Self Help Radio 060614: Needles

Agh!  I wish I had used a pin cushion!  Lots of pinpricks all over my fingers!  Ow!

Self Help Radio's show about needles (very pointy!) is available now for listening to at the show's website.  I think it's fun - in addition to an interview with Nick Ramirez of Needles, California, & a visit with my spiritual advisor, the Rev. Dr. Howard Gently, I get a phone call from Tania & her imaginary friend!  & they sing a song!!

Want to go directly to the show?  Here's part I & here's part II.  The songs I play are listed below.

Thanks for listening & be careful!

(part one)

"Needles In The Camel's Eye" Brian Eno _Here Come The Warm Jets_
"Silver Threads & Golden Needles" Everly Brothers _The Price Of Fame_
"One Iddy Biddy Needle (& A Little Bit Of Thread)" Freddie Scott _Mr Heartache: The Best Of Columbia Recordings_

"Needle Of Death" Bert Jansch _Bert Jansch_
"The Needle & The Damage Done" Henry Kaiser _The Bridge: A Tribute To Neil Young_
"Dirty Needles" Screeching Weasel _Short Music For Short People_
"Busy Needles" Bearsuit _Team Ping Pong_
"The Perfect Needle" Telescopes _Scared To Get Happy: The Story Of Indie Pop 1980-1989_

"Aunty Nanny Thread The Needle" Children Of Nevis & St. Kitts _Caribbean Voyage: Nevis & St. Kitts Tea Meetings_
"Needle Sing" Woody Guthrie _Songs To Grow On For Mother & Child_
"If I Had A Needle & Thread" Shirley Bassey _Burn My Candle: The Complete Early Years 1956-58_
"Hey, Bobba Needle" Chubby Checker _20 Twistin' Hits_
"Needle In A Haystack" The Velvelettes _Hitsville USA_

"Needles & Pins" Flat Duo Jets _Bonograph_
"Needle Time" Elvis Costello & The Imposters _The Delivery Man_

(part two)

"Thread The Needle" Al White & The Hi-Liters _Jerk! Shake! & Vibrate!_
"Needle In The Hay" Elliot Smith _The Royal Tenenbaums OST_

"Pins & Needles (In My Heart)" Ray Price & The Cherokee Cowboys _The Honky Tonk Years 1950-1966_
"Pins & Needles" The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir _The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir_
"Pins & Needles" Who's Gerald? _Young Blood_
"Needle & Thread" Richard Thompson _Sweet Warrior_

"Thread The Needle" Clarence & Calvin _The Fame Studios Story 1961-1973_
"Thread Your Needle" Dave Edmunds _Tracks On Wax 4_
"Needle Mythology" Duffy _Duffy_

"Needle's Eye" Heidi Berry _Pomegranate: An Anthology_
"Needle's Eye" Jean Ritchie _Field Trip_
"Thin As A Needle" Starflyer 59 _Ghosts Of The Past_

Whither Needles?

I don't know why I've decided to do a radio show about needles.  These things happen.  I am not & never have been an IV drug user.  In fact, when I am at a doctor's office, & I have to have my blood drawn, I tell the phlebotomist to let me lie down, look the other way, & not talk about what he or she is doing; otherwise I may faint.  My addiction to heroin would be doomed from the start.

As well, I don't sew.  Occasionally, I think about taking it up.  Recently, wanting to mend a hole in a pair of shorts, I looked up "how to sew" on the webs.  It turns out it's a little more complicated than threading a needle & looking at an online chart.  I pretty much decided at that point that I'd probably never really learn how to sew.

The only thing that comes close is a turntable needle - & I confess I don't use the old turntable as much as I used to.  I've probably mentioned this before: I miss vinyl.  I miss the size of records, the feel, the album art, the giant lyric sheets.  Aesthetically, they're the best.  The shitty CD booklet & the sterile little compact disc will never compare favorably.

It's just - it's complicated to play vinyl.  Digital music is so much more convenient.  I've digitized a lot of my vinyl - a time-intensive process that's not too much fun - & it's made it easier for me to "carry" it up to do radio shows.  (It's also tarnished me in the eyes of vinyl lovers - when I deejayed an outdoor thing at RFL a couple of years ago, one of the directors there said, "Deejaying from a laptop - yuck."  But the station doesn't own a deejay kit with CDs - it's either vinyl, or a laptop or iPod.)

The show will celebrate needles, but I'm not someone who thinks about needles in a celebratory way.  But hey!  When I think about doing a show about needles, I immediately think about the sample from "Pump Up The Volume" that goes, Put the needle on the record.  So maybe vinyl was the inspiration after all.

It's happening tomorrow morning from 7 to 9am on 88.1 fm WRFL in Lexington, & online at wrfl dot fm.  I hope I haven't been needling you too much with all this needle talk - but - it's appropriate.

Preface To Needles: Bad Weather

As I write this, there's a thunderstorm bearing down on us & a tornado warning & god knows what else(*).  Here's what the radar looks like:

I have to feed the animals in a second & I don't think a couple of the cats are going to even come out of hiding.  Of course, the gluttons in the house (the male cats) would eat if we were on a boat in stormy seas.

It's funny, the sky was ominous & goofy all day today but there were no storms - they went above us & below us.  Well, they're here now!

I have been listening to needle songs all day.  I have been arranging for a couple of interviews for the show on Friday.  I have not once did anything with any needles, not even a phonograph needle.  It was all digital.

I confess I'd like to do driving around in this bad weather - but the wife & hungry animals won't let me!

(*) According to the Weather Underground website, relaying info from National Weather Service, this is what else:

"Strong thunderstorms with dangerous lightning...torrential rain... and 40 mph winds...

Continuous cloud to ground lightning...torrential rain reducing visibilities...and gusty winds of around 35 to 40 mph...are expected with these storms.

Torrential rainfall is occurring. Expect ponding of water on local roadways. Drivers should slow down and turn on their headlights if encountering heavy rains."

All Kinds Of Needles

There are lots of kinds of needles.  The show this week is about needles.  I only thought of basically three kinds of needles: needles for sewing, needles for syringes, & of course phonograph needles.  I had no idea there were so many different kinds of needles for sewing.  The same can be said for the kind of needles that one uses with syringes.  Is the same thing true for phonograph needles?  Luckily someone has answered this questions for me.

The wife thinks I am squeamish & possibly thinks I have a fear of needles.  The fear of needles, according to the Wikipedia, is known variously as aichmophobia, belonephobia, or enetophobia.  If you read the Wikipedia article, you will learn that most of the ways they treat needle-fear is to find a different way to administer whatever medicine one needs other than through needle.  It makes me, a consummate Star Trek geek, think immediately of the hypospray.  In that article I just linked to, it links to this report: MIT Builds A Needle-Free Drug Injector.  For the sake of people who hate needles, I hope this assertion is true: "The future of medicine could be needle-free."

Unfortunately, Self Help Radio this week is not needle-free.  But the needles you will encounter will not break the skin.  In fact, all the needles will be conceptual, & ingredients of songs & talk.  There is nothing to fear, except maybe not liking the show.

Please enjoy this small collage of the three different kinds of needle discussed above:

Woke Up Early One Morning Blues, Episode Three

Sippie Wallace

Once again, before Friday's Self Help Radio, I brought Lexington another hour of old scratchy blues on my show Woke Up Early One Morning Blues.  This week I played some singles released in 1927.

You can listen to the show now or whenever you'd like at Self Help Radio Dot Net, which is where I archive my shows.  The playlist is below.  Hope you like.

"Honey In The Rock" Blind Mamie Forehand _A Soul Chronology, Vol. 1: 1927-1951_
"James Alley Blues" Richard "Rabbit" Brown _Blues From The Western States 1927-1949_
"I'm A Mighty Tight Woman" Sippie Wallace _Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 2 (1925-1945)_

"John Henry" Henry Thomas _Texas Worried Blues (Complete Recorded Works 1927-29)_
"T.B. Blues" Victoria Spivey _Victoria Spivey Vol. 1 1926-1927_
"If You Don't Like It Like I Want It Done (I'll Get Somebody Else)" Laura Smith _Laura Smith Vol. 1 (1924-1927)_
"Ninety-Nine Year Blues" Julius Daniels _Prison Blues_
"Cow Cow Blues" Charles "Cow Cow" Davenport _Cow Cow Davenport Vol. 1 (1925-1929)_

"Dyin' Crap-Shooter's Blues" Martha Copeland _Martha Copeland Vol. 1 (1923-1927)_
"All That I Had Is Gone" James P. Johnson _Perry Bradford & The Blues Singers (1923-1927)
"Church Bells Blues" Luke Jordan _Raggin' The Blues: Essential East Coast Blues_
"Barbecue Blues" Barbecue Bob _Barbecue Bob Vol. 1 (1927 - 1928)_
"Southern Man Blues" Walter Beasley _Sylvester Weaver Vol. 2 (1927)_

"Mamlish Blues" Ed Bell _Complete Recorded Works (1927-1930)_
"Levee Blues" Lucille Bogan _Lucille Bogan Vol. 1 (1923-1930)_
"New Prison Blues" Peg Leg Howell _Atlanta Blues: Big City Blues From The Heartland_