Toppie presents his Ode to Summer, creating a sweet yet melancholy moodiness through a combination of sound clips, music and poetry.
The following are references in order of their appearance:
Spoken Word
Summer Memories by Toppie Smellie
Music
Summer Music for Wind Quintet (Op. 31, 1956) by
Samuel Osborne Barber II (March 9, 1910 – January 23, 1981)
Movie Clip
“Ode to Billy Joe,” Part 1
1976 film directed and produced by Max Baer, Jr. with a screenplay by Herman Raucher, inspired by the 1967 hit song by Bobbie Gentry, also titled “Ode to Billie Joe” (note difference in spelling). Stars Robby Benson and Glynnis O’Connor.
“Waddon Ponds”
A Poem by Charles Bryant
Music
“Summer Time” by Doreen Hampshire
“Shall I Compare Thee to A Summer’s Day”
Poem by William Shakespeare
Music
“The Last Rose of Summer” by André Rieu
Movie Clip
“Ode to Billy Joe,” Part 2
Music
“Ode to Billie Joe” by Bobbie Gentry, 1967
Please click the link below to listen to the Smellcast, episode 96.
Tags: charles bryant, dog days, dusk, gay, in the gloaming, meloncholy, ode to billie joe, ode to summer, poetry, smellcast, summer, toppie smellie, twilight, youthful love
The Smellcast 
August 14, 2010 at 3:23 am |
I really enjoyed your Ode to Summer. It was perfect timing when I heard it because I was outside fiddling with my truck and it was a super hot summer day and it was so beautiful out, it was serendipitous that your show was on. It was one of those enigmatic summer days, the kind of day that you remember and long for when it’s the middle of winter and you wish it was summer. And then your beautifully crafted show was just the cherry on top of a wonderful day. Thank you.
And I really enjoyed the reading by John Houseman – at least that’s who I think it was. I have always enjoyed John Houseman as a performer and had great respect for him and appreciated his work. So it was nice to hear him again.
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August 14, 2010 at 3:49 am |
Hey Fey,
Those really hot, hazy days of summer are memorable to me too. “Enigmatic” is the perfect word for them. That was actually Charles Bryant reading his own poem “Waddon Ponds.”
Remember “The Paper Chase”? The movie I mean, although the short-lived TV series was pretty good. If you’ve never seen it, rent it soon because it is the role John Houseman was born to play.
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August 16, 2010 at 10:16 am |
I loved John Houseman in Another Woman: “Someday that brother of yours will wind up in jail, where he belongs!” It was one of his last performances but he was still powerful, like an old lion.
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August 16, 2010 at 12:02 pm |
I’ll have to check that movie out, Mark.
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