April's Fool

It's very windy outside now.  In a little over an hour, I'll be doing my other radio show, "Cradle To Grave," on 95.7 fm WLXL in town, online at lexington community radio dot org.  I think today's show will be fine, because I've already done it.  The show is pre-recorded.  You knew that, right?

There's a part of me that feels the need to apologize for the low energy of the show.  I recorded the airbreaks very early Friday morning.  I'm talking 4am.  Everyone in the house was asleep - even the cats, who generally have a blast at night.  In fact, if I'm remembering the process as it happened, I appear to perk up late in the show, when I am talking about how some of the musicians died (botched tonsillectomy, aneurysm after a show at Carnegie Hall).  It makes me come across as a kind of ghoul, I think.  Apologies for that.  I want to say something like, "It was the caffeine kicking in," but since I don't drink caffeine, that can't be the case.

Maybe it was the sun coming up.  I rarely am awake at sunrise, it's always a little thrilling to watch the world brighten slowly.  Where I sit, at my computer, where I also record my airbreaks & the other nonsense for Self Help Radio, I have a window to my left, & I can look into our sun room.  The world was waking up, maybe it helped me wake up too.

However, for most of the show, I am what Donald Trump would call "low energy."

This doesn't mean the show will suck.  There's a very good chance it will suck, of course - it's a radio show I am doing, after all.  But I think the music is great.  Birthdays today include Serge Gainsbourg, Emmylou Harris, & Marvin Gaye.  Deaths on April 2 include Kentucky's own Cliff Carlisle, plus Buddy Rich & Edwin Starr.  The music on the show makes it all worthwhile, I think.

Yeah, seriously - ignore the me talking.  It'll pass.  Enjoy the show instead!

Self Help Radio 032916: The Neighborhood

(Original image here.)

Did I use up all the neighborhood references during this week's show?  I said "neighborly" at least twice.  I had a song by Mr. Rogers, a parody of Mr. Rogers, & I said something about it being a wonderful day for a neighbor.  I talked about neighbor associations & I talked about neighborhood watches - probably too much.  Yes, I believe I killed that joke to death.  Nothing subtle about this radio show!

Speaking of, on the show I did talk to my next-door neighbors, as well as Mark Miller in Hollywood about his neighborhood, & found out that Howard Gently is coming to our neighborhood.  Plus, you know, songs.  I played songs.  I get to do that.  Play songs.  On the radio.

If you feel brave enough to venture into Self Help Radio's neighborhood - I mean, it's not unsafe or anything - at worst you might get bored - you can do so at the front gate.  There is a password to get in but don't worry, our alcoholic "guard" will tell it to you because he needs to get back to sleep.  The neighborhood is two hours long so it's split into two halves; the sites you'll see are listed below.

Property values?  Are you kidding?

(part one)

"Won't You Be My Neighbor?" Mister Rogers _Bedtime_
"The People In Your Neighborhood" Bob McGrath & The Muppets _The People In Your Neighborhood_
"A Neighborhood Is A Friendly Place" Ella Jenkins _Multicultural Children's Songs_
"New Kind Of Neighborhood" Jonathan Richman _Modern Lovers '88_

"In The Neighborhood" Tom Waits _Swordfishtrombones_
"So Many People In The Neighborhood" Ween _Quebec_
"Neighborhood Threat" Iggy Pop _Lust For Life_
"Neighborhood Watch" Mike Krol _Turkey_

"Brand New Neighborhood" Fletcher Smith _Rhythm & Blues Goes Rock & Roll_
"Strange Neighborhood" Gene McDaniels _Big City Soul, Vol. 1_
"On The Avenue (In The Neighborhood)" Jimmy Ruffin _The Complete Motown Singles, Vol. 8: 1968_
"I Killed The Neighbours" Misty's Big Adventure _Misty's Big Adventure & Their Place In The Solar Hi-Fi System_

"We Are Neighbors" The Chi-Lites _(For God's Sake) Give More Power To The People_
"Hey Neighbor" Jenny O _Automechanic_

(part two)

"Mr. Roberts # 1" Christopher Guest & Bill Murray _That's Not Funny, That's Sick_
"Neighborhood Children" Tiny Tim _Tiny Tim's Second Album_
"Neighbor, Neighbor" Jimmy Hughes _Sweet Soul Music_

"In My Neighborhood" Bonniwell Music Machine _Beyond The Garage_
"Neighbours" The Bats _Compiletely Bats_
"Neighborhood Survival Gunstore" Firesign Theater _Eat Or Be Eaten_
"The Neighborhood" Jackie Lee _The Duck_
"You Woke Up My Neighborhood" Billy Bragg _Don't Try This At Home_

"My Neighborhood" The New Year _The New Year_
"Neighbours" Shack _Waterpistol_
"Neighborhood" David Byrne _Look Into The Eyeball_
"My Next Door Neighbor" Jerry McCain & His Upstarts _Folk Music In America, Vol. 7: Songs Of Complaint & Protest_

"The Universality Of Neighbourliness" Tall Dwarfs _Throw A Sickie_
"My Neighbor" Tochigi _Tochigi_
"Have You Seen Your Neighbour In The Bath" Pig Rider _Bloody Turkey Sandwiches_
"Neighbors" And The Kids _Turn To Each Other_
"Pretty Little Neighbor" Giant Drag _Hearts & Unicorns_

Whither The Neighborhood?

(I found this silly clip art here.)

Is it safe to say everyone lives in a neighborhood?  I mean, maybe not hermits.  Or maybe not people who live in high-rises - would you call the folks that live on the 17th floor "a neighborhood"?  How about people who live in isolated rural areas?  There's a county in Texas, Loving County, where there are less than one hundred people living there.  Is the entire county a neighborhood?  Probably not.

Can I then say that a majority of people in the United States lives in a neighborhood?  As a child, I lived mainly in apartments, but we often befriended & played with kids who lived in the neighborhood.  Did they think of the apartments of part of the neighborhood?  Can people who live in apartments join neighborhood associations?  Oh dear, this little scribble of mine is asking more questions than I can answer.

Let's play it safe & say some people in the United States live in neighborhoods.  & let's hope you're one of them!  Because today's show is for you!  Or maybe I can say, lots of folks want to live in neighborhoods, so today's show is also for you!  Hey, & I can add, a great deal of people lived in neighborhoods, found it horrible, & fled to places like Robertson County, Kentucky (the state's least populated county), so listening to today's show will remind them why they made that decision - so this show is for those folks too!

The show is on from 4-6pm today on 88.1 fm in Lexington & online at wrfl.fm in your favorite online neighborhood.  Wait.  Is there such a thing as an online neighborhood?

Damn it!  More questions!

Preface To The Neighborhood: Spell Checked

Do you know what the CDDB is?  If not, you can read about it here.  If so, you know the experience: you put a CD into your computer, & as a program like iTunes reads it, it queries the database & returns the CD's tracklisting, artist name, album name, genre, etc.

There are some real numbnuts out there who take delight in propagating incorrect names - or misspelled names - or other idiot errors when putting the data into the database.  This isn't a complaint about them.  Most of the time, their errors are easy to fix - especially if you know how common words in English are spelled, or if you have the frickin' CD in front of you & can see how the two separate tracklistings match up.  Anyway, to complain about that would take too long.

No, this is a complaint about a particular spelling error that has popped up in many of the CDs I've listened to in regards to this week's show.  It has to do with the way Americans spell the word "neighbor," as opposed to how the British & the Canadians spell it, which is "neighbour."

Want to argue about which is the correct spelling?  Too bad!  You can't.  One nation spells it one way, some others (all associated with a dead empire) spell it the other.  I have no problem with that.  If you're visiting Boston from Toronto, you'll perhaps learn about the exciting history around Boston Harbor.  If you're visiting Victoria, British Columbia, from Seattle, you may enjoy spending time at the Victoria Harbour.  The way the people spell it is how you spell it, despite how insistent my (American) spellcheck is that I'm misspelling "harbor."

Here's the rub.  If you're some dude in Montreal & you get to be the first people to enter into the CDDB let's say Jonathan Richman's CD "Jonathan Sings!" & you get to the track "The Neighbors," spell it the way it is on the CD.  It's not "The Neighbours."  It isn't.  If Jonathan Richman had a track called "Muzza Fazza Babba," you'd copy it exactly that way, wouldn't you?  You wouldn't assume he means "Mother Father Baby" & put that into the database, right?  What's more, you don't grammar correct song titles, do you?  Like, you wouldn't enter the song "I Can't Get No Satisfaction" as "I Can't Get Any Satisfaction," would you?

It seems as disrespectful as it is irritating.  & I noticed it over & over & over when I listened to CDs for this week's show.

Interestingly, I hardly ever - maybe never - saw the opposite.  I never had a CD by an English, Scottish, Canadian, Australian, or New Zealand band where the CDDB spelled a track "neighbor" instead of "neighbour."  I wonder what's up with that.  I guess respect isn't always a two-way street.

No one who enters shit into the CDDB will ever read this, but if they do, here's a thing: just put the names of the songs & the band & the record down as it says on the damned CD please.  When you see the playlist of songs from the show tomorrow, you'll see the two different spellings, & you'll know whether the band is American or from a former British colony.  Because that's how the artists who made the music spelled it.  Not you, sitting at your computer, being all pedantic & shit.

While we're at it, can you also look up when the actual album was released & not the year your version came out? This pertains to reissues, of course, but also, use your damn common sense.  How much more difficult is it to take the time to find out when something was actually recorded than just the lazy copyright on the CD's back cover?  If you're not going to do that, don't submit the info to the database.  You aren't being helpful.  You're passing on bad information that most probably is going to stay there, because I don't think people at the CDDB check any of it anyway.

Which is probably the real shame.

Cradle To Grave, Episode Sixteen

Cradle To Grave is back!  & cradle to graver than ever!

Did I explain it here or on the Facebook or whatever?  I had a couple of issues pop up last week (the week before last, I guess you'd say), which totally waylaid me & sucked up all my time.  Since it does take a while to gather first the information about birthdays (I use several sources) & death anniversaries (ditto), & then to actually go through the music to decide what to play, it takes me almost an entire "work day" to put the show together.  If anything happens - say, an animal needs a veterinary visit - the entire day is shot, & the chances of successfully putting the show together diminish greatly.

This is my way of saying that sometimes I choose sleep over making a radio show.  I hope you understand.

However, this week the show returned & I think it's pretty good.  You may say to yourself, "Why would I want to listen to a show about people who were born or who died on the day that was yesterday?"  If you feel that way, perhaps you can download the show & wait 364 days until it's relevant again.  That might be the correct way to approach it.

The show is now at the Self Help Radio website.  It's in two parts, one for artists who were born on March 26, the other for artists who died that day in history.  The song I played are below.  I hope you enjoy.

(birthdays)

"Flight Of The Bumblebee" Rafael Méndez _The Legendary Trumpet Virtuosity Of Rafael Méndez, Vol. 1_
"Gone With The Gin" Hot Lips Page & His Band _1938-1940_
"Nightmare" Joe Loco _Let's Go Loco_
"You Can't Hurry Love" The Supremes _The Complete Motown Singles, Vol. 6: 1966_
"Can Your Monkey Do The Dog" Rufus Thomas _The Complete Stax/Volt Singles 1959-1968_

"Wally Ballou, Roving Reporter" Bob & Ray _Bob & Ray On A Platter_
"Mr. Blue Sky" Electric Light Orchestra _Out Of The Blue_
"Phasors On Stun" FM _Black Noise_
"Moments In Love" Art Of Noise _(Who's Afraid Of?) The Art Of Noise!_
"Cubik" 808 State _90_

"Get Up, Get Down, Get Funky, Get Loose" Teddy Pendergrass _Life Is A Song Worth Singing_
"Never Can Say Goodbye" The Communards _Red_
"Myspace/Email" Todd Barry _From Heaven_

(death anniversaries)

"Traumerai" Albert Spalding _The Definitive Collection Of The 19th Century's Greatest Virtuosos_
"April Kisses" Eddie Lang _Jazz Guitar Virtuoso_
"A Room With A View" Noel Coward _This Year Of Grace_
"Backtrackin' (Dr. Daddy-O)" Paul Gayten _Gettin' Funky: The Birth Of New Orleans R & B_

"Betty Betty Go Steady With Me" Dickie Pride _The Sheik Of Shake_
"Lookie, Lookie, Lookie" Ronnie Smith & The Poor Boys _Buddy's Buddies: Holly For Hire (1957-1959)_
"I've Been Wrong" The Buckinghams _Pebbles, Vol. 6: Chicago Part 1_
"Dead Man's Curve" Jan & Dean _All The Hits, From Surf City To Drag City_
"Jumping At Shadows" Duster Bennett _Smiling Like I'm Happy_
"I'm In The Mood" The Chesterfield Kings _Drunk On Muddy Water_

"Country Girl" The Jacobites _When The Rain Comes_
"Lyke Wake Dirge" Pentangle _Gather In The Mushrooms: The British Acid Folk Underground (1968-1974)_
"Mama Told Me (Not To Come)" Three Dog Night _It Ain't Easy_
"Streets Of Calcutta" Ananda Shankar _Look Into The Flower (Trip On Psychedelic Grooves With Blue Note)_

"We Want Easy" Easy-E _The NWA Legacy_