Self Help Radio 071216: The Wild Show

(Original image - I'm sorta embarrassed about this one - is here.)

Suddenly today I have found myself with no time & so this has to be done in a rush & who knows how many mistakes I'll make but that's how it is when one's life is wild but let's review the facts:

- Self Help Radio was on yesterday.
- Local musician Jenny picked all the music.
- It went swimmingly, a rarity when it's just Gary by himself.
- Now the show is available online.
- It's at Self Help Radio dot Net.
- The songs Jenny picked are listed below.

Is that it?  Did I cover everything?  Okay then.  I gotta get out there - the wild life is calling!  Or is the wildlife?  If so, how can I be sure they won't eat me?

(part one)

"Wildwood Flower" The Carter Family _The History Of Country & Western Music, Vol. 1 (1927-1928)_
"Cigareets, Whuskey, & Wild Women" Big Three Trio _Signifying Monkey_
"The Cry Of The Wild Goose" Tennessee Ernie Ford _The Golden Age Of Country Music 1950-1953_

"Crazy Wild Desire" Webb Pierce _Cross Country_
"The Joker Went Wild" Brian Hyland _The Philips Years & More 1964-1968_
"Your Wild Heart" Joy Layne with Carl Stevens & His Orchestra _I Wish I Were A Princess (The Great Lost Female Teen Idols)_
"Wild One" Bobby Rydell _Bobby's Biggest Hits_
"Any Day Now (My Wild Beautiful Bird)" Chuck Jackson _The Look Of Love: The Burt Bacharach Collection_

"Wild & Free" Curtis Mayfield _Curtis_
"I'm Wild About You" Al Green _Lay It Down_
"Wild Night" Van Morrison _Tupelo Honey_
"Wild World" Cat Stevens _Tea For The Tillerman_
"Frank's Wild Years" Tom Waits _Swordfishtrombones_

"The Wild One" Leith Steven's All Stars _Jazz Themes From The Wild One_
"Wild About You" The Same _This Is Mod, Vol. 2: More Rarities 1979-1981_
"You Drive Me Wild" The Runaways _The Runaways_

(part two)

"Wild Thing" X _Beyond & Back: The X Anthology_
"Real Wild Child" Iggy Pop _Blah Blah Blah_
"Reap The Wild Wind" Ultravox _Quartet_

"Wild Is The Wind" David Bowie _Station To Station_
"I'll Call You Wild" Grant McLennan _Horsebreaker Star_
"I Get Wild/Wild Gravity" Talking Heads _Speaking In Tongues_

"Running Wild" La Sera _Hour Of The Dawn_
"Drove Me Wild" Tegan & Sara _Heartthrob_
"Wild" The Babies _The Babies_
"Wild Love" Tanya Donelly _Swan Song Series_

"Wild Horses" The Rolling Stones _The London Years_

Whither The Wild Show?

(This picture came up when I looked up "wild" in Google Images, from here.)

Why is Self Help Radio today "The Wild Show"?  That's an easy one!  Friend of the show Jenny wanted to do an episode, I am a generally lazy sort, so I said, "Sure!"  She picked all the songs & will be on hand to chat on the air.  Hooray!

There's nothing else to say, except listen!  You'll see how much better other people do Self Help Radio than I do!  It's on from 4-6pm today on 88.1 fm in town & online at wrfl dot fm in places wild & free!

Preface To The Wild Show: Wild On Radio

(Image from here.)

Do you watch travel shows?  I can't say that I have.  But I do remember flipping channels in the early 00s & seeing this show on the E Network, probably while waiting for Talk Soup to come on.  Or maybe I watched segments of it back in the late 90s because boy Jules Asner was cute.  (I don't know who that is up there.)

One reason I couldn't stomach those kinds of shows is because I knew that, when I traveled, I was more likely to sleep in my car than in a five star hotel.  In fact, up until I turned 30 or so, that's exactly what I did.  It would've been weird for me to pay for a place to sleep while on the road (since there was doubtless one, usually a friend's house, at my destination), & there was a perfectly good car right there for anyone to sleep in.  Boy, though, do cars get cold at night!

Would you consider "Wild On" a reality show?  Because I've never sat through one of those intentionally my entire life, either.  Once I remember going to a place with my girlfriend's grad student friends because they were watching some show about a hotel on an island or something.  Having known funny people in my life (some of whom actually help on SHR) who watch terrible movies or television  partly in order to mercilessly mock them (something I don't generally enjoy, but which was worth it for being around such hilarious people), I expected there to be some kind of celebration of irony, derision of the awful people involved, but everyone there was actually emotionally invested in the "reality" of the island hotel boat or whatever.  I spent the evening sitting outside, smoking, & chatting with the dog.

Actually, I think that someone gave me a CD before I went to Europe that had travel programs about London & Paris.  Who was that?  I didn't watch them.  I don't think I ever considered watching them. Wow!  Now I feel like a dick!

It's hard to learn when the best time is be up front with people about your - what would I call them? predilections? idiosyncrasies? habits?  To tell them, no, I don't really enjoy this or that sort of thing, sorry.  But thank you!

It's ultimately an isolating thing, this definition of self.  It may be part of introversion, actually.  Unless one's definition of self is more adventurous, more accepting, less limiting.  In which case it could be part of extroversion.  Hm.  I'll think on it some more.

All Around You

This early morning - with very little sleep in the preceding sixteen hours under my belt or over my pillow - I commenced to play music for three hours on the radio, from 3 to 6 am.  I had napped some on Saturday afternoon, but had basically been up "all day" by the time I started sticking CDs into the players at the station.  I don't recall a single thing I said on air or to callers, but that's probably just a matter of self-defense.

Meanwhile, about nine hundred miles away, the love of my life was waiting to board a plane & return to me.  She, too, was tired, having been in the Dallas/Fort Worth area on business.  The night before, she told me, she hadn't slept.  As her flight kept getting delayed - because of bad weather - we texted back & forth, until it seemed like I'd be picking her just moments before I was to go on the air at 3am.  But though she & her fellow passengers had boarded the plane, there was a malfunction with one of the aircraft's door's, & they deplaned, no more flights available till morning.

Lexington was a little chilly when I emerged from the radio station & drove home.  My dogs, as always, acted as though I'd been gone so long they barely remembered me; my cats barely remembered me.

The last song I played - wait - before I talk about this, let me say, yes, my wife made it home safely, I picked her up from the airport just before 6pm, & she came home, & I made her dinner, & we walked the dogs, & we watched Preacher & the new Match Game & I was very happy she was home.

What I wanted to mention is that the last song I played this morning - or maybe the next-to-the-last song I played - was "Favour" by the Wake.  It begins with the lines, "If you have a moment, all around you..."

At some point during the day I became haunted by the repetition of the words "all around you."  Many of the lyrics are, to me, unintelligible, made difficult to understand by the music, but when I hear the song start, in my head, I hear, "all around you."

Then I look around.

& then I wonder: how long will I be able to look around, & see the same thing?