Beautiful Meloncholy

Today I listened to a podcast called To The Best of Our Knowledge from Wisconsin Public Radio.  This is a podcast that I really enjoy, but hasn't made it into my weekly rotation. And really it should, because the shows are really interesting and kind of similar to This American Life where they take a topics and do short news/non-fiction pieces about it.  The episode I listened to today was called Why Do We Love Sad Songs.  And I was introduced to this amazing piece of music called Adagio for the Strings by Samuel Barber:


It premiered on the radio in the late 1930s but gained popularity as song played at funeral after being played several times following the death of FDR.

Spelunking

In honor of finally being able to hear the latest series of Cabin Pressure, a BBC Radio 4 show that I adore, I thought I would write a post about discovering shows like Cabin Pressure.  While living in Ohio, I got used to listening to audiobooks from time to time (my local library had quite a selection).  So when I moved home, I tried the website Audible.com which lets you download a variety of audio programs which, fortunately for me, includes BBC radio shows.  The first thing I search for was David Mitchell and Robert Webb, who are the creators of a TV show I enjoy called That Mitchell and Webb Look.  And then I decided to look up actors that I really like.  The first was Marcus Brigstock, who wrote in and starred in a one season show called The Savages.  And I discovered this weird but funny radio show The Museum of Everything (which I can't really accurately describe). This was followed by searching for Benedict Cumberbatch (who Steven Moffat or BBC fans will know plays Sherlock in the updated series).  And through that I discovered the show Cabin Pressure which is a work place series that takes place in a small contract private airline.  I really love this show, it is a great combination of warmth, cynicism, and humor.  It doesn't hurt that is was written by John Finnemore who also worked on That Mitchell and Webb Look.  But I think on my favorite discoveries is Richard Armitage (of North and South and The Vicar of Dibley) narrating the work of Georgette Heyer, who wrote Regency novels.  And so those audiobooks represent the meeting of two things that I love.  Until Alan Rickman starts recording audiobooks (can you believe that he doesn't? I would listen to him reading the phonebook), Richard Armitage will do in a pinch (I've listened to one several times while falling asleep).  By searching for actors that I enjoy, I was able to find other projects from these actors that I truly enjoy.