Whither Crushes?

I know it sounds fey & coy & totally indiepoppy, but I've always loved the word "crush." Quite possibly because crushes were my sole romantic experience from the moment I first wanted to make out with girls until I made out with a girl when I was eighteen. (Gasp! Gary had his first kiss at eighteen! Maybe that's why he's still a virgin!) Crushes didn't go away, of course - crushes are like the first step toward falling in love, but since that step is a doozy, most of the time you don't take it. A crush is therefore usually ephemeral.

The reason I decided to do a show about crushes is twofold. One is that I usually do a special Valentine's Day show with some kind of aspect of love involved - although I am usually a little cynical (I did a "hate" show in 2005, for example, &, although it never aired because of the fire last year, I prepared a break-up show for 2006). What I had planned to do this time last year, but I jumped the gun in did last July, was a Cupid show. Why I did it then I don't know - it was a hell of a show. You should go listen to it right now.

Forced to confront my own negativity, & needing a show for Valentine's Day, I found myself desert-dry & unable to think of anything really worth doing. Then I noticed a pretty girl wandering by on one of the last autumn days when I was still a smoker, on one of those long-gone smoke breaks that I used to enjoy (sigh). I realized I was totally crushing on her, & it occured to me that, as a faithful lover to a beautiful woman for almost six years, a woman I hope to spend the rest of my life with, a woman I have no interest in betraying or otherwise hurting with a meaningless fling, it occured to me that for a person in my position, crushes were really the only safe form of infidelity around. Because crushes are ultimately harmless, & utterly forgettable. I remember, for example, having this idea - relationship dude can only have a crush - but I cannot for the life of me remember what the woman who inspired this idea looked like. In this story, in fact, I miss the cigarette most of all.

Ta-da! Crush is the theme for Self Help Radio this week, & now you know why.

Todays "Song Of The Day" is a crushworthy old-skool hip-hop song that my iPod chose to "randomly" play for me twice the last couple of days. It's by a more or less obscure 80s group called Whistle (featuring members with names like Jazzy Jazz, Kool Doobie, Kraze & DJ Silver Spinner) (at the time there was a lot of speculation that Michael McDonald was the real name of Kool Doobie) (we had a lot of time for speculation in those days) & I like the song because of the odd noises in it. The song is called (Nothing Serious) Just Buggin' & it's nothing serious, so stop buggin' & click on the name to listen to it. I'll leave it up till February 21, 2007.

Tomorrow, I answer a letter. I unlock your fetters. I pet an Irish Setter. I knit a sweater. I get to know you better. Because you're a go-getter.