Self Help Radio 100314: Thrills

What a thrilling show!  What a show full of thrills!  A show for thrill junkies & thrillseekers!  You'll be thrilled!  I'm certainly thrilled!  Or am I over-selling this?  Are songs about thrills - even when thrills are gone - intrinsically thrilling?  I think thrills are in the eye of the be-thrilled.  If that's a word?

The show is now available for listening at the Self Help Radio website.  In addition to lots of music, which is listed below, there are interviews with actual thrillseekers as well as an on-the-street report by Marge Most.  It's as thrilling as I could make it, anyway.

Thanks for listening!

(part one)

"Thrills" The Jean-Paul Sartre Experience _The Size Of Food_
"Cheap Thrills" The Mothers Of Invention _Cruising With Ruben & The Jets_

"The Thrill Is Gone" Rudy Vallee & His Connecticut Yankees _They Called It Crooning_
"The Thrill Is Gone" Roy Hawkins _Bay Area Blues Blasters_
"The Thrill Is Gone" Clydie King _Brown Sugar_
"Thrills & Chills" Helene Smith _Eccentric Soul: The Deep City Label_

"Simply Thrilled Honey" Orange Juice _Coals To Newcastle_
"My Biggest Thrill" The Mighty Lemon Drops _Happy Head_
"Life Without A Thrill" Brideshead _Some People Have All The Fun_
"The Thrill Was All Mine" The Cherry Orchard _This World Is Such A Groovy Place_
"Less Than Thrilled" Love Is All _Two Thousand & Ten Injuries_

"You're My Thrill" Billie Holiday _The Definitive Collection_
"Baby You Thrill Me" Amos Milburn _The R&B Years: 1954_
"I'll Thrill You" Shirley & Lee _Shirley & Lee Rock!_

(part two)

"Thrill Me" Camille Howard with Roy Milton & His Solid Senders _The R&B Hits: 1947_
"Thrill Of Your Love" Elvis Presley _From Nashville To Memphis: The Essential 60s Masters_
"You Thrill Me (Through & Through)" The Everly Brothers _The Price Of Fame_

"Thrill Of The New" St. Christopher _Bacharach_
"The Thrill Of It All" Bauer _Can't Stop Singing_
"Thrill" Daniel Johnston _Rejected Unknown_
"The Thrill Of Thirty Seconds" Skint & Demoralised _Love, & Other Catastrophes_

"Thriller!" Pere Ubu _Dub Housing_
"The Thrill Of It All" Hey! Hello! _Hey! Hello!_
"Thrill Me" The Undertones _Get What You Need_

"The Thrill Of It All" Roxy Music _Country Life_
"You Still Thrill Me, Babe" Webster's New Word _You Still Thrill Me, Babe_

Whither Thrills?

A long time ago, attempting to make Self Help Radio into a better show, I started trying to imitate the Firesign Theatre - not their high concept albums, but their radio shows on community radio in the late 60s/early 70s.  They were mainly improvised, & very very funny.  Since I was doing the show myself, & since I'm not terribly funny, I forewent improvisation, but I attempted to copy a couple of Firesignish things.  One of them was fake ads.  I'd read them out in those days - I didn't always have a lot of time for editing, & wasn't that good at it, & also didn't have a decent mic at home.

I stopped doing that once I started doing shows outside of Texas.  I don't know why - I had more time to try to be funny, & could have gotten better equipment.  But I started doing it again this year, & every show now has at least four attempts at me being funny: two fake ad spots, two "others," sometimes skits, sometimes other stuff.  Are they funny?  Oh, probably not.

I also started this year something I've wanted to do for a long time: have the same people on regularly as "experts" - but pretending to be different people.  I have asked my funniest friends if it's something they'd like to do, & most of them (not all of them) have said sure!  One of them, my friend David, can be awfully convincing.  On the RFL Facebook page, a fellow asked people who don't listen to my show about bullfighting in Kentucky - I think this person didn't know it was all grade-A David Fruchter horse-hockey.  That's how good he is.

Anyway, I had a point, & it was this: I didn't want to do the same characters over & over.  I said to myself, "Every skit or voice that I do on the show should be unique."  It actually makes me think that the reason I stopped doing that is because it can be pretty exhausting.  Listening to comedians talk on Marc Maron's podcast, one learns that some of these people spend years honing a character.  & I, an untrained, mostly unfunny dumbass on a little radio show, was poo-pooing that?  What a douche.

I'm thinking about this not because it has anything to do with this week's show, which is about thrills (& of course this blog post is completely unthrilling), except one thing: there's a recurring character appearing on the show.  I have changed my mind, & I repeat people.  He's a "poet" called Archibald Von Poesy, & his main characteristic is that his "poems" all rhyme, but each line rhymes.  So the rhyme scheme would be AAAAAAA etc.  He returns to the show tomorrow.  I have no idea if anyone likes him or thinks he's funny.  I find him easy to slip into.

Actually, there are two recurring characters: disgruntled reporter Marge Most shows up again.

Again, there's no real reason for me to mention any of this.  But the show is on tomorrow from 7 to 9am on 88.1 fm WRFL Lexington, online at wrfl fot fm, & of course I'll put it up as soon as I can afterwards on the SHR website.  I also live tweet it, so you can follow along on my twitter thing if you're so inclined.

Oy this is so the opposite of thrilling.  I hope the show is better!

Not To Put Too Fine A Point On It

You might think that I am trying to somehow curry favor with the fine, funny comedians over at Superego because I keep talking about the time that they followed & then didn't follow me on Twitter, but really, if I talk about them, it's because they are awesome & however much I yell about them, I hope it means more people discover them.

Which is why I was ecstatic that there was a new Superego podcast released today.  & it's so good & it's so funny.  Holy shit, I wish I could be as funny as these people.  Please, go download it & listen, & seek out their old episodes, & pay them lots of money, & turn them into superstars, & have them replace everything that's considered famous or good in our popular media, because it will be a better world, a funnier world, a smarter world.

If the superegos behind Superego would create & produce the new Fall television schedule, there would be fewer failures, & more exciting dramas.  Shunt McGuppin as a crime-solving country music singer?  Holy shit, I'm there for seven or more seasons!  Also, I'm buying the DVDs, & then, later, spending money I don't have on Blu-Ray versions of episodes I already own!

Seriously, though - these folks are giant comedic talents & you need to listen to them.  Go to their website. You'll be glad you did.

(I said that last bit in a Wilford Brimley voice.  Could you tell?)

Do I Have To Write In The Blog Today?

I have nothing to say today.  Just a bunch of dumb questions.

Can you italicize words in Blogger blog titles?

Why would anyone - anyone - "like" a corporation on Facebook or follow one on Twitter?

Is there any point in arguing anything with anyone anymore?

I just finished reading the book Idiot America by Charles Pierce, but I can't remember buying it.  Am I getting old?  Did you recommend it to me?  Did you give it to me?

Is there an online game that's fun to play in the same way early video games were fun to play which you also don't have to play with other (real) people?  (Also free?)

What do you do when your wife finally gets bored of you?