Last night I finished reading The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James (at right in photo, with his brother the novelist, Henry James). 

In this book review, I describe how the book inspired my own variety of religious experience, and I offer some musings about what James’s approach implies for the religious landscape in America 100 years after he delivered the 20 lectures on which the book is based.

My sister’s partner, Tim, talks about Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and the type he has, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), in an interview this morning in a quiet corner of the Radcliffe campus in Cambridge, Mass.

Show Note Links:

The Hoffman Institute

The Hallowell Center

Driven to Distraction by Edward M. Hallowell, M.D.

Delivered from Distraction by Edward M. Hallowell, M.D.

‘Pass It On’ is the authorized AA biography of co-founder Bill Wilson.  It’s a well-told story of the early days of AA, making it clear that this program for recovery from alcoholism did not drop from the sky. It developed in quirky ways, influenced hugely by the personalities of the co-founders. 

This podcast opens and closes with a bit of seasonal music, "We Gather Together" as sung by my family yesterday at our Thanksgiving gathering here in Cambridge, Mass., at my parents’ home.

I am going to try posting new episodes to these Audio Pod Chronicles each Monday and Friday.  On Wednesday I will upload an episode of my video podcast, Mile High Pod Chronicles.  My most recent videoblog episode is "Joy of Great-Grandparenting," starring my grandson James and my parents, who happen to have the same names as AA’s first couple, Bill and Lois.

This is the full audio interview I did two days ago with Danan Henry Roshi, my Zen teacher who is spiritual director of the Zen Center of Denver.  You can see the video version at Mile High Pod Chronicles.

Alexandre O. Philippe, a Denver film maker who is a friend of mine, has an 11-minute short in this year’s Denver Film Festival. It’s titled Left and it portrays, without a single word of dialogue, a deep sense of loss of a loved one.  At tonight’s screening, I happened to sit down next to two stars of Alexandre’s last feature-length film, Earthlings: Ugly Bags of Mostly Water, and they agreed to a quick interview.  Earthlings is a documentary of an institute devoted to preserving the Klingon language created for Star Trek.  The podcast concludes with excerpts from Alexandre’s introductory comments for Left.  After the movie, I recorded an interview with Marilyn Auer, who stars in Left, but my unfamiliarity with my new Edirol R-09 recorder led to the painful discovery that I hadn’t actually been recording when we spoke.

If all the rest of the movies I see at the Denver Film Festival stink, I will still count the festival a success because of "The Lives of Others," a German film released this year about a Stasi agent responsible for spying on a writer and his friends in the mid-1980s in East Germany.  The agent becomes moved by the artists and this poses complications which unfold in a terrific plot, acted to perfection.  The photo is of Gerd Wiesler, the Stasi agent played by (Ulrich Mühe).

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper this afternoon gave a stirring presentation of his vision for the city in the area of arts and culture. The forum was a meeting of the Denver Commission on Cultural Affairs, of which I’m a member.  I flew from Boston last night to attend the meeting and am about to head to the airport now to fly back.  All this time and effort was well rewarded by hearing the Mayor’s talk.  It inspired me to value my work on the Commission and to be glad I can divide me time between two such great areas, Denver and Boston.  Gotta run…

Last night three architects presented their visions for the new Clyfford Still Museum in Denver.  These three finalists brought very different experience and talents.  Denver’s interest in architecture was evident in the approximately 550 people who attended.  In this podcast, I give my impressions of the competitors and offer a guess as to which one will be selected.

UPDATE: Although Still did live in New York City from 1950 until 1961, I erred in calling him a "New York artist," because he was born in North Dakota and studied and taught in Washington state and worked in California before moving to New York. In 1961 he relocated to a farm near Westminster, Maryland, where he remained most of the rest of his life, largely cut off from the rest of the art world. (I gleaned this info from the Wikipedia entry on Still.)

This is the first episode of an all-audio podcast named Audio Pod Chronicles.  Since December, 2005, I have published a combined audio and video podcast, Mile High Pod Chronicles, which will now comprise only videos.  

I am a grandfather, a poet, former journalist and retired natural gas company executive.  I serve on the boards of the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA), and the Denver Commission on Cultural Affairs.  My wife and I live in Denver but travel about half the year, mainly to New England, St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and France.

All these experiences and passions flow into my podcasting.  I’d love to hear from you at PodChronicles@gmail.com or here at my new Libsyn blog.  Show notes for the video podcast are here, and my general blog of writing and photographs is here.

This first episode of Audio Pod Chronicles offers my thoughts on finishing Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness as we near the end of a seven-week Fall Foliage RV Ramble to Québec and New England.  We return the rented 32-foot Southwind motorhome to its owner on Monday.

Good listening.

Michael of Sage and Indigo Juice Company

Today is a big day in the recovery of Sanibel from Hurricane Ian. The Sanibel Island Farmers Market has returned!

I interviewed vendors, shoppers, and Sanibel Mayor Holly Smith this morning at the Jerry’s Supermarket parking lot. If you hear this before the market closes today, come on down!