Thursday, November 21, 2013

Preface To The Blame Game: 1699

Tomorrow will be 1700 posts on this site since May 23.  I think around that time I reduced the number of posts per week written here from five to four.  I really don't have that much to say.

In fact, no one really visits this site, & when someone does, it's usually one of those weird bots designed to look up the names of sites to discover whether it's been taken or not - I'm sure there's certainly some value in having a site called "selfhelpradio" & it could mean $$$ to a promising con man/woman who's failed to make money as a life coach & finds all those charts in astrology to be a headache.

I've only myself to blame.  I'm not anywhere near creative enough to sustain the writing involved for 1700 (!) daily or sort-of-daily letters or essays to people who might be interested in my show.  This may be - at long last! - the time to reevaluate what sort of blog this ought to be.  But man! that seems like a lot of work.

More than anything else, I have needed for a long time to establish writing in the blog thing as a ritual, or at least something I do every day I'm required to.  The problem is, one of those days I also need to edit my radio show, which takes a lot longer than logging in to Blogger & typing four paragraphs of nonsense once a day.

I have been reading some Greek stuff - you know, from ancient times - & I love how they write about things by referencing (perhaps incorrectly) myths, tales, or writings to which we (as humans) might not be privy.  For example, this is from a piece by Plutarch giving advice to a young married couple (mainly the bride):

Helen was fond of wealth & Paris of pleasure; Odysseus was sensible & Penelope virtuous. Therefore the marriage of the latter pair was happy & enviable, while that of the former created an "Iliad of woes" for Greeks & barbarians.

I need to start writing like that, pretending to write truism but in my case referencing music or pop culture.

We understand Springsteen when he talks of the "new-mown chaperone" who, by himself, espied the pretty maidens at the high school social, but we also understand Momus who describes, in the immortal song, how, at the time of consummation, the only "fashionable dress" is "flesh."

I know that doesn't mean anything & in fact it's a little exhausting, but there's something delightfully dumb & pretentious about it that I think is perfect for a blog about a dumb & pretentious radio show.

Or not?

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