Self Help Radio 010915: A Long Time

That's Steve Ditko's "Eternity" that I've marred with my logo!

I keep using the same old joke: Self Help Radio's show with the theme "a long time" is actually only two hours in length; however, it may feel like an eternity while you're listening to it.  Ho ho ho!  Can I call it a joke if I'm the only one who finds it funny?  Wait.  What if I don't really find it funny?

There might be something you'll like in this week's Self Help Radio.  There's lots of great music (the playlist is below) & also I talk to self-help guru Suthabee Queenbii Belladonna, who gives us tips to living a long time, & the famed host of the long-running program Perspectives, Dr. David Fruchter, gives us a sense of what a long time really is.  Plus, I revive my old segment, Dramatic Readings Of Classic Rock Songs.  It made me cry.

The show is where the show always is, you know: where the Self Help Radio website has been for a long time.  Pay attention to password/login information; but it shouldn't take you a long time to figure that out.

Thanks for listening!

(part one)

"Run On For A Long Time" Bill Landford & The Landfordaires _Roots N' Blues The Retrospective (1925-1950)_
"It Takes A Long Time" Dent May _Warm Blanket_
"It's Been A Long Long Time" Hep Stars _It's Been A Long Long Time_

"Long Long Long" The Beatles _The Beatles_
"Makes A Long Time Man Feel Bad" Ian & Sylvia _The Complete Vanguard Studio Recordings_
"Rocket Man (I Think It's Going To Be A Long, Long Time)" Me First & The Gimme Gimmes _Have A Ball_
"Some Things Last A Long Time" Beach House _Devotion_

"Long Time Man" Tim Rose _Tim Rose_
"Long Time Boy" Nadia Cattouse _Cult Cargo: Belize City Boil-Up_
"It's Been A Long Time" Loveninjas _The Secret Of The Loveninjas_
"You've Been A Long Time Comin'" Clarence Carter _The Dynamic Clarence Carter_

"Tomorrow Is A Long Time" Bob Dylan _The Witmark Demos: 1962-1964 (The Bootleg Series Vol. 9)_
"I'm A Long Time Traveling Away From Home" J. T. Allison's Sacred Harp Singers _Oh My Little Darling_

(part two)

"Such A Long Long Time" Kangaroo _Kangaroo_
"A Long Time Ago" Jamie Coe & The Gigolos _The One Who Really Loves You_
"Long Time To Forget" George Jones _Ragged But Right: The Starday Years Plus_
"I've Been A Long Time Leavin'" Roger Miller _The Genius Of Roger Miller_
"Doing Comedy A Long Time" Todd Barry _Super Crazy_

"Waiting A Long Time" Extra Medium Pony _11868_
"Long Time Waiting" Munks _Nightmares From The Underworld, Vol. 1_
"Been A Long Time" Jerry Butler _Ice On Ice_
"Long Time Gone" Memphis Slim _Legacy Of The Blues, Vol. 7_

"It's Been A Long, Long Time" Keely Smith _Swingin' Pretty_
"A Long Time Comin'" Ellie Greenwich _Composes, Produces, & Sings_
"It's Been A Long Time" Annie Laurie _The OKeh Rhythm & Blues Story 1949-1957_
"Ela (Long Time)" Tarika _Soul Makassar_

"Long Time Ahead Of Us" The Walkmen _You & Me_
"We're Going To Live For A Very Long Time" Heaven 17 _Penthouse & Pavement_

Whither A Long Time?

Look, I know I do a dumb radio show that doesn't get controversial or edgy or even interesting most of the time, but I do appreciate living in a place where something I say on the radio that might offend someone won't get me killed.  As it stands, if I might make fun of something someone else holds precious, there's only a very small probability that masked gunmen would come into the radio station & gun me down.  The fact that it does happen in some places - & that it happened in France this week - pains me, & so of course I say: #jesuischarlie

(The best of the world says so too.)

Tomorrow my show won't insult any religion, it won't insult anyone's way of life, it won't offend anyone in any way other than that person may not like the music I play.  If I want to be critical of someone's faith or way of seeing or anything, however, I am glad there are people who will fight - &, sadly, die - for that right.  I hope I am one of those people.

Friday morning, Self Help Radio, which has been on the radio for a surprisingly long time, explores the theme "a long time."  It won't take a long time - it's on from 7 to 9am - so please come & have a listen, either in Lexington at 88.1 on the fm dial, or online at WRFL's web site. Your time zone may vary; calibrate with Eastern Standard Time.

I'll put the show up at Self Help Radio dot net later.  Not a long time after the show, I promise.

Preface To A Long Time: The Words We Use To Discuss Long Periods Of Time

Far be it for me to be too critical of lexicographers & whatever you call people who assemble thesauruses, but I found this list of "synonyms or related words for long period of time" to be more amusing than helpful.  Look at these definitions!

eternity (n.) an extremely long time
light years (n.) a very long way in time, distance, or quality
ages (n.)  a long time
aeon (n.) an extremely long period of time
hours (n.) a long time
years (n.) a very long time
long (n.) a long period of time
epic (n.) an event or activity that lasts a long time & is sometimes difficult or complicated
hour after/upon hour a very long time
donkey’s years an extremely long time

By these definitions, "donkey's years" are basically the equivalent of "eternity."  Poor donkeys!  They live such a long time!

Contrast this with actual dictionary definitions of the words.  For example, the dictionary here defines "eternity" as "infinite time; duration without beginning or end."  An aeon, at the same place, is defined both as "the largest division of geologic time, comprising two or more eras," &, in astronomy, "one billion years" (!).

Wouldn't that list up there look cooler if it said:

eternity (n.) infinite time; duration without beginning or end
aeon (n.) the largest division of geologic time, comprising two or more eras; (Astronomy) one billion years

?

I think so!

But please don't expect Self Help Radio to be any more rigorous than the first list.  It's cold in Lexington & I am prone to napping.

Miller Time

I haven't watched this yet, & may not.  It was brought to my attention by one of my favorite musicians, Momus, on his Tumblr blog.  It's a documentary about Henry Miller, a writer whose ability I admire, although I'm not sure I'm crazy about his subject matter.  (We get it, Henry, you've had sex.  Sheesh.)  Here it is:



Momus adds something that I've been thinking about a lot.  He says the documentary

contains pretty much everything you need to know about how to live well:
* Give up your job.
* Leave America.
* Pursue a life of untrammeled self-expression.
* Live in a cheap city full of shabby patina and colour.
* Embrace precarity.
* Befriend other artists.
* Explore the “demimonde”.
* Believe — but really believe — in sex.
* Don’t think too far ahead, either in your writing or your life.
* Live for companionship and experience rather than money.
* Swim often.
* Play ping pong while your Japanese girlfriend sings a song about the Tokyo to Osaka steam express.

I did at one time want to be a writer.  I did at one time fancy myself an artist.  I do right now, two weeks before I turn 47 years old, wish I had done even one of those things twenty-five years ago.

I wrote to a friend that my problem was that I had a big ego - I really believed I was great - coupled with big fear - what if I wasn't as great as I believed?  I never took creative writing classes because I knew I couldn't handle being told I was terrible.  & I knew, even then, that the process of getting better would have been such hard work.

It's only been recently that I've felt comfortable enough in my own skin to share my one real creative outlet, my radio show, with other people.  My friends who are my fake interview guests are funny, expressive, brilliant people with whom at another time in my life I would've felt too competitive to ask to be on my show.  What changed is that my ego was deflated by time, by defeats that I had to endure even though I tried to avoid them.  I have, I suppose, chosen to pay attention to the lessons of life's endless humblings rather than defy them.  I can remember a time when it would've been galling to me to not be the funniest person talking.  That changed when I realized I am almost never the funniest person talking.

Maybe there's some wisdom in the Miller doc up there.  Please enjoy.

A New Year, Same Old Website

This isn't at all that important, but this weekend I moved all of my 2014 playlists to a separate page & now have the 2015 shows I've done on the front of my Self Help Radio website.  This isn't a terribly difficult thing to do, & would probably be a couple of buttons pushed, but since I hand-code the site, it took a little while.  (Most of the time actually was spent updating all the other pages of playlists to add a "2014" link to them.)  I wish I could say there were some new bells & whistles added, but I can't.  It's pretty much the same old thing.

If you're wandering around the site (why would you?) & some links aren't working, please let me know, please.  Again, the site is mainly a repository for my playlists, which are of minimal interest to pretty much everyone but me, but I do hope no one gets a "404 not found" while browsing.  I've only been on the internet for two decades, after all.

Thanks!