Whither Sidewalks?

A show about sidewalks.  Well, I never.  How many songs could there be about sidewalks, anyway?  Surely not enough to fill a two-hour show?  I guess we'll see.

Back in the day, I wasted money I could've been using to buy records to buy British music magazines like Melody Maker & NME to read about records I couldn't afford because they'd be expensive imports by the time they reached Austin, if they ever did.  I remember when the Jesus & Mary Chain single "Sidewalking" came out, on magazine had an interview with the band, & one of the comments was about the song's title.  Apparently the interviewer was impressed they used the term "sidewalk."  He (or she) said something like, "If Morrissey had written the song, he might have used the word 'pavement' or something more British."

It made me think, do British people have a different word for sidewalk?  It turns out that, yes, they say "pavement."  I found out that Australians say "footpath."  Will there be "pavement" & "footpath" songs on tonight's show?  No spoilers!

That picture above was taken in Lexington, Kentucky, a couple of years ago (April of 2015, to be exact).  It's a sidewalk along a street called Maplewood Drive in the Southland area.  There was a neighbor of ours named Bill who, right before we left, got a job working for the city as a sidewalk inspector.  He would visit neighborhoods, walk their sidewalks, & spray-paint marks on them if, like the one above, they might pose a danger to people who walked along them.  The owner would then be obliged to fix the sidewalk or be fined.  In the six years we lived in the neighborhood, there were never any marks on that sidewalk.  But don't blame Bill!  He had just started when we moved away.

Did we tell Bill about this sidewalk?  Heck no!  We're not snitches!

This is just a long-winded way of saying oh yeah Self Help Radio is on the air tonight from 8-10pm central/9-11pm eastern on 93.9 fm WLXU in Lexington (where you'd better pay attention to your sidewalks) & every where at Lexington Community Radio online.

As a postscript: we now live in a neighborhood that doesn't have sidewalks.  Sigh.