ghostlight radio | index

Hey kids! Here's a bunch of links to some favourite episodes of my late night pirate radio show, variously called Ghostlight Radio or Soul Food: The Ghost Light Season (or even Soul Food Ghost Light: Summer Edition). See, the essence of effective marketing is to have a memorably product name and stick to it. Uh huh.

It started in 2020 as a way to keep in touch with Pacific Theatre folks when the pandemic set in, but the next summer I rebooted as one of those middle-of-the-night FM radio shows from back in the seventies and eighties. Pirate radio. Music and stories, poetry, random bits of audio. One misguided listener calls it "the Platonic ideal of late night radio." But he's a poet, so they're often out of touch with reality.

Click on any of the titles below to listen to specific episodes. You can also subscribe through most podcast apps, EXCEPT Spotify - in a very pointed irony, they dropped the show because it features recorded music. Which they play on their service and pay the artists pennies. At least I admit to being a pirate. 

There are 43 episodes so far. Here are some of my favourites, just click on the titles. You can find descriptions and links to all the others through this link. 

The Summer Edition #1

Jul 12, 2021

We're back!  Mostly music this summer, with odd bits of other stuff.  Ibrahim Ferrer, Percy Faith, The Flamingos, The Ink Spots, Rita Payés, Vic Damone, The Temptations, The Miracles, Bob Dylan, Toots & The Maytals, Etta James, Penguin Cafe Orchestra. Also the Top Ten Thousand anniversary, Danny Finkleman, Ross Porter, road trips, Dad and daughters and granddaughters and music, summer weddings, Barcelona jazz, Joe Versus the Volcano, Omega Man, The Princess and the Warrior. 

Taking The Show On The Road

Aug 7, 2021

Tonight we take our show on the road, with traveling companions Ira Glass, Carolyn Arends, Zaac Pick, Michael Bernard Fitzgerald, Chuck Berry, Charlie Peacock, Bobbies Dylan and Troup, Spencer Capier, Michael Hart, the Nordic Chamber Choir, and the Road Scholars. Buckle up, Radioland.

Late Night Memories of Summer

Aug 21, 2021

Summer jobs in the Okanagan and fated encounters on "the ragged green edge of the world" - Susan Alexander thinks back to Osoyoos and I return to Tofino. We also remember summer music festivals with Sweet Honey In The Rock and The Original Sloth band, explore Nelson Boschman's Top Tunes 'o Summer, and soak in the sounds of Corinne Bailey Rae, Kacey Musgraves, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Boz Scaggs, The Langley Schools Music Project, a Daniel Amos side project, and a couple George Harrison tunes, one from his solo years, the other with his first band, the quaintly named "Beatles." Summer ain't over yet!

Thankful All Over

Oct 8, 2021

Thanksgiving weekend! At least here in Canada. So of course we'll visit an elevator in Utah, a place that sells used office furniture in Los Angeles, out on San Fernando Road, an unemployment office in France, the Hitsville recording studio in Detroit, a sheep farm in Kentucky, even (if only for a moment) a children's home in Liverpool...  Folks are thankful all over the place!  Pull up a chair and join us for a fine turkey dinner, with all the trimmings.  Updated October 20, to make room at the table for the Mad Farmer himself, Mr. Loren Wilkinson. 

Broadcast Like No One's Listening!

Oct 20, 2021

A tribute to radio DJs everywhere, from the Good Ship Ghost Light - Lester the Nightfly, The Count, Deke Duncan, Gary Keillor, Symphony Sid, and that Top Ten Thousand guy, whatever his name was. 

Show Tunes (but not THAT kind of show tunes), Pt 1

Jan 28, 2022

January 27, 2021 was host Ron Reed's last day on the job as Head Chef at the Pacific Theatre Diner, and tonight he and Jack Nicholson mark the one year anniversary of that occasion by looking back at some of Ron's favourite PT shows, and the music that enhanced their distinctive Soul Food flavour.  The Casino, The Foreigner, Tent Meeting, A Bright Particular Star, and more - tasty tunes from skits that schmeck. 

Show Tunes (but not THAT kind of show tunes), Pt 2

Feb 26, 2022

Just before disappearing into the rehearsal hall to work on Pacific Theatre's "How The World Began," Ron looks back on some more of his favourite shows, and their music: Mercy Wild, Jesus My Boy, You Still Can't, Godspell, The Disappearing, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Doubt, The Rainmaker.  Just keeping that Ghost Light burning...

Back On The Air!

Nov 8, 2024

We're back! Had ourselves some shore leave - almost three years worth, that oughta do - and it seems like high time to unfurl the sails, unpack the microphone, and start spinning some tunes once again. New releases and really old favourites, requests and discoveries, flotsam and jetsam, just right for this present moment. Or any moment, come to think of it...

No Particular Place To Go

Nov 22, 2024

We're playing exactly what we feel tonight on Ghost Light pirate radio, from Robert Zimmerman to Doris Mary Anne Keppelhoff, Domenico Modugno to Gary Keillor. The mailbag is full to bursting - Iwan from Cardiff, Tim from Saskatoon, Jack from Des Moines and Norm from Etobicoke - as we ruminate on happenings great and terrible, from Bakersfield to the moon.

True North

Dec 6, 2024

Sixty years of Canadian music - and radio! - in an hour and a quarter. We'll take a road trip with the son of a Saskatchewan premier, travel from the Cowichan Valley to Vancouver to Winnipeg to Toronto in search of CanCon, check up on some illustrious expats, and tune in the voices and sounds of a couple generations of north-of-the-49th radio. And you out east, don't worry, we'll pick up the cross-country journey after Christmas. Maybe call it "Strong and Free." 

Overdue Finds

Jan 1, 2025

We're clearing out the Soul Food closet, hauling out all the neglected-but-not-forgotten treasures that didn't quite fit in episodes past. Discoveries old and new: music very old and brand spankin' new, poems about love from many sides - up and down, win and lose, break-ups past and pending - and stories about songs I've been waiting too long to tell. There might even be stuff I found in a book or two that I need to get back to the library...

Where You Been?

Jan 1, 2026

Happy New Year! The good ship Ghostlight is back, freeform radio that bids goodbye to the first quarter of the twenty-first century. A few farewells, a bit of poetry and a load of tunes to welcome a new year and launch a new season of soul-feedin' sounds.

stefan brunhoff | landscape + figurative painting | mar 7, basic inquiry gallery

advance notice of Stefan Brunhoff's one man art show of landscape and figurative paintings 

opens March 7, 6-9 pm

  

Basic Inquiry Studio and Gallery

1011 Main St. Just S. of Georgia St. on the W. side

paul & audrey | by paul rogers

 

Audrey

Dave Brubeck, feat. Paul Desmond

story and illustrations by Paul Rogers

The New Yorker, February 1, 2021

my movie montages

I love the movies. And I like making things. So I spend a lot of time making movies out of the movies. Here are links to some of my ongoing montage projects.  (Note: They're always best with headphones, or good speakers. The bigger the screen the better. Probably best at the theatre, or a gallery...)

Installation: 

Dal Schindell Gallery 

Sep 16 - Oct 3, 2026

Gallery closed Sundays

Several of my long form film montages will be featured this fall in the gallery at Regent College on the UBC Campus. The centrepiece will be the premiere of the 12-hour Date Movie, which moves through the twelve months of the calendar year using date-specific clips from thousands of films. Timepiece, which premiered in 2025 at the Richmond Cultural Centre, moves through twenty-four hours of clock time in one hour, a tribute to Christian Marclay's video masterwork The Clock. Also premiering will be the Cinema Prayer Chapel, a contemplative space featuring prayers of every kind drawn from world film, as well as other works celebrating the movies and movie-going.

gallery website

Date Movies

The whole obsession began with the project of finding date references in movies.  On June 6, 2004, I marked the 60th anniversary of D-Day by watching The Longest Day, which led to a search to find one movie for each day in the calendar year, undertaken by several participants in the Arts & Faith online conversation board. Which eventually led to the idea of creating mashups of multiple film clips representing specific days of the year, usually the birthdays of friends. I've created almost 100 such videos,  but many were posted on a defunct Vimeo account. Here are links to a handful I've put up on YouTube.

Jan 6  

Feb 7 

Feb 21 

Mar 1 

Apr 19 

May 13 

Jun 3 

Jun 7  

Jun 19 

Jul 12 | with extended credits 

Jul 30 

Sep 2  

Sep 11  

Oct 2  

Oct 30

Dec 22  

 

Another iteration of this whole dates-in-movies project was to build a thirty minute montage with one clip for each calendar day. I really like it. 

A Year At The Movies In Half An Hour

or one month at a time... (September is my favourite)

A Month At The Movies In Two And A Half Minutes 

January | dates only | dates titles events 

February | dates only | dates titles events

March | dates only | dates titles events

April | dates only | dates titles events

May | dates only | dates titles events

June | dates only | dates titles events

July | dates only | dates titles events

August | dates only | dates titles events

September | dates only | dates titles events

October | dates only | dates + titles 

November | dates only | dates + titles   

December | dates only | dates titles events 

I prefer the versions with no titles, just a stream of images and sound. But if you're curious about what movies the clips are from, or about the events depicted, there are versions including those things as well 

Dial V for Video

A tribute to video stores, a trailer for International Independent Video Store Day. 40 movies in 4:32.  Here.  

Good Time Diner

My son-in-law plays in a band, and they thought it would be a blast to project movie clips behind them while they play, and during breaks. So I got to make some really long montages! Welcome to the diner! Here's a minute-and-a-half trailer for one of their gigs, but unfortunately there are restrictions for viewing the longer montages. 

NT GUILTY: You need a good lawyer?

Movie clips about lawyers and the law, a graduation present for my daughter Katie's graduation from law school. Probably my favourite. Montage, not daughter.  Here. 

The Movies Go To The Movies: Marquees

A chronology of movie-going, as seen in the movies. A work in progress; here's an early version, starting with a 1915 screening of "The Curse Of Drink" at The Gem (from the film "On Moonlight Bay") through to "The Bicycle Thief" at The Rialto in 1991 (as seen in "The Player"). 

Earth Day International Film Festival: End of the World Edition

And here's the trailer for an imaginary film festival. Just for fun, to pass the time during the pandemic.

photos | mark menjivar | refrigerators

 

midwife / middle school science teacher

bartender

short order cook

street advertiser

lots more fridge photos at mark menjivar.com

dorothy parker on ernest hemingway

I have heard of him, both at various times and all in one great bunch, that he is so hard-boiled he makes a daily practice of busting his widowed mother in the nose; that he dictates his stories because he can’t write, and has them read to him because he can’t read; that he is expatriate to such a degree that he tears down any American flag he sees flying in France; that no woman within half-a-mile of him is a safe woman; that he not only commands enormous prices for his short stories, but insists, additionally, on taking the right eye out of the editor’s face; that he has been a tramp, a safe-cracker, and a stockyard attendant; that he is the Pet of the Left Bank, and may be found at any hour of the day or night sitting at a little table at the Select, rubbing absinthe into his gums; that he really hates all forms of sport, and only skis, hunts, fishes, and fights bulls in order to be cute; that a wound he sustained in the Great War was of a whimsical, inconvenient, and inevitably laughable description; and that he also writes under the name of Morley Callaghan. About all that remains to be said is that he is the Lost Dauphin, that he was shot as a German spy, and that he is actually a woman, masquerading in man’s clothes. And those rumors are doubtless being started, even as we sit here.

He is in his early thirties, he weighs about two hundred pounds, and he is even better than those photographs. The effect upon women is such that they want to go right out and get him and bring him home, stuffed. Heaven help him, if he ever settles in New York and is displayed to the sabre-toothed ladies of stage, pen, salon, and suburb who throng the local Bohemian gatherings. He is susceptible to flattery, and then is stuck with the flatterer. He is afflicted with deep-seated illness in the presence of unhappily married women who are interested in the Arts.

The New Yorker

November 23, 1929

photo | lothhar wolleh | rene and georgette magritte with their dog after the war

Lothar Wolleh, 1967

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ7sL9rdl58

Paul Simon, 1983

photo | venizia | david nykl

 

steveston

 

photo | lincoln clarkes | happy canoe year

 

pender lake, vancouver 1997

rollieflex camera

"Simon borrowed his father’s canoe and we cut a hole in the fence. 

After an hour security guards threatened to call the police if we didn’t immediately leave."

bob dylan | things have changed

bob dylan cover by danny michel & superspreader

A worried man with a worried mind

No one in front of me and nothing behind

There's a woman on my lap and she's drinking champagne

Got white skin and assassin's eyes

I'm looking up into the sapphire tinted skies

I'm well dressed and waiting on the last train

I'm standing on the gallows with my head in a noose

Any minute now I'm expecting all hell to break loose

     People are crazy and times are strange

     I'm locked down tight, I'm out of range

     I used to care, but things have changed

This place ain't doing me any good

I'm in the wrong town, I should be in Hollywood

Just for a second there I thought I saw something move

I'm gonna take dancing lessons do the jitterbug rag

Ain't no shortcuts, gonna dress in drag

Only a fool in here would think he's got anything to prove

Lotta water under the bridge, lotta other stuff too

Don't get up gentlemen, I'm just passing through

     People are crazy and times are strange

     I'm locked down tight, I'm out of range

     I used to care, but things have changed

I've been walking forty miles of bad road

If the bible is right, the world will explode

I've been trying to get as far away from myself as I can

But some things are too hot to touch

The human mind can only stand so much

You can't win with a losing hand

I feel like falling in love with the first woman I meet

Putting her in a wheel barrow and wheeling her down the street

     People are crazy and times are strange

     I'm locked down tight, I'm out of range

     I used to care, but things have changed

I hurt easy, I just don't show it

You can hurt someone and not even know it

The next sixty seconds could be like an eternity

I'm Gonna get lowdown, I'm gonna fly high

All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie

I'm love with a woman who don't appeal to me

Mr. Jinx and Miss Lucy, they jumped in the lake

I'm not that eager to make a mistake

     People are crazy and times are strange

     I'm locked down tight, I'm out of range

     I used to care, but things have changed

     Yes, I used to care, but things have changed

photo | michael pasche

 

photo | london, 2017 | robert smyth

fred herzog | staircase, 1958

 

fred herzog | barber shops

pope leo xiv talks movies

Dear brothers and sisters,

Although cinema is now over a century old, it is still a young, dreamlike and somewhat restless art form. It will soon celebrate its 130th anniversary, counting from the first public screening by the Lumiere brothers in Paris on 28 December 1895. From the outset, cinema was as a play of light and shadow, designed to amuse and impress. However, these visual effects soon succeeded in conveying much deeper realities, eventually becoming an expression of the desire to contemplate and understand life, to recount its greatness and fragility and to portray the longing for infinity.

Dear friends, I am happy to greet and welcome you. I also express my gratitude for what cinema represents: a popular art in the noblest sense, intended for and accessible to all. It is wonderful to see that when the magic light of cinema illuminates the darkness, it simultaneously ignites the eyes of the soul. Indeed, cinema combines what appears to be mere entertainment with the narrative of the human person’s spiritual adventure. One of cinema’s most valuable contributions is helping audiences consider their own lives, look at the complexity of their experiences with new eyes and examine the world as if for the first time., In doing so, they rediscover a portion of the hope that is essential for humanity to live to the fullest. I find comfort in the thought that cinema is not just moving pictures; it sets hope in motion.

Entering a cinema is like crossing a threshold. In the darkness and silence, vision becomes sharper, the heart opens up, and the mind becomes receptive to things not yet imagined. In reality, you know that your art form requires concentration. Through your productions, you connect with people who are looking for entertainment, as well as those who carry within their hearts a sense of restlessness and are looking for meaning, justice and beauty. We live in an age where digital screens are always on. There is a constant flow of information. However, cinema is much more than just a screen; it is an intersection of desires, memories and questions. It is a sensory journey in which light pierces the darkness and words meet silence. As the plot unfolds, our mind is educated, our imagination broadens, and even pain can find new meaning.

Cultural facilities, such as cinemas and theaters, are the beating hearts of our communities because they contribute to making them more human. If a city is alive, it is thanks in part to its cultural spaces. We must inhabit these spaces and build relationships within them, day after day. Nonetheless, cinemas are experiencing a troubling decline, with many being removed from cities and neighborhoods. More than a few people are saying that the art of cinema and the cinematic experience are in danger. I urge institutions not to give up but to cooperate in affirming the social and cultural value of this activity.

The logic of algorithms tends to repeat what “works,” but art opens up what is possible. Not everything has to be immediate or predictable. Defend slowness when it serves a purpose, silence when it speaks and difference when evocative. Beauty is not just a means of escape; it is, above all, an invocation. When cinema is authentic, it does not merely console but challenges. It articulates the questions that dwell within us and sometimes even provokes tears that we did not know we needed to express.

In this Jubilee Year, the Church invites us to journey towards hope. Your presence here from so many different countries, and your artistic work in particular, is a shining example. Like so many others who come to Rome from all over the world, you too are on a journey as pilgrims of the imagination, seekers of meaning, narrators of hope and heralds of humanity. Your journey is not measured in kilometers but in images, words, emotions, shared memories and collective desires. You navigate this pilgrimage into the mystery of human experience with a penetrating gaze that is capable of recognizing beauty even in the depths of pain, and of discerning hope in the tragedy of violence and war.

The Church esteems you for your work with light and time, with faces and landscapes, with words and silence. Pope Saint Paul VI once spoke to artists, saying: “If you are friends of genuine art, you are our friends,” recalling that “this world in which we live needs beauty in order not to sink into despair [Address of Pope Paul VI to Artists, 8 December 1965]. I wish to renew this friendship because cinema is a workshop of hope, a place where people can once again find themselves and their purpose.

Perhaps we could bear in mind the words of David W. Griffith, one of the great pioneers of the seventh art. He once said, “What the modern movie lacks is beauty, the beauty of the moving wind in the trees.” His reference to the wind cannot but remind us of a passage from John’s Gospel: “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” [3:8]. In this regard, dear seasoned and novice filmmakers, I invite you to make cinema an art of the Spirit.

In the present era, there is a need for witnesses of hope, beauty and truth. You can fulfill this role through your artistic work. Good cinema and those who create and star in it have the power to recover the authenticity of imagery in order to safeguard and promote human dignity. Do not be afraid to confront the world’s wounds. Violence, poverty, exile, loneliness, addiction and forgotten wars are issues that need to be acknowledged and narrated. Good cinema does not exploit pain; it recognizes and explores it. This is what all the great directors have done. Giving voice to the complex, contradictory and sometimes dark feelings that dwell in the human heart is an act of love. Art must not shy away from the mystery of frailty; it must engage with it and know how to remain before it. Without being didactic, authentically artistic forms of cinema possess the capacity to educate the audience’s gaze.

In conclusion, filmmaking is a communal effort, a collective endeavor in which no one is self-sufficient. While everyone recognizes the skill of the director and the genius of the actors, a film would be impossible without the quiet dedication of hundreds of other professionals including assistants, runners, prop masters, electricians, sound engineers, equipment technicians, makeup artists, hairstylists, costume designers, location managers, casting directors, special effects technicians and producers. Every voice, every gesture and every skill contributes to a work that can only exist as a whole.

In an age of exaggerated and confrontational personalities, you demonstrate that creating a quality film requires dedication and talent. Thanks to the gifts and qualities of those whom you work alongside, everyone can make their unique charisma shine in a collaborative and fraternal atmosphere. May your cinema always be a meeting place and a home for those seeking meaning and a language of peace. May it never lose its capacity to amaze and even continue to offer us a glimpse, however small, of the mystery of God.

*

The speech was delivered to an audience that included Viggo Mortensen, Cate Blanchett, Greta Gerwig, Julie Taymor & Elliot Goldenthal, Azazel Jacobs, David Lowery, Monica Bellucci, Marco Bellocchio, Alba Rohrwacher, Darren Aronofsky, Spike Lee & Tonya Lewis Lee, Judd Apatow & Leslie Mann, Chris Pine, Sally Potter, Dave Franco & Alison Brie, Adam Scott, Gus Van Sant, Kenneth Lonergan & J. Smith Cameron, Joanna Hogg, Gaspar Noe, Albert Serra and Bertrand Bonello. The coterie of film festival chiefs in attendance included Vanya Kaludjercic from Rotterdam, TIFF’s Cameron Bailey, Locarno’s Giona Nazzaro, Sundance director Eugene Hernandez and Sundance Institute board chair (and filmmaker) Ebs Burnough.

Earlier this week, the Pope revealed his top 4 favorite movies of all time, Frank Capra’s 1946 classic It’s a Wonderful Life, Robert Wise’s The Sound of Music (1965), Robert Redford’s Ordinary People (1980) and Roberto Benigni’s Life Is Beautiful (1997).

https://deadline.com/2025/11/pope-leo-xiv-cinema-speech-a-list-crowd-read-his-speech-1236618389/?brid=Q5Z1eanXAoomkbhomvZrAg

'blue moon' poster sketch

"The preliminary sketch that Edward Sorel, artist for The New Yorker, drew for a possible Blue Moon poster. Sorel, ninety-six, is a friend of Kaplow’s. He eventually bowed out of the design process for health reasons, but Kaplow cherishes the sketch that Sorel signed and gave to him."

The Brooklyn Rail

it breaks your heart | a. bartlett giamatti

 

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.

A. Bartlett Giamatti, "The Green Fields of the Mind"

photos | matt black | central valley, california

 

lanare, ca

lanare, ca

firebaugh, ca

modesto, ca

alturas, ca

tulare, ca

fairmead, ca

tulare, ca

corcoran, ca

lindsay, ca

matt black lives in california's central valley. 

in 2025 he was awarded a macarthur foundation fellowship.

prints can be purchased at magnum photos.

andrew wyeth | otherworld

 

2002 painting by Andrew Wyeth

ordinary things | richard linklater

"As you become older, you want less from the world. You just want to experience it. Ordinary things become beautifully poetic."

Richard Linklater

photo | on the way to schwartz bay | tom balke

 

tom balke

photo | film restoration | matteo de mayda

"The Exhilarating Magic of Film Restoration"

New Yorker

photo by Matteo de Mayda