Self Help Radio 050114: Disappear

I promise I didn't plan it this way, but it seems funny that the show in which Self Help Radio reappears on the Lexington airwaves is a show about disappearing.  Sometimes that's just how things happen.

The show disappeared yesterday but it's reappeared now at Self Help Radio on the web.  You can also take advantage of two links to listen to either hour of the show (or both, in succession, or out of order): part one + part two.  The songs I played are below.

Don't disappear any more!

(part one)

"Disappear" Gilbert _Real Life Permanent Dreams: Happydaystoytown_
"Disappear" Madness _Absolutely_
"Disappear?" The Church _Seance_

"Disappear" Cockeyed Ghost _Keep Yourself Amused_
"Disappear" Jumprope _Holiday In Brazil_
"Disappear" The Crayon Fields _All The Pleasures Of The World_
"Disappear" Eternal Summers _Correct Behavior_

"Disappearing" Peter Murphy _Cascade_
"Disappearer" Sonic Youth _Goo_
"Everything's Disappeared" Steinski _What Does It All Mean?_

"You Disappear From View" The Teardrop Explodes _Wilder_

(part two)

"I Disappear" The Faint _Wet From Birth_
"Everything Disappears When You Come Around" Of Montreal _Cherry Peel_
"I Can't Pay You To Disappear" Thee Oh Sees _Dog Poison_
"Watch Her Disappear" Tom Waits _Alice_

"Disappear Always" Wild Nothing _Nocturne_
"Disappearing Act" U2 _The Unforgettable Fire_
"Disappearing Lessons" Courtney Love _Highlights_
"Disappearing Act" Jonny Cola & The A Grades _The Yellow Mini_

"Disappearing Act" The Mantles _The Mantles_
"Never Disappear" Majestic 12 _Searching For The Elvis Knob_
"When Will Your Friends All Disappear" East River Pipe _Goodbye California_
"Love Will Always Disappear" Chemistry Set _Chemistry Set_
"Disappear WIthout A Trace" Scrawl _Velvet Hammer_

Whither Disappear?

It turns out that the Random House dictionary disagrees with my musings from yesterday about the difference between "disappear" & "vanish."  It says:

Disappear is used of whatever suddenly or gradually goes out of sight: vanish suggests complete, generally rapid, & often mysterious disappearance.

So - let me get this straight - vanish is complete & rapid, but disappear can be suddenly or gradually?

I guess "vanish" does have mysterious connotations.  I would be more spooked by a ghost vanishing than one simply disappearing.

I am writing this Thursday morning, as I am going to be doing my first Self Help Radio on WRFL in about five months.  I am a little nervous but I have prepared a fine show & I hope someone enjoys it who isn't my mother.

That reminds me - I need to call my mother.

It's on from 10 am to noon & it's available on the link above.  However, if you miss it, & people would think you had good taste if you did, I'll put it up tomorrow like every Friday this year.  & it won't disappear for a long, long time.

Preface To Disappear: Disappearing Act

You know how, when you're a kid, you're really dumb & you think things that happen on television & cartoons are real?  Do you remember the Looney Tunes or Merrie Melodies or whatever cartoons in which someone - my brain is telling me it's a cartoon mouse - but I found a picture where it's Tom the cat - puts on "vanishing cream" & disappears?

Do you remember those?  OH MY GOD I wanted so badly to find some vanishing cream in the bathroom!  (My mother didn't use that stuff, though.)

It turns out that vanishing creams, as the internet tells me, "get their name from the fact that they seemed to disappear when spread onto the skin."  Here's a link all about them.  I initially thought they made wrinkles or unwanted facial blemishes "vanish," but that's not it.  The cream vanished.  It disappeared into the skin.

It didn't make you disappear.  How disappointing was that when I found out!  Worse than the truth about Santa, the Tooth Fairy, or the Easter Bunny.

By the way - online thesauruses don't seem to think that "vanish" & "disappear" are synonyms.  Is it because disappearing appears to be instantaneous & vanishing takes time?  What do you think?

Boone

I had a whole ridiculous thing written for today & was almost going to put it up but we needed to walk the dogs after dinner.  We walked close to the house because the radar keeps looking like this:

It wasn't our usual walk, & at one point a sweet little orange cat - a kitten, really - approached us, not really afraid of the three beagles.  We didn't want it to follow us, but during the walk - & knowing about the coming storm - we worried that it was not safe, so we went to find it when we got the dogs home.

He was nowhere to be found, & we walked up & down the street.  As we were about to leave, my wife Magda said, "Oh here he is."  He let us put him in the carrier without incident & didn't meow at all on the short ride home.

He's in our guest room.  He has a scabbed-over sore on his foot, & his ears look to be nicked a bit, & he's very small & scrawny & dirty.  He's had something to eat & now he's chilling out:

He's been no trouble at all - I don't even think he feels trapped or otherwise inconvenienced.  We'll see after the vet visit tomorrow!

I don't know if he's adopted us yet - but for now, I'm calling him Boone.

Big News! (Reprise)

For my entire life pretty much I pronounced the word "reprise" like this: re-prize.  The first time I heard it pronounced the proper way - which is ruh-preez - was in a live performance of Marc Bolan on a T Rex boxed set when he was promoting his new record, "Out on Warner-Reprise Records."

I just check & the Merriam-Webster dictionary online says both pronunciations are allowed, but probably because of people like me who mispronounced them their entire lives.

That's neither here nor there - I'm just writing to confirm (as much as I can confirm) that Self Help Radio will be on WRFL this Thursday & next (May 1 & 8) from 10am to noon, & then, the next week will begin its summer home on the station from 7 to 9am on Fridays.  It's pretty exciting.  Of course, once I go on the air, everyone leaves town for the summer.  Rats!

Also: since I have an extra hour (6-7am), I've asked not to resurrect my freeform show Sugar Substitute (which I will do again one day!) but instead I told them I'd like to do a country blues show, which I am calling Woke Up One Early Morning Blues, because why not make a radio show title long & unwieldy?  It'll let me play my favorite country blues all summer long.

So, hooray!  Listen to me this Thursday & next, & then, on Friday the 16th, start listening at that time all summer long!