Podcast appearances and mentions of michael swift

In this episode of the Building Freedom Podcast, host Randy Stanbury sits down with Michael Swift, founder of Swift Construction Company, to explore what it takes to build a thriving and scalable construction business. They break down the 10 Reasons Builders & Remodelers Fail to Grow—from pricing mastery and time management to systems, team building, and marketing.Michael, just starting his business, shares his journey and the lessons he's already learning, while Randy provides guidance on how to avoid common industry pitfalls. Whether you're launching a new company or looking to take your business to the next level, this episode is packed with practical strategies to help you move from working in your business to working on it.Don't miss this conversation on creating freedom, scaling smartly, and building a business that works for you!If you're a Custom Home Builder or Remodeler join us over on our Facebook Group - FREEDOM BUILDERS - where you can join in live videos to ask as many questions as you want and get real-time answers.If you like what you're listening to, we would love it if you could give us a 5-star review! This will help us know we are giving you what you need to grow and succeed as an entrepreneur. Please reach out to us on social media or through our website with other information you might want to hear on upcoming episodes!https://www.4levelcoach.com/https://www.instagram.com/4levelcoach/https://www.facebook.com/4LevelCoach/https://www.linkedin.com/company/4-level-coach

Ireland international Finlay Bealham will become the 7th Connacht player to make 200 caps when they welcome Zebre in the United Rugby Championship on Saturday (20th April 2024). He'll join Denis Buckley, Jack Carty, Kieran Marmion, John Muldoon, Tiernan O'Halloran and Michael Swift in achieving that feat. There's also a first start for Academy graduate Matthew Devine from Ballinasloe. Joining Galway Bay FM's William Davies to preview the game is Connacht assistant attack coach Mark Sexton. == The team in full: Shane Jennings at full back; A three-quarter line of John Porch, Tom Farrell, Bundee Aki and Andrew Smith; Out half JJ Hanrahan partners scrum-half Matthew Devine; A front row of Jordan Duggan, captain Dave Heffernan and Finlay Bealham; Joe Joyce partners Niall Murray behind them; While Shamus Hurley-Langton, Conor Oliver and Sean O'Brien complete the back row. Kick-off at Dexcom Stadium on Saturday is 7.35pm and we'll have LIVE coverage here on Galway Bay FM. == Our Connacht Rugby coverage is brought to you by Murty Rabbitts

Hold on to your socks everyone, because The First Principles of Medicine has assembled the genius brigade for this episode. Listen in as JT, Jason, Michael, Josh, and Broska go through some of their favourite mnemonics to help get YOU through your OSCEs. === Other Links === Check out our new website ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠1pm.wiki⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Notion document⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, free Anki flashcards, and podcast episodes. Check out our Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/firstprinciplesofmedicine/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Recorded 19 October 2023 Co-hosts: JT Yeung, Broska Zeynel, Joshua Naylor, Jason D'Silva & Michael Offerman. Produced by Rushil D'Cruz & Adian Izwan. If you have any ideas or feedback, comment on this Notion document, or shoot us an email at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠hello@1pm.wiki⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ *** We're really excited to be collaborating with Becky from Becky's notes, a UK based resource, to produce infographics for our visual learners out there. Becky's notes brings together all the key topics medical students need to know in a readily available place, reviewed by specialists in the field. These visually striking notes are a refreshing change from all the boring textbooks. You can check her out on Instagram at @beckysnotes01 and get her books at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/Beckysnotes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ === Timestamps === (01:57) History - O&G and Paeds (02:32) Broska - BINDS (03:00) Michael - SMOCC (03:19) Josh - The Nine P's (04:50) Trauma (04:52) JT - AMPLE & MIST (05:34) Jason - WAFL/WASTE (05:53) Communication (05:53) Josh - ICE (06:11) Broska & Michael – medication counselling - MADCAMS vs REAADSS (08:01) Broska - explaining diagnoses UMS RCP (08:35) JT - explaining conditions - DAMPSITE (09:22) Broska - smoking cessation - STAR (09:51) Josh - smoking cessation - 4D's (10:24) JT - lifestyle advice - SNAP W (10:58) Broska & Josh - consenting - PRBRACCC(D) (11:46) Michael - mnemonics for setting (13:14) Jason - DFS (13:39) Michael - SNAPFRESH (14:39) JT - EINPPALS (15:04) Michael - SHENBOXED (16:21) JT - prep4theatre - PACIFFIC (16:53) EXAMINATIONS (16:59) JT - neuro exam - I TOOK PILLS ON RCS (17:23) Josh - I THINK PAVAROTTI REALLY CAN SING (17:48) Michael - SWIFT (18:04) Josh - joints - DR MESS (18:23) JT - GI - BDSM (18:37) Jason - cardiac murmurs - RILE (18:53) Michael - Look, feel, move (19:17) Josh - I Feel Mighty Special (19:36) JT - Cerebella signs - DANISH (20:05) Emergency medicine (20:05) Jason - VBG - HAGMA vs NAGMA (20:58) Broska - indications for dialysis - AEIOU (21:15) Broska - MI - ROMANCE (22:10) Broska - Alternative with secondary prevention - MONABASH (22:30) Josh - APO CXR findings - ABCDE (23:18) Michael - APO management - LMNOP (23:52) JT - Absolute cardiovascular risk calculation - GASSDETH (24:16) Broska - bacterial endocarditis - FROM JANE (24:58) JT - AF - CAR et al. (25:16) JT - risk of stroke - ABCD2 (25:21) Josh - AF - TRAM (25:39) Michael - rheumatic fever - JONES (26:08) Josh - strep throat - CENTOR (26:37) Endocrine (26:37) JT - Hypercalcaemia (27:05) Josh - CUSHINGOID (27:53) JT - GLUCOSE BADDD (28:42) Jason - CRASH & BURN (29:35) Michael - coagulation cascade - intrinsic vs extrinsic (30:02) Psychiatry (30:24) Josh - depression - SIGECAPS (30:54) JT - anxiety - WATCHERS (31:12) Josh - mania - DIGFAAST (31:33) Michael - S/E of SSRI's - Seven S's (32:17) Broska - PTSD - DREAMS (32:50) Josh - EUPD - AIRFIELDS (33:29) Josh - schizophrenia - Delusions Hold Such Bad News (33:55) Josh - schizophrenia negative symptoms - 5A's (34:22) Michael's key takeaways (35:12) Josh's key takeaway (35:25) Broska's key takeaways

Michael Swift, founder of Store And Share Vault Inc. A new addition to the tech world, shares his experience and journey into becoming the designer of something that may save businesses extra space in the office and people extra space in their homes.

5 January 2023 - “Nobody is doubling the number of cell types,” says Steve Quake, “but what we have now is the full molecular portrait of those cell types”. Quake, who led a decade-long effort to create full organism molecular cell atlases, served for six years as co-President of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub. He succeeded neuroscientist Cori Bargmann as Head of Science for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Quake came to biology after undergraduate and graduate work in physics and mathematics, and his research group at Stanford has maintained a strong technological and quantitative focus. On this episode of the EMBO podcast, we discussed what a cell type is, Open Science and preprints (Quake and student Michael Swift are currently experimenting with Review Commons – “the jury's still out,” he says), the role of funders, how to start a company, and much more.

In the Congressional Record from July 27th, 1987, congressman William Dannemeyer shared an essay by gay revolutionary Michael Swift. The essay, which in the past may have been written off by some as a gay utopian dream, was said to be satire. However, there's one very serious problem with that description. Many aspects of it have come true.--Helping that take place has been the massive assault on morality and decency across America. We've seen a push by the LGBTQ- movement-agenda. Children are often targeted and groomed through drag queen story hours, classroom instruction, and even public libraries. --Joining Jim to expose this evil work of darkness was Brian Camenker. Brian is the director of MassResistance, a leading pro-family activist organization which provides information and guidance that individuals need to confront assaults on the traditional family, school children, and the moral foundation of society. They are based in Massachusetts. --This broadcast begin with discussion concerning the American Library Association. Brian described them as a group that's become a lobbying group for the LGBT agenda. You merely need to go to their website where they talk about all of their efforts to push this agenda in libraries. In addition, they talk about protecting librarians from parents who object. In other words, while they have LGBTQ books and programs that they push into the libraries, they also have strategies for subverting parents and public officials who disagree.--The ALA's new president calls herself an avowed, lesbian-Marxist and Brian commented that this should tell you all you need to know about the American Library Association.

In the Congressional Record from July 27th, 1987, congressman William Dannemeyer shared an essay by gay revolutionary Michael Swift. The essay, which in the past may have been written off by some as a gay utopian dream, was said to be satire. However, there's one very serious problem with that description. Many aspects of it have come true.--Helping that take place has been the massive assault on morality and decency across America. We've seen a push by the LGBTQ- movement-agenda. Children are often targeted and groomed through drag queen story hours, classroom instruction, and even public libraries. --Joining Jim to expose this evil work of darkness was Brian Camenker. Brian is the director of MassResistance, a leading pro-family activist organization which provides information and guidance that individuals need to confront assaults on the traditional family, school children, and the moral foundation of society. They are based in Massachusetts. --This broadcast begin with discussion concerning the American Library Association. Brian described them as a group that's become a lobbying group for the LGBT agenda. You merely need to go to their website where they talk about all of their efforts to push this agenda in libraries. In addition, they talk about protecting librarians from parents who object. In other words, while they have LGBTQ books and programs that they push into the libraries, they also have strategies for subverting parents and public officials who disagree.--The ALA's new president calls herself an avowed, lesbian-Marxist and Brian commented that this should tell you all you need to know about the American Library Association.

In the Congressional Record from July 27th, 1987, congressman William Dannemeyer shared an essay by gay revolutionary Michael Swift. The essay, which in the past may have been written off by some as a gay utopian dream, was said to be satire. However, there's one very serious problem with that description. Many aspects of it have come true.--Helping that take place has been the massive assault on morality and decency across America. We've seen a push by the LGBTQ- movement-agenda. Children are often targeted and groomed through drag queen story hours, classroom instruction, and even public libraries. --Joining Jim to expose this evil work of darkness was Brian Camenker. Brian is the director of MassResistance, a leading pro-family activist organization which provides information and guidance that individuals need to confront assaults on the traditional family, school children, and the moral foundation of society. They are based in Massachusetts. --This broadcast begin with discussion concerning the American Library Association. Brian described them as a group that's become a lobbying group for the LGBT agenda. You merely need to go to their website where they talk about all of their efforts to push this agenda in libraries. In addition, they talk about protecting librarians from parents who object. In other words, while they have LGBTQ books and programs that they push into the libraries, they also have strategies for subverting parents and public officials who disagree.--The ALA's new president calls herself an avowed, lesbian-Marxist and Brian commented that this should tell you all you need to know about the American Library Association.

In the Congressional Record from July 27th, 1987, congressman William Dannemeyer shared an essay by gay revolutionary Michael Swift. The essay, which in the past may have been written off by some as a gay utopian dream, was said to be satire. However, there's one very serious problem with that description. Many aspects of it have come true.--Helping that take place has been the massive assault on morality and decency across America. We've seen a push by the LGBTQ- movement-agenda. Children are often targeted and groomed through drag queen story hours, classroom instruction, and even public libraries. --Joining Jim to expose this evil work of darkness was Brian Camenker. Brian is the director of MassResistance, a leading pro-family activist organization which provides information and guidance that individuals need to confront assaults on the traditional family, school children, and the moral foundation of society. They are based in Massachusetts. --This broadcast begin with discussion concerning the American Library Association. Brian described them as a group that's become a lobbying group for the LGBT agenda. You merely need to go to their website where they talk about all of their efforts to push this agenda in libraries. In addition, they talk about protecting librarians from parents who object. In other words, while they have LGBTQ books and programs that they push into the libraries, they also have strategies for subverting parents and public officials who disagree.--The ALA's new president calls herself an avowed, lesbian-Marxist and Brian commented that this should tell you all you need to know about the American Library Association.

Is it hot in here? This week on Smash The Workshop is in full swing, Karen records a demo for Bobby Raskin, and Leigh Conroy has entered the chat! Tom continues to impress us with his one liners, Julia almost ralphs into her scarf, and we say BYE BYE to the lecherous Michael Swift. The episode concludes a bounty of touching moments as Leigh Conroy finally tells Ivy that is a star in the making and a rare tear-jerker acting moment from LEO! Join us for SEASON 1 of "SMASH" and get early access to main episodes on Patreon : www.patreon.com/bsapod

This week on Smash Eileen loses her assistant, Karen gives Ivy a Marilyn lesson, and Leo gets arrested for smoking POT in Central Park! This is only the tip of iceberg as we follow the continuation of John and Tom's clunky date life, Derek torturing Ivy in rehearsal, and a secret goodnight kiss courtesy of Michael Swift and Julia! Its just too MUCH!! Join us for SEASON 1 of "SMASH" and get early access to main episodes on Patreon : www.patreon.com/bsapod Email : thebsapod@gmail.com Twitter : @bsapod Colin Drucker Instagram : @colindrucker_ Nick Kochanov Instagram : @nickkochanov

How ‘bout a little mambo? Its the first day of rehearsal and things are NOT going well for Karen as Ivy pulls a “half diva” on her the entire rehearsal. Eileen is in a financial pickle in funding the workshop, Karen finds outs out that Ivy is sleeping with the Dark Lord, and Tom's blind date is a total package, (even though he could not care LESS). Nick Jonas plays a questionable 12 year old millionaire who is celebrating a birthday at Derek's flat where Julia recruits Michael Swift, Dennis, and ELLIS for an impromptu performance. This episode has got us howling! Join us for SEASON 1 of "SMASH" and get early access to main episodes on Patreon : www.patreon.com/bsapod

This week we are all Redneck Women as we follow Karen on a Karaoke/Baby Shower trip to Iowa and Ivy's choice to save a horse and ride Derek. Eileen purchases some new jewelry, Ellis reaches peak O'Brien realness, and an old flame is rekindled via the casting of Michael Swift. Colin and Nick wrap up the episode with a quick round of "Bop or Flop" in response to Marilyn and Joe DiMaggio's new duet and ponder whats in store for Julia and Michael Swift! Join us for SEASON 1 of "SMASH" and get early access to main episodes on Patreon : www.patreon.com/bsapod Email : thebsapod@gmail.com Twitter : @bsapod Colin Drucker Instagram : @colindrucker_ Nick Kochanov Instagram : @nickkochanov

Well that was pretty gut-wrenching but the saying goes that you learn more from your defeats than your victories, well lets hope Connacht learn some huge lessons from this.We have a bumper podcast, with the voices of Rob Murphy, William Davies, Niall Shiel and Dave Finn all joining host Alan Deegan in trying to make sense of how Connacht managed to throw that one away. We also hear from Connacht legend Michael Swift as well as the post match thoughts of Andy Friend, Niall Murray and Leicester's Steve Borthwick and a cameo appearance from BBC Leicester rugby correspondent Adam Whitty. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Last week on Crosstalk, Jim asked the question, -Have we been given over-- On that program, Jim read from Romans 1, while also reviewing some of the events that had occurred during so-called, Pride Month.--Within 24 hours of the airing of that program, a disgusting video went viral from the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. -According to the Western Journal, some members appear to be convicted pedophiles.- Although alleging to be tongue-in-cheek, the video boasted that the LGBTQ community would convert children of conservative parents and they are coming for them.--The men's chorus received immediate backlash. As a result, the group removed the music video from its channel. Then they released a statement attacking far-right conservative media for reporting the lyrics to the song.--As this broadcast moved along, Jim presented the following---Audio from 2018 when a self-proclaimed drag queen named Dylan Pontiff testified concerning drag queen story hours.--Homosexual related news from Wisconsin.--2 homosexual authors and their desire to see a conversion of the emotion, minds and will of the average American on the issue of homosexuality via a planned psychological attack.--How queer creators pushed the LGBT agenda in kids cartoons.--A gay activist group has convinced Hollywood to increase LGBT representations in TV shows.--A reading from the Congressional Record in 1987 that includes a published essay from gay revolutionary Michael Swift. --Listeners from across America presented their comments to round out this broadcast.

Last week on Crosstalk, Jim asked the question, -Have we been given over-- On that program, Jim read from Romans 1, while also reviewing some of the events that had occurred during so-called, Pride Month.--Within 24 hours of the airing of that program, a disgusting video went viral from the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. -According to the Western Journal, some members appear to be convicted pedophiles.- Although alleging to be tongue-in-cheek, the video boasted that the LGBTQ community would convert children of conservative parents and they are coming for them.--The men's chorus received immediate backlash. As a result, the group removed the music video from its channel. Then they released a statement attacking far-right conservative media for reporting the lyrics to the song.--As this broadcast moved along, Jim presented the following---Audio from 2018 when a self-proclaimed drag queen named Dylan Pontiff testified concerning drag queen story hours.--Homosexual related news from Wisconsin.--2 homosexual authors and their desire to see a conversion of the emotion, minds and will of the average American on the issue of homosexuality via a planned psychological attack.--How queer creators pushed the LGBT agenda in kids cartoons.--A gay activist group has convinced Hollywood to increase LGBT representations in TV shows.--A reading from the Congressional Record in 1987 that includes a published essay from gay revolutionary Michael Swift. --Listeners from across America presented their comments to round out this broadcast.

It’s time for TV Tuesdays, and this week’s episode of “Smash” is all about: Chemistry! This week’s guest is Joey Moser (contributor to Awards Daily), and we go into the romantic drama between Julia and Michael Swift that takes up a lot of space in this episode’s storyline. We also both add points to the “Marilyn Leaderboard”, and the “Karen moment of the week” is revealed! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/inanotherworld/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/inanotherworld/support

Smash’s series finale “The Tonys” premiered on May 26th, 2013. It was the second part of a two-part series finale event that night. The finale was written by season 2 showrunner Joshua Safran, and directed by Michael Morris, who directed the previous episode as well (again, two-parter). And surprise, surprise, the viewership stayed the same from the previous episode (which was an hour ago) which came in at a steady 2.44 million viewers. Our finale’s set list was comprised of three songs: one cover and two originals. Our cover featured the majority of our principal cast singing “Under Pressure” by Queen. For our originals we were treated to a very Pitch-Perfect-esque Tony Performance of the Hit List staple “Broadway Here I Come,” written by Joe Iconis and performed by the full Hit List Cast (sans Mara Davi), and as our finale ultimo, in-house team Marc Shaiman and Scott Whitman took the series home with their original song “Big Finish” sung by our leading-lady duo, Megan Hilty and Katharine McPhee. After two seasons, the companies of Bombshell and Hit List are both “Under Pressure” as they march toward the Marquis Theatre - home of this year’s Tony Award ceremony. With only 12 hours until the big show, Tom and Julia are writing their possible acceptance speech, Derek is drinking to forget that he publicly admitted casting Daisy in exchange for sex, and Leigh and Ivy discuss how the other one has better chances of winning. Jimmy is sabotaging himself by attempting to get out of attending the ceremony, until Julia has a “Come to Jesus” with him to get the balls to attend. Also, Derek is sabotaging himself by attempting to get out of attending the ceremony, until Ivy has a “Come to Jesus” with him to get the balls to attend. But both end up attending, which is good because they both end up accepting awards: Derek for choreographing Hit List and Jimmy on behalf of Kyle of Hit List’s book. Gabe and Lexi are furious that they’ve been called in to perform at the Tony Awards to support Daisy, until Ivy reminds Karen and company that they can refuse to perform with her. When they do, producer Jerry counters by giving Daisy the chance to perform “Reach for Me” instead. But following her win for Best Featured Actor, Derek decides to make it right and take Daisy out of the Tony performance, putting in Karen, Jimmy and (surprise) Ana in an a cappella performance of “Broadway, Here I Come.” After winning for Best Score, newly minted Tony winners Tom and Julia decide to stay together as a writing team. Ivy gives a touching ode to live theatre in her acceptance speech for Best Actress and while Hit List walks away with most of the initial awards, Eileen Rand’s Bombshell takes home the prize for Best Musical. In its closing moments, the cast of Smash couples up - Ivy with Derek, Julia with Michael Swift, Eileen with her formerly imprisoned bartender, Karen with a prison-bound Jimmy- and the series finale ends with as much of a non-sequitur as it began: an out-of-time duet performance by our two divas giving the show a “Big Finish.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Previews,” the penultimate episode of the season, premiered on May 7th, 2012. It was written by David Marshall Grant, and directed by Robert Duncan McNeill (another weird Star Trek connection: Robert McNeill played Lieutenant Tom Paris, also on Star Trek Voyager! So weird….I wonder what the connection is….). The viewership was up from the previous week, being seen by 5.72 million viewers. Thank goodness. Since this episode included Bombshell’s first preview, we heard snippets of all our favorites by Shaiman and Whitman: Let Me Be Your Star, The 20th Century Fox Mambo, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Don’t Say Yes Until I Finish Talking, and a reprise (finale?) of Secondhand White Baby Grand. One newcomer to the original Smash catalog was (get ready for it) the titular song of Smash! sung in its entirety by Megan Hilty and Katherine McPhee. Two covers in this episode were Kurt Weill’s September Song, sung by Anjelica Huston, and Donnie McClurkin’s Stand, sung by Leslie Odom Jr. and Katherine McPhee. The first preview of Bombshell and while Derek doesn’t want to jinx it he thinks the show is in pretty good shape! But Bobby the Soothsayer tells us: ““You go out of town and all hell breaks loose.” He’s right, as Derek and Rebecca continue to canoodle, even after Karen tells her that Derek is seeing Ivy. Michael Swift is back in the show, arriving at the theatre only to be greeted by Julia’s entire family. But despite the backstage drama, the show goes on. In a never-before-seen number, Ivy and Karen lead the female ensemblists in a number that feels wildly reminiscent of 9 to 5 (down to use of a mustachioed Marc Kurdish.) All in all, the show goes well but ends to crickets instead of wild applause.  What’s the problem? Ellis hits the nail of the wig-prepped head, saying “It’s Rebecca. She’s good and all but she’s not landing any of the numbers.” When Ivy finally confronts Derek about his dressing room antics, he tells her “Rebecca needs my attention, and I’m giving it to her. Is there any other approach?” (Spoiler alert: there is.) After accepting Dev’s second take at a marriage proposal, Karen comforts Rebecca about the first preview audience’s poor response to the show. But as she is confiding in Karen, Rebecca has an allergic reaction to her smoothie and gets sent to the hospital.  With previews for the weekend cancelled, but the creative team is plotting about their game plan if Rebecca doesn’t recover in time. The understudy, Karen, hasn’t had any time on stage, but Ivy knows the whole show. Yet, neither gets the chance when it is announced that Rebecca recovered.  And yet while the drama seems high, it all seems to absolve by Sunday morning when Sam gets the entire Smash family goes to church! Wrongs are absolved, sins are forgiven and Karen unexpectedly leads a gospel number. But after the service, Rebecca calls Karen to say that even though she’s not going back into the show and that the production will have to crown a new Marilyn after all!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Tech” premiered on April 30th, 2012. It was written by Jason Grote & Lakshmi Sundaram, and directed by Roxann Dawson. Sadly, viewership dipped back down even despite the surge from the previous week, amounting to a mere 5.34 million. Songs this week mainly featured non-Smash properties: we got an opening montage set to Cole Porter’s “Another Op’nin’, Another Show” sung by Christian Borle, and a cover of Rose Royce’s/Mary J. Blige’s song, “I’m Goin’ Down,” sung this time by Megan Hilty. The other two songs we heard were snippets from tech that we heard in previous episodes: “History is Made at Night” and “The 20th Century Fox Mambo.” It’s “another openin’ of another show” for the company of Bombshell. The company makes the journey from New York to Boston for the show’s pre-Broadway tryout. The Ensemblists are joyously rolling their roller bags through Grand Central Station, Linda the stage manager is ushering costume racks into the dressing rooms.  With the first preview two days away, the show is… not ready for an audience. Derek is on the verge of having a stroke, with the show’s technical elements barely coming together.  The number one rule of tech is: nobody has any time! Derek doesn’t have time to tell Rebecca that her leading man has quit the show for a TV pilot. But when she hears that Eileen is thinking of bringing Michael Swift back, Julia gives an ultimatum: she can have Michael or her on the production but not both.  Rebecca admits to Karen that she’s nervous about performing Marilyn for an audience. For the first time Derek seems to direct, telling Rebecca to “use her star power” in her performance. But he uses and abuses his own star power, giving her shoulder massages that lead to a dressing room make out session.  Ivy goes through her own emotional rollercoaster, starting with Derek saying he loves her before standing in for Marilyn, to being relegated to changing Rebecca’s gloves and listening to her and Derek make out from outside her dressing room. Jessica says “No civilians during tech. We’re in the middle of a war. They don’t get it.” Dev comes up anyway, and while out at a romantic dinner admits proposes to Karen. The following is the verbatim conversation between Dev and Karen after he pulls out the ring: DEV: “Will you marry me?” KAREN: “Marry you?” DEV: “Yeah, it’s not all that crazy, is it?” KAREN: “Of course not, I just don’t know what to say.” DEV: “Say yes.” KAREN: “I’m in tech.” DEV: “...is that the same thing as a yes?” KAREN: “I’m sorry, Dev. I’m just under so much pressure now. Tech is so crazy.” DEV: “It’s sounding more and more like a no.” KAREN: “It’s not a yes or a no. It’s I’m in tech.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Hell on Earth” premiered on April 2, 2012 (Happy...April Fools?). It was written by Scott Burkhardt and directed by Paul McGuigan. The episode was viewed by 6.03 million viewers, which is again down, this time by .11 million. Oof. Featured Songs? Again, no Bombshell music, unless you count the snippet of the “Arthur Miller Medley” that Brian d’Arcy James sang at the piano, but we did get an original song by Shaiman and Whitman from Heaven on Earth, called “The Higher you Get, the Farther you Fall.” We also get a Times Square cover of “Cheers (Drink to That)” by Rihanna. Everybody seems to be moving on after Bombshell workshop. Karen is picking up serving shifts and booking orange juice commercials. Ivy is back in Heaven on Earth, probably forever. But she is definitely not enjoying it, as she rolls her eyes and marks her way through performances and taking prescription pills on the side. Julia’s husband Frank finds sheet music to a song she wrote about former flame Michael Swift. She admits to her affair but Frank storms out, telling her “sorry doesn’t cut it.” Frank confronts Michael, who tells Frank this isn’t the first time they had had an affair. Frank leaves him punched and lying on the sidewalk in front of New York Theatre Workshop, and walks out on Julia and their son Leo.  Out at a Glasshouse Tavern-type doppelganger, the Marilyn cast laments the production’s need to court a star. Jessica leads the charge, stating “Chasing a star is lame. It’s a musical. It’s a new American musical. Why can’t the songs be the star?” Ivy takes it one step further, digging at Karen that “she walks in with the Midwestern moonface and lands everything.” Tom, Julia and Derek discuss stars to replace Ivy in the role of Marilyn, as well as a title for the musical about her. But unknown to Derek, Eileen is also meeting with potential new directors of the Marilyn musical, where she is spotted by New York Post columnist Michael Reidel. Derek fumes when he reads Reidel’s column, but agrees to stay on the project as long as Eileen “finds him a star.” Ellis ends up connecting Eileen with an unseen movie star named Rebecca Duvall. After taking a mysterious prescription at her dressing room station, Ivy takes the Heaven on Earth stage under the influence, falling center stage and getting yelled at by Norbert Leo Butz to “get off the freaking stage.”  In what is the official jumping the shark of Smash, Ivy Lynn storming out of the Shubert Theatre in costume, wig and mic into Times Square. When Karen, who just happens to there to drop off Ivy’s misplaced sunglasses, follows her out Ivy lashes out at her, Ivy yells “You’re nothing special. There are thousands of girls just like you, millions of girls just like you.” Karen then follows Ivy into a liquor store, giving her $20 for a bottle of booze and drinking in public on their way into Duffy Square. They then sing an impromptu duet accompanied by a busker on an electronic keyboard, a drummer on five gallon buckets and two guitarists. Tom and Sam end up at an all-night diner until 5am, on what may or may not be a date. But on the bright side, the episode ends with a title for the new Marilyn musical: Bombshell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“The Workshop” premiered on March 19, 2012. It was written by Jason Grote, and directed by Mimi Leder. The episode premiered to 6.56 million viewers, down about half a mil from the previous week. Being the workshop presentation, we basically saw excerpts of all the original music from Bombshell by Shaiman and Whitman that we have seen thus far, but we also saw a new original song called “On Lexington and 52nd Street” in its entirety which closed out the presentation. We also saw a cover of Colbie Caillat’s “Brighter Than the Sun,” but the tour de force number we got to see was “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” from Gypsy. Investors are coming in tomorrow to watch the workshop presentation of Bombshell. The flame is hot between Julia Houston and Michael Swift, canoodling in the hallways outside the rehearsal room. Ivy Lynn arrives at rehearsal with her mother, Leigh Conroy, who just happens to be a veteran Broadway star in her own right. With only a day before the presentation, rehearsal pauses so that Ms. Conroy can wow the company of Bombshell with an impromptu rendition of “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.” Moments later, rehearsal pauses yet again when Michael Swift’s wife and son barge into rehearsal, causing Julia to storm out of rehearsal and leave rehearsal. Again: the day before the presentation. With all of the personal drama combined with the rehearsal building seemingly crumbling under their feet, Derek Wells wonders if the project is cursed. But Eileen Rand promises him that Bombshell will be a hit “because Marilyn deserved it.” Leigh Conroy won a Tony without drugs but it doesn’t look like Ivy Lynn will be able to claim the same accomplishment, taking sleeping pills the night before the presentation. She confides in Tom Hewitt that “her mother is doing everything she can to undermine her, and Karen Cartwright is being handed everything on a plate.”  The workshop begins with Ivy singing to a swelling imaginary orchestra, but it’s Karen who see dreaming of performing the role of Marilyn. With highlights of the fantasy sequences we’ve seen from the TV series’ first six episodes, we watch both the workshop and the watching of the workshop. Everyone seems to be a bit off of their game, with Ivy falling in a lift, Karen falling off of a platform, and Michael Swift falling head over heels in love with Julia. Amidst the drama, Karen Cartwright records a demo for Bobby Raskin across the street and wins over yet another potential critic with vocals. The next morning at 6am, she gets woken up by a call that Raskin wants to meet her but she skips it to perform in the workshop. The rest of the ensemble questions her decision but she says “she wouldn’t have missed it for the world.” After the workshop, Ivy confronts her mother by drawing a comparison between herself and Marilyn: both were sad and drug-addicted women whose mothers didn’t love them. Leigh tells her that she knows how difficult this business can be, and that even though wishes Ivy would be something else with her life, her day will come because she truly is talented. The team also contemplates the future of Bombshell - and whether Ivy Lynn or Michael Swift will be a part of that future at all... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Chemistry” premiered on March 12, 2012. The episode was written by Jacquelyn Reingold, and was directed by Dan Attias. It premiered live to an audience of 7.04 million viewers. The featured songs in this episode included two covers — Shake it Out by Florence & The Machine and Who You Are by Jessie J — and one original song by Shaiman and Whitman called “History is Made at Night.” Oh yeah, and Karen massacres “Hava Nagila,” if we wanna count that. Changes to the script and score are being made during the workshop of Bombshell, with scenes and songs being moved. Our director Derek Wills isn’t happy with the state of the script, but he’s less happy with his leading lady losing her voice. Ivy Lynn’s voice is inflamed but not infected. While she’s on vocal rest, Bombshell’s creative team begins to contemplate asking Karen Cartwright to take on the part of the workshop’s presentations.  When Derek informs Ivy about this possibility, she takes her first dose of prednisone to help her ailing voice. However, she finds that it gives her night sweats and headaches. Even though she’s “not in good shape,” she still attends rehearsal to prevent Karen from getting a chance at the part. This makes her even more unwell, with side effects including the strangest musical sequence on the series to date.  Karen is daunted by the task of learning the role of Marilyn in a week, but yet she feels like “she can do this!” That confidence is bolstered when she crushes it as the entertainment at the Northport Bar Mitzvah, catching the eye of someone named Bobby Raskin. Our lyricist Julia Houston can’t concentrate on making any edits to the show though because she’s too distracted by her recent smoochfest with her leading man, Michael Swift. But in the process of begging him not to flirt with her, she ends up topless with him in a rehearsal room. Composer Tom Levitt is still trying to decide whether the boring but capable lawyer he’s dating is enough for him.  Eileen Rand is still on the hunt for $7 million in capital, but the workshop is being attended by “Nathan Lane AND the Nederlanders.” But the buzz is good enough for her to lease an apartment on the 87th floor in the Lower East Side that costs $10,000 a month AND buy Ellis multiple $7 martinis.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Let’s Be Bad” premiered on March 5th, 2012. It was written by Julie Rottenberg and Elisa Zuritsky, and directed by Jamie Babbit. As performers in the Bombshell workshop are warming up for the start of a rehearsal day, Derek uses Karen to work on a new sequence for the bridge sequence. Ivy walks in and clearly startled asks “am I late?” Eileen is anxious about the script developments, interrupting Tom in a date with a handsome lawyer who he’s just not that into. But it’s really Julia who is stalling over dinner at Westway Diner with Michael Swift.   Eileen uses sneaky Ellis to spy on Julia’s progress. Derek is pissed about everything going well, even pitting Ivy against Karen by asking Cartwright to perform a tricky vocal passage in front of a full company rehearsal.  In their private rehearsal, Karen graciously apologizes for the awkward situation, which Ivy labels “taking singing lessons from a chorus girl.” Ivy has a lot on her plate but she’s handling it, which she shows both the audience in the rehearsal room and watching on TV with a fully-staged fantasy version of “Let’s Be Bad.” After the rehearsal, Sam confines in Ivy that “This company has too many drama queens as it is.” We find out Sam is gay, even though he likes sports (!)  Afterwards, drunk Ivy confronts Derek at his apartment about why he can’t support her more. Derek tells her he wishes that people “didn’t have those annoying feelings,” to which Ivy yells back “THEATRE IS ABOUT FEELINGS!” Derek the Nightmare gives her a pseudo-apology, which is more than enough for Ivy to spend the night!  Also, Julia’s son gets arrested because she’s out with Michael Swift, who woos her with a front stoop serenade. And Karen learns how to be sexy to help her boyfriend Dev get a leg up in the running for the mayor’s new press secretary. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“The Cost of Art” premiered on February 27, 2012, and was the first episode in the series NOT written and directed by show creator Theresa Rebeck and Michael Mayer. The episode was written by David Marshall Grant, and directed by Michael Morris. At premiere, the episode was viewed live by 6.6 million, but including DVR recording, was viewed by a total of 9.05 million viewers.   There was a lot of music in this episode: Two original songs (History is Made at Night and I Never Met a Wolf Who Didn’t Love to Howl), two snippets of original songs (20th Century Fox Mambo from last ep, and preview of Let’s Be Bad from the next episode), and two covers (Buble’s Haven't Met you Yet and Adele’s Rumor Has It).  The workshop of Bombshell has begun! Michael Swift is in, Julia is avoiding Ellis, and all seems right in the world. We also meet two icons of the Smash Universe. Linda, America's Favorite Stage Manager, played by Ann Harada, and Bobby, the snarky chorus boy everyone loves to loves, played by Wes Taylor.  Ivy enters the rehearsal room to riot, if somewhat random applause from her castmates and Derek gives us the rundown: the workshop is primarily for the ensemble, only some numbers will be staged, some costumes but “basically it’s up to you to sell it.” However, Eileen Rand doesn’t have the $200,000 she needs to finance this workshop. Turns out her soon-to-be-ex-husband Jerry is keeping her from accessing all but $8,000. So she tries to sell a prized Degas sketch hanging in her office to make it happen, but even that it is Jerry’s name.  Karen keeps getting cut from numbers, thanks to sly comments from Ivy. She confides in Jessica, who along with Sue and Bobby, take shipping for LaDuca, new dance clothes and an “intervention.” Which is Chinese food, Marie Kando-ing her closet and performing a dance from routine from their snap and booty shake “dance class.”  Everyone ends up at a party for Lyle West at Derek’s house, which of course has a casual grand piano, a drum set and a saxophonist. Eileen has brought the Degas with her which she offers in exchange for points - IF the show is any good. So there’s an impromptu performance of Bombshell which is enough for Lyle to chip in the $200k. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Enter Mr. DiMaggio” premiered on February 20, 2012. It was written by Theresa Rebeck, and directed by Michael Mayer. It’s only three weeks until rehearsals begin for the workshop of the new Broadway-bound musical Bombshell. However, other than a great idea (that may or may not have been stolen from composer Tom Hewitt’s assistant Ellis) the writing team only have eight songs and half a book ready to go.  Up and upcoming ensemblist Ivy Lynn wonders if the only reason Derek gave her the part for the workshop is because she slept with them. He doesn’t seem to give her any reason to think otherwise, spending his energy on courting Karen for a role in the ensemble.  Meanwhile, the creative team hunts for the rest of the workshop’s cast. They think they’ve found their leading man Joe DiMaggio in Michael Swift, played by Will Chase. Since he is offer only, Eileen and Derek scout him out at an off- off- Broadway Show. But it turns out Michael Swift has a past with our lyricist Julia Houston - they had an affair five years ago!  Karen’s parents are worried about her (still) but she stands up to them, saying “being in the chorus of a workshop is so much bigger than many people get to do.” Dennis tells Tom that Derek and Ivy are dating. Julia confides in Tom about her affair, which Ellis overhears. But Ellis is making his own mistakes, stealing Julia’s notebook of ideas for Bombshell as well as sleeping with his friend/roommate/girlfriend Condola Rashad. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 1.03 Enter Mr. DiMaggio! Aired 2/20/12 Directed by Michael Mayer Written by Theresa Rebeck We discuss Derek’s racism, Jerry’s sexism, Dev’s classism, gender-neutral job titles, the arrival of Will Chase as Michael Swift, the trope of infidelity in screen marriages, Karen’s Iowa friends, Ellis has friends?, bi erasure, queer coded villains, Clarkisha Kent’s The... The post Episode 1.03 – Enter Mr. DiMaggio! appeared first on Talkin Smash!.

Jesus and his disciples went into the villages near Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” They told him, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, and still others one of the prophets.” He asked them, “And what about you? Who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ.” Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone about him. Then Jesus began to teach his disciples: “The Human One must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and the legal experts, and be killed, and then, after three days, rise from the dead. ”He said this plainly. But Peter took hold of Jesus and, scolding him, began to correct him. Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, then sternly corrected Peter: “Get behind me, Satan. You are not thinking God’s thoughts but human thoughts.” I have to confess that this past year has been an unusual one, not only because of the sabbatical, but also because of a wave of deaths of people I’ve known and pastored and worked closely with. It all seem to begin with my friend Michael Swift, the former choir director, who was roughly my age, who passed away from a cancer in Hawaii, after a wonderful career as a nurse.  He was fun to be around, a lovely man, and so smart, and the kind of nurse who you simply trusted within seconds of meeting him. And then recently Joyce from my former congregation in Michigan died of cancer, only a month or so ago – again, a kind and gentle woman whose smile could light up a room. I have two German/English language prayer books from her childhood she gave me before I left the church to pastor here in Chicago – they are on a shelf in my office right now. Amazingly, she and her twin sister died within 2 weeks of each other. Douglas and I lit a candle for her at the Protestant Cathedral in Berlin. Karen, another member of my former congregation in Michigan, died a few weeks – again, a backbone of the church, always handing out the bulletins on Sunday, and sending out her homemade cards she made on her computer, for every occasion, including get well cards for a simple cold.  And then there is Laverne, the church secretary for many years at First Congregational in Houston, who was charter member of that church, and who could tell stories of growing up in Houston before air conditioning become affordable for the masses – Houston without air conditioning is my idea of hell! And Sylvia, who reinvented herself as a mental health counselor after her marriage fell apart and spent decades providing psychological services in an office tucked away in the tower of the Houston church. Both Sylvia and Laverne also passed away within a few weeks of each other. The passing of every one of those souls was a shock to me and it’s not as if they were all unexpected deaths – but when I got the news about each of them, a flood of memories about them would overwhelm my soul, and then the grief and sadness came, even as I have hope and believe to the core of who I am that they are with their Creator, who is love itself, according to Jesus.     Almost all of us in this room have experienced grief at the death of a beloved, human and sometimes not human, and sometimes the force of it can be overwhelming, almost a surprise in its intensity, even if we’ve had a sometimes ambiguous relationship with them. The experts often try to mark out the stages of grief, or they hand us a model for what to expect – but grief is so particular to each person, and ultimately there are no right ways to express grief or even not express it. I watch too much of the television show Dateline, where true-life murders are unraveled, and there is always that detective who states that so-and-so is just not grieving in the right way for the victim, which was their first clue that this person may be guilty of the murder. As someone who has walked beside a lot people in their grief, and have known my own so acutely, I just roll my eyes when officers say stuff like that – there are no ordinary and right ways to grieve – there is just grief, and it comes out in sometimes surprising ways. We can’t judge people’s ways of getting through grief, not really, though certainly there are healthy and unhealthy ways to deal with loss, sorrow and anguish. We can’t know another’s experiences, the complexity of their experience, the ways they’ve been taught and not taught about how to deal with loss.   And yet, it’s not healthy when we decide not to sit with our grief, or when we try to run away from our own sorrow, or even the grief of others, the deep suffering within and without. It’s the very challenge that the disciples in our story are surely struggling with in today’s text, in their denials of the reality that Jesus has set before them – that difficult things, heart rending things will greet them in the coming weeks and they will know grief in ways they have never known before. But first, he asks them a question, a pivotal question, in a pivotal place like Caesarea Philippi, and in a pivotal moment in the story that writer of the Gospel of Mark is telling. Jesus asks them who the people say he is, who do they think he is?  They reply that some think of Jesus as being the resurrection of dead prophets, ones who have died recently, like John the Baptist, and others who have long since gone, Elijah and the prophets of old. “Fine,” he seems to say, “but who do you say that I am” – and the disciples, well, they say he is the Messiah, God’s promised Savior to the people of Israel. When they say Messiah, they imagine with so many of their fellow countrymen that this Messiah would defeat God’s enemies and bring with him a new golden era of Israel, one not even matched by Kings David and Solomon. “Quiet, then, don’t tell a soul what you believe about me,” he tells them. But then Jesus immediately begins to challenge the ideas they have about what a Messiah should be – he tells them that instead of winning he will lose, that instead of defeating his enemies and the enemies of Israel, they will defeat him – they will kill him, though he will rise, he will rise again only three days later. What’s interesting about this moment is two things: first, you should know that Mark says that this took place in Caesarea Philippi, while Matthew and Luke have the story taking place in another town.  Why? Well, scholars think that Mark wants to make some connections to the time Mark and his listeners were living through, years after Jesus’ life and resurrection, but during the Jewish Civil War fought against the Romans some forty years later. At the time this Gospel was likely written, Caesar Philippi had being used by the Romans as Prisoner of War camp, holding the Jewish revolutionaries who had rebelled against Rome – and in Caesarea Philippi they tortured and killed them in a public manner, as a signal to the population that if you do what these men did, this will be your fate as well– the Romans were always about public displays of state cruelty so as to send a message to the conquered populace. With this horrific scene in our mind, the writer of Mark, in words following today’s verses, but not printed in your bulletin, the writer has Jesus telling his disciples that they must deny themselves, take up their cross, and possibly lose their life for the sake of the Gospel. All of this is said in a city whose streets have only recently run crimson with the blood of Jewish martyrs, men who had laid down their lives in an effort to throw off the shackles of Rome.   But only moments before this call to follow after Jesus, to take up a cross and follow him, we see Peter literally taking hold of Jesus, grabbing him, so distraught was he about Jesus’ words about dying and rising, that Peter tries to correct him – “don’t be a fool, Jesus, Messiahs don’t die, they live, they win, they defeat the enemies of God.” But Jesus won’t be dismissed, won’t be corrected by someone who doesn’t know what he is talking about – and he literally calls Peter Satan, and says that he is thinking human thoughts rather than divine thoughts – thinking like people who crave revenge and victory rather this new thing he is doing that will defeat the sting of death in the act of resurrection, for all of humankind. What’s interesting here is that Peter, and certainly some of the other disciples, is that they don’t want Jesus to be like them, they don’t want him to be human, to live and die as humans must, and always will – to them, a Messiah who can die is a pretty useless Messiah. Jesus shouldn’t be like us, hostage to the sting and the horror of death, the fear that knocks at the door of even the bravest and most faithful of us. Messiah’s don’t know death – and there shouldn’t be any need for a Messiah to rise after three days because he shouldn’t be dead in the first place! But it’s the beautiful taut tension that runs throughout the Jesus story, this belief that Jesus was as a human as we are, that he felt love and knew joy, felt desire, and knew grief, knew it as deeply as we did. And yet, Jesus was somehow also something altogether different than human – not a different creature, but somehow, mysteriously was divinity itself walking through the streets of Caesarea Philippi, healing the sick, stilling the storms and simply showing us the face of God in ways we had humans had never seen it before. Jesus was not simply God disguised as one of us, but God was actually one of us, one of us humans. But to be human, to do what God has done in Christ means that God now knows not only the joy and love and laughter and family and friendship that comes with being human.  It also means God knows pain, knows loneliness, knows despair, and knows human grief, knows that it means to lose a beloved to death, to life on the other side of life. We Christians call this idea of God being both fully human and fully God the doctrine of the incarnation, this crazy idea that God came to humankind thousands of years ago in the form of a peasant from a backwater town, and was immersed in the world as deeply as we are, completely awash in the human experience as we all are here in this room. Since the very beginning we Christians have tried to make sense of the meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection – the debate is all over our New Testament and continues even today. One of the ways some Christians have explained what God did in Christ, what God brought to humankind in the Christ, the possibility of wholeness, salvation, is that God entered into the human experience through this Jesus and that has made all the different – it changed God and it changed us. Gregory of Naznanius, one of the great theologians of the 4th century, said this: “that which he has not assumed he has not healed.”  “That which God has not assumed, that God has not entered into, God has not healed, maybe cannot heal.”  God cannot heal us or the world if God has not entered into the world. Listen to the story of the shaman we heard in our modern lesson, the one that heals through the experience of “feeling with” the patient: “I feel for the sores, the aches and the pains. When I put my hand over the body I can feel every little muscle and every little vein. I can feel the soreness. It hurts me. If they have heart trouble, my heart just beats. Any place they are hurting, I hurt. I become a part of their body.  There is something about entering into the human experience that changes the healer and healed, the Creator and the creation, and many Christians, including myself, believe that God’s choice to do such a thing, to enter into the joy and into the hurt of the world, it somehow gave us the possibility of wholeness. The God who created us, the God who walks beside us in the Christ, and the God who is within us through the Spirit, this God knows our pain, our joy, our grief, our love, our hurt, our fear, our strength and now even our death, and somehow this choice by God to do so has changed God, and can change us, if we will only allow it to. Wholeness is possible, perhaps not completely on this side of the veil, but wholeness in particular moments, that wholeness really is possible because of what God has done in Christ.     But, like God, we, you and I have a choice about whether or not to enter into the world of others, of the life of the greater world, to listen to what is difficult to hear, to what is difficult to understand, the choice to listen to the stories of others, to their truths, their sorrows, to their joys. I talked last week about the need for us Christians to listen to others, to each other, and to God – to echo Matt Smucker’s summary of my sermon, “my pastor said we should shut up and listen!” Part of the reason why I think that is good advice is that it’s exactly what God did through Jesus – God listened to us, and though certainly God spoke to us through Jesus, God also listened to us, and I think the listening made all the difference. And because God listened to us, we should listen to each other, and in listening to each other, we’re sometimes going to hear God speaking through others.  But we humans don’t have to, do we, we don’t have to listen to each other, and to listen to the pain and suffering of the world. Some of us spend a lot of time avoiding having to listen to anything that hurts, that feels what the shaman feels, the hurt of the world and others, and we are like Peter, wishing not to look at the reality, the difficult reality of it that is before him. Some of us only want to surround ourselves with joy, laughter, goodness, and I am tempted by impulse, and sometimes seek out only the light – and there is nothing wrong with that, of seeking to laugh sometimes or even most of the time – and sometimes you just need to watch a bunch YouTube videos showcasing puppies to get through the day! But it’s funny, I think, that even then sorrow can creep into our joy, something I was reminded of this summer during my sabbatical. To get away from the heat in Zurich, Douglas and I went to see Mamma Mia 2 in a nice cool theater, and though the films are nothing but cotton candy, they do have Abba songs, which was the music of my childhood – and usually I just find myself smiling throughout the movie, just smiling with quiet joy.  But this particular time, right there, in this joyous, fun movie, I just started crying because memories just flooded into my mind, memories of my deceased mother and I dancing to Abba when I was seven years old in the 1970’s, dancing with the kind of abandon I don’t think I’ve ever replicated as an adult. Joy and sadness, all mixed up, surely, as it with so much of life, so connected to each other and so impossible they are to sometimes disentangle from each other.   But moments like the one I experienced in that theater are what we are asked to experience, to do what God has done, to take a chance on this world, to choose what God has chosen, to not always look away. Look, I know there are times when it is impossible to not listen, to not look – the cross is before you and me and there is no going back – it just must be gotten through, just gotten through so we can get to our third day, the day of our resurrection. But so often we won’t listen and we won’t look because we fear that what awaits us in our personal Jerusalems will somehow consume us, or destroy us. Sometimes we do have to look away, just to survive – emotional denial is a real and sometimes needed human coping mechanism. But, in the end, we can’t change what we can’t look at, what we can’t listen to, within us, or within the world – that truth is what God seemed to have discovered in the Christ, and what Gregory of Nazianus was trying to say when he said “that which he has not assumed, he has not healed.” It seems that God decided to change the world from the inside out, in and through the Christ, and I think that’s the only way, changing ourselves and the world from the inside out, is the only way we’re going to be able to do the same. So, we have a God who knows joy, who knows pain, and, for me, a God who knows grief, my grief, my human grief, our human grief. And for me that is a God worth journeying towards Jerusalem with, a God who we can trust to meet us in our crucifixion and who knows that resurrection can and will meet on the other side, on that great and surprising and amazing third day.  Amen.

Hugh Cahill is joined by Michael Swift & Donal Lenihan as Leinster and Munster drop out of Europe. Rassie Erasmus & Jonathan Sexton provide reaction from the provinces. Ulster’s playoff hopes come up for discussion and is enough being done with the scheduling of clubs games to give the AIL a better chance of being in the shop window.

The season isn't over, Connacht might have lost 24-20 to the Ospreys on Saturday but thanks to Leinster's win over Edinburgh, they held onto 7th spot and are now heading to Gloucester next Sunday for the Champions Cup qualification play off. It was a day of mixed emotions on Saturday, a truly abysmal first half display saw Connacht trail 24-0 but a thrilling second half effort restored pride and will offer hope ahead of a tricky test away to Gloucester. Host Rob Murphy is joined by Alan Deegan, William Davies and Dave Finn for the podcast. We start with an 'as it happened' segment from during the game plus we hear from Dan McFarland, Michael Swift, John Muldoon and Pat Lam.

After Connacht's 53-5 home win over Treviso they now hold a six point advantage over the Scarlets in the Pro 12 table as the race for sixth intensifies. The final six rounds are going to be hair raising stuff with Cardiff away next on the cards for Pat Lam's men this Friday. The Craggy podcast crew take you through the game first and then meet in the Huntsman to dissect a seven try to one victory over the Italians. William Davies, Alan Deegan and Dave Finn join host Rob Murphy for the chat in front of a live audience. The game kicked off just minutes after Ireland's fantastic win over England in the Six Nations and the fact that young Connacht star Robbie Henshaw had such a staring role doesn't go without a mention or two. There's post game audio from Pat Lam, Aly Muldowney, Craig Ronaldson and Tiernan O'Halloran and a long overdue salute to the soon to be retired Connacht rugby legend Michael Swift.