Visions of Half Sleep

Bill Gillard
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A dreamscape of Bill Gillard's poetry and fiction that rides musical waves from a community of musicians in northeastern Wisconsin.  All poems and stories written and performed by Bill Gillard.  billgillard.com Broadcast on Wednesdays at 10pm on WOCT 101.9 FM Oshkosh. Art by Judith Waller.  Music by: - Nani Agbeli, drums, Lawrence University - Greg Cebulski, piano, Appleton - Joanna Dane, flute, Appleton  - Loren Dempster, cello, Lawrence University - Paul Dietrich, trumpet, Ripon College - Bill Gillard, Appleton - Tony Knuppel, piano, Appleton - Ed Martin, piano, UW Oshkosh - Tad Neuhaus, guitar and percussion, Appleton - Nadje Noordhuis, trumpet, Lawrence University - Offsite, music producer, Appleton - Wilson Poffenberger, saxophone, UW Stevens Point - Tom Washatka, many instruments, UW Oshkosh - Drew Whiting, saxophone, UW Oshkosh

  1. Sep 17

    It's Like a Jungle Sometimes

    We try to detect patterns in a world that has none. We look for meaning in the inchoate roar of everyday life. Fragments of memories orbit and refract; they reflect the dim light we shine at them and spray stars onto the ceiling of lonely rooms. A car passes on the street outside. The window does not move and yet it dances also across the ceiling. I am the frame of reference of the whole universe. The rest moves in relation to me. It makes we wonder how I keep from going under.  "God the Father" "Improvisation" "Diamond Head" "Pillar of Salt"-- with "Silverpoint" by Nadje Noordhuis "That Only Time Provides" -- with "In the Pocket" by Offsite "Alcubierre Quantum Tunnel FTL Jaunte!" -- with "Aria" by Ed Martin "The Soybeans of Paradise" -- with "The Experiment" by Bill Gillard  "It's Like a Jungle Sometimes" -- with "A Place Like This" by Bill Gillard  "East Village 81" -- a song by Bill Gillard "Landmark" "No New York" "Under the Triborough Bridge" -- with "May Day" by Bill Gillard "Candy's House"  -- with "Anger" by Tad Neuhaus, Joanna Dane, and Loren Dempster "You Ever Music Me"  -- with "Oddballs" by Bill Gillard  "Visions of Half Sleep" is a dreamlike soundscape, a collaboration among artists in northeast Wisconsin. It is Bill Gillard's words and voice along with music by many. More from Bill Gillard Website: www.billgillard.com Instagram: billgillard3

  2. Sep 3

    Freedom, Wisconsin

    The longest journeys begin in an inward direction. East west north south don’t begin to tell the story of anyone’s most personal and most important odyssey. Here, then, is the fifth direction: sisa. (I used Google Translate for “inward” and found the shortest word out of the twenty or so languages I tried. Or maybe the people of northern Scandinavia just have a lot of time during those long winters for journeys sisaward and need a quick way to explain. “Where were you all afternoon, Jovnna?” “Sisa, my dear Gutnel.” “Ah.”)       "Joey Gets a Gut Feeling" -- with "Killarney" by Nadje Noordhuis "Motel 6, Newport, Vermont" "Ventriloquism at the Playground" -- with by Tad Neuhaus, Joanna Dane, and Loren Dempster "In Jagged Lines Like Seaweed on the Tide" "Arms Around a Memory" and "Brother of the Bride" -- with "Break" by Ed Martin "Freedom Wisconsin" -- with "Down River" by John Mayrose "The Things That Joey Thinks About" -- a song by Bill Gillard "Not Finished, the Princess Said" -- with "A Pocket Full of Suspense" by Tom Washatka "Home" -- with "Oct Sweep" by Bill Gillard "Up the Lake with Mike" -- with "Lakers" by Bill Gillard  "Visions of Half Sleep" is a dreamlike soundscape, a collaboration among artists in northeast Wisconsin. It is Bill Gillard's words and voice along with music by many. More from Bill Gillard Website: www.billgillard.com Instagram: billgillard3

  3. Aug 20

    Find a Place Like This

    When you’ve lived longer than most, you realize that the things we leave behind don’t tell the story we’d like them to. The inchoate fragments of the mosaic we though we were assembling fall to the ground when we grow too weak to carry our building materials.  Survivors—even loved ones—hold inscrutable relics for a few beats and then move on. The guy at the donation door at Goodwill receives it all with a thin smile and an offer of a receipt. But, really, a receipt for what?    "Divide" "Down in the Flats" and "Germination"-- with "Child's Pose" by Tom Washatka "Sandra Hook" -- with "Nash Theme" by Greg Cebulski "The Eternals" -- with "Skipping Stones" by Ed Martin "Find a Place Like This" -- with "Interesting" by Bill Gillard "The Silence of the After" -- a song by Bill Gillard "Father Jack and the Book of Death" -- with "Children Singing in Heaven" by Offsite "The Voynich Manuscript" -- with "Section 2" by Tad Neuhaus, Joanna Dane, and Loren Dempster "Metaphysical Nutrient Cycle" -- with "Time Passed" by Ed Martin "Tombstone for Smell-o-Vision" -- with "Welcome to Dreamvale" by Offsite  "Visions of Half Sleep" is a dreamlike soundscape, a collaboration among artists in northeast Wisconsin. It is Bill Gillard's words and voice along with music by many. More from Bill Gillard Website: www.billgillard.com Instagram: billgillard3

  4. Aug 6

    The Strawberry Ghost of High Cliff

    There are remnants wherever you look. If you live far from others, you seen the leaves of last year becoming the soil of the next century and beyond. In cities and towns, whole buildings fall into disuse, and the only thing they’re good for is shade on a hot day. Broken relationships leave shady spots, too, those oases of unforgiveness that leave one cool and out of the blinding sunshine of truth.  "The Telulah Park Locomotive" -- with "Monophony" by John Mayrose "Desire the River" -- with "2-6-20-1" by Tad Neuhaus, Joanna Dane, and Loren Dempster "Seven Sleepers" -- with "Suspend" by Paul Dietrich "The Strawberry Ghost of High Cliff" -- with "Berries" by Bill Gillard "Sing to These Roses" -- a song by Bill Gillard "Holy Distance" -- with "Biota" by Ed Martin  "Visions of Half Sleep" is a dreamlike soundscape, a collaboration among artists in northeast Wisconsin. It is Bill Gillard's words and voice along with music by many. More from Bill Gillard Website: www.billgillard.com Instagram: billgillard3

  5. Jul 23

    Can't Find a Better Man

    What causes us to seek the company of others? I write this alone but with the din of voices outside somewhere—a neighbor or a passerby.  I am not lonely, but I know that I will seek out others soon enough and if they provide nutrition or protection. This episode approaches the need we all have for company in all circumstances. Even as I write this, I image you, the one who is reading this, and my heart feels little less afraid.   "Rainy Night Aubade" and "Pillar of Salt" -- with "Five Quarter Tone Etudes 4" by Ed Martin "Time Without Clocks" and "The Poem that Compares an Awareness of Mortality to a Stuck Pickle Jar" -- with "Tap Out" by John Mayrose "Gravitational Constant" and "Autology"  -- with Aversion to Submersion" by Tom Washatka "Listen to Your Mom"  -- with "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Gillard "Love Like Love" -- a song by Bill Gillard "The Glint of Steel You'll Bite" -- with "Gahu" by Nani Agbeli "Shopping Cart Prophet"  -- with Killarney" by Nadje Noordhuis  "Visions of Half Sleep" is a dreamlike soundscape, a collaboration among artists in northeast Wisconsin. It is Bill Gillard's words and voice along with music by many. More from Bill Gillard Website: www.billgillard.com Instagram: billgillard3

  6. Jul 9

    The USS Scorpion, Lost with All Hands

    The sun shines and plants grow. From this, all else: French cuisine, Gregorian chants, a rusty Corolla by the side of the highway, a tennis call rolling down a paved road. A green leafy thing figured out how to turn sunshine into energy, and men close the seal on their pressurized tube and plumb the depths of oceans, frequently, but not always, returning to the dry air. Mysteries abound, and this episode plays with them.    "Roused from a Sleep Newtonian" -- with "Closing" by Paul Dietrich "i. e. Got Me a Girl" and "In Lines Like Seaweed on the Tide" -- with "72325/5" by Tad Neuhaus, Joanna Dane, and Loren Dempster "The Screecher Comes in the Night" -- with "Five Quarter Tone Etudes 5" by Ed Martin "The USS Scorpion, Lost with All Hands" -- with "By Ship" by Bill Gillard "On My Reptilian Origin" -- song by Bill Gillard  "Dyatlov Pass" and "One Day in the Rocky Island North" -- with "Liberabaci" by John Mayrose "How to Pray to a Spider" -- with "War on Locks" by Offsite  "Visions of Half Sleep" is a dreamlike soundscape, a collaboration among artists in northeast Wisconsin. It is Bill Gillard's words and voice along with music by many. More from Bill Gillard Website: www.billgillard.com Instagram: billgillard3

  7. Jun 25

    Our Lady of 1983

    We witness miracles daily; any sufficiently distant event is indistinguishable from a miracle. What we do not understand elicits emotion—at times intense. The nature of that involuntary response determines character. If the unknown makes us afraid, we gravitate to stupid, macho leaders who stoke our suspicion of outsiders and change. If we order the thing on the menu we’ve never heard of, if we seek out new life and new civilizations, if we embrace the unknown as the greatest life force for good, then we live in peace and non-judgmental harmony with our neighbors. As you’ll hear in the title story, are we driven by our love of light in the night or our fear of the darkness?  "The Greatest Knight of His Age" -- with "Sitar Jam" by Tad Neuhaus, Joanna Dane, and Loren Dempster "Autumn Eyes" "Breakup Breakdown" "You Are the Wind and I Am" -- with "Multitudes" by Nadje Noordhuis "Indifference"  -- with "Skillz" by Bill Gillard "Time Without Clocks" "The Poem that Compares an Awareness of Mortality to a Stuck Pickle Jar"-- with "Tap Out" by John Mayrose "Our Lady of 1983" -- with "Title" by Bill Gillard "The Path of Least Resistance" -- a song by Bill Gillard  "i. e. Got Me a Girl" "In Lines Like Seaweed on the Tide"  -- with "7-23-25-5" by Tad Neuhaus, Joanna Dane, and Loren Dempster "The Gravitational Constant" "Autology" -- with "Aversion to Submersion" by Tom Washatka  "Visions of Half Sleep" is a dreamlike soundscape, a collaboration among artists in northeast Wisconsin. It is Bill Gillard's words and voice along with music by many. More from Bill Gillard Website: www.billgillard.com Instagram: billgillard3

  8. Jun 11

    Something Again

    That old Arthur C. Clarke quote about technology so advanced it might as well be magic—that applies to sounds in the city, as well. The concrete beneath your feet as firm and as unyielding as physics allows is shaken by… what? There’s something down there. Something monstrous and strange in those tunnels. If I were a dragon (alas!), I’d hide in the subway tunnels that perforate NYC bedrock. Nobody would notice my rumblings or my fiery exhalations. I’d be just another sensory input for people beyond the ability to care.   "Dragons in Subway Tunnels" -- with "Organ Flagpole" by Tad Neuhaus, Joanna Dane, and Loren Dempster "Shae Hears 'I Will Follow' For the First Time" -- with "Area 51" by Tom Washatka "Reflection Nebula" -- with "Black Hole" by Bill Gillard "Five Strings and a Purpose" "Sparse Talent Squandered" "Send Not to Know for Whom" -- with "Slipstream" by John Mayrose "Something Again" "Rainy Night Aubade" -- with Shadow Dance" by Ed Martin "7 and 26 -- a song by Bill Gillard "Ora et Labora -- with "5:13" by Bill Gillard "Seven Sleepers" -- with "Suspend" by Paul Dietrich "Egg Larva Pupa Imago" -- with "They are obviously sounds; that's why they are shadows" by Drew Whiting  "Visions of Half Sleep" is a dreamlike soundscape, a collaboration among artists in northeast Wisconsin. It is Bill Gillard's words and voice along with music by many. More from Bill Gillard Website: www.billgillard.com Instagram: billgillard3

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About

A dreamscape of Bill Gillard's poetry and fiction that rides musical waves from a community of musicians in northeastern Wisconsin.  All poems and stories written and performed by Bill Gillard.  billgillard.com Broadcast on Wednesdays at 10pm on WOCT 101.9 FM Oshkosh. Art by Judith Waller.  Music by: - Nani Agbeli, drums, Lawrence University - Greg Cebulski, piano, Appleton - Joanna Dane, flute, Appleton  - Loren Dempster, cello, Lawrence University - Paul Dietrich, trumpet, Ripon College - Bill Gillard, Appleton - Tony Knuppel, piano, Appleton - Ed Martin, piano, UW Oshkosh - Tad Neuhaus, guitar and percussion, Appleton - Nadje Noordhuis, trumpet, Lawrence University - Offsite, music producer, Appleton - Wilson Poffenberger, saxophone, UW Stevens Point - Tom Washatka, many instruments, UW Oshkosh - Drew Whiting, saxophone, UW Oshkosh

Information

  • Creator
    Bill Gillard
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    16
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Visions of Half Sleep
  • Show Website
    Visions of Half Sleep