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Upcoming Events, Shows & Performances:

“Mythology Brain”–An Embarrassing Public Condition

Posted on by Odds Bodkin

I must suffer from “mythology brain” I’ve decided. This is an as yet undiagnosed condition, but could soon appear in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (the renowned and ever-changing DSM). Symptoms include a Jungian fascination with myths, love of creating music and a sub-condition I’ve dubbed “dramatosis.”

Dramatosis presents itself not as hearing voices in your head that aren’t yours (a much more serious condition), but rather creating voices that aren’t yours for the benefit of listeners. “Mythology brain” is a strenuous form of public madness and I don’t recommend it to anybody.

Still, if you’d like to see what it looks like up close, I’ll be back at Grendel’s Den on Harvard Square this coming February 11th to once again demonstrate the malady. Voices will include Odysseus of Ithaca, father, reluctant warrior, expert liar and all around great guy; enthusiastic drug takers called Lotus Eaters; sundry Ithacan crewmen; sheep and goats; and last but not least, Polyphemus the Cyclops, a giant cannibalistic shepherd who loves his animals but eats humans as they scream in horror. The huge, half-witted basso voice of Polyphemus is especially fun to make because despite the veneer of civility I try to maintain in my quotidian life, he feels the way I feel whenever I’m hungry and grumpy.

All kidding aside, the show is at 5:30 p.m. and seating begins at 5:00.

And there’s music throughout, of course. Celtic harp and 12-string guitar.

THE ODYSSEY: BELLY OF THE BEAST/An Adult Storytelling.

Tickets are $15 ($10 for solo chairs) and you can get them here.

 

 

Stories for Strong, Smart Girls

Posted on by Odds Bodkin

A tribe that survives on buffalo meat begins to starve when the herds will not come near. Now a young woman who loves her people walks out onto the plains near the herd. “If you will only come and feed my people,” she says, “I will marry one of you.”

So begins The Buffalo’s Wife, an elemental tale of sacrifice and a woman’s power, just one of the three stories on The Wise Little Girl: Tales of the Feminine by Odds Bodkin. Find out about The Buffalo’s Wife and other more lighthearted stories, some very funny, on this story album for strong, smart girls.

Get it for $4.95 or as part of the $99 download special at Odds Bodkin’s Shop.

Twenty-Seven Wives? Good Luck with that, Lord of the Moon

Posted on by Odds Bodkin

Lord Duksha is immensely fat and has the head of an Ibex, with huge curving horns. As a powerful mantra-wielding sage and deity, he’s convinced that there simply aren’t enough women in the world, and so has sixty-two daughters in all. As a doting father, he jealously guards their well-being, especially once they’re married. He wants them all to be happy. And so when Soma, the Lord of the Moon, shows up and asks to marry twenty-seven of Duksha’s daughters, the sage thinks he’s crazy.

 
“That is a great many wives,” he cautions. “How will you keep up with that?”

 
“Don’t worry,” Soma replies confidently, “I will pay equal attention to every single one. I’m quite the fellow.”

 
Of course, Duksha’s doubts prove true. Soma ends up spending all his time with just one wife, Rohini. Duksha’s fury and resulting death-curse upon the Lord of the Moon is at the heart of this hilarious adult story from India I’ll be telling this coming Sunday night, April 9 at 8 pm at Grendel’s Den in Cambridge, MA. It’s called The Twenty-Seven Wives of the Moon.

 
I’ll also be telling other tales as part of India’s Ancients: Tales from the Mahabharata and Beyond.
The musical accompaniment is on a 12-string guitar, played with sitar scales. I hope you can make it!

 

Tickets are $20 and $10 and are available here.

TALES OF THE LAND! A Family Concert in Lafayette, CO on Nov. 2

Posted on by Odds Bodkin

Driving 12-string guitar music, rhythmic and elemental, joins the sound of a hammer striking rock to open Tales of the Land, a public family performance at Angevine Middle School in Lafayette, Colorado on Nov. 2 at 6:30 pm. The first of four stories, this is a Japanese samurai tale, The Stonecutter. Enabled with powers of Nature, a human being misuses them, bringing droughts and floods to a helpless Earth.

Next, a tale from Africa. Hungry and thirsty animals stare up a giant tree at fruits filled with food and water. Only when the tree’s name is spoken will it drop its precious fruits. But remembering the name proves difficult for many animals who try. Told with African thumb piano, hilarious voices and water droplet sound effects, The Name of the Tree is one of my best family stories ever.

Next, I’ll bring out a Celtic harp leant to me for my Colorado tour by Dave Kolacny of Kolacny Music in Denver. Thanks, Dave! Always generous over my years of visiting the Front Range. The story is about Kelsa, a young woman who refuses to work with flax to make linen. It smells terrible when soaked and Kelsa can’t standing spinning. But when the Queen is misinformed––believing that Kelsa loves to spin––Kelsa’s head is on the line unless she can do it. That’s when the three strangest looking beings she’s ever seen appear in a beam of moonlight. Lush, fun harp music combined with crazy funny voices will have you laughing at The Full Moon Spinners.

For the finale, the most outrageous of all my participatory tales, Finn MacCool and the Big Man. It’s so much fun to play the Irish rhythms in this story on 12-string, mostly because the audience gets the beat right away and joins in. Not only that, they learn a crazy chant that we all roar out as Finn, his wife Una and Gall the Hairiest Fenian outwit the biggest man any of them have ever seen.

Tales of the Land is sponsored by Martin Ogle of Entrepreneurial Earth and the Parent Engagement Network.

There is no child who won’t have a great time at this show, not to mention a whole lot of bemused parents, especially with the magical lanterns that will fill the auditorium. If you’re out in the Denver area, mark your calendar! Tell your friends. This is a very special show!

Tickets are $10 or $39 for families (4-6 family members) and you can get them here.