Podcasts about Lute

Eric and Eliot welcome LTG (ret.) Douglas Lute, former Director of Operations for the Joint Staff, Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan under both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and former U.S. Ambassador to NATO to discuss the upcoming June 24-25 NATO Summit in the Hague. They discuss NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte's formulas for reaching the Trump Administration target for NATO Members to spend 5% of GDP on Defense (Rutte has proposed a 3 1/2 % defense spending target with 1 1/2% spending on infrastructure counting toward the 5% objective). Lute highlights the unpredictability that Trump brings to NATO Summits recounting his own experience in 2017 with the unveiling of the Article 5 memorial commemorating the invocation of Article 5 in response to 9/11 which Trump used as an opportunity to excoriate Angela Merkel and other European leaders. They discuss European attitudes towards Trump 2.0 and whether the shock effect will lead to more effective European efforts on defense. They discuss intra-European dynamics at NATO, the role Ukraine will play at the Summit, Trump's aversion to using leverage against Putin, extended nuclear deterrence in Europe, the communique drafting process at NATO (spoiler alert: there will be no communique at this Summit), the NSC decision-making process and Trump's parade and the danger of politicizing the military. Eliot's latest in The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/06/cohen-military-parade/683143/ Shield of the Republic is a Bulwark podcast co-sponsored by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.

Devocional do dia 14/06/2025 com o Tema: "Lute!" Em seu reinado, Davi estabeleceu a paz com alguns povos vizinhos, entre eles os amonitas. O rei daquele povo morreu e foi sucedido por Hanum, seu filho. O rei de Israel, desejando estender essa pacificação, enviou uma delegação para transmitir suas condolências ao novo soberano, que não viu esse ato com bons olhos. Leitura bíblica: 2 Samuel 10.9-13 Versículo Chave: Diz o SENHOR: “Se vocês não ficarem firmes na fé, com certeza não resistirão!” (Is 7.9b)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

No novo episódio do quadro “Expresso”, a Laura comentou sobre o novo filme 'Bailarina' que é da mesma franquia de John Wick. Ana de Armas está incrível no papel principal e as cenas de lutas bem coreografadas são lindas de assistir. Ficou curioso(a) para saber mais? Então corre dar o play! Não esquece de comentar e compartilhar com os amigos nerds!

https://youtu.be/5PO5R4I0sZo01 DE JUNHO - DOMINGORef.: João 10.10, Eclesiastes 10.1

Na vida, nada vem de graça. Tudo o que é realmente nosso precisa ser conquistado com coragem, com esforço, com o coração inteiro. Por isso, lute. Lute até o fim. Lute por tudo o que é seu, por tudo o que faz seu coração bater mais forte.Lute pelos seus sonhos, mesmo que pareçam distantes. Sonhe em ter uma casa cheia de amor, um trabalho que te faça levantar com alegria, uma viagem que te leve a lugares que você nunca imaginou. Sonhe com uma família feliz, com um recomeço, com uma vida mais leve, mais sua. Nenhum sonho é pequeno quando nasce da alma. E todo sonho merece luta.Lute também pelas suas conquistas. Celebre cada passo, cada pequena vitória: a formatura tão esperada, a chave da casa própria, o “sim” que mudou a sua vida, o negócio que deu certo depois de tantas tentativas. Valorize a conquista de um sorriso depois de dias difíceis, a superação de um medo, a coragem de seguir em frente quando tudo parecia desabar. São nesses momentos que você prova a si mesmo o quanto é forte.Lute pelas suas aventuras. Pela coragem de viver algo novo, de arriscar, de sair da zona de conforto. Lute para ver o mar pela primeira vez, para subir aquela montanha, para reencontrar alguém, para dizer o que nunca teve coragem de dizer. A vida é agora. E cada aventura vivida é uma história a mais no seu caminho.Nada do que é seu pode ser deixado pra depois. Não desista fácil. Não entregue seus sonhos ao medo. Não abandone o que te faz feliz só porque o caminho é difícil. Lute. Lute com fé, com alma, com garra. Porque no fim das contas, a vida vale a pena quando é vivida com intensidade e com verdade.E nunca se esqueça: quem luta pelo que ama, vive com sentido. Quem batalha por seus sonhos, conquista não só o que deseja — mas também quem deseja ser.

Na vida, nada vem de graça. Tudo o que é realmente nosso precisa ser conquistado com coragem, com esforço, com o coração inteiro. Por isso, lute. Lute até o fim. Lute por tudo o que é seu, por tudo o que faz seu coração bater mais forte.Lute pelos seus sonhos, mesmo que pareçam distantes. Sonhe em ter uma casa cheia de amor, um trabalho que te faça levantar com alegria, uma viagem que te leve a lugares que você nunca imaginou. Sonhe com uma família feliz, com um recomeço, com uma vida mais leve, mais sua. Nenhum sonho é pequeno quando nasce da alma. E todo sonho merece luta.Lute também pelas suas conquistas. Celebre cada passo, cada pequena vitória: a formatura tão esperada, a chave da casa própria, o “sim” que mudou a sua vida, o negócio que deu certo depois de tantas tentativas. Valorize a conquista de um sorriso depois de dias difíceis, a superação de um medo, a coragem de seguir em frente quando tudo parecia desabar. São nesses momentos que você prova a si mesmo o quanto é forte.Lute pelas suas aventuras. Pela coragem de viver algo novo, de arriscar, de sair da zona de conforto. Lute para ver o mar pela primeira vez, para subir aquela montanha, para reencontrar alguém, para dizer o que nunca teve coragem de dizer. A vida é agora. E cada aventura vivida é uma história a mais no seu caminho.Nada do que é seu pode ser deixado pra depois. Não desista fácil. Não entregue seus sonhos ao medo. Não abandone o que te faz feliz só porque o caminho é difícil. Lute. Lute com fé, com alma, com garra. Porque no fim das contas, a vida vale a pena quando é vivida com intensidade e com verdade.E nunca se esqueça: quem luta pelo que ama, vive com sentido. Quem batalha por seus sonhos, conquista não só o que deseja — mas também quem deseja ser.

Lute a promessa ainda está de pé - Reunião 26/02/2025 by Pr. Carlos Soares

Você já teve vontade de jogar tudo pro alto?De pensar que não nasceu com sorte, que o mundo é injusto demais com você?Tem gente que vive isso desde cedo.Demóstenes, por exemplo, ficou órfão aos sete anos. Os parentes roubaram tudo que era dele por direito.E ainda por cima, ele era gago.Mas um dia, já com 27 anos, ele viu um homem falando com tanta força e clareza num julgamento, que tomou uma decisão:“Eu vou ser orador. Eu também quero ter essa voz.”Só que era gago.E mesmo assim, começou a treinar. Corria na beira do mar, contra o vento, com pedras na boca, só pra aprender a falar melhor.A Grécia estava em crise, o povo derrotado, sem esperança. Mas Demóstenes não ficou quieto.Ele subia nos palanques e dizia:“A gente ainda não usou toda a nossa força. A gente ainda não disse a última palavra.”Ele não chegou a ver a vitória. Mas as palavras dele acenderam um fogo no coração de muita gente.Tem quem diga:“Ah, a vida me tratou mal. Por isso não consegui.”Mas a verdade é que a vida também tratou mal Demóstenes.E ele lutou mesmo assim.Colocou o que sabia a serviço dos outros.Virou o maior orador da antiguidade.Gente que faz história é assim.Não tem sorte fácil. Tem coragem. Tem persistência.Teve músico que foi reprovado na primeira audição.Teve líder que só ouviu “não” nas eleições.Teve gente comum, que veio de baixo, e que mudou o rumo da história.Porque não desistiram.Um dia, um desses grandes disse assim:“Se você acha que pode, ou acha que não pode… de qualquer jeito, você está certo.”A vitória nem sempre depende da gente.Mas a luta, sim.É a luta que dá dignidade.Deus não vai nos perguntar se vencemos. Vai perguntar se lutamos.E como dizia Paulo, o apóstolo:“Combati o bom combate, guardei a fé. Agora, a recompensa me espera.”

Você já teve vontade de jogar tudo pro alto?De pensar que não nasceu com sorte, que o mundo é injusto demais com você?Tem gente que vive isso desde cedo.Demóstenes, por exemplo, ficou órfão aos sete anos. Os parentes roubaram tudo que era dele por direito.E ainda por cima, ele era gago.Mas um dia, já com 27 anos, ele viu um homem falando com tanta força e clareza num julgamento, que tomou uma decisão:“Eu vou ser orador. Eu também quero ter essa voz.”Só que era gago.E mesmo assim, começou a treinar. Corria na beira do mar, contra o vento, com pedras na boca, só pra aprender a falar melhor.A Grécia estava em crise, o povo derrotado, sem esperança. Mas Demóstenes não ficou quieto.Ele subia nos palanques e dizia:“A gente ainda não usou toda a nossa força. A gente ainda não disse a última palavra.”Ele não chegou a ver a vitória. Mas as palavras dele acenderam um fogo no coração de muita gente.Tem quem diga:“Ah, a vida me tratou mal. Por isso não consegui.”Mas a verdade é que a vida também tratou mal Demóstenes.E ele lutou mesmo assim.Colocou o que sabia a serviço dos outros.Virou o maior orador da antiguidade.Gente que faz história é assim.Não tem sorte fácil. Tem coragem. Tem persistência.Teve músico que foi reprovado na primeira audição.Teve líder que só ouviu “não” nas eleições.Teve gente comum, que veio de baixo, e que mudou o rumo da história.Porque não desistiram.Um dia, um desses grandes disse assim:“Se você acha que pode, ou acha que não pode… de qualquer jeito, você está certo.”A vitória nem sempre depende da gente.Mas a luta, sim.É a luta que dá dignidade.Deus não vai nos perguntar se vencemos. Vai perguntar se lutamos.E como dizia Paulo, o apóstolo:“Combati o bom combate, guardei a fé. Agora, a recompensa me espera.”

1/ JUICY BAE. Bitch. feat Hoke.2/ Lil Baby. In A Minute. 3/ Pharrell Williams. Cash In Cash Out. ft. 21 Savage, Tyler The Creator.4/ DREAMVILLE. Ma boy. feat Lute y JID.5/ ABHIR HATHI. Lazos y Nudos. 6/ LÍA KALI. Parásitos.7/ GASPAR. Ferrari. 8/ SIR. Air Down. feat Kendrick Lamar. 9/ JIDENNA. Tribe. 10/ PEPE VIZIO. Me bendijo.11/ SUKO. Yeezy3.12/ KALI NINMAH. Bless.13/ ANTONY Z. Cuando me duermo.14/ CARDI B. Wap.15/ Busta Rhymes, Vybz Kartel. The Don & The Boss.16/ Lil Wayne. Mamma mia.17/ DJ KHALED. It’s secure. feat NAS, TRAVIS SCOTT. Escuchar audio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S2ognS95kQ16 DE ABRIL - QUARTARef.: 2 Coríntios 10.3-5

Os pensamentos que você vai ouvir agora são de Roberto Shinyashiki.E eles não foram escritos pra te agradar.Foram escritos pra te acordar.Pra te lembrar do que realmente importa.Porque a vida não espera. E você também não deveria esperar.“Sua vida muda quando você muda.”Não é o chefe. Não é o clima. Não é o outro.É você.“Negar suas aspirações é desperdiçar a energia que você precisa pra vencer.”E tem gente se esgotando tentando ser o que os outros querem ver.“Ser amigo de si próprio é ser cúmplice nas quedas — e nas voltas por cima.”Tá difícil? Lute. Mas lute por sonhos que valem a pena.“Vencer não é competir com o outro. É calar os sabotadores que moram em você.”“Problemas não impedem ninguém de ser feliz.”O que impede… é parar diante deles.“Você tem mais valor do que qualquer cargo.”Você é maior do que o crachá, do que o currículo, do que os aplausos.“Enquanto você acreditar, o medo não se instala.”E acreditar, meu amigo… é escolha diária.Esses são pensamentos de quem estudou o comportamento humano a fundo.Mas mais do que isso: são lembretes pra você assumir o volante da sua própria vida.Porque viver, de verdade, dá trabalho. Mas vale cada passo.

Os pensamentos que você vai ouvir agora são de Roberto Shinyashiki.E eles não foram escritos pra te agradar.Foram escritos pra te acordar.Pra te lembrar do que realmente importa.Porque a vida não espera. E você também não deveria esperar.“Sua vida muda quando você muda.”Não é o chefe. Não é o clima. Não é o outro.É você.“Negar suas aspirações é desperdiçar a energia que você precisa pra vencer.”E tem gente se esgotando tentando ser o que os outros querem ver.“Ser amigo de si próprio é ser cúmplice nas quedas — e nas voltas por cima.”Tá difícil? Lute. Mas lute por sonhos que valem a pena.“Vencer não é competir com o outro. É calar os sabotadores que moram em você.”“Problemas não impedem ninguém de ser feliz.”O que impede… é parar diante deles.“Você tem mais valor do que qualquer cargo.”Você é maior do que o crachá, do que o currículo, do que os aplausos.“Enquanto você acreditar, o medo não se instala.”E acreditar, meu amigo… é escolha diária.Esses são pensamentos de quem estudou o comportamento humano a fundo.Mas mais do que isso: são lembretes pra você assumir o volante da sua própria vida.Porque viver, de verdade, dá trabalho. Mas vale cada passo.

No Cultura Brasileira desta terça feira: Um balanço sobre o Breque do Apps, a greve dos motoristas por aplicativos; As empresas de tecnologia e uma nova forma de nova apropriação intelectual, de criatividade e em consequência, lucro; 1º de Abril, o Golpe Militar e as vítimas que esqueceram de destacar; O identitarismo como o grande empecilho e atraso para a esquerda se organizar ou o argumento que esconde preconceitos e discriminações? Os convidados desta edição são o antropólogo, cientista social, fundador e co-diretor do Observatório da Branquitude, especialista nos estudos críticos de branquitude e em relações raciais, Thales Vieira e o Cartunista, chargista e ilustrador, Lute.

Lute, cartunista, chargista e ilustrador, afirmou que as Inteligências Artificiais roubam propriedade intelectual de artistas. Ele destacou que essa apropriação ocorre em escala industrial e planetária, gerando faturamentos gigantes.

Vu sur Beatume 174 : Le label Dreamville Émission spéciale consacrée au label Dreamville, le label de J. Cole. Un label qui a sa propre identité, avec des artistes à plume aiguisée qui n'hésitent pas à sortir des sentiers battus et rabattus. lPlaylist : Bas – Charles De Gaulle To JFK Omen, Lute, Mez & DaVionne – Sleep Deprived J. Cole – Intro […] Cet article provient de Radio AlterNantes FM

LUTE, INSISTA E PERSISTA. - 26/03/2025 (ENCONTRO DE QUARTA) - BISPO GERSON CARDOZO.

The Mid-Texas Symphony presents “Bond and Beyond” on Sunday, March 30, at 4 p.m., in the New Braunfels Civic and Convention Center, 375 S. Castell Ave. in New Braunfels. Enjoy iconic James Bond songs from almost six decades of box office blockbusters with amazing guest singer Morgan James, featuring music from “Goldfinger,” “For Your Eyes Only,” “From Russia with Love,” and more. In addition, virtuoso guitarist Adam Holzman will join the orchestra in a performance of Vivaldi's Concerto for Lute and Strings in D Major. For more information, visit mtsymphony.org/explore wines/.Article Link

The new administration in Washington has forced both Americans and Europeans to reckon with an emerging new security environment. How should we understand this new world order? Is it time to panic? Ambassador Doug Lute (US Ambassador to NATO, 2013-2017) outlines the contours of this new world and explains why we should not panic. Topics include the following: -Updates from the Munich Security Conference -Consequences of the Trump-Zelenskyy White House summit -A primer on 4 traditional pillars of US Foreign Policy (military alliances, trade agreements, support of international organizations, and commitment to development assistance) -The evolution from a bi-polar to a uni-polar to a multi-polar world -The adaptation of NATO and the EU to Putin's malign actions -The importance of development assistance in past, present, and future wars -An assessment of Ukraine's resistance on the battlefield -An encouraging note to the people of Germany This podcast episode is part of the U.S. Election Speaker Series, which was organized in cooperation with the Aspen Institute Germany and the Association of German-American Centers (AGAC), and kindly supported by the German Federal Foreign Office.

A man covering "Free Bird" on a Lute is going viral. Plus, Billy Idol's new album Are you okay with this? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you ever wanted to hear Skynyrd songs on 16th century instruments, you're in luck. A small town in Oklahoma is being harassed by Warner Brothers about their giant leg lamp, a dog crashed its owner's TikTok video in a most humorous way, and George Harrison's 60 year old toast was just sold at auction! We also hit the phones to hear what traits or behaviors you inherited....See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A delightful collection of lute music from the courts of Queen  Elizabeth I and King James I, played by Italian lutenist Elisa La Marca.  This was a time of incredible cultural richness in England brought forth composers such as John Dowland and writers such as William Shakespeare.  Because the lute was one of the favoured instruments in court during this time, many of the best composers of the time either played the lute or wrote music for it.

Exodus 35:1-3 tell of the absolute sanctity of the Sabbath. Neither work, nor the kindling of a fire, were allowed. Disobedience by doing work on the Sabbath would result in death. Verses 4-29 speak of the free will offerings of Israel. Notice the repetition of the words which tell us of the mind of those who gave verses 6, 21-22, 26, 29. This is the vital ingredient in service. If it does not come from free will, nor from a generous heart, the LORD does not want it. This principle occupies two chapters in 2 Corinthians (8, 9). Read slowly and aloud verses 3-7 and 19-22, from chapter 8; and verses 6-10, 15 from chapter 9. Ponder what are the implications for your service to the Almighty. Exodus 35:30-35 describe the divinely aided skills which God gave to Bezaleel and Aholiab. Psalm 92 is a song for the Sabbath. It extols the Almighty for the greatness of His works. Lute, harp and lyre were the musical instruments that accompanied the singers of this song. In verse 2 they praised and thanked their Sovereign for His stedfast love. Verses 5-6 tell of the depths of divine thought (Isaiah 55 vrese 8-11). The ignorant and stupid cannot even begin to understand. These fools will meet their divinely designed doom. The Psalmist says that His God has granted him the freedom of a wild ox. The writer had seen the downfall of his foes. By way of contrast Yahweh had caused the righteous to flourish in His house; like the palm and cedar trees. These trees are symbols of fruitfulness and immortality. And the mouths of the faithful will magnify the Mighty God of Israel – their Rock of stability and permanence. Psalm 93 celebrates God as King robed in splendour and reigning in righteousness over His realm. Verse 2 teaches us that He has always been King and will be forever (it is quoted in Hebrews 1). Verse 3 tells that despite the roaring power of the nations, as they rise up in a flood; the Mighty God supremely rules over their rage (compare Psalm 2). The Psalm concludes in verse 5 with the confidence of those who trust in the LORD (Psalm 125). The letters to the Corinthians are the most autobiographical of all Paul's letters. In this 4th chapter of the first letter we learn that Paul was being severely criticised by his detractors, of whom there were many. He started by telling us that he was scrupulously honest and in money matters above reproach. This didn't by any means justify him – it will be our Lord Jesus Christ who will justify the faithful in the day of judgment. Then follows a heavily ironic segment addressed to those his accusers. He said that they were reigning as if the kingdom had already commenced. Oh, says Paul, if only that this was so! By contrast he and the Apostles were treated like the armies defeated by Rome. The vanquished were paraded to be derided and then executed. His opponents, on the other hand, were lauding it over the vanquished. In no way would they ever be able to crush Paul's resilience. The reason he directed them to this was that as a father he loved them and sought to admonish them. The Corinthians had no shortage of educated instructors, but he alone would be a father to them. Paul urges that they learn from him and become his imitators. They must address the problem, otherwise he would be forced to come to them in discipline; rather than, as was his preference, as a gentle teacher. He tells them in chapter 5 that in among them was a case of shameless incest. So bad it was, that non Christians would find it disturbing. He told them how to deal with it.

A volta do Neymar ao futebol brasileiro traz uma questão latente para parte da população do país: será que ele vai seguir sendo aquele jovem transgressor dentro de campo, e conservador fora?A reflexão é da jornalista, escritora e comentarista Milly Lacombe. Em entrevista ao programa Bem Viver desta terça-feira (11), a especialista relatou a “relação de amor” que tem com o talento do craque brasileiro.Ao mesmo tempo, Lacombe afirma que é “inegociável” ver Neymar jogando e não remeter ao apoio que manifestou diversas vezes ao ex-presidente Jair Bolsonaro (PL) e também a solidariedade que prestou a Robinho quando o jogador foi condenado por um caso de estupro na Europa.CampanhaAqui, a luta é pauta!_Há mais de duas décadas, construímos uma visão popular do Brasil e do mundo a partir do conhecimento jornalístico. Nosso trabalho alia rigor na apuração ao interesse público. Não temos medo de dizer: aqui, a luta é pauta.O jornalismo do Brasil de Fato sempre esteve em defesa da classe trabalhadora. Estamos ao lado daqueles e daquelas que sabem que outro mundo é possível. Esse mundo está em plena construção nas experiências de reforma agrária, nos saberes ancestrais dos povos e territórios, na agroecologia, na organização popular e no combate às desigualdades.Mas para que essas notícias cheguem longe, precisamos de você. Nosso jornalismo de visão popular não anda só.Vem com a gente nessa luta?_ Apoie. Leia. Lute.Receba notícias no seu e-mail:Assine a NewsLetter do Brasil de Fato.Ficha técnica:11-02-25- PROGRAMA BEM VIVERVeículo – Rádio Brasil de FatoTempo: 01:00:00Apresentação: Lucas SalumRoteiro: Daniel LamirEdição e Produção: Douglas Matos e Daniel LamirTrabalhos técnicos: Lua Gatinoni, Adilson Oliveira e Andre ParocheCoordenação de Áudio e Vídeo: Monyse RavenaDireção de programas de Áudio: Camila SalmazioDireção Executiva: Nina FidelesApoio: Equipe de Jornalismo do Brasil de FatoFoto: Reprodução/Instagram

Nesta semana, o Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) completou 45 anos em um momento, mais uma vez, à frente do poder no Brasil, mas com dilemas sobre a postura da legenda daqui pra frente. Os embates se tornaram evidentes na eleição municipal passada, realizada em 2024, quando alguns grandes nomes do partido divergiram a respeito dos rumos: à esquerda, ou seja, voltar para as bases que fundaram o partido, ou ao centro, fortalecendo a chamada frente ampla.Para um dos políticos mais tradicionais do PT, Paulo Paim (PT-RS), filiado ainda na fundação da legenda, em 1985, e sem nunca ter mudado de partido, a resposta é a conciliação entre esses dois entendimentos, no entanto, focando em fortalecer alianças.“A frente ampla tem que ser construída com todas as pessoas de bem que queiram ajudar a reconstruir o Brasil. Já que foi praticamente destruído em governos depois da companheira Dilma, da qual eu tenho maior carinho, maior respeito”, disse em entrevista ao programa Bem Viver desta quarta-feira (12).CampanhaAqui, a luta é pauta!_Há mais de duas décadas, construímos uma visão popular do Brasil e do mundo a partir do conhecimento jornalístico. Nosso trabalho alia rigor na apuração ao interesse público. Não temos medo de dizer: aqui, a luta é pauta.O jornalismo do Brasil de Fato sempre esteve em defesa da classe trabalhadora. Estamos ao lado daqueles e daquelas que sabem que outro mundo é possível. Esse mundo está em plena construção nas experiências de reforma agrária, nos saberes ancestrais dos povos e territórios, na agroecologia, na organização popular e no combate às desigualdades.Mas para que essas notícias cheguem longe, precisamos de você. Nosso jornalismo de visão popular não anda só.Vem com a gente nessa luta?_ Apoie. Leia. Lute.Receba notícias no seu e-mail:Assine a NewsLetter do Brasil de Fato.Ficha técnica:12-02-25- PROGRAMA BEM VIVERVeículo – Rádio Brasil de FatoTempo: 01:00:00Apresentação: Lucas SalumRoteiro: Daniel LamirEdição e Produção: Douglas Matos e Daniel LamirTrabalhos técnicos: Lua Gatinoni, Adilson Oliveira e Andre ParocheCoordenação de Áudio e Vídeo: Monyse RavenaDireção de programas de Áudio: Camila SalmazioDireção Executiva: Nina FidelesApoio: Equipe de Jornalismo do Brasil de FatoFoto: Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasi

Today's crossword is by Parker Higgins, and it was a joy. We had a lot of fun -- some might argue too much, but not us! -- digging through the grid, as you'll discover when you check out today's episode.Show note imagery: A LUTE (left) and a LYRE (right)We love feedback! Send us a text...Contact Info:We love listener mail! Drop us a line, crosswordpodcast@icloud.com.Also, we're on FaceBook, so feel free to drop by there and strike up a conversation!

Gary welcomes you to another year of great music from the piping world.PlaylistDaimh with Puff Puff from Sula Rosalind Buda with Oran Arisaig, John Barber's 50th and Nessie's Rambles from Pipers' Gathering 2018, Vol 1. The Scottish Gas Caledonian Pipe Band with The Kangaroo Interlude, The Banks of the Allan, The Lady in the Bottle, Charlie's Calypso, Marseil Ri Laoise, Tullochgorm, MacPhedran's, Moneagle's Fancy and Jenny Dang the Weaver from Out of the Blue Assynt with Where From Here? From Where From Here? Eabhal with Swan's Pool from Aisling Xenos with Lute, Lute and Buka Ere from Let the Swine Loose Angus MacColl with Donald MacLellan of Rothesay, Capt Colin Campbell and Fiona MacLeod from A Tradition of Excellence  LinksSchool of Daimh, Vermonthttps://www.pipersgathering.org/https://www.eabhal.com/https://rosalindbuda.com/home/https://www.celticconnections.com/Support the show

John Monsell | Still by Caleb Fincher | Young Woman with a Lute by Johannes Vermeer | Find more at www.ryanbush.org

durée : 00:12:09 - Le Disque classique du jour du vendredi 06 décembre 2024 - Le luth devint autour de l'année 1500 l'instrument de prédilection des cours européennes en pleine floraison culturelle et spirituelle.

durée : 00:12:09 - Le Disque classique du jour du vendredi 06 décembre 2024 - Le luth devint autour de l'année 1500 l'instrument de prédilection des cours européennes en pleine floraison culturelle et spirituelle.

Cuidado para não cair na armadilha de desacelerar antes da linha de chegada. O ano só acaba no último dia, e cada momento até lá conta. Não deixe o cansaço vencer – termine forte!

Bienvenidos una vez más a un Spaces donde hoy hablare de mi. Decir la verdad me ha convertido en un paria, pero prefiero ser un desterrado en la luz que un cómplice en la oscuridad. Los que me conocen saben que llevo 8 años enjuiciado por haber hablado de un caso donde personas poderosas supuestamente estarían envueltas en temas de pederastia. Mi vida cambió de raíz aquel 24 de febrero de 2016 cuando dos policías del grupo EDITE de Castellón, el grupo de la guardia civil de delitos telemáticos, entraron en mi casa gracias a un auto dictado un dia antes por el juzgado de instrucción numero 5 de Vinaroz. Recuerden que entró la policía judicial al domicilio familiar para registrarlo ¡por una denuncia de injurias y calumnias! ¡Algo que no podrán encontrar en ningún otro caso aqui en España! Ese fin de semana celebramos el cumpleaños de mi hija, imagínense. Mi espada de Damocles me ha hecho morir y renacer ya unas cuantas veces, la ultima con la renuncia de mi penúltimo abogado el 13 de mayo de 2024. Les recuerdo “a los malos” que ajusticiar en dia 13 de mayo es cómo hacerlo cuando fusilaban madrileños los franceses pero sumando un 10, esto es, el numero de Dios. Y Dios tiene unos planes inescrutables. Hable largo y tendido sobre todo esto en tres podcast titulados: UTP297 13 Malditos secretos, UTP298 Bar España y los fusilamientos del 13 de mayo y UTP299 13 cervezas con torreznos. Para el que no lo sepa y venga de nuevas les aviso que estoy con medidas cautelares desde el primer momento que me entrevisto la jueza que lleva el procedimiento y aún lo sigue llevando hasta que se inicie el juicio oral. Estamos hablando que desde el 4 de junio de 2019 se me prohibió manifestar o expresar cualquier opinión sobre los hechos a que se refiere este procedimiento por cualquier medio o procedimiento, incluidas las redes sociales mientras que dure la tramitación del presente procedimiento y hasta que recaiga resolución firme que ponga fin al mismo salvo dictado de nueva resolución modificando la presente. Dicho esto, queda poco margen para decir nada más. Ademas de que en todos y cada uno de los papeles que mi penúltimo abogado ponía en mi conocimiento provenientes del juzgado numero 5 de Castellón se me recordaba el cumplimiento del Reglamento Europeo 679/2018 y la Ley 50/1981, de 30 de diciembre, avisándome de que todo el procedimiento es confidencial, que quedaba prohibida su transmisión o comunicación publica por cualquier medio…o sea, que no puedo contar absolutamente nada. Sin embargo, todos hemos sido testigos de cómo en televisión se divulgan todo tipo de datos de los procedimientos judiciales más diversos. Los periodistas afines al sistema pueden publicitar prácticamente cualquier cosa sin trabas, mientras que los que estamos fuera de ese círculo nos enfrentamos a restricciones constantes. Una vez dictada la apertura del juicio oral, como ha sucedido en mi caso, el procedimiento deja de ser secreto. Es entonces cuando es legal hablar de ello, siempre respetando la protección de datos sensibles como nombres completos, DNIs, domicilios o información personal. Yo sin haber sido sentenciado ya he sido “juzgado” entre comillas por algunos medios periodísticos que han publicado mi nombre y los dos apellidos completos, parece que ese dia no habían iniciales para los parias. Yo ni siquiera puede contestar a los medios escritos que cuentan medias verdades, datos inexactos o incluso mentiras tan gordas como la Luna. Mis labios están sellados gracias a las medidas cautelares, por eso no se que pretendían los de Equipo de investigación conmigo, investigación negra que curiosamente, no impidió que dicho equipo de La Sexta localizara mi domicilio y tratara de sonsacarme información que, como ya he explicado, no podia compartir ni con ellos ni con nadie. Así me encuentro en esta situación lamentable: no puedo contaros las múltiples peripecias judiciales y vivenciales que estoy atravesando, muchas de ellas tan variadas como pintorescas. No soy el Lute, pero siento que hasta las gallinas me miran con recelo, como mirarían a un auténtico paria. Me hago la pregunta de porque, tal y como se comenta en mi primer libro, “Blasco Ibáñez desvelado”, en el caso Dreyfus apareció un periodista, Emile Zola con su carta “J ́accuse” que tanta importancia revistió en el “affair Dreyfus” y en el que yo denomino “caso maldito” no aparece ninguno. La wikipedia, esa herramienta del mal, dice sobre este caso: ”Es el Caso Dreyfus, la injusta condena de un militar, de origen judío, envuelto en el deshonor de una acusación de traición fraguada a base de pruebas falsas y silencios “. ¿Quizás al no ser yo judío, masón, del Opus Dei, jesuita, liberal, multimillonario, un erudito, satanista o cualquier otra cosa impide que ningún periodista ni ningún medio se digne a dirigir sus ojos en tan delicado procedimiento? ¡Qué la jueza ha rebajado la petición de pena del fiscal a unos 40 años y se me exige la presentación de una fianza conjunta y solidaria entre los 9 acusados que quedamos de mas de 2 millones y medio de euros! ¡Y se nos da la friolera de un dia para reunir tal cantidad! ¡Y eso no es noticiable! Larga y afilada es la espada de Damocles que ya roza mi sien, mientras yo, arrodillado y en silencio penitente, espero el momento en que atraviese mi carne, brote mi sangre y esta riegue el suelo como un tributo inevitable. Estoy condenado a entregarme como alimento a sus demonios, esos que se disfrazan de dioses, a sus tertulianos “expertos”, a su codicia insaciable y a su deseo de aplastar mis pensamientos y esparcirlos como cenizas. Y yo, sin embargo, debo envainar mi propia espada, someterme al escarnio, recibir las patadas en las costillas, y callar, como si la dignidad no me perteneciera. Eso es lo que nos sucede a los parias. Me pregunto dónde están esas cuentas con miles y miles de seguidores, esos youtubers famosos, esos disidentes de renombre que inundan las redes sociales con su presencia. ¿Por qué ninguno de ellos quiere entrevistarme o contar conmigo para algún programa, podcast, articulo, no sé? Y no me refiero a los falsos disidentes, esos que desde sus programas en horario estelar atrapan en sus telarañas a los pobres que, medio despiertos, caen en su campo de influencia. No mencionaré sus nombres, porque poco a poco la gente empieza a darse cuenta: todos repiten el mismo discurso, todos actúan al unísono, como en Fuenteovejuna. Nunca mejor dicho, porque tratan a su audiencia como si fueran un rebaño de borregos. Todos esos falsos disidentes nunca contarán conmigo, con un paria al que no pueden moldear ni utilizar para sus fines. Mi presencia les es incómoda, porque no encajo en su teatro de apariencias. La búsqueda de la verdad no está entre sus intereses; lo que realmente persiguen es el prestigio, el dinero fácil, los lujos que tanto desprecian de palabra pero ansían en secreto, y sobre todo, alimentar un ego desmesurado. Mientras predican justicia y libertad, se aseguran de no poner en riesgo su posición cómoda y privilegiada. Para ellos, la verdad es un medio para el espectáculo, no un fin en sí misma. ¿Y vds, que pueden hacer vds? Pues hacer de adivinos y explorando mis visceras repartidas por el suelo dictaminar a través de los omentos como hacían los antiguos oráculos romanos. Deben fiarse mas por su instinto que por lo que yo pueda contarles ya que lo que puedo contarles es…nada. A todos esos oídos infames que estarán escuchando esto, a todos esos correveidiles que harán de correos para el mal con mayusculas que se oculta en este llamado caso Bar España, en este caso maldito, solo puedo decirles que hoy no sacaran nada de este técnico preocupado. Mi corazón está con los niños que siguen siendo abusados, no solo aqui, en todo el mundo, y mi alma está en paz con Dios. Podéis seguir torturandome, clavando en mi costado vuestros poderosos puñales pero nunca extraeréis de mí nada mas que la verdad y la compasión. Sí, os compadezco porque vuestros corazones duros como el acero son fríos también como dicho metal y nunca entenderéis porque una persona como yo, que no tenia absolutamente ningún problema en su vida y vivia holgadamente, haya terminado inmolándose ante vuestros duros y fríos corazones. Allá vosotros con lo que hagáis en esta vida porque el castigo eterno lo tendréis mas que merecido. Series los jefecillos en el infierno, y allí no se ficha, allí se trabaja eternamente en una desidia sin principio ni final. Vosotros seréis los funcionarios que nunca se cansan de comer gusanos y putear a la gente por siempre jamas. Asi que lo siento en el alma pero mi espada envainada, no en señal de rendición, sino en ademan de cambio de ciclo, de punto de inflexión, que haga que muchos más guerreros no den su brazo a torcer. Son muchos los ya fallecidos en el caso maldito, Reinaldo Colas, Nuria Carque y otros, el ultimo Joaquin Crespo Marques, Ximo para los amigos, el cual falleció el 30 de septiembre del 2022 y el cual sigue apareciendo en los autos del procedimiento en la zona de acusados…no habéis tenido la decencia siquiera de retirar su nombre. Me callo ya. No entrarán moscas en mi boca por contar absolutamente nada del caso maldito y su interminable procedimiento, que ya roza los 10.000 folios. Una vez abierto, ya no es secreto... aunque para la prensa, en toda esa montaña de papel, no hay nada que consideren digno de titular. Porque para la prensa, hablar de un paria como yo no tiene ningún interés. Al fin y al cabo, cientos de miles de parias mueren cada día, millones son encarcelados, silenciados, vilipendiados y borrados de cualquier memoria colectiva. Somos la letra pequeña en la gran historia de sus telediarios. Mi caso maldito no es más que otro punto invisible en el vasto lienzo del olvido. Y, como paria, eso es exactamente lo que soy para ellos: invisible. Así que, esto es todo lo que tengo que deciros, que no puedo contar absolutamente nada de un procedimiento del cual ya se dictó apertura del juicio oral el 13 de diciembre de 2021. Sí, otro 13. Mi segundo abogado, voy ya por el cuarto, me decía que hasta que el procedimiento no tuviera la altura de un niño de diez años no había que preocuparse. De momento tiene la altura de uno de 9. Ya saben la querencia que tienen con ese numero los oscuros. Jakim Boor, seudónimo utilizado por Francisco Franco decía esto en el diario oficial del régimen, «Arriba», 26 de marzo de 1950: «La masonería no tiene prisa; sabe esperar, recuenta sus fuerzas, mueve sus peones, los previene y el día tal a la hora prevista y en el distrito elegido, generalmente el de un juez afecto, realiza su crimen. Un agente, o varios, de Policía masones estarán prevenidos en los lugares próximos al suceso. Lo demás es fácil: se borran las huellas, se falsea el atestado y el juez extrema su celo masónico desviando la justicia, así como la Prensa o la opinión. Y si aun así se fracasase, se cuenta con hermanos en las altas esferas para poder evitar lo irremediable. Los indultos, las amnistías y hasta las fugas preparadas hacen el resto«. Una supuesta cita bíblica dice tal que así: “Dios le da las peores batallas a sus mejores guerreros.” No existe tal cita en la Biblia. La única cita que nos habla sobre algo parecido la encontramos en Corintios 10:13: “No os ha sobrevenido ninguna tentación que no sea humana; pero fiel es Dios, que no os dejará ser tentados más de lo que podéis resistir, sino que dará también juntamente con la tentación la salida, para que podáis soportar.” Se suele decir que Dios nos prueba y el demonio nos tienta. Pero “pruebas” y “tentaciones” realmente son la misma palabra griega, “peirasmos”. Buscando su etimología veremos que significa prueba, situación difícil o reto pero también tentación o incitación al mal y por último calamidad o sufrimiento. Todo va unido y todo proviene de Dios. Todo. Estas últimas palabras marcaron el final de mi primer libro, Blasco Ibáñez desvelado, una obra de la que me siento profundamente orgulloso. No solo por lo que representa para mí, sino por lo que simboliza para todos aquellos que creyeron en un paria como yo y me ayudaron a transformar mi conocimiento en palabras, mi lucha en tinta, y mis pensamientos en un legado. Este libro no es solo mío; es también de esas almas generosas, maravillosas, que, a su manera, participaron en darle vida. Hoy tengo el honor de contar con algunas de esas personas que confiaron en mí, que me dieron la oportunidad de convertirme en escritor, que no es poca cosa decir. Porque en este mundo, donde las palabras han dejado de ser meros sonidos para convertirse en las armas más potentes de las guerras modernas, este humilde paria logró empuñarlas. Este libro es mucho más que una obra; es un testimonio de resistencia, un acto de fe compartida, y el sueño cumplido de alguien que, a pesar de todo, se atrevió a escribir su verdad. ………………………………………………………………………………………. Libres o esclavos de Manuel Valera Jamás hemos vivido tiempos como los presentes, tiempos en que el poder ejerce con violencia su influjo para no permitir bajo ningún concepto voces que pongan en duda las afirmaciones hechas desde las instituciones, todas ellas en manos de las élites que gobiernan el mundo. Ni siquiera es necesario negar -el término negacionista lo han empleado hasta desgastarlo queriendo señalar con él a cualquiera que no baile el agua al discurso oficial-. Basta con ejercer un mínimo de actitud crítica, escéptica, racional, normal… para ser censurado, silenciado o tachado de loco o conspiranoico -otro insulto de diseño-. Las redes sociales no escapan a este mecanismo. Twitter está tomado por el discurso oficial. La libertad es vigilada, otorgada, luego no es libertad, sino sucedáneo de la misma: o sea, mentira. El poder exige una masa babeante que rumie todos los mensajes que se inoculan mediante los medios de comunicación y demás plataformas del discurso oficial -aquí debemos incluir la ficción, tan sufragada y censurada como los telediarios o los comunicados oficiales-. Así las cosas, no hay experto independiente al que se le dé voz. Sólo lo que ellos digan. A pesar de que el discurso oficial es la voz de unos criminales que mienten, promueven el odio, lanzan mensajes encaminados a la destrucción de la sociedad y hasta presionan para que los incautos que siguen atendiendo a la oficialidad se dejen matar. No hay más que libres o esclavos. No queda término medio. Son las dos partes en que ha quedado dividida la sociedad, sin vuelta atrás ya. Una masa de atemorizados, desinformados, obedientes a las órdenes genocidas de los de arriba. Y enfrente, los apestados por el sistema. Los libres. Los que dicen que todo cuanto se afirma en materia económica, social, sanitaria, bélica, climática, racial, educacional, política, histórica… todo es mentira. Libres o esclavos. Y en cada esclavitud, recordemos, existe una asunción de la misma. A los libres nos pueden matar, pero no esclavizar. Para ser esclavo, hay que estar de acuerdo en ser vilipendiado por el criminal de arriba y por sus miserables empleados. Hay que salir a aplaudir a las ocho a los balcones de la vergüenza. Aplaudir a los que te están asesinando. Libres o esclavos. No hay más. Muchas gracias Manuel, nos despedimos con tu articulo recordando a nuestros oyentes que no tengan miedo y cuiden de sus familias. Nos vemos. ………………………………………………………………………………………. Conductor del programa UTP Ramón Valero @tecn_preocupado Un técnico Preocupado un FP2 IVOOX UTP http://cutt.ly/dzhhGrf BLOG http://cutt.ly/dzhh2LX Ayúdame desde mi Crowfunding aquí https://cutt.ly/W0DsPVq Invitados Dra Yane #JusticiaParaUTP @ayec98_2 Médico y Buscadora de la verdad. Con Dios siempre! No permito q me dividan c/izq -derecha, raza, religión ni nada de la Creación. https://youtu.be/TXEEZUYd4c0 …. Fernando Beltrán @nenucosinpanial Astrólogo y dibujante y poeta a ratos y criticón a veces y miles mundos más, todo para no bostezar. @venusmelibra …. ToniM @ToniMbuscadores …. Conocimiento para el alma | Editorial @ConluzEditorial Literatura, Arte, Historia, Opinión... las humanidades ponen luz a nuestra existencia, volvamos a estudiarlas con otra mirada #conluz ………………………………………………………………………………………. Enlaces citados en el podcast: AYUDA A TRAVÉS DE LA COMPRA DE MIS LIBROS https://tecnicopreocupado.com/2024/11/16/ayuda-a-traves-de-la-compra-de-mis-libros/ UTP297 13 Malditos secretos https://www.ivoox.com/utp297-13-malditos-secretos-audios-mp3_rf_128737399_1.html UTP298 Bar España y los fusilamientos del 13 de mayo https://www.ivoox.com/utp298-bar-espana-fusilamientos-del-13-audios-mp3_rf_128824891_1.html UTP299 13 cervezas con torreznos https://www.ivoox.com/utp299-13-cervezas-torreznos-audios-mp3_rf_129022962_1.html Libres o esclavos https://mvalera.es/libres-o-esclavos/ ………………………………………………………………………………………. Música utilizada en este podcast: Tema inicial Heros ………………………………………………………………………………………. Epílogo DLD - A PARTIR DE MAÑANA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaXpUjdN5G4

Lute pela sua família - Pr. Paulo Paes by Igreja Missionária Evangélica Maranata de CaxiasPara conhecer mais sobre a Maranata: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imemaranata/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imemaranataSite: https://www.igrejamaranata.com.br/Canal do youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa1jcJx-DIDqu_gknjlWOrQDeus te abençoe

Jesús Quintero revolucionó la radio nocturna de los 80 con "El loco de la colina" en la Cadena SER. Allí creó una atmósfera radiofónica cuyo ritmo estaba marcado por el silencio, la música y la palabra. Con preguntas geniales, profundas reflexiones y una inusual diversidad de personajes, Quintero acuñó un estilo periodístico de autor que elevaba la entrevista a arte. A partir de algunos fragmentos de esas conversaciones, Andrea Quintero, su hija, analiza cómo funcionaba la Colina junto a algunos miembros del dream team que acompañaron a Quintero al éxito: Mercedes de Pablos, Honorio Pinillos o Javier Andino. También explica el impacto que tuvo el programa en la audiencia y en el mundo de la comunicación de la mano de figuras como Juan Carlos Ortega, Carlos Herrera o Antonio Yélamo. Entre las entrevistas que forman parte de este episodio destacan las voces de Ernesto Sábato, Gabriel Celaya, Rocío Jurado, Borges, Ana María Matute, Giulietta Massina -actriz y esposa de Fellini - el Duque de Alba, Manuela Carmena, Manolita Cheng o el Lute.

Step into the rich and vibrant garden of Puritan wisdom with Charles Spurgeon, one of the most beloved preachers and authors in recent Christian history. In Flowers from a Puritan's Garden, Spurgeon prayerfully selects and expands upon the profound insights and analogies gleaned from Thomas Manton's sermons. Each “flower” in this garden is a spiritual truth, lovingly cultivated and presented with Spurgeon's signature warmth, wit, and pastoral care. Whether you are a long-time admirer of Puritan writings or new to their influence, Flowers from a Puritan's Garden offers a refreshing and spiritually nourishing read. Perfect for daily devotions, personal study, or as a gift to those seeking encouragement in their Christian journey, this book will help readers to see the beauty of God's truth as it applies to our lives. Discover the timeless beauty of following Christ through the eyes of one of history's greatest preachers, and allow the truths in these pages to blossom in your heart. About the Author Charles Haddon (C. H.) Spurgeon (1834-1892) was a British Baptist preacher. He started preaching at age 16 and quickly became famous. He is still known as the “Prince of Preachers” and frequently had more than 10,000 people present to hear him preach at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London. His sermons were printed in newspapers, translated into many languages, and published in many books.

Me siga nas redes sociais: Facebook: Diego Menin Instagram: @diegonmenin Youtube: Diego Menin Twitter: @diegonmenin Site: www.diegomenin.com

Welcome to the First Presbyterian Church, New Bern Podcast! Join Paul and Anna each Monday as they chat about upcoming church events, the week's sermon, and fun facts about the church. In today's episode, Paul-Scott and Anna talk about the upcoming Crop Walk, the recent lute concert, and about PS's trip to NYC! The conversation is followed by the prayers, readings, and sermon from Sunday's livestream service. Recorded live each week at First Pres in beautiful historic downtown New Bern, North Carolina. First Presbyterian Church, New Bern, North Carolina, established in 1817. A Congregation of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Building community, transforming lives, engaging the world. See more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.firstpresnb.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow us on social media at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/firstpresnb⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Watch our streaming service each week at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://youtube.com/channel/UCKw0GnheJfOUlVv_g5bBrEw⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Permission to podcast/stream live music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, License A-701790 and CCLI 3202763. All rights reserved. Permission to podcast/stream recorded music from artist.io.

Have a question you want answered? Submit it here!Can your menstrual cycle make or break your strength training progress? Today, we unlock the truth behind cycle-synced workouts and auto-regulation using the Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) scale. By examining how sleep, nutrition, and lifestyle intertwine with hormonal changes, we guide you on crafting a personalized fitness approach that navigates the highs and lows of your cycle. You'll gain actionable insights on tracking your phases and adapting your workouts to maximize effectiveness and support your physical and emotional states.We also bust myths around exercise during perimenopause and post-menopause. Discover why high-intensity and strength training are non-negotiable for combating muscle and bone loss during these life stages. We delve into strategies for balancing high-intensity workouts with recovery to stay active and healthy. By acknowledging the unique experiences of menopausal women, we present a roadmap for maintaining fitness and well-being through tailored exercise routines. Tune in for a comprehensive discussion that empowers you to embrace your body's needs at every stage of life.Today's Guest: Dr. Alyssa OlenickDr. Alyssa Olenick holds a Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology is a certified sports nutritionist and Crossfit Level 2 Trainer. Alyssa completed her doctoral training in exercise and human metabolism, sex differences and menstrual cycle physiology. She is currently a postdoctoral research fellow researching the areas of menopause and metabolism. As a coach she specializes in the areas endurance, strength and hybrid training. She runs her online business ‘Doc Lyss Fitness' and is a strength athlete, ultra-marathon runner, and all-around fitness lover who is passionate about educating people on science-based fitness to get them into the gyms and on the roads/trails — or often, doing both at the same time! You can learn more about Dr. Alyssa Olenick and her programs at www.doclyssfitness.com Your Host: Kimberly Beam Holmes, Expert in Self-Improvement and RelationshipsKimberly Beam Holmes has applied her master's degree in psychology for over ten years, acting as the CEO of Marriage Helper & CEO and Creator of PIES University, being a wife and mother herself, and researching how attraction affects relationships. Her videos, podcasts, and following reach over 500,000 people a month who are making changes and becoming the best they can be.

Send us a textHoner takes us back to Season 2 to an episode where they try Absinthe and maybe set fire to the counter!! Blaze, Honer, Olivia and our guest Stephanie pour over the drinks and conversations on this blast from the past.Click the link that says Support the show to buy a beer for the show. $5 a month gets you a shout out on the podcast and helps buy the beers for the Podcast. If you go 12 months in a row you will get a once only run limited edition Drunk with Buds T Shirt!!Hop Station Craft BarGet Beer, Cocktails, and fab food while enjoying darts, vintage games. Hop Station is hopping!Coastalos SodasUrban Artifact launched our own hemp derived THC brand Coastalo. Made with real fruit!!Niles BrewingUnique Beers and Cocktails! They host events and trivia weekly. Located in downtown Niles, Michigan!Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show

Dear friends of Soothe 2 Sleep Stories, to catch up on this Bible In... Series this year, here is an mp3 version from my video on my youtube channel, when I had decided to sometimes do a Livestream version that is at a normal volume. This is non-soft-spoken, which usually only happens during a livestream. I hope you do not mind and enjoy this sharing bits and pieces about my caregiving journey (while getting ready), caring for my aging widowed beloved Mother... For day 119, I had also conducted a LIVESTREAM, READING the ENTIRE BOOK of MARK, after WORSHIP via SINGING w/ LUTE... However, spotify would not allow me to post, since it is over 4 hours long, even with just the mp3 format. Thus, please visit my youtube channel for that video under the "Live" videos Tab. Blessings on your journey! It means so much to me that you are here...

Orvalho.com é um ministério de ensino ao corpo de Cristo. Receba nossos conteúdos por e-mail: https://bit.ly/3HZLj9B Escute, reflita e compartilhe!

In this episode, we hear the jubilant voice of the lady's confidante, as depicted in Sangam Literary work, Kalithogai 2, penned by the Chera King Paalai Paadiya Perunkadunko. The verse is situated in the 'Paalai' or 'Drylands landscape' and ponders on the question of what is true wealth.

Silvius Weiss - Lute Sonata No. 28 'The Famous Pirate': CouranteRobert Barto, luteMore info about today's track: Naxos 8.572219Courtesy of Naxos of America Inc.SubscribeYou can subscribe to this podcast in Apple Podcasts, or by using the Daily Download podcast RSS feed.Purchase this recordingAmazon

Lute Maleki, founder and CEO of OEwaves, is interviewed by Yuval Boger. They discuss the development of advanced quantum technology components, such as narrowband lasers, the company's origins at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and its evolution, the importance of narrow linewidth lasers for precision and efficiency in quantum applications, and much more

The oud virtuoso reflects on his path to the instrument, via a stamp collection and an Egyptian movie star

Episode 171 looks at "Hey Jude", the White Album, and the career of the Beatles from August 1967 through November 1968. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a fifty-seven-minute bonus episode available, on "I Love You" by People!. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Errata Not really an error, but at one point I refer to Ornette Coleman as a saxophonist. While he was, he plays trumpet on the track that is excerpted after that. Resources No Mixcloud this week due to the number of songs by the Beatles. I have read literally dozens of books on the Beatles, and used bits of information from many of them. All my Beatles episodes refer to: The Complete Beatles Chronicle by Mark Lewisohn, All The Songs: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Release by Jean-Michel Guesdon, And The Band Begins To Play: The Definitive Guide To The Songs of The Beatles by Steve Lambley, The Beatles By Ear by Kevin Moore, Revolution in the Head by Ian MacDonald, and The Beatles Anthology. For this episode, I also referred to Last Interview by David Sheff, a longform interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono from shortly before Lennon's death; Many Years From Now by Barry Miles, an authorised biography of Paul McCartney; and Here, There, and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles by Geoff Emerick and Howard Massey. This time I also used Steve Turner's The Beatles: The Stories Behind the Songs 1967-1970. I referred to Philip Norman's biographies of John Lennon, George Harrison, and Paul McCartney, to Graeme Thomson's biography of George Harrison, Take a Sad Song by James Campion, Yoko Ono: An Artful Life by Donald Brackett, Those Were the Days 2.0 by Stephan Granados, and Sound Pictures by Kenneth Womack. Sadly the only way to get the single mix of “Hey Jude” is on this ludicrously-expensive out-of-print box set, but a remixed stereo mix is easily available on the new reissue of the 1967-70 compilation. The original mixes of the White Album are also, shockingly, out of print, but this 2018 remix is available for the moment. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Before I start, a quick note -- this episode deals, among other topics, with child abandonment, spousal neglect, suicide attempts, miscarriage, rape accusations, and heroin addiction. If any of those topics are likely to upset you, you might want to check the transcript rather than listening to this episode. It also, for once, contains a short excerpt of an expletive, but given that that expletive in that context has been regularly played on daytime radio without complaint for over fifty years, I suspect it can be excused. The use of mantra meditation is something that exists across religions, and which appears to have been independently invented multiple times, in multiple cultures. In the Western culture to which most of my listeners belong, it is now best known as an aspect of what is known as "mindfulness", a secularised version of Buddhism which aims to provide adherents with the benefits of the teachings of the Buddha but without the cosmology to which they are attached. But it turns up in almost every religious tradition I know of in one form or another. The idea of mantra meditation is a very simple one, and one that even has some basis in science. There is a mathematical principle in neurology and information science called the free energy principle which says our brains are wired to try to minimise how surprised we are --  our brain is constantly making predictions about the world, and then looking at the results from our senses to see if they match. If they do, that's great, and the brain will happily move on to its next prediction. If they don't, the brain has to update its model of the world to match the new information, make new predictions, and see if those new predictions are a better match. Every person has a different mental model of the world, and none of them match reality, but every brain tries to get as close as possible. This updating of the model to match the new information is called "thinking", and it uses up energy, and our bodies and brains have evolved to conserve energy as much as possible. This means that for many people, most of the time, thinking is unpleasant, and indeed much of the time that people have spent thinking, they've been thinking about how to stop themselves having to do it at all, and when they have managed to stop thinking, however briefly, they've experienced great bliss. Many more or less effective technologies have been created to bring about a more minimal-energy state, including alcohol, heroin, and barbituates, but many of these have unwanted side-effects, such as death, which people also tend to want to avoid, and so people have often turned to another technology. It turns out that for many people, they can avoid thinking by simply thinking about something that is utterly predictable. If they minimise the amount of sensory input, and concentrate on something that they can predict exactly, eventually they can turn off their mind, relax, and float downstream, without dying. One easy way to do this is to close your eyes, so you can't see anything, make your breath as regular as possible, and then concentrate on a sound that repeats over and over.  If you repeat a single phrase or word a few hundred times, that regular repetition eventually causes your mind to stop having to keep track of the world, and experience a peace that is, by all accounts, unlike any other experience. What word or phrase that is can depend very much on the tradition. In Transcendental Meditation, each person has their own individual phrase. In the Catholicism in which George Harrison and Paul McCartney were raised, popular phrases for this are "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner" or "Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen." In some branches of Buddhism, a popular mantra is "_NAMU MYŌHŌ RENGE KYŌ_". In the Hinduism to which George Harrison later converted, you can use "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare", "Om Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya" or "Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha". Those last two start with the syllable "Om", and indeed some people prefer to just use that syllable, repeating a single syllable over and over again until they reach a state of transcendence. [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Hey Jude" ("na na na na na na na")] We don't know much about how the Beatles first discovered Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, except that it was thanks to Pattie Boyd, George Harrison's then-wife. Unfortunately, her memory of how she first became involved in the Maharishi's Spiritual Regeneration Movement, as described in her autobiography, doesn't fully line up with other known facts. She talks about reading about the Maharishi in the paper with her friend Marie-Lise while George was away on tour, but she also places the date that this happened in February 1967, several months after the Beatles had stopped touring forever. We'll be seeing a lot more of these timing discrepancies as this story progresses, and people's memories increasingly don't match the events that happened to them. Either way, it's clear that Pattie became involved in the Spiritual Regeneration Movement a good length of time before her husband did. She got him to go along with her to one of the Maharishi's lectures, after she had already been converted to the practice of Transcendental Meditation, and they brought along John, Paul, and their partners (Ringo's wife Maureen had just given birth, so they didn't come). As we heard back in episode one hundred and fifty, that lecture was impressive enough that the group, plus their wives and girlfriends (with the exception of Maureen Starkey) and Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull, all went on a meditation retreat with the Maharishi at a holiday camp in Bangor, and it was there that they learned that Brian Epstein had been found dead. The death of the man who had guided the group's career could not have come at a worse time for the band's stability.  The group had only recorded one song in the preceding two months -- Paul's "Your Mother Should Know" -- and had basically been running on fumes since completing recording of Sgt Pepper many months earlier. John's drug intake had increased to the point that he was barely functional -- although with the enthusiasm of the newly converted he had decided to swear off LSD at the Maharishi's urging -- and his marriage was falling apart. Similarly, Paul McCartney's relationship with Jane Asher was in a bad state, though both men were trying to repair their damaged relationships, while both George and Ringo were having doubts about the band that had made them famous. In George's case, he was feeling marginalised by John and Paul, his songs ignored or paid cursory attention, and there was less for him to do on the records as the group moved away from making guitar-based rock and roll music into the stranger areas of psychedelia. And Ringo, whose main memory of the recording of Sgt Pepper was of learning to play chess while the others went through the extensive overdubs that characterised that album, was starting to feel like his playing was deteriorating, and that as the only non-writer in the band he was on the outside to an extent. On top of that, the group were in the middle of a major plan to restructure their business. As part of their contract renegotiations with EMI at the beginning of 1967, it had been agreed that they would receive two million pounds -- roughly fifteen million pounds in today's money -- in unpaid royalties as a lump sum. If that had been paid to them as individuals, or through the company they owned, the Beatles Ltd, they would have had to pay the full top rate of tax on it, which as George had complained the previous year was over ninety-five percent. (In fact, he'd been slightly exaggerating the generosity of the UK tax system to the rich, as at that point the top rate of income tax was somewhere around ninety-seven and a half percent). But happily for them, a couple of years earlier the UK had restructured its tax laws and introduced a corporation tax, which meant that the profits of corporations were no longer taxed at the same high rate as income. So a new company had been set up, The Beatles & Co, and all the group's non-songwriting income was paid into the company. Each Beatle owned five percent of the company, and the other eighty percent was owned by a new partnership, a corporation that was soon renamed Apple Corps -- a name inspired by a painting that McCartney had liked by the artist Rene Magritte. In the early stages of Apple, it was very entangled with Nems, the company that was owned by Brian and Clive Epstein, and which was in the process of being sold to Robert Stigwood, though that sale fell through after Brian's death. The first part of Apple, Apple Publishing, had been set up in the summer of 1967, and was run by Terry Doran, a friend of Epstein's who ran a motor dealership -- most of the Apple divisions would be run by friends of the group rather than by people with experience in the industries in question. As Apple was set up during the point that Stigwood was getting involved with NEMS, Apple Publishing's initial offices were in the same building with, and shared staff with, two publishing companies that Stigwood owned, Dratleaf Music, who published Cream's songs, and Abigail Music, the Bee Gees' publishers. And indeed the first two songs published by Apple were copyrights that were gifted to the company by Stigwood -- "Listen to the Sky", a B-side by an obscure band called Sands: [Excerpt: Sands, "Listen to the Sky"] And "Outside Woman Blues", an arrangement by Eric Clapton of an old blues song by Blind Joe Reynolds, which Cream had copyrighted separately and released on Disraeli Gears: [Excerpt: Cream, "Outside Woman Blues"] But Apple soon started signing outside songwriters -- once Mike Berry, a member of Apple Publishing's staff, had sat McCartney down and explained to him what music publishing actually was, something he had never actually understood even though he'd been a songwriter for five years. Those songwriters, given that this was 1967, were often also performers, and as Apple Records had not yet been set up, Apple would try to arrange recording contracts for them with other labels. They started with a group called Focal Point, who got signed by badgering Paul McCartney to listen to their songs until he gave them Doran's phone number to shut them up: [Excerpt: Focal Point, "Sycamore Sid"] But the big early hope for Apple Publishing was a songwriter called George Alexander. Alexander's birth name had been Alexander Young, and he was the brother of George Young, who was a member of the Australian beat group The Easybeats, who'd had a hit with "Friday on My Mind": [Excerpt: The Easybeats, "Friday on My Mind"] His younger brothers Malcolm and Angus would go on to have a few hits themselves, but AC/DC wouldn't be formed for another five years. Terry Doran thought that Alexander should be a member of a band, because bands were more popular than solo artists at the time, and so he was placed with three former members of Tony Rivers and the Castaways, a Beach Boys soundalike group that had had some minor success. John Lennon suggested that the group be named Grapefruit, after a book he was reading by a conceptual artist of his acquaintance named Yoko Ono, and as Doran was making arrangements with Terry Melcher for a reciprocal publishing deal by which Melcher's American company would publish Apple songs in the US while Apple published songs from Melcher's company in the UK, it made sense for Melcher to also produce Grapefruit's first single, "Dear Delilah": [Excerpt: Grapefruit, "Dear Delilah"] That made number twenty-one in the UK when it came out in early 1968, on the back of publicity about Grapefruit's connection with the Beatles, but future singles by the band were much less successful, and like several other acts involved with Apple, they found that they were more hampered by the Beatles connection than helped. A few other people were signed to Apple Publishing early on, of whom the most notable was Jackie Lomax. Lomax had been a member of a minor Merseybeat group, the Undertakers, and after they had split up, he'd been signed by Brian Epstein with a new group, the Lomax Alliance, who had released one single, "Try as You May": [Excerpt: The Lomax Alliance, "Try As You May"] After Epstein's death, Lomax had plans to join another band, being formed by another Merseybeat musician, Chris Curtis, the former drummer of the Searchers. But after going to the Beatles to talk with them about them helping the new group financially, Lomax was persuaded by John Lennon to go solo instead. He may later have regretted that decision, as by early 1968 the people that Curtis had recruited for his new band had ditched him and were making a name for themselves as Deep Purple. Lomax recorded one solo single with funding from Stigwood, a cover version of a song by an obscure singer-songwriter, Jake Holmes, "Genuine Imitation Life": [Excerpt: Jackie Lomax, "Genuine Imitation Life"] But he was also signed to Apple Publishing as a songwriter. The Beatles had only just started laying out plans for Apple when Epstein died, and other than the publishing company one of the few things they'd agreed on was that they were going to have a film company, which was to be run by Denis O'Dell, who had been an associate producer on A Hard Day's Night and on How I Won The War, the Richard Lester film Lennon had recently starred in. A few days after Epstein's death, they had a meeting, in which they agreed that the band needed to move forward quickly if they were going to recover from Epstein's death. They had originally been planning on going to India with the Maharishi to study meditation, but they decided to put that off until the new year, and to press forward with a film project Paul had been talking about, to be titled Magical Mystery Tour. And so, on the fifth of September 1967, they went back into the recording studio and started work on a song of John's that was earmarked for the film, "I am the Walrus": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I am the Walrus"] Magical Mystery Tour, the film, has a mixed reputation which we will talk about shortly, but one defence that Paul McCartney has always made of it is that it's the only place where you can see the Beatles performing "I am the Walrus". While the song was eventually relegated to a B-side, it's possibly the finest B-side of the Beatles' career, and one of the best tracks the group ever made. As with many of Lennon's songs from this period, the song was a collage of many different elements pulled from his environment and surroundings, and turned into something that was rather more than the sum of its parts. For its musical inspiration, Lennon pulled from, of all things, a police siren going past his house. (For those who are unfamiliar with what old British police sirens sounded like, as opposed to the ones in use for most of my lifetime or in other countries, here's a recording of one): [Excerpt: British police siren ca 1968] That inspired Lennon to write a snatch of lyric to go with the sound of the siren, starting "Mister city policeman sitting pretty". He had two other song fragments, one about sitting in the garden, and one about sitting on a cornflake, and he told Hunter Davies, who was doing interviews for his authorised biography of the group, “I don't know how it will all end up. Perhaps they'll turn out to be different parts of the same song.” But the final element that made these three disparate sections into a song was a letter that came from Stephen Bayley, a pupil at Lennon's old school Quarry Bank, who told him that the teachers at the school -- who Lennon always thought of as having suppressed his creativity -- were now analysing Beatles lyrics in their lessons. Lennon decided to come up with some nonsense that they couldn't analyse -- though as nonsensical as the finished song is, there's an underlying anger to a lot of it that possibly comes from Lennon thinking of his school experiences. And so Lennon asked his old schoolfriend Pete Shotton to remind him of a disgusting playground chant that kids used to sing in schools in the North West of England (and which they still sang with very minor variations at my own school decades later -- childhood folklore has a remarkably long life). That rhyme went: Yellow matter custard, green snot pie All mixed up with a dead dog's eye Slap it on a butty, nice and thick, And drink it down with a cup of cold sick Lennon combined some parts of this with half-remembered fragments of Lewis Carrol's The Walrus and the Carpenter, and with some punning references to things that were going on in his own life and those of his friends -- though it's difficult to know exactly which of the stories attached to some of the more incomprehensible bits of the lyrics are accurate. The story that the line "I am the eggman" is about a sexual proclivity of Eric Burdon of the Animals seems plausible, while the contention by some that the phrase "semolina pilchard" is a reference to Sgt Pilcher, the corrupt policeman who had arrested three of the Rolling Stones, and would later arrest Lennon, on drugs charges, seems less likely. The track is a masterpiece of production, but the release of the basic take on Anthology 2 in 1996 showed that the underlying performance, before George Martin worked his magic with the overdubs, is still a remarkable piece of work: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I am the Walrus (Anthology 2 version)"] But Martin's arrangement and production turned the track from a merely very good track into a masterpiece. The string arrangement, very much in the same mould as that for "Strawberry Fields Forever" but giving a very different effect with its harsh cello glissandi, is the kind of thing one expects from Martin, but there's also the chanting of the Mike Sammes Singers, who were more normally booked for sessions like Englebert Humperdinck's "The Last Waltz": [Excerpt: Engelbert Humperdinck, "The Last Waltz"] But here were instead asked to imitate the sound of the strings, make grunting noises, and generally go very far out of their normal comfort zone: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I am the Walrus"] But the most fascinating piece of production in the entire track is an idea that seems to have been inspired by people like John Cage -- a live feed of a radio being tuned was played into the mono mix from about the halfway point, and whatever was on the radio at the time was captured: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I am the Walrus"] This is also why for many decades it was impossible to have a true stereo mix of the track -- the radio part was mixed directly into the mono mix, and it wasn't until the 1990s that someone thought to track down a copy of the original radio broadcasts and recreate the process. In one of those bits of synchronicity that happen more often than you would think when you're creating aleatory art, and which are why that kind of process can be so appealing, one bit of dialogue from the broadcast of King Lear that was on the radio as the mixing was happening was *perfectly* timed: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I am the Walrus"] After completing work on the basic track for "I am the Walrus", the group worked on two more songs for the film, George's "Blue Jay Way" and a group-composed twelve-bar blues instrumental called "Flying", before starting production. Magical Mystery Tour, as an idea, was inspired in equal parts by Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters, the collective of people we talked about in the episode on the Grateful Dead who travelled across the US extolling the virtues of psychedelic drugs, and by mystery tours, a British working-class tradition that has rather fallen out of fashion in the intervening decades. A mystery tour would generally be put on by a coach-hire company, and would be a day trip to an unannounced location -- though the location would in fact be very predictable, and would be a seaside town within a couple of hours' drive of its starting point. In the case of the ones the Beatles remembered from their own childhoods, this would be to a coastal town in Lancashire or Wales, like Blackpool, Rhyl, or Prestatyn. A coachload of people would pay to be driven to this random location, get very drunk and have a singsong on the bus, and spend a day wherever they were taken. McCartney's plan was simple -- they would gather a group of passengers and replicate this experience over the course of several days, and film whatever went on, but intersperse that with more planned out sketches and musical numbers. For this reason, along with the Beatles and their associates, the cast included some actors found through Spotlight and some of the group's favourite performers, like the comedian Nat Jackley (whose comedy sequence directed by John was cut from the final film) and the surrealist poet/singer/comedian Ivor Cutler: [Excerpt: Ivor Cutler, "I'm Going in a Field"] The film also featured an appearance by a new band who would go on to have great success over the next year, the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. They had recorded their first single in Abbey Road at the same time as the Beatles were recording Revolver, but rather than being progressive psychedelic rock, it had been a remake of a 1920s novelty song: [Excerpt: The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, "My Brother Makes the Noises For the Talkies"] Their performance in Magical Mystery Tour was very different though -- they played a fifties rock pastiche written by band leaders Vivian Stanshall and Neil Innes while a stripper took off her clothes. While several other musical sequences were recorded for the film, including one by the band Traffic and one by Cutler, other than the Beatles tracks only the Bonzos' song made it into the finished film: [Excerpt: The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, "Death Cab for Cutie"] That song, thirty years later, would give its name to a prominent American alternative rock band. Incidentally the same night that Magical Mystery Tour was first broadcast was also the night that the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band first appeared on a TV show, Do Not Adjust Your Set, which featured three future members of the Monty Python troupe -- Eric Idle, Michael Palin, and Terry Jones. Over the years the careers of the Bonzos, the Pythons, and the Beatles would become increasingly intertwined, with George Harrison in particular striking up strong friendships and working relationships with Bonzos Neil Innes and "Legs" Larry Smith. The filming of Magical Mystery Tour went about as well as one might expect from a film made by four directors, none of whom had any previous filmmaking experience, and none of whom had any business knowledge. The Beatles were used to just turning up and having things magically done for them by other people, and had no real idea of the infrastructure challenges that making a film, even a low-budget one, actually presents, and ended up causing a great deal of stress to almost everyone involved. The completed film was shown on TV on Boxing Day 1967 to general confusion and bemusement. It didn't help that it was originally broadcast in black and white, and so for example the scene showing shifting landscapes (outtake footage from Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, tinted various psychedelic colours) over the "Flying" music, just looked like grey fuzz. But also, it just wasn't what people were expecting from a Beatles film. This was a ramshackle, plotless, thing more inspired by Andy Warhol's underground films than by the kind of thing the group had previously appeared in, and it was being presented as Christmas entertainment for all the family. And to be honest, it's not even a particularly good example of underground filmmaking -- though it looks like a masterpiece when placed next to something like the Bee Gees' similar effort, Cucumber Castle. But there are enough interesting sequences in there for the project not to be a complete failure -- and the deleted scenes on the DVD release, including the performances by Cutler and Traffic, and the fact that the film was edited down from ten hours to fifty-two minutes, makes one wonder if there's a better film that could be constructed from the original footage. Either way, the reaction to the film was so bad that McCartney actually appeared on David Frost's TV show the next day to defend it and, essentially, apologise. While they were editing the film, the group were also continuing to work in the studio, including on two new McCartney songs, "The Fool on the Hill", which was included in Magical Mystery Tour, and "Hello Goodbye", which wasn't included on the film's soundtrack but was released as the next single, with "I Am the Walrus" as the B-side: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Hello Goodbye"] Incidentally, in the UK the soundtrack to Magical Mystery Tour was released as a double-EP rather than as an album (in the US, the group's recent singles and B-sides were added to turn it into a full-length album, which is how it's now generally available). "I Am the Walrus" was on the double-EP as well as being on the single's B-side, and the double-EP got to number two on the singles charts, meaning "I am the Walrus" was on the records at number one and number two at the same time. Before it became obvious that the film, if not the soundtrack, was a disaster, the group held a launch party on the twenty-first of December, 1967. The band members went along in fancy dress, as did many of the cast and crew -- the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band performed at the party. Mike Love and Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys also turned up at the party, and apparently at one point jammed with the Bonzos, and according to some, but not all, reports, a couple of the Beatles joined in as well. Love and Johnston had both just met the Maharishi for the first time a couple of days earlier, and Love had been as impressed as the Beatles were, and it may have been at this party that the group mentioned to Love that they would soon be going on a retreat in India with the guru -- a retreat that was normally meant for training TM instructors, but this time seemed to be more about getting celebrities involved. Love would also end up going with them. That party was also the first time that Cynthia Lennon had an inkling that John might not be as faithful to her as she previously supposed. John had always "joked" about being attracted to George Harrison's wife, Patti, but this time he got a little more blatant about his attraction than he ever had previously, to the point that he made Cynthia cry, and Cynthia's friend, the pop star Lulu, decided to give Lennon a very public dressing-down for his cruelty to his wife, a dressing-down that must have been a sight to behold, as Lennon was dressed as a Teddy boy while Lulu was in a Shirley Temple costume. It's a sign of how bad the Lennons' marriage was at this point that this was the second time in a two-month period where Cynthia had ended up crying because of John at a film launch party and been comforted by a female pop star. In October, Cilla Black had held a party to celebrate the belated release of John's film How I Won the War, and during the party Georgie Fame had come up to Black and said, confused, "Cynthia Lennon is hiding in your wardrobe". Black went and had a look, and Cynthia explained to her “I'm waiting to see how long it is before John misses me and comes looking for me.” Black's response had been “You'd better face it, kid—he's never gonna come.” Also at the Magical Mystery Tour party was Lennon's father, now known as Freddie Lennon, and his new nineteen-year-old fiancee. While Hunter Davis had been researching the Beatles' biography, he'd come across some evidence that the version of Freddie's attitude towards John that his mother's side of the family had always told him -- that Freddie had been a cruel and uncaring husband who had not actually wanted to be around his son -- might not be the whole of the truth, and that the mother who he had thought of as saintly might also have had some part to play in their marriage breaking down and Freddie not seeing his son for twenty years. The two had made some tentative attempts at reconciliation, and indeed Freddie would even come and live with John for a while, though within a couple of years the younger Lennon's heart would fully harden against his father again. Of course, the things that John always resented his father for were pretty much exactly the kind of things that Lennon himself was about to do. It was around this time as well that Derek Taylor gave the Beatles copies of the debut album by a young singer/songwriter named Harry Nilsson. Nilsson will be getting his own episode down the line, but not for a couple of years at my current rates, so it's worth bringing that up here, because that album became a favourite of all the Beatles, and would have a huge influence on their songwriting for the next couple of years, and because one song on the album, "1941", must have resonated particularly deeply with Lennon right at this moment -- an autobiographical song by Nilsson about how his father had left him and his mother when he was a small boy, and about his own fear that, as his first marriage broke down, he was repeating the pattern with his stepson Scott: [Excerpt: Nilsson, "1941"] The other major event of December 1967, rather overshadowed by the Magical Mystery Tour disaster the next day, was that on Christmas Day Paul McCartney and Jane Asher announced their engagement. A few days later, George Harrison flew to India. After John and Paul had had their outside film projects -- John starring in How I Won The War and Paul doing the soundtrack for The Family Way -- the other two Beatles more or less simultaneously did their own side project films, and again one acted while the other did a soundtrack. Both of these projects were in the rather odd subgenre of psychedelic shambolic comedy film that sprang up in the mid sixties, a subgenre that produced a lot of fascinating films, though rather fewer good ones. Indeed, both of them were in the subsubgenre of shambolic psychedelic *sex* comedies. In Ringo's case, he had a small role in the film Candy, which was based on the novel we mentioned in the last episode, co-written by Terry Southern, which was in itself a loose modern rewriting of Voltaire's Candide. Unfortunately, like such other classics of this subgenre as Anthony Newley's Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?, Candy has dated *extremely* badly, and unless you find repeated scenes of sexual assault and rape, ethnic stereotypes, and jokes about deformity and disfigurement to be an absolute laugh riot, it's not a film that's worth seeking out, and Starr's part in it is not a major one. Harrison's film was of the same basic genre -- a film called Wonderwall about a mad scientist who discovers a way to see through the walls of his apartment, and gets to see a photographer taking sexy photographs of a young woman named Penny Lane, played by Jane Birkin: [Excerpt: Some Wonderwall film dialogue ripped from the Blu-Ray] Wonderwall would, of course, later inspire the title of a song by Oasis, and that's what the film is now best known for, but it's a less-unwatchable film than Candy, and while still problematic it's less so. Which is something. Harrison had been the Beatle with least involvement in Magical Mystery Tour -- McCartney had been the de facto director, Starr had been the lead character and the only one with much in the way of any acting to do, and Lennon had written the film's standout scene and its best song, and had done a little voiceover narration. Harrison, by contrast, barely has anything to do in the film apart from the one song he contributed, "Blue Jay Way", and he said of the project “I had no idea what was happening and maybe I didn't pay enough attention because my problem, basically, was that I was in another world, I didn't really belong; I was just an appendage.” He'd expressed his discomfort to his friend Joe Massot, who was about to make his first feature film. Massot had got to know Harrison during the making of his previous film, Reflections on Love, a mostly-silent short which had starred Harrison's sister-in-law Jenny Boyd, and which had been photographed by Robert Freeman, who had been the photographer for the Beatles' album covers from With the Beatles through Rubber Soul, and who had taken most of the photos that Klaus Voorman incorporated into the cover of Revolver (and whose professional association with the Beatles seemed to come to an end around the same time he discovered that Lennon had been having an affair with his wife). Massot asked Harrison to write the music for the film, and told Harrison he would have complete free rein to make whatever music he wanted, so long as it fit the timing of the film, and so Harrison decided to create a mixture of Western rock music and the Indian music he loved. Harrison started recording the music at the tail end of 1967, with sessions with several London-based Indian musicians and John Barham, an orchestrator who had worked with Ravi Shankar on Shankar's collaborations with Western musicians, including the Alice in Wonderland soundtrack we talked about in the "All You Need is Love" episode. For the Western music, he used the Remo Four, a Merseybeat group who had been on the scene even before the Beatles, and which contained a couple of classmates of Paul McCartney, but who had mostly acted as backing musicians for other artists. They'd backed Johnny Sandon, the former singer with the Searchers, on a couple of singles, before becoming the backing band for Tommy Quickly, a NEMS artist who was unsuccessful despite starting his career with a Lennon/McCartney song, "Tip of My Tongue": [Excerpt: Tommy Quickly, "Tip of My Tongue"] The Remo Four would later, after a lineup change, become Ashton, Gardner and Dyke, who would become one-hit wonders in the seventies, and during the Wonderwall sessions they recorded a song that went unreleased at the time, and which would later go on to be rerecorded by Ashton, Gardner, and Dyke. "In the First Place" also features Harrison on backing vocals and possibly guitar, and was not submitted for the film because Harrison didn't believe that Massot wanted any vocal tracks, but the recording was later discovered and used in a revised director's cut of the film in the nineties: [Excerpt: The Remo Four, "In the First Place"] But for the most part the Remo Four were performing instrumentals written by Harrison. They weren't the only Western musicians performing on the sessions though -- Peter Tork of the Monkees dropped by these sessions and recorded several short banjo solos, which were used in the film soundtrack but not in the soundtrack album (presumably because Tork was contracted to another label): [Excerpt: Peter Tork, "Wonderwall banjo solo"] Another musician who was under contract to another label was Eric Clapton, who at the time was playing with The Cream, and who vaguely knew Harrison and so joined in for the track "Ski-ing", playing lead guitar under the cunning, impenetrable, pseudonym "Eddie Clayton", with Harrison on sitar, Starr on drums, and session guitarist Big Jim Sullivan on bass: [Excerpt: George Harrison, "Ski-ing"] But the bulk of the album was recorded in EMI's studios in the city that is now known as Mumbai but at the time was called Bombay. The studio facilities in India had up to that point only had a mono tape recorder, and Bhaskar Menon, one of the top executives at EMI's Indian division and later the head of EMI music worldwide, personally brought the first stereo tape recorder to the studio to aid in Harrison's recording. The music was all composed by Harrison and performed by the Indian musicians, and while Harrison was composing in an Indian mode, the musicians were apparently fascinated by how Western it sounded to them: [Excerpt: George Harrison, "Microbes"] While he was there, Harrison also got the instrumentalists to record another instrumental track, which wasn't to be used for the film: [Excerpt: George Harrison, "The Inner Light (instrumental)"] That track would, instead, become part of what was to be Harrison's first composition to make a side of a Beatles single. After John and George had appeared on the David Frost show talking about the Maharishi, in September 1967, George had met a lecturer in Sanskrit named Juan Mascaró, who wrote to Harrison enclosing a book he'd compiled of translations of religious texts, telling him he'd admired "Within You Without You" and thought it would be interesting if Harrison set something from the Tao Te Ching to music. He suggested a text that, in his translation, read: "Without going out of my door I can know all things on Earth Without looking out of my window I can know the ways of heaven For the farther one travels, the less one knows The sage, therefore Arrives without travelling Sees all without looking Does all without doing" Harrison took that text almost verbatim, though he created a second verse by repeating the first few lines with "you" replacing "I" -- concerned that listeners might think he was just talking about himself, and wouldn't realise it was a more general statement -- and he removed the "the sage, therefore" and turned the last few lines into imperative commands rather than declarative statements: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "The Inner Light"] The song has come in for some criticism over the years as being a little Orientalist, because in critics' eyes it combines Chinese philosophy with Indian music, as if all these things are equally "Eastern" and so all the same really. On the other hand there's a good argument that an English songwriter taking a piece of writing written in Chinese and translated into English by a Spanish man and setting it to music inspired by Indian musical modes is a wonderful example of cultural cross-pollination. As someone who's neither Chinese nor Indian I wouldn't want to take a stance on it, but clearly the other Beatles were impressed by it -- they put it out as the B-side to their next single, even though the only Beatles on it are Harrison and McCartney, with the latter adding a small amount of harmony vocal: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "The Inner Light"] And it wasn't because the group were out of material. They were planning on going to Rishikesh to study with the Maharishi, and wanted to get a single out for release while they were away, and so in one week they completed the vocal overdubs on "The Inner Light" and recorded three other songs, two by John and one by Paul. All three of the group's songwriters brought in songs that were among their best. John's first contribution was a song whose lyrics he later described as possibly the best he ever wrote, "Across the Universe". He said the lyrics were “purely inspirational and were given to me as boom! I don't own it, you know; it came through like that … Such an extraordinary meter and I can never repeat it! It's not a matter of craftsmanship, it wrote itself. It drove me out of bed. I didn't want to write it … It's like being possessed, like a psychic or a medium.” But while Lennon liked the song, he was never happy with the recording of it. They tried all sorts of things to get the sound he heard in his head, including bringing in some fans who were hanging around outside to sing backing vocals. He said of the track "I was singing out of tune and instead of getting a decent choir, we got fans from outside, Apple Scruffs or whatever you call them. They came in and were singing all off-key. Nobody was interested in doing the tune originally.” [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Across the Universe"] The "jai guru deva" chorus there is the first reference to the teachings of the Maharishi in one of the Beatles' records -- Guru Dev was the Maharishi's teacher, and the phrase "Jai guru dev" is a Sanskrit one which I've seen variously translated as "victory to the great teacher", and "hail to the greatness within you". Lennon would say shortly before his death “The Beatles didn't make a good record out of it. I think subconsciously sometimes we – I say ‘we' though I think Paul did it more than the rest of us – Paul would sort of subconsciously try and destroy a great song … Usually we'd spend hours doing little detailed cleaning-ups of Paul's songs, when it came to mine, especially if it was a great song like ‘Strawberry Fields' or ‘Across The Universe', somehow this atmosphere of looseness and casualness and experimentation would creep in … It was a _lousy_ track of a great song and I was so disappointed by it …The guitars are out of tune and I'm singing out of tune because I'm psychologically destroyed and nobody's supporting me or helping me with it, and the song was never done properly.” Of course, this is only Lennon's perception, and it's one that the other participants would disagree with. George Martin, in particular, was always rather hurt by the implication that Lennon's songs had less attention paid to them, and he would always say that the problem was that Lennon in the studio would always say "yes, that's great", and only later complain that it hadn't been what he wanted. No doubt McCartney did put in more effort on his own songs than on Lennon's -- everyone has a bias towards their own work, and McCartney's only human -- but personally I suspect that a lot of the problem comes down to the two men having very different personalities. McCartney had very strong ideas about his own work and would drive the others insane with his nitpicky attention to detail. Lennon had similarly strong ideas, but didn't have the attention span to put the time and effort in to force his vision on others, and didn't have the technical knowledge to express his ideas in words they'd understand. He expected Martin and the other Beatles to work miracles, and they did -- but not the miracles he would have worked. That track was, rather than being chosen for the next single, given to Spike Milligan, who happened to be visiting the studio and was putting together an album for the environmental charity the World Wildlife Fund. The album was titled "No One's Gonna Change Our World": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Across the Universe"] That track is historic in another way -- it would be the last time that George Harrison would play sitar on a Beatles record, and it effectively marks the end of the period of psychedelia and Indian influence that had started with "Norwegian Wood" three years earlier, and which many fans consider their most creative period. Indeed, shortly after the recording, Harrison would give up the sitar altogether and stop playing it. He loved sitar music as much as he ever had, and he still thought that Indian classical music spoke to him in ways he couldn't express, and he continued to be friends with Ravi Shankar for the rest of his life, and would only become more interested in Indian religious thought. But as he spent time with Shankar he realised he would never be as good on the sitar as he hoped. He said later "I thought, 'Well, maybe I'm better off being a pop singer-guitar-player-songwriter – whatever-I'm-supposed-to-be' because I've seen a thousand sitar-players in India who are twice as better as I'll ever be. And only one of them Ravi thought was going to be a good player." We don't have a precise date for when it happened -- I suspect it was in June 1968, so a few months after the "Across the Universe" recording -- but Shankar told Harrison that rather than try to become a master of a music that he hadn't encountered until his twenties, perhaps he should be making the music that was his own background. And as Harrison put it "I realised that was riding my bike down a street in Liverpool and hearing 'Heartbreak Hotel' coming out of someone's house.": [Excerpt: Elvis Presley, "Heartbreak Hotel"] In early 1968 a lot of people seemed to be thinking along the same lines, as if Christmas 1967 had been the flick of a switch and instead of whimsy and ornamentation, the thing to do was to make music that was influenced by early rock and roll. In the US the Band and Bob Dylan were making music that was consciously shorn of all studio experimentation, while in the UK there was a revival of fifties rock and roll. In April 1968 both "Peggy Sue" and "Rock Around the Clock" reentered the top forty in the UK, and the Who were regularly including "Summertime Blues" in their sets. Fifties nostalgia, which would make occasional comebacks for at least the next forty years, was in its first height, and so it's not surprising that Paul McCartney's song, "Lady Madonna", which became the A-side of the next single, has more than a little of the fifties about it. Of course, the track isn't *completely* fifties in its origins -- one of the inspirations for the track seems to have been the Rolling Stones' then-recent hit "Let's Spend The Night Together": [Excerpt: The Rolling Stones, "Let's Spend the Night Together"] But the main source for the song's music -- and for the sound of the finished record -- seems to have been Johnny Parker's piano part on Humphrey Lyttleton's "Bad Penny Blues", a hit single engineered by Joe Meek in the fifties: [Excerpt: Humphrey Lyttleton, "Bad Penny Blues"] That song seems to have been on the group's mind for a while, as a working title for "With a Little Help From My Friends" had at one point been "Bad Finger Blues" -- a title that would later give the name to a band on Apple. McCartney took Parker's piano part as his inspiration, and as he later put it “‘Lady Madonna' was me sitting down at the piano trying to write a bluesy boogie-woogie thing. I got my left hand doing an arpeggio thing with the chord, an ascending boogie-woogie left hand, then a descending right hand. I always liked that, the  juxtaposition of a line going down meeting a line going up." [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Lady Madonna"] That idea, incidentally, is an interesting reversal of what McCartney had done on "Hello, Goodbye", where the bass line goes down while the guitar moves up -- the two lines moving away from each other: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Hello Goodbye"] Though that isn't to say there's no descending bass in "Lady Madonna" -- the bridge has a wonderful sequence where the bass just *keeps* *descending*: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Lady Madonna"] Lyrically, McCartney was inspired by a photo in National Geographic of a woman in Malaysia, captioned “Mountain Madonna: with one child at her breast and another laughing into her face, sees her quality of life threatened.” But as he put it “The people I was brought up amongst were often Catholic; there are lots of Catholics in Liverpool because of the Irish connection and they are often religious. When they have a baby I think they see a big connection between themselves and the Virgin Mary with her baby. So the original concept was the Virgin Mary but it quickly became symbolic of every woman; the Madonna image but as applied to ordinary working class woman. It's really a tribute to the mother figure, it's a tribute to women.” Musically though, the song was more a tribute to the fifties -- while the inspiration had been a skiffle hit by Humphrey Lyttleton, as soon as McCartney started playing it he'd thought of Fats Domino, and the lyric reflects that to an extent -- just as Domino's "Blue Monday" details the days of the week for a weary working man who only gets to enjoy himself on Saturday night, "Lady Madonna"'s lyrics similarly look at the work a mother has to do every day -- though as McCartney later noted  "I was writing the words out to learn it for an American TV show and I realised I missed out Saturday ... So I figured it must have been a real night out." The vocal was very much McCartney doing a Domino impression -- something that wasn't lost on Fats, who cut his own version of the track later that year: [Excerpt: Fats Domino, "Lady Madonna"] The group were so productive at this point, right before the journey to India, that they actually cut another song *while they were making a video for "Lady Madonna"*. They were booked into Abbey Road to film themselves performing the song so it could be played on Top of the Pops while they were away, but instead they decided to use the time to cut a new song -- John had a partially-written song, "Hey Bullfrog", which was roughly the same tempo as "Lady Madonna", so they could finish that up and then re-edit the footage to match the record. The song was quickly finished and became "Hey Bulldog": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Hey Bulldog"] One of Lennon's best songs from this period, "Hey Bulldog" was oddly chosen only to go on the soundtrack of Yellow Submarine. Either the band didn't think much of it because it had come so easily, or it was just assigned to the film because they were planning on being away for several months and didn't have any other projects they were working on. The extent of the group's contribution to the film was minimal – they were not very hands-on, and the film, which was mostly done as an attempt to provide a third feature film for their United Artists contract without them having to do any work, was made by the team that had done the Beatles cartoon on American TV. There's some evidence that they had a small amount of input in the early story stages, but in general they saw the cartoon as an irrelevance to them -- the only things they contributed were the four songs "All Together Now", "It's All Too Much", "Hey Bulldog" and "Only a Northern Song", and a brief filmed appearance for the very end of the film, recorded in January: [Excerpt: Yellow Submarine film end] McCartney also took part in yet another session in early February 1968, one produced by Peter Asher, his fiancee's brother, and former singer with Peter and Gordon. Asher had given up on being a pop star and was trying to get into the business side of music, and he was starting out as a producer, producing a single by Paul Jones, the former lead singer of Manfred Mann. The A-side of the single, "And the Sun Will Shine", was written by the Bee Gees, the band that Robert Stigwood was managing: [Excerpt: Paul Jones, "And the Sun Will Shine"] While the B-side was an original by Jones, "The Dog Presides": [Excerpt: Paul Jones, "The Dog Presides"] Those tracks featured two former members of the Yardbirds, Jeff Beck and Paul Samwell-Smith, on guitar and bass, and Nicky Hopkins on piano. Asher asked McCartney to play drums on both sides of the single, saying later "I always thought he was a great, underrated drummer." McCartney was impressed by Asher's production, and asked him to get involved with the new Apple Records label that would be set up when the group returned from India. Asher eventually became head of A&R for the label. And even before "Lady Madonna" was mixed, the Beatles were off to India. Mal Evans, their roadie, went ahead with all their luggage on the fourteenth of February, so he could sort out transport for them on the other end, and then John and George followed on the fifteenth, with their wives Pattie and Cynthia and Pattie's sister Jenny (John and Cynthia's son Julian had been left with his grandmother while they went -- normally Cynthia wouldn't abandon Julian for an extended period of time, but she saw the trip as a way to repair their strained marriage). Paul and Ringo followed four days later, with Ringo's wife Maureen and Paul's fiancee Jane Asher. The retreat in Rishikesh was to become something of a celebrity affair. Along with the Beatles came their friend the singer-songwriter Donovan, and Donovan's friend and songwriting partner, whose name I'm not going to say here because it's a slur for Romani people, but will be known to any Donovan fans. Donovan at this point was also going through changes. Like the Beatles, he was largely turning away from drug use and towards meditation, and had recently written his hit single "There is a Mountain" based around a saying from Zen Buddhism: [Excerpt: Donovan, "There is a Mountain"] That was from his double-album A Gift From a Flower to a Garden, which had come out in December 1967. But also like John and Paul he was in the middle of the breakdown of a long-term relationship, and while he would remain with his then-partner until 1970, and even have another child with her, he was secretly in love with another woman. In fact he was secretly in love with two other women. One of them, Brian Jones' ex-girlfriend Linda, had moved to LA, become the partner of the singer Gram Parsons, and had appeared in the documentary You Are What You Eat with the Band and Tiny Tim. She had fallen out of touch with Donovan, though she would later become his wife. Incidentally, she had a son to Brian Jones who had been abandoned by his rock-star father -- the son's name is Julian. The other woman with whom Donovan was in love was Jenny Boyd, the sister of George Harrison's wife Pattie.  Jenny at the time was in a relationship with Alexis Mardas, a TV repairman and huckster who presented himself as an electronics genius to the Beatles, who nicknamed him Magic Alex, and so she was unavailable, but Donovan had written a song about her, released as a single just before they all went to Rishikesh: [Excerpt: Donovan, "Jennifer Juniper"] Donovan considered himself and George Harrison to be on similar spiritual paths and called Harrison his "spirit-brother", though Donovan was more interested in Buddhism, which Harrison considered a corruption of the more ancient Hinduism, and Harrison encouraged Donovan to read Autobiography of a Yogi. It's perhaps worth noting that Donovan's father had a different take on the subject though, saying "You're not going to study meditation in India, son, you're following that wee lassie Jenny" Donovan and his friend weren't the only other celebrities to come to Rishikesh. The actor Mia Farrow, who had just been through a painful divorce from Frank Sinatra, and had just made Rosemary's Baby, a horror film directed by Roman Polanski with exteriors shot at the Dakota building in New York, arrived with her sister Prudence. Also on the trip was Paul Horn, a jazz saxophonist who had played with many of the greats of jazz, not least of them Duke Ellington, whose Sweet Thursday Horn had played alto sax on: [Excerpt: Duke Ellington, "Zweet Zursday"] Horn was another musician who had been inspired to investigate Indian spirituality and music simultaneously, and the previous year he had recorded an album, "In India," of adaptations of ragas, with Ravi Shankar and Alauddin Khan: [Excerpt: Paul Horn, "Raga Vibhas"] Horn would go on to become one of the pioneers of what would later be termed "New Age" music, combining jazz with music from various non-Western traditions. Horn had also worked as a session musician, and one of the tracks he'd played on was "I Know There's an Answer" from the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "I Know There's an Answer"] Mike Love, who co-wrote that track and is one of the lead singers on it, was also in Rishikesh. While as we'll see not all of the celebrities on the trip would remain practitioners of Transcendental Meditation, Love would be profoundly affected by the trip, and remains a vocal proponent of TM to this day. Indeed, his whole band at the time were heavily into TM. While Love was in India, the other Beach Boys were working on the Friends album without him -- Love only appears on four tracks on that album -- and one of the tracks they recorded in his absence was titled "Transcendental Meditation": [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Transcendental Meditation"] But the trip would affect Love's songwriting, as it would affect all of the musicians there. One of the few songs on the Friends album on which Love appears is "Anna Lee, the Healer", a song which is lyrically inspired by the trip in the most literal sense, as it's about a masseuse Love met in Rishikesh: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Anna Lee, the Healer"] The musicians in the group all influenced and inspired each other as is likely to happen in such circumstances. Sometimes, it would be a matter of trivial joking, as when the Beatles decided to perform an off-the-cuff song about Guru Dev, and did it in the Beach Boys style: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Spiritual Regeneration"] And that turned partway through into a celebration of Love for his birthday: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Spiritual Regeneration"] Decades later, Love would return the favour, writing a song about Harrison and their time together in Rishikesh. Like Donovan, Love seems to have considered Harrison his "spiritual brother", and he titled the song "Pisces Brothers": [Excerpt: Mike Love, "Pisces Brothers"] The musicians on the trip were also often making suggestions to each other about songs that would become famous for them. The musicians had all brought acoustic guitars, apart obviously from Ringo, who got a set of tabla drums when George ordered some Indian instruments to be delivered. George got a sitar, as at this point he hadn't quite given up on the instrument, and he gave Donovan a tamboura. Donovan started playing a melody on the tamboura, which is normally a drone instrument, inspired by the Scottish folk music he had grown up with, and that became his "Hurdy-Gurdy Man": [Excerpt: Donovan, "Hurdy Gurdy Man"] Harrison actually helped him with the song, writing a final verse inspired by the Maharishi's teachings, but in the studio Donovan's producer Mickie Most told him to cut the verse because the song was overlong, which apparently annoyed Harrison. Donovan includes that verse in his live performances of the song though -- usually while doing a fairly terrible impersonation of Harrison: [Excerpt: Donovan, "Hurdy Gurdy Man (live)"] And similarly, while McCartney was working on a song pastiching Chuck Berry and the Beach Boys, but singing about the USSR rather than the USA, Love suggested to him that for a middle-eight he might want to sing about the girls in the various Soviet regions: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Back in the USSR"] As all the guitarists on the retreat only had acoustic instruments, they were very keen to improve their acoustic playing, and they turned to Donovan, who unlike the rest of them was primarily an acoustic player, and one from a folk background. Donovan taught them the rudiments of Travis picking, the guitar style we talked about way back in the episodes on the Everly Brothers, as well as some of the tunings that had been introduced to British folk music by Davey Graham, giving them a basic grounding in the principles of English folk-baroque guitar, a style that had developed over the previous few years. Donovan has said in his autobiography that Lennon picked the technique up quickly (and that Harrison had already learned Travis picking from Chet Atkins records) but that McCartney didn't have the application to learn the style, though he picked up bits. That seems very unlike anything else I've read anywhere about Lennon and McCartney -- no-one has ever accused Lennon of having a surfeit of application -- and reading Donovan's book he seems to dislike McCartney and like Lennon and Harrison, so possibly that enters into it. But also, it may just be that Lennon was more receptive to Donovan's style at the time. According to McCartney, even before going to Rishikesh Lennon had been in a vaguely folk-music and country mode, and the small number of tapes he'd brought with him to Rishikesh included Buddy Holly, Dylan, and the progressive folk band The Incredible String Band, whose music would be a big influence on both Lennon and McCartney for the next year: [Excerpt: The Incredible String Band, "First Girl I Loved"] According to McCartney Lennon also brought "a tape the singer Jake Thackray had done for him... He was one of the people we bumped into at Abbey Road. John liked his stuff, which he'd heard on television. Lots of wordplay and very suggestive, so very much up John's alley. I was fascinated by his unusual guitar style. John did ‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun' as a Jake Thackray thing at one point, as I recall.” Thackray was a British chansonnier, who sang sweetly poignant but also often filthy songs about Yorkshire life, and his humour in particular will have appealed to Lennon. There's a story of Lennon meeting Thackray in Abbey Road and singing the whole of Thackray's song "The Statues", about two drunk men fighting a male statue to defend the honour of a female statue, to him: [Excerpt: Jake Thackray, "The Statues"] Given this was the music that Lennon was listening to, it's unsurprising that he was more receptive to Donovan's lessons, and the new guitar style he learned allowed him to expand his songwriting, at precisely the same time he was largely clean of drugs for the first time in several years, and he started writing some of the best songs he would ever write, often using these new styles: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Julia"] That song is about Lennon's dead mother -- the first time he ever addressed her directly in a song, though  it would be far from the last -- but it's also about someone else. That phrase "Ocean child" is a direct translation of the Japanese name "Yoko". We've talked about Yoko Ono a bit in recent episodes, and even briefly in a previous Beatles episode, but it's here that she really enters the story of the Beatles. Unfortunately, exactly *how* her relationship with John Lennon, which was to become one of the great legendary love stories in rock and roll history, actually started is the subject of some debate. Both of them were married when they first got together, and there have also been suggestions that Ono was more interested in McCartney than in Lennon at first -- suggestions which everyone involved has denied, and those denials have the ring of truth about them, but if that was the case it would also explain some of Lennon's more perplexing behaviour over the next year. By all accounts there was a certain amount of finessing of the story th