I have been reading, lately, (at the advice of the the Word Detective) Hugh Rawson's Dictionary Of Euphemisms & Other Doubletalk
, & I was hoping there'd be some interesting euphemisms for "lip" or "lips" that I could share on this week's show. Alas, there's not an entry for "lips." But there is, in the entry for the word "bushwa," this entry:
Bushwa, also bushwah, booshwa, booshwa, boushwa, or boushwah: they all up to the same thing: bullshit.
Okay, that's unhelpful. Let's move on to this:
Similar to "bushwa" is "bushlips," a nonce term but redolent with history, alluding to President George Bush's emphatic "Read my lips" promise (later broken) not to raise taxes. This was typically encountered, ca. 1990, in such phrases as "Don't give me any of that bushlips" or "I know pure, unadulterated bushlips when I hear it."
Oh, to have existed in a simpler time - twenty years ago!
Saturday, December 08, 2012
Friday, December 07, 2012
Where To Put The Quote.
Quote quoted at me from (possibly genius but scary in perverted Lolita manner) Nabokov (the book called I think Pale Fire) a poem which goes or went:
It missed the gist of the whole thing; it missed
What mostly interests the preterist;
For we die every day; oblivion thrives
Not on dry thighbones but on blood-ripe lives,
And our best yesterdays are now foul piles
Of crumpled names, phone numbers & foxed files.
I'm ready to become a floweret
Or a fat fly, but never, to forget.
& I'll turn down eternity unless
The melancholy & the tenderness
Of mortal life; the passion & the pain;
The claret taillight of that dwindling plane
Off Hesperus; your gesture of dismay
On running out of cigarettes; the way
You smile at dogs; the trail of silver slime
Snails leave on flagstones; this good ink, this rhyme,
This index card, this slender rubber band
Which always forms, when dropped, an ampersand,
Are found in Heaven by the newlydead
Stored in its strongholds through the years.
& I liked it!
But then Nabokov was all like:
& I didn't say I liked it out loud all that much though I did. Really I did.
It missed the gist of the whole thing; it missed
What mostly interests the preterist;
For we die every day; oblivion thrives
Not on dry thighbones but on blood-ripe lives,
And our best yesterdays are now foul piles
Of crumpled names, phone numbers & foxed files.
I'm ready to become a floweret
Or a fat fly, but never, to forget.
& I'll turn down eternity unless
The melancholy & the tenderness
Of mortal life; the passion & the pain;
The claret taillight of that dwindling plane
Off Hesperus; your gesture of dismay
On running out of cigarettes; the way
You smile at dogs; the trail of silver slime
Snails leave on flagstones; this good ink, this rhyme,
This index card, this slender rubber band
Which always forms, when dropped, an ampersand,
Are found in Heaven by the newlydead
Stored in its strongholds through the years.
& I liked it!
But then Nabokov was all like:
Thursday, December 06, 2012
Useless Explanations
(Noises of things being shuffled around in an attempt to delay or if possible postpone.)
Well.
No one's here so it's as good a time as any to make an apology.
I am lucky there's no mirror here because it's me I am apologizing to.
From the almost-earliest days of Self Help Radio (meaning in the show's third year), I started doing an end-of-the-year "best of" show (quickly retitled "favorites") because that's what radio shows do & because I listen to a lot of records during the year & want to support many of them (especially if they don't have songs that fit into my chosen themes).
Well. I was also listening to a lot of electronica at that time, so it seemed - I started this a year or two later - I could also do a "favorite electronica" show.
& I did. From 2005 to 2011.
You might have noticed I am not going to do one this year. Was there no good electronica?
Actually, I'm not sure. I kind of lost interest.
Not entirely. But not enough to fill an entire radio show.
I think a lot of my favorite electronica artists have decided they want to be more poppy. Or make their music with acoustic instruments, to "prove" their musicians. & then there's dubstep, which became ubiquitous, & which is mostly not all that good these days. At some point I drifted away.
So, I apologize. I wish I kept up. I wish I had the energy to keep up. There was a lot of great music this year. A lot. The favorites show will be hard to do.
But no electronica.
Sorry about that.
(Looking around, sounds of crickets, the lights dim.)
Well.
No one's here so it's as good a time as any to make an apology.
I am lucky there's no mirror here because it's me I am apologizing to.
From the almost-earliest days of Self Help Radio (meaning in the show's third year), I started doing an end-of-the-year "best of" show (quickly retitled "favorites") because that's what radio shows do & because I listen to a lot of records during the year & want to support many of them (especially if they don't have songs that fit into my chosen themes).
Well. I was also listening to a lot of electronica at that time, so it seemed - I started this a year or two later - I could also do a "favorite electronica" show.
& I did. From 2005 to 2011.
You might have noticed I am not going to do one this year. Was there no good electronica?
Actually, I'm not sure. I kind of lost interest.
Not entirely. But not enough to fill an entire radio show.
I think a lot of my favorite electronica artists have decided they want to be more poppy. Or make their music with acoustic instruments, to "prove" their musicians. & then there's dubstep, which became ubiquitous, & which is mostly not all that good these days. At some point I drifted away.
So, I apologize. I wish I kept up. I wish I had the energy to keep up. There was a lot of great music this year. A lot. The favorites show will be hard to do.
But no electronica.
Sorry about that.
(Looking around, sounds of crickets, the lights dim.)
Monday, December 03, 2012
Worry Not!
Don't worry, be happy I didn't play that song on my show about worry.
Otherwise, worry. There's every reason to. Perhaps Self Help Radio's show can help ease your worries.
The show is worrying itself at Self Help Radio Dot Net. As usual, it's in two parts, or, as I worry someone will call them, "chunks." Part one is here & part two is here, with a track listing of each part below.
As always, thanks for listening!
(part one)
"I'm So Worried" Monty Python _Monty Python Sings_
"Ease My Worried Mind" Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee _Hometown Blues_
"I Don't Worry Myself" Johnny Adams _Action Speaks Louder Than Words: The Best Of SSS International_
"Isch Ka Bibble (I Should Worry)" Kay Kyser _The Best Of Kay Kyser & His Orchestra_
"Worryin' Kind" Regents _Quagmire, Vol. 5_
"Something Is Worrying Me" Otis Redding _The Otis Redding Story_
"Don't Worry This Isn't About You" The Cat's Miaow _Songs For Girls To Sing_
"Baby Don'tcha Worry" Tammi Terrell _The Complete Motown Singles, Vol. 6: 1966_
"God's Getting Worried" Virginia Dandies _Goodbye, Babylon_
"Your Time To Worry" Blind Willie McTell _Complete Recorded Works, Vol.3 (1933-35)_
"Don't Worry Baby" Bryan Ferry _These Foolish Things_
"Sometimes I Worry About You" The Razorcuts _Sometimes I Worry About You_
"Why I Worry About You" House Of Commons _History Of Michigan Garage, Vol. 1: The Wheels 4 Label Story_
"Don't Worry" Pere Ubu _Raygun Suitcase_
"Worried Blues" Bob Dylan _The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3 : Rare & Unreleased, 1961-1991_
(part two)
"Don't Worry About The Government" Talking Heads _The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads_
"Why Worry" Israel Vibration _The Same Song_
"Worri" Majesty Crush _Fan_
"Worry Worry" The Fiery Furnaces _Gallowsbird's Bark_
"Worry" The Splinters _Kick_
"Do I Worry?" The Ink Spots _The Singing Detective_
"Don't You Worry Little One" Adventures In Stereo _Adventures In Stereo_
"Worried Man Blues" The Carter Family _Wildwood Flower_
"Worryhead" Summer Twins _Summer Twins_
"Worried Life Blues" Big Maceo _When The Sun Goes Down, Vol. 4: That's All Right_
"The Worryin' Song" Guided By Voices _Demons & Painkillers_
"Don't Worry" The Moss Poles _Shorn_
"Nothin' In The World Can Stop Me Worryin' Bout That Girl" The Kinks _Kinda Kinks_
"Do Your Best & Don't Worry" Morrissey _Southpaw Grammar_
"New Worried Mind" Bob Wills _San Antonio Rose_
"Worried Blues" Gladys Bentley _Roots N' Blues: The Retrospective (1925-1950)_
Sunday, December 02, 2012
Whither Worry?
Please hurry, hurry, hurry!
We've got no time for worry!
Because your eyes get blurry
when you worry, worry, worry!
At dinner we'll have curry
& afterwards we'll worry!
We'll scowl like Fred McMurray
& we'll worry, worry, worry!
If you've lost your fringe-topped surrey
It's probably time to worry!
Don't scamper & don't scurry
While you worry, worry, worry!
Find a friend who's face is furry
To join in on the worry!
In the middle of a flurry
We will worry, worry, worry!
You're looking Raymond Burr-y
Just Perry Mason worries!
Like a ship's deck covered in gurry
All our worry, worry, worry!
You can simper like Peter Lorre
When you worry worry worry!
Or you can dance like Arthur Murray
When you worry worry worry!
More bad poetry tomorrow on Self Help Radio - from 7 to 9am on 88.1 fm WRFL in Lexington & online at wrfl dot fm!
Archived later at self help radio dot net!
No worries!
We've got no time for worry!
Because your eyes get blurry
when you worry, worry, worry!
At dinner we'll have curry
& afterwards we'll worry!
We'll scowl like Fred McMurray
& we'll worry, worry, worry!
If you've lost your fringe-topped surrey
It's probably time to worry!
Don't scamper & don't scurry
While you worry, worry, worry!
Find a friend who's face is furry
To join in on the worry!
In the middle of a flurry
We will worry, worry, worry!
You're looking Raymond Burr-y
Just Perry Mason worries!
Like a ship's deck covered in gurry
All our worry, worry, worry!
You can simper like Peter Lorre
When you worry worry worry!
Or you can dance like Arthur Murray
When you worry worry worry!
More bad poetry tomorrow on Self Help Radio - from 7 to 9am on 88.1 fm WRFL in Lexington & online at wrfl dot fm!
Archived later at self help radio dot net!
No worries!