your Heart.

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Episode 70 (Developments in the Design and Manufacture of American Menswear 1840-1860, a Fable) Jul 20, 2015

Show notes

Episode 5 of the 2015 Summer Season.

Music

* Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score.

* The main mountain theme is Mort D'Eurydice, by Pierre Favre as played by the European Chamber Ensemble.

* There's a second string-y snippet of another by them called, Sito.

* We learn about beavers to Stereo Music for Acoustic Guitar, Buchla Music Box 100 (etc.)...Pt. 2 from Keith Fullerton Whitman's old Multiples album.

* The soft men are embodied by 3-Sized PF by Takahiro Kido from his Fairy Tale album.

* I roll out some more Miguel Atwood-Ferguson with Arioso from Red Hot & Bach to track the tall tales of the west.

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Episode 69 (Charlie: God of Rain) Jul 13, 2015

Show notes

Episode 4 of the 2015 Summer Season.

Music

* Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score.

* Charlie on the ladder is scored with the Prologue to the fantastic score to the film Birth, by Alexandre Desplat

* It ends with Opus 30, by Dustin O'Hallaran.

* The upbeat, fair music is a piece called Love on Matthew Herbert's contribution to the Life in a Day soundtrack.

* Don Stewart surveys the damage to 01 Ghosts I by NIN

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Episode 68 (White Heat, White Lights) Jul 06, 2015

Show notes

Episode 3 of the Summer Season.

Music

* Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score.

* The opening loop is from Mr. Knight from Coltrane Plays the Blues, which you should own.

* The violin piece is Occam II for Violin, a piece by Silvia Tarozzi, played by Pauline Oliveros.

* Next up is Mikuro's Blues from the mighty David S. Ware' mighty Go See the World.

* The amazing orchestral pieces is Triumph by Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Carlos Nino from Fill the Heart- Shaped Cup

* Finally, there's 13 Ghosts II by Nine Inch Nails from Ghosts I-IV

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Episode 67 (Every Night Ever) Jun 29, 2015

Show notes

Music

* Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score.

* Then, we have the most obvious crickets/summer night song ever: the fantastic, perpetually delightful Green Arrow from Yo La Tengo's I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One, which has soundtracked many crickety summer nights for me over the years.

* The cops roll in to a loop of the very beginning of the epic Ptah, the El Daoud, the title track to Alice Coltrane's album from 1970.

* Then we have a mix of two improvisations from Charles Cohen's Brother I Prove You Wrong: Cloud Hands and The Boy and the Snake Dance.

* There's a brief dip into Dorian, by Fang Island.

* The jaunty accordion, typewriter thing is Biking is Better on Wintergatan's eponymous album.

Notes

I researched this one primarily through old newspapers. The easiest place to find a number of them is to read the excellent site, The Museum of Hoaxes' page on this event. Also: if you're in the Atlanta area and ever want to have yourself a day, you can see the actual monkey. It's preserved in a jar at the Georgia Bureau of Investigations museum in Decatur Georgia.

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