Best Jack B. Rochester on Podiobooks.com Podcasts (2024)

1
The Worship of False Idols. 21:19

8+ y ago21:19

21:19

Throughout most of the novel, Nate has grappled with the issue of whether or not to return to finish his college education. Well, here we are again. Do you believe in redemption? It would appear Nate does not. You are not going to believe what Nate does in this, the final chapter. Or what happens when he stops by the post office to check his mail.…

1
The Girl With The Silver-Toed Cowboy Boots. 33:03

8+ y ago33:03

33:03

Nate thinks everyone is conspiring behind his back…and he’s probably right. Else how would he ever have met the beautiful, raven-tressed Veronica Sambucello, aka Ronnie, the San Francisco literary agent wearing Levi’s and silver-toed cowboy boots. How did she ever get a copy of his Peoplesongs manuscript? She loves the stories, but isn’t crazy abou…

1
The Heart of the Story. 35:17

8+ y ago35:17

35:17

Nate takes Jane out to dinner at the famous Nepenthe restaurant in Big Sur to celebrate her completing her epic poem, “Cosmogeny.” Jane tells him she showed the manuscript for Peoplesongs to Gerry, which puts him on edge. He stomps into Gerry’s office to confront him and get his manuscript back. Is Nate a young man of strong opinions, or is he just…

1
Blood Red Sun – Part II 19:00

8+ y ago19:00

19:00

It’s October 6, Jane’s birthday. Nate has been working for months on his book of short stories, entitled Peoplesongs. Jane has been working on her epic poetry. They sit at Eddie’s and, surprising each other, present their manuscripts to one another as a kind of birthday present. We finally get to hear one of Nate’s short stories, “Blood Red Sun.”…

1
Blood Red Sun – Part I 27:57

8+ y ago27:57

27:57

It’s October 6, Jane’s birthday. Nate has been working for months on his book of short stories, entitled Peoplesongs. Jane has been working on her epic poetry. They sit at Eddie’s and, surprising each other, present their manuscripts to one another as a kind of birthday present. We finally get to hear one of Nate’s short stories, “Blood Red Sun.”…

1
Apollo – Part II 25:55

8+ y ago25:55

25:55

July 20, 1969, the night of the Apollo 11 moon landing. But at The Ethereal Ranch the moon landing may not be the biggest deal of the night. It’s a party, the likes of which may be new to your experience.

1
Apollo – Part I 31:07

8+ y ago31:07

31:07

July 20, 1969, the night of the Apollo 11 moon landing. But at The Ethereal Ranch the moon landing may not be the biggest deal of the night. It’s a party, the likes of which may be new to your experience.

1
To the Victor Goes Stillness. 28:32

8+ y ago28:32

28:32

During Nate’s cognac-and-conversation evening with Will Chandler, who’s the first to lapse into stillness? And just what are the virtues of less words, more silence?

1
Nothing Worth Knowing Can Be Taught. 30:17

8+ y ago30:17

30:17

Nate is hitting a bottom of sorts. His mother’s departure was none too pleasant, and Jane thinks he needs to talk to someone about it. Nate thinks he needs to bury his head in his writing. Daniel sits down with Nate for a big talk about relationships with women. And UCSC doesn’t think there needs to be any further discussion with Nate about his adm…

1
There Are Things We Must Talk About. 20:58

8+ y ago20:58

20:58

Nate is verbally accosted outside Eddie’s cafe by his mother, Adele.

1
Let Me Take You Higher. 29:33

8+ y ago29:33

29:33

Jane and Nate are beginning preparations for his mother Adele’s visit. She’s bringing his first brother, Ernest Hemingway Flowers – Ernie – with her. Things are, well, difficult with her, but before long Ernie is having a great time. He meets Doug Haut, owner of Haut Surf Shop just up the street and is soon learning to surf with Daniel, Mikey and L…

1
Things That Can’t Be Explained. 26:34

8+ y ago26:34

26:34

Nate and Jane are growing closer. In all ways. Maybe because of making love, but they’re growing closer in their heads, too. They talk about change, and time, and space and what can be changed and what should not change.

1
It Furthers One to Undertake Something. 39:31

8+ y ago39:31

39:31

Words of wisdom from the I Ching. Of course it furthers one to undertake an activity, a cause, a purpose. But where does one begin? Nate thinks the best place is in the welcoming branches of the special madrone tree he and Jane now share. He quickly learns there are powers here, pushing him to undertake something beyond his understanding and contro…

1
In the Belly of the Beast. 23:38

8+ y ago23:38

23:38

Nate visits the office of Professor Gerry Iron Moccasin, where the two launch into a most interesting and sophisticated round of verbal fisticuffs.

1
Hold On To What You’ve Got. 38:35

8+ y ago38:35

38:35

Nate attends Jane’s creative writing class, led by Professor Gerald Iron Moccasin, and gets a first-hand dose of what the academic is like. It gets real interesting, real fast.

1
The Best of All Possible Worlds. 29:03

8+ y ago29:03

29:03

Fall term break at UC Santa Cruz finds Jane and Nate awfully happy together as they head for the madrone at Four Mile. Afterwards, Jane drives Nate’s MG north on the Pacific Coast Highway to her family’s home in Corte Madera, where they talk about their plan for a camping trip vacation to Yosemite. Their happiness seems to flow throughout the house…

1
Madrone. 31:19

8+ y ago31:19

31:19

The madrone is an evergreen tree of the Arbutus genus. Especially notable in the family is the Pacific Madrone (A.menziesii), which grows along coastal elevations from Northern California to British Columbia. It wears a red, peeling bark and like its cousin, the redwood, is sometimes found growing in a cathedral or “fairy” ring.…

1
Daniel. 34:04

8+ y ago34:04

34:04

Nate awakens with his two new roommates the next morning and wonders what’s going to become of him. For the first time in four years, he’s totally adrift in the world: no Mamma Military to provide food, shelter, security, purpose. But his purpose is undeterred as he sits at Eddie’s, having coffee and a donut, working on a Chris and Therese short st…

1
Moral Tension. 34:06

8+ y ago34:06

34:06

What do Jane and Nate talk about when they talk together? Moral tension, of course. It’s as if they’ve discovered a deeper layer to talking about themselves and their relationship, a topic that pervades not just them but everything and everyone around them. You, too, just might give more thought to moral tension after listening to this chapter.…

1
Going Through Things Twice. 28:47

8+ y ago28:47

28:47

Nate learns the pitfalls of making the same mistake twice through the lyrics of Bob Dylan. That’s why he jumps out of bed first thing in the morning and gets to work on his life. Over coffee at Eddie’s he gathers his thoughts, sets them down on paper, and watches as many of them turn into revelations. But as Nate strives to keep his consciousness c…

1
A Poem as Mighty as a Tree. 31:27

8+ y ago31:27

31:27

Back from his odd day in the redwood forest, holding a piece of madrone bark with “Christopher and Therese” written on it, Nate settles in with Jane for a literary evening. First he reads one of her poems, then they discuss the story he wrote about Chris and Therese while he was in Germany. Maddie comes back from her dorm meeting, but soon everyone…

1
The Sound of a Zampona. 28:32

8+ y ago28:32

28:32

Right off, Nate is not having a good day so he decides to go for a run through the redwood forests in which UC Santa Cruz is nestled. But things get a little strange when he stops and falls asleep inside a redwood fairy circle. How is it that Jane has metamorphosed into the seven redwood tree trunks that surround him? And who is this giant of a man…

1
Merrily, Merrily, Life is but a Lie. 23:44

8+ y ago23:44

23:44

Nate shares with Jane a major component of his personal philosophy. His truth. But he also tells her how the German student from Heidelberg University said that the truth is that there is no truth. When he tries to enroll at UC Santa Cruz, he discovers UCSC’s truth about what it seeks in a student has nothing to do with the innate truth of the indi…

1
All We Have Is Truth 37:14

8+ y ago37:14

37:14

Nate begins to see what it’s like to be part of a family other than his own, and is also beginning to see what it’s like to be close to Jane. He knows she loves him, but does he know what love truly is? These events give Nate great cause for taking a look at – and into – himself.

1
The Family That Eats Together 23:25

8+ y ago23:25

23:25

Nate joins the Chandler family in Corte Madera for Sunday dinner, where Jane’s mother, Mavis, asks Nate if he plans to attend college and Jane’s father, Will, asks him if he’d like a job at Chandler Lumber Company. Nate’s answers will surprise you.

1
You Make My Heart Sing 40:18

8+ y ago40:18

40:18

Nathaniel Hawthorne Flowers and Jane Chandler are reunited in California after Nate’s year and a half in Germany with the U.S. Air Force.

1
No Place Like Home 25:38

9y ago25:38

25:38

Nate finally extricates himself from the grips of the Air Force, but in a parting shot is warned that he may not like the Real World; in fact, he’s told many troops re-up within a few months. Why is that? Nate wonders. He remembered seeing a wall plaque that read “If Man Has His Freedom, He Has Everything.” If that’s so, why would someone give up h…

1
The December of My Dreams 20:24

9y ago20:24

20:24

In which Nate discovers his…well, he discovers a great deal of what’s going on inside of him while attending the performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in Stuttgart with the grande dames, and even more with them afterwards. You know, about the children of the future and all that. He bids his fellow troops good-bye and boards the silver skybird for…

1
FIGMO 18:01

9y ago18:01

18:01

Nate undergoes some radical personal changes after learning his story about the General was published without his attribution. His anger is tempered by throwing an I Ching, the fact that he’s FIGMO, the arrival of Tony with the new Beatles’ White Album, and an update on the children of the future discussion with the grande dames. A short chapter, b…

1
Touch and Go 14:39

9y ago14:39

14:39

You may remember that Nate’s recruiter promised he’d become a jet aircraft pilot. This, of course, turned out to be nothing more than a ploy to get him to enlist, and he was disabused of this aspiration by the two instructors during Basic Training. Little did Nate know he’d end up the co-pilot in General Beauregard’s personal jet, as you will hear …

1
Oktoberfest 16:50

9y ago16:50

16:50

It’s really such a great German tradition, Oktoberfest, a party to end all parties. Too bad Dylan spoils it for the troops. But then again, if he hadn’t, would they have met the three philosophy students from Heidelberg University? Would they have learned they were not the only children of the future? A lot of Truth gets discussed over one-liter be…

1
Time Has Come Today 23:56

9y ago23:56

23:56

Their last days on Socrates Island and dissent fills the air. Alan tries to talk the other troops into going AWOL and, well, you gotta listen to believe it. Yep, they go back, but not the same guys who’d left a month earlier. Especially not Nate. They march right into one political foray after another. What’s this with Lieutenant Antonucci offering…

1
Socrates Island, Part II 24:54

9y ago24:54

24:54

Sun-drenched beaches. Starry nights. Friendship, firelight, and philosophy. Idyllic Socrates Island continues to seduce the troops with its siren song.

1
Socrates Island, Part I 24:45

9y ago24:45

24:45

After listening to this chapter, I know you’ll want to visit Socrates Island. Sorry, but it’s fictional, although there are many wonderful, obscure, charming, historically fascinating islands in the Adriatic Sea. You might even like Crete, which is a large but still exciting island. Maybe not as exciting as Socrates, which turns out to be a real hi…

1
Children of the Future 38:03

9y ago38:03

38:03

This is just so unbelievable. Remember those two old ladies the guys met at the Ravi Shankar concert last chapter? Well, they’ve invited Nate and the gang to their house in downtown Stuttgart, for what they do not know. But ever game for new experiences, they knock on the door to find out what happens next. The Steve Miller Band might have been the…

1
Liederhalle 29:54

9y ago29:54

29:54

Liederhalle. In Deutsch, a place of song. A place to celebrate music of all kinds. This night the Mozart-Saal, one of the music halls within the beautiful Konzerthaus Liederhalle, is host to Ravi Shankar and his sitar. Yes, Nate has seen Ravi and Allah Rakha and Ali Akbar Khan before, at Monterey Pop, but his experiences tonight – both psychedelic …

1
Change of Command 29:28

9y ago29:28

29:28

It’s spring, 1968, and the world as Americans know it is falling apart: the Vietnam War rages, President Johnson is stepping down, Martin Luther King is assassinated, and Nate’s commander is retiring. Nate throws a mysterious I Ching that says he ought to install helpers and see armies marching. What’s going on? What does it all mean? As he struggl…

1
A Writer’s Life 25:15

9y ago25:15

25:15

“Write what you know” is a common piece of advice given to writers. Nate, given that it’s unlikely he’ll ever see one of his articles for the Stars and Stripes newspaper in print, decides to follow SSgt. Tom Tremblay’s advice and enter the USAFE Short Story Contest. Has Nate written his story from experience? Is fiction just one’s own life experien…

1
The Pieces Fit 29:30

9y ago29:30

29:30

Nate is figuring out how to use the I Ching which Jane had given him for his birthday. Henry Harold Henry introduces the troops to John Coltrane’s music. Southern California Ricky, none too stable any time, is having a tough time dealing with the cold and snow of Germany. Jane writes a poem for Nate. Nate sends Jane a valentine. Nate and Sgt. Tom T…

1
Zeitgeist 29:32

9y ago29:32

29:32

What’s a zeitgeist? The troops ponder, debate, question it. But Nate sees beyond Alan’s intellectual posing. He knows – really knows – what Alan thinks of zeitgeist, regardless what he says. And Nate also knows it’s exactly what he thinks it is, too.

1
Sedition 30:51

9y ago30:51

30:51

Nate catches a hop on the courier plane to spend a weekend visiting London. He stays with his old friend from Stateside, Tony Rizzo, in Tony’s bachelor pad in the barracks. London is in full Mod mode; Nate is enthralled with Carnaby Street, the velveteen lads and mini-skirted birds. But all too soon it’s back to Kleinelachen, where Tim Rosencrantz …

1
Der Alten Scheune 25:07

9y ago25:07

25:07

Nate, Alan, Henry and Tim have found a secret place to meet up, get high and talk. And it’s right behind their barracks. Tony unexpectedly flies in from England and joins the troops for an evening in Der Alten Scheune. He tells them about a Canadian PX in the town of Baden-Baden, where the latest and greatest stereo hi-fi gear can be purchased, and…

1
Stars and Stripes Forever 34:37

9y ago34:37

34:37

Nate embarks upon his new duty assignment as base correspondent at Kleinelachen Air Base, and meets Sergeant Tom Tremblay, his NCOIC editor at the Stars and Stripes newspaper. Nate’s excited, but soon enough learns that things are not quite what they seem – either in his new job, or at the newspaper, or even at Kleinelachen. Or in Rome. Rome? His d…

1
First Sergeant Buford 34:39

9y ago34:39

34:39

Nathaniel “How could I know” Flowers arrives at his new duty assignment, Kleinelachen Air Base, Germany, and immediately gets himself in a heap of trouble with his new first shirt. He follows that by going on a three-day bender with his new barracks mate Dylan. He awakens, profoundly hung over, to his folie a trois: standing in front of the squadro…

1
The Summer of Love 28:31

9y ago28:31

28:31

Nate, back from his first acid trip, begins examining the meaning of the Real World more closely. Sitting in the swing on Jane’s front porch, they have a spirited discussion and Nate learns a few new and amazing things about her. He also learns a few things about the Real World of the military and human nature, which lead to a startling change in p…

1
Memphis Blues Again, Part II 26:21

9y ago26:21

26:21

Nate continues to nudge open the doors of perception, compliments of Tony and Owsley's Monterey Purple.

1
Memphis Blues Again, Part I 27:09

9y ago27:09

27:09

Remember Tony Rizzo, whom Jane and Nate met after the Grateful Dead concert? Well, Tony has decided it’s time for Nate to meet Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, and that his rather unique digs in a Napa County vineyard are just the place to partake of Owsley’s Finest.

1
Haight Ashbury 41:48

9y ago41:48

41:48

Ever wonder what it was like to hang out in the Haight for a kid back in the 1960s? Nate and his roommate Lee find out big-time in this chapter as they unknowingly wander into the Summer of Love. Jane takes Nate on a hike up Mt. Tamalpais, then he takes her for a ride, then she takes him for a trip. And where are those whales anyway? Meanwhile, Nat…

1
Goin’ to California 40:15

9y ago40:15

40:15

A wacko who runs a pizza joint and greets customers with “Goddammit!” A roommate who drives an arrest-me-red Austin Healy 3000 sports car. A lovely young Irish alcoholic poetess. Haight Ashbury. And Jane. Ah, yes, Jane. What else awaits Nate in California?

1
Hurricane 35:38

9y ago35:38

35:38

In which our unlikely hero braves Hurricane Betsy and lives to write about it. Not only that, but survives military punishment for doing so. And what happens when Dinky, Hubba-Hubba, JD and his barracks mates celebrate aboard the riverboat? Celebrate what? And what about that 1958 Plymouth Golden Fury he left behind?…

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