Now Here We Are Thirty Years Later cover art

Now Here We Are Thirty Years Later

Now Here We Are Thirty Years Later

By: Richard O'Brien
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About this listen

 A memoir in Mountain Goats songs, by Richard O'Brien. Each episode focuses on a year in my life from 1990 onwards through the lens of a song written or recorded that year by John Darnielle.Copyright Richard O'Brien Music Social Sciences
Episodes
  • 2013: 'You and Me and A High Balcony'

    2013: 'You and Me and A High Balcony'
    Sep 1 2025
    Clean slate. It's 2013, and I'm all over the place. Here are some Onegin stanzas.

    This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thirtyyearslater.substack.com
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    11 mins
  • 2012: Steal Smoked Fish

    2012: Steal Smoked Fish
    Jul 29 2025
    Feast when you can. Today's episode is about the feasts in the books I've been reading, and the famine happening in the real world right now, spotlighting a poem by Hanan Al-Kafarna. It's centred around a walk through Portland in 2022 in the footsteps of our song for 2012: 'Steal Smoked Fish.'

    Substack version of the episode, featuring links and references for all quotations and archive recordings: https://thirtyyearslater.substack.com/p/2012-steal-smoked-fish

    Hanan al-Kafarna on Instagram, where a fundraising campaign link will be shared soon: https://www.instagram.com/_hanan._.jalal_/

    My poem 'John Clare Reaches the Pacific' on Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/notrockyhorror.bsky.social/post/3lqafuiv4tc25 - and available to purchase in Nimrod magazine: https://nimrod.utulsa.edu/current-issue/

    Links to Gaza aid organisations and fundraisers:
    https://www.map.org.uk/?form=FUNFXHDCJPK
    https://donate.wfp.org/1243/donation/regular
    https://www.zakat.org/
    https://chuffed.org/project/110294-please-donate-to-help-oday-halava
    https://4gaza.bugx0r.nl/lifeline4gaza/
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    43 mins
  • 2011: ‘Beautiful Gas Mask’

    2011: ‘Beautiful Gas Mask’
    Mar 31 2025
    Only one kick drum. Today's episode is about ambiguous imperatives, glowing alien rocks, universal feelings, Universal Monsters, haunting presences in the background, and a group of British and American twenty-something getting drunk in a series of French apartments. It's 2011, and the song is 'Beautiful Gas Mask.'

    *

    'The Sink' - Chapter One of my Nantes-set novel, published by the Irish lit magazine An Capall Dorcha, is available to read on my university research page here - https://researchportal.northumbria.ac.uk/files/125981534/Immersion_An_Capall_Dorcha_extract_v2.pdf - or you can buy the issue online here: https://www.thelibraryproject.ie/products/an-capall-dorcha-issue-4


    Substack version of the episode, featuring links and references for all quotations and archive recordings: https://open.substack.com/pub/thirtyyearslater/p/2011-beautiful-gas-mask

    Live shows taped by Lyric: https://archive.org/details/@astrolyric?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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    29 mins
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