What's not so groovy...

I have been listening to lots of podcasts today because I was on the road. Which means, I wasn't sitting at home all day editing this morning's shows for public consumption.

Wait a minute! The shows are edited? Well, yeah, but not the way you think. I mean, if I could edit them to make them better, I certainly would. I record them as one giant audio file, & have to break them up. I also sometimes edit out embarrassing dead air. If I occasionally go on the mic & scream out my frustration for the unfairness of the universe in the middle of songs - well, I edit that out, too.

Actually, if I really did that, I'd probably leave them in.

Anyway, I do a little cosmetic work on the shows, splitting them in half, etc, before I put them on my server. Only, I can't do that now, since the recording of the show is in Lexington & I'm in a La Quinta in Memphis. The long & short of it is, I won't be putting the shows on the site until I get home this weekend. My apologies.

But I am slowly formulating an idea for a podcast. Really! A talky one. Perhaps even with humor!

Whither The Groovy Show?

What am I, some kind of hippie?

I once had a boss who used the word "groovy" a lot. He had long hair. He was always giving the peace sign. But he wasn't really a hippie. He called his wife "dude." She called him "dude." That was weird.

I started using the word "groovy" in conversation in the early 90s. I guess there was a sixties revival then, as people were wearing tie-dye & grunge kind of recapitulated some of the manly rock of the 60s. Like the Doors. That movie came out. I remember girls at the time swooning over Jim Morrison. Who was, of course, mainly decomposed bits in a cemetery in Paris.

I still use the word. I am somewhat aware of the dated nature, & perhaps, like my boss, wish people to make judgments about me that are quite untrue. I have longish hair, too. But I am not a hippie.

Hey! But if you're a hippie, or want to hear music that's groovy, that's all Self Help Radio is about this week. It's happening tomorrow morning at 7:30 am (until 9 am) on 88.1 fm WRFL in Lexington. You can listen online live from anywhere, & the audio link is right here.

Normally, I tell you that I'll archive the show later in the day at Self Help Radio website, but that won't be the case tomorrow, as I am leaving directly after the show to be away for spring break. I'll put it up as soon as I get back to town - which may be in a week or so.

It'd be groovy if you listened live.

Preface To The Groovy Show: Groovy Little Time Change

Everyone keeps saying, "Remember to set your clocks head tonight! It's spring forward time again!" But every clock I use regularly is either on some computing device or on my DVR. They're the first times I see every morning. They'll change automatically thanks to the magic of Big Computer, which is sort of like Orwell's Big Brother, but sneakier.

The clocks on the stove & microwave I'll probably not change until I use them. Same with the one in the car. & hey, I am going to be driving to Dallas next week, so do I even have to change the clocks until I get home? Let's see, it's an hour earlier in Dallas... Oh, yeah, I guess I have to.

In the radio world, this time of year can be confusing. Here in Lexington, the fellow who normally does the midnight to three on Saturday sent an email out to remind the deejays after him to come in an hour early. In Austin, where both KVRX & KOOP share the same frequency, there's an issue at the tower, where an automated systems switches between the two stations at 9am. It can be quite a headache.

Not for me! It just means that Self Help Radio is coming an hour sooner this week than it did last week. & that's groovy.

Happy Birthday John Cale!

A week after Lou Reed turned 70, so does John Davies Cale. Here he is at some unspecified time probably in recent history performing one of his great songs, "Fear Is A Man's Best Friend," live - with Nick Cave & Chrissie Hynde looking on.

Thursday Picture Of A Pet

We have now come to the last of my pets. This fuzzy cat is named Bronte. She came to us from one of my wife's colleagues, who found her, she said, at a farmhouse in Ohio. The poor little cat weighed less than four pounds, was full of tangles & mats, & had a worrying cough, which her rescuer told us was "just hairballs."

After we had her for a couple of weeks, she was still lethargic & not terribly affectionate, & I noticed that, though she kaff-kaffed all the time, I never once saw a hairball (despite her mess of hair). So we took her to a vet & discovered she had asthma. Once she had regular treatment, she transformed into a wholly different cat - playful, sweet to her brother Bolan, noisy, demanding. As is typical with asthma, the sickness affects her depending on the weather, & it took several attempts - & suffering through some utterly inept Appalachian vets - to get her the proper meds, & to maintain her health.

The wife says it's been six months since an asthma attack. We should have a sign in the house. But spring is around the corner. Now, the currently ten-pound Bronte is asking me to feed her. Asking me? Demanding me!

A Rainbow Connection

Somewhere, under the rainbow, near the pot of gold, I found a radio show about rainbows. I frankly would have preferred the pot of gold. But then I wouldn't have shared all that gold with you. The music, though - it's all for you! & no, you're not having a flashback, you hippie.

The show is all colors of the rainbow, from Roy to Biv. It's available on the Self Help Radio website. Half of the rainbow is available over here, while the other half is over here. The shows are listed below.

Oh, & as an aside: I usually also put up mp3s for my other show, Sugar Substitute, but this morning, due to user error (ie, me), I didn't get a recording of this morning's show. In case you were wondering.

As always, thanks for listening!

(part one)

"What Makes A Rainbow?" Marais & Miranda _More Nature Songs_
"Rainbows Are Back In Style" Dean Martin _Gentle On My Mind_
"The Rainbow Connection" Majestic _Just For A Day_

"Over The Rainbow" Aretha Franklin _Aretha Complete On Columbia_
"She's A Rainbow" Rolling Stones _Their Satanic Majesties Request_
"The Rainbow" The Apples In Stereo _The Discovery Of A World Inside The Moone_
"The Man Who Paints The Rainbows" Television Personalities _Privilege_
"Rainbow" Gene Chandler _Nothing Can Stop Me: Gene Chandler's Greatest Hits_

"Rainbow Voodoo" Clark _Totems Flare_
"Looking For A Rainbow" Talulah Gosh _Backwash_
"She Talks To Rainbows" The Ramones _Hey! Ho! Let's Go: The Anthology_

(part two)

"The End Of The Rainbow" Richard & Linda Thompson _I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight_

"There's A Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder" Bobby Darin _The Swinging Side Of Bobby Darin_
"There's A Rainbow In Your Heart" Chuck Jackson _The Motown Anthology_
"Rainbow Woman" Lee Hazlewood _Where The Action Is! (Los Angeles Nuggets 1965-1968)_
"Rainbow Signs" Sarah Webster Fabio _Boss Soul_
"Rainbow Road" Bill Brandon _Down & Out: The Sad Soul Of The Black South_

"Paint A Rainbow" My Bloody Valentine _Sunny Sundae Smile_
"Paint Yourself A Rainbow" Suede Crocodiles _Stop The Rain_
"Rainbow Rider" The Pooh Sticks _Million Seller_
"Rainbow Of Strange Appetites" Loop Guru _Elderberry Shiftglass_
"Find Yourself A Rainbow" Sally Field _Star of The Flying Nun_

Whither Rainbows?

What kind of hippie am I anyway?

There sure are a lot of songs about rainbows - something a certain frog wondered about some thirty years ago - & I've spent most of the week slogging through them. Human beings are quite infatuated with them, that's for sure.

My favorite rainbow - at least the one that comes to mind when I think the word "rainbow" - was an astonishing rainbow appearing in dark blue skies somewhere in New Mexico in the mid-90s after I'd driven through a small patch of rain on the portions of I-20 that are in Indian lands. I saw it by chance - if I weren't always looking in the rear-view mirror, I wouldn't have noticed it. I have a photograph of it somewhere - I had my girlfriend hold the steering wheel while I awkwardly turned in my seat to get the shot. The photograph, taken on a cheap hand-me-down camera, doesn't capture how breathtaking it was.

It is pretty wonderful to see a bow of colors in the sky. & everyone knows that wonder - which is why it appears in so many songs.

You'll get to hear a lot of them on Self Help Radio tomorrow morning (that's Monday) from 7:30 to 9am on 88.1 fm WRFL Lexington. If you want to listen on the computer, here's a link to the audio stream. I'll archive it later in the day at the Self Help Radio website. So unlike a rainbow, the show will be around for a while.