Self Help Radio 122116: A Very Self Help Radio Christmas 2016

Here it is, from the freaky Self Help Radio family to your own group of weirdoes, A Very Self Help Radio Christmas 2016!

In addition to too many Christmas songs in a two-hour period, there are interviews galore, a special message from my spiritual mentor, & a surprise phone call from someone who doesn't celebrate Christmas at all!  Yes, it's as difficult as your average Office Secret Santa & also as cheap.

Listen all throughout the holidays at Self Help Radio Dot Net!  I promise, if you want your relatives to leave, this will do the job!

& happy holidays to all!

(part one)

"Merry Christmas" Jim Of Seattle _Frothin' The Nog: Ye Fourth Green Monkey Xmas_
"Deck The Halls (Fa La La La La)" Little Jimmy Thomas _Deck The Halls (Fa La La La La)_
"White Christmas" Iggy Pop _Psych-Out Christmas_

"Funky Little Drummer Boy" Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings _It's A Holiday Soul Party_
"Little Jesus Loves Me" Bonnie Guitar _Merry Christmas From Bonnie Guitar_
"You're Just Like Christmas" The Crookes _You're Just Like Christmas_
"Carol Of The Bells" The Whiskey Wasps _Melancholy Holly_

"I Believe In Father Christmas" Greg Lake _The Atlantic Years_
"Do You Hear What I Hear" Gladys Knight & The Pips _Do You Hear What I Hear_
"Christmas Chopsticks" The Voices Of Walter Schumann _The Voices Of Christmas_
"Merry X-Mas Song" Pink Floyd _Rare Precious & Beautiful_
"Xmas Spirit" Destructors _Cashing In On Christmas, Vol. 6_

"Hail Santa" Nodding Tree Remedies _The T-D-R-Co Sound: Cascadian Christmas Collection_

(part two)

"Frosty The Snowman" The Forty Nineteens _Frosty The Snowman_
"No Room At The Inn" Bubblegum Lemonade _Under The Christmas Twee_
"Santa Is A B-Boy" Whistle _Live At The North Pole_

"Santa Claus & Popcorn" Merle Haggard _Goin' Home For Christmas_
"Carols Those Kids Used To Sing" The Statler Brothers _The Statler Brothers Christmas Card_
"Christmas At The Opry" Archie Campbell _Christmas At The Opry_
"It's Not The Presents Under My Tree" Narvel Felts _The Best Of Ripsaw Records, Vol. 3_

"Santa Baby" Wild Child _Christmas Mixtape, Vol. 1_
"Christmas Eve" Night Flowers _Christmas_
"Mister Santa" Lenny Dee _Happy Holi-Dee_
"Holiday Road" Matt Pond PA _Holiday Road_

"The Twelve Days Of Christmas" Bob & Ron Copper _Songs Of Christmas From The Alan Lomax Collection_
"Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht" Der Bielefelder Kinderchor _A German Christmas_

(Image above from here.)

Whither A Very Self Help Radio Christmas 2016?

It's that time of year again!  You know because every damn radio show is playing Christmas music!  & frankly, it's the same Christmas music over & over.  But not Self Help Radio!  Just one Christmas show a year, guaranteed!  Plus!  No repeats ever!  Well, I mean, we play the same songs, you know, the Christmas songs you expect, but never the same recordings!  Also!  Lots of fun interviews tonight!  Like:

- an interview with a man who's studied Christmas Around The World!
- an interview with a former Department Store Santa!
- a special report from our travel correspondent about Christmas In Norway!
- a prerecorded holiday message from the Rev. Dr. Howard Gently!

Probably also surprises!  Who knows what's in these wrapped boxes?  You'll have to listen to find out!

It's on from 9-11pm eastern, 8-10pm central on 93.9 fm WLXU in Lexington, & everywhere at Lexington Community Radio online!  Have a listen!  It'll start your holiday right!  Well, maybe not entirely right.  It'll start something!

(Image above found here.)

Preface To A Very Self Help Radio Christmas 2016: I Feel Much Better Now, Thank You

Except my wife is sick now.

She's actually glad she caught the bug after me - as she told me, "Watching you, I knew exactly what to expect."  So - is "you're welcome" appropriate for being all communicable with the disease?

She also said, when the flu was causing her stomach pains, "How did early hominids survive?"  A sick anthropologist is a hilarious anthropologist.

She was supposed to go visit her family in California today, but weird circumstances - a previously-used voucher among them, which meant she didn't have a flight after all - led to her having to reschedule till tomorrow.  If she follows the same trajectory I did, she'll be exhausted but able to travel by tomorrow afternoon.  She's sleeping now.

& the show is done, & has been delivered to WLXU, although I didn't get a confirmation that it was received, so if it doesn't air, I'll at least be able to put it on my website on Thursday, before Christmas.  I am working on next week's show now, since the station will need it before they close for Christmas week on Friday.

Meanwhile, I am trying to decide if I should try to eat a regular meal tonight.  After emptying myself of everything I had in me over the weekend, I have eaten so far a banana, a handful of wheat thins, two small cups of applesauce, & two granola bars.  That's not a lot for two days & my body has begun to complain a little.  The only problem is, what I have to eat is sort-of-spicy Indian food.  When I wrote that, I got hungry; when I got hungry, my stomach made tsk-tsking sounds at me.

What do I do?  I don't go on about it here, certainly!  This is a blog for a radio show, not for someone day-to-day nonsense.  Just be glad that I was able to finish the show this week despite being waylaid by a virus - or be disappointed if you just wanted one lousy week of this year without an episode of Self Help Radio.  I'm sure that's quite a few people.

Health!

Sorry for that previous post.  Or is it sorry not sorry?

Not having lived in Texas for so long, & not having visited my family so regularly since the mid-00s, I had forgotten how every one of them is a petri dish for germs & viruses.  The weekend I visited my ailing mother & my sister was there, she who complained last week of having a "stomach thing."  If she had done as I did, & read up on such viruses, she would know she was still contagious for a few days after she felt better, but instead she gave me a hug anyway, & I, as I said, had forgotten how every time I came home from around 1986 till 2008 I would bring some sickness home with me.

Last night I was very unwell.  I cancelled dinner plans, which my wife thought I was doing because I am antisocial but which my wife decided wasn't the case when the vomiting began.  I had chills, I was so very thirsty, & I was weak.  I was exhausted but couldn't sleep.  I managed in the wee hours of the very cold morning to drink a few drops of water & slept a few hours until, around 6am, my sweet puppy Winston woke me so he could go outside.

All the while I despaired of being unwell & unable to finish my show this week.  But I rallied this morning, I managed to keep some applesauce down, & I was able to edit the many interviews I have planned.  Now it's just a matter of putting it all together.

Not that anyone was worried or knew or would have cared if sickness made me miss a show.  But I think I may sleep a little more before I finish the show tonight.

Sickness!

for immediate release:

Radio deejay & long-time "Self Help Radio" host Gary laid low by a stomach virus that's "going around"!  A night of stomach pain & regurgitation - & not in the good way - planned for a cold Sunday evening!  Fate of this week's show in doubt!  Will he rally to put a show together for Wednesday night - the annual "a Very Self Help Radio Christmas" program?  Or will he continue to a big baby & hold his dogs close & weep his benighted state?  Stay tuned!