Preface To Drums: Twelve Drummers Drumming

Well! The best laid pants of mice & men & all that. I had planned to scan a funny picture from one of my favorite comics, Pogo, with Albert the Alligator & Churchy LaFemme the turtle arguing about the twelve days of Christmas. But my scanner didn't want to work this morning. Frankly, it was amazing I found it among all the damn Pogo books I have. But never mind! Here's what Albert says at the end of it all:

"Next you sends TWELVE DRUMMERS --- So THAT was yo' game all along! All this other FOOFARAW was jus' ADVERTISIN' -- Advance men for these salesmen -- THESE DRUMMERS -- BRUSH SELLERS!"

They used to call salesmen drummers, from the phrase "drum up business," you see...

Oh, never mind. Stupid scanner.

Where O Where Did My Bloggerpants Go?

It's true, I was all ready to regale you this morning with another vivid dissection of my recurring nightmare where I find myself in the back row of a computer lab & find out the floor is all wet & there's a dilemma because we're on the second floor(!). As I cracked my knuckles & hunkered down at my computer, I found that Blogger (or as I like to call it, Blooger) was down for maintenance. Horrors! For how long? What's wrong? Oh God, what if I forgot my dream?

(I couldn't, really, because it's recurring. I was a little sleepy though. Not thinking straight. Which might explain why these blog entries are the way they are.)

(My cats tried to hand me a pen & some paper but they were just being jerks.)

Apparently, Blogger went down a couple of days ago & took thirty hours of posts with them. I think I was saved from the humiliation of losing an entry because I last wrote on Wednesday. The breakdown appeared to happen yesterday. & now Blooger is back, & I only noticed because I tried to write in the blog this morning. But what of the nice people who write every day? I think they must have been unhappy.

I'm not, though! I barely noticed. But boy am I glad I don't work at Blogger/Google/whoever owns it wherever they are!

Does anyone still want to hear about my recurring nightmare? It still doesn't end with me wetting the bed, as must as my psychiatrist wishes it would.

New Intro!

I had a previous post where I put links up to all the intros for my show, & I mentioned that I have tended to make a new intro around this time every year to celebrate a "new season" or what-not. Since my show just moved from midnight Tuesdays to mid-morning Mondays, it seemed appropriate to make a new intro now. So I did. You can hear it if you listen to this week's show, or I can just put it up here. Either/or? Or.

You can listen to the new intro here!

As a public service, or in case you don't feel like clicking the link above, here are the links to the previous intros. How clever I am!

You can listen to the 2002 intro here.

You can listen to the 2003 intro here.

You can listen to the 2005 intro here.

You can listen to the 2006 intro here.

You can listen to the 2007 intro here.

You can listen to the 2008 intro here.

You can listen to the 2009 intro here.

You can listen to the 2010 intro here.

Yielding To Temptation

Self Help Radio didn't resist the temptation this week to make a radio show about temptation. It was too tempting. It may have been tempting fate to put a show about temptation on as my first Monday morning show on WRFL, but as far as I can tell, no animals were injured in the making of the radio show. Unless you count my dogs & cats, & if you consider being deeply annoyed as "injured." My cats do.

The radio show tempts you in its regular place, on the Self Help Radio website. It is divided into two parts of more or less equal time, although the show is meant to be listened to in its entirety. Just saying. Part one is here & part two is here. I was tempted to make a part three, but I was rudely interrupted by the show after mine. The nerve!

The two parts are divided as follows:

(part one)
"Temptation (7" Mix)" New Order _Movement_

"Temptation" Screamin' Jay Hawkins _Cow Fingers & Mosquito Pie_
"Temptation" Tom Waits _Franks Wild Years_
"Temptation" Elvis Costello & The Attractions _Get Happy!!_
"Temptation" Jo Broadbery & The Standouts _Jo Broadbery & The Standouts_
"Temptation" The Sapphires _The Sapphires_

"Resisting Temptation" Wilmoth Houdini _Don't Stop The Carnival_
"Man's Temptation" Gene Chandler _Nothing Can Stop Me: Gene Chandler's Greatest Hits_
"Temptation Is Hard To Fight" George McGregor & The Bronzettes _Eccentric Soul: Twinight's Lunar Rotation_
"Do The Temptation Walk" Jackie Lee _The Duck_
"Don't Let Temptation Turn You Around" Hank Ballard & The Midnighters _Don't Let Temptation Turn You Around_

(part two)
"Yield Not To Temptation" Bobby 'Blue' Bland _The Definitive Collection_

"Temptation's 'Bout To Get Me" The Rascals _See_
"Temptation Eyes" Grass Roots _Anthology 1965-1975_
"Fool For Temptation" The Contemporaries _Yeah Yeah Yeah_
"Temptation" Inner Light _A Lethal Dose Of Hard Psych_
"La Tentation Dans Ton Coeur" Les Amours _Romances 85_
"Temptation To Exist" The New York Dolls _Cause I Sez So_

"Temptation Of Egg" Giant Sand _Chore Of Enchantment_
"Temptation" The Itals _Early Recordings 1971-1979_
"Temptation Tide" Sebadoh _Bakesale_
"Temptation By Your Side" Bellavista _Bellavista_

I came home from the Monday morning show & promptly went to sleep. I certainly hope that is not the effect the show has on listeners.

Whither Temptation?

What is so tempting, after all? Certainly not my radio show!

I know the word has roots in Judeo-Christian history/theology. It has been secularized over time to just mean something like "an act or thing that looks appealing to someone," but temptation in the religious sense means something that will lead you astray. I'm sure that I'll be talking about that tomorrow.

OF COURSE there's a perfume called Temptation. Who wouldn't want to smell like a snake trying to make a woman eat an apple?

Or like a little baby trying to make a Victorian woman have a bite to eat?



You'll have to tune in tomorrow to hear Self Help Radio's show all about temptation, in the show's new time slot of Mondays from 7:30 to 9:00 am on 88.1 fm in Lexington, & online everywhere at WRFL dot fm.

I will of course archive it tomorrow during the day on the self help radio website. But you should listen anyway!