Someone a long time ago, someone I didn't really know & who had a magical way of thinking - not more creative, but seeing the world as populated more with fairies & karma & divine intent - whereas I am a materialist, & see the world as totally free of mystical stuffs - this person was mad at me because I did a show I called "The Broken Show." (Looking back at my playlists, I see it was one of the first shows I did in 2002 as I was beginning this whole "Self Help Radio" journey.) She said I "cursed her." What would she think about a show about mistakes & being mistaken? If she listened, would it be a mistake?
I was wondering where, in the array of fucking up, a mistake falls. Somewhere near the bottom, I'd guess; a mistake seems relatively trifling - you're gonna catch some kind of hell, but it's totally tolerable. "I made a mistake when I didn't call the wife today!" The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as: "A misconception about the meaning of something; a thing incorrectly done or thought; an error of judgement." In fact, mistakes are common enough, & carry with them only mild penalties, that we must modify them with adjectives to increase their enormity: that was a big fucking mistake, dude!
But even so, certainly tragedies are not to be dismissed as "mistakes" - except by the people who want to downplay the bloody clusterfucks they've created. Ergo, the President will say, of Iraq, "Mistakes were made." But I don't think simple mistakes cause deaths.
This is, at least, the philosophy of the show on mistakes for this week. So my former acquaintance might feel it's a mistake if she happens upon Self Help Radio on Friday, but, supposing my radio show has supernatural abilities (which it doesn't), it wouldn't cause her to crash her car - but it could perhaps make her forget a meeting over the weekend. She won't be fired, but she'll be yelled at. It was a stupid mistake on her part. Not listening to the show - forgetting about the meeting. How could a radio show - even one about mistakes - cause you to make a dumb mistake? Now you just sound silly.
Look! It's the "Song Of The Day"!
For no apparent reason I was listening to Crime & The City Solution this morning, a gloomy postpunk band fronted by Simon Bonney, who could out-Nick Cave Nick Cave in the wailing & gnashing of teeth category, & whose band featured cohorts of Cave's like Rowland Howard & Mick Harvey. I was first attracted to them primarily because of the Cave-ish-ness of Bonney, but came to understand that Bonney's devotion to the darkness was more steadfast & darker than Cave's. This song is from their 1988 album Shine, & is called All Must Be Love. Click on the song's name to hear an mp3. That mp3 will be removed the day before Valentine's Day, February 13, 2007.
Tomorrow: why a show about mistakes? Am I atoning for something?
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