Self Help Radio 091317: Dancing

(It's the foxtrot! Original image here.)

Two hours of dancing!  Good thing everyone was drunk!

As I previously explained, the theme for this show was suggested to me, so I felt a good deal of pressure making it - I mean, I wanted the person who asked me to do the theme to enjoy the show - & now that it's done, I wonder if I did a good job.  I haven't heard yet.  & now I realize that the bigger a deal I make about it, the less likely it will be that others will suggest a theme.  I'm so needy & eager to please!

The wife snottily asked me last night when the last time I went dancing was.  It was probably at a wedding or something.  I haven't danced at an actual club since half my life ago.  But the other day, when I was mowing the lawn, & listening to music on my phone, I did kinda dance when there was a very danceable song in my ears.  Mowing/dancing.  Could be dangerous though.  & no one can hear the music but me, so perhaps the neighbors thought I was having a fit.

No, I will not do a show about mowing.  I might do a show about lawns & yards, though.  One day.

The show about dancing is doing its thing at the Self Help Radio website.  There's no cover to get in to that crappy club but you will need a username ("SHR") & a password ("selfhelp").  The show is in two halves, & what's in the halves, including the interviews, is listed below.

Don't forget to hydrate!

(part one)

"We Love Dancing" Arling & Cameron _All In_
"Dancing In Wild Circles" Holger Czukay _Good Morning Story_

"Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing In A Hurry" Helen O'Connell with Jimmy Dorsey & His Orchestra _The Best Of Helen O'Connell On Capitol_
"Dancing With Myself" Nouvelle Vague _Bande À Part_
"On Slow Dancing" Fabio _Fabio After Dark_
"Keep On Dancing" The Commodores _Funk Drops, Vol. 3: Breaks, Nuggets, & Rarities_
"Dancing" Standard Fare _Indietracks 2010: An Indiepop Compilation_

interview with dance instructor CJ Buchanan

"Can We Go Dancing" The Amber Squad _This Is Mod, Vol. 1: The Rarities 1979-1981_
"Up Here For Thinking, Down There For Dancing" Tono & The Finance Company _Up Here For Dancing_
"Nothing Matters When We're Dancing" The Magnetic Fields _69 Love Songs, Vol. 1_
"Dancing Queen" Redd Kross _Secret Life_

interview with the Rev. Dr. Howard Gently about dancing & spirituality

"Dancin' Late At Night" Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers _Modern Lovers 88_

(part two)

"John, I'm Only Dancing" David Bowie _The Rise & Fall Of Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars_
"Dancing" Bauhaus _Mask_
"Dancing Barefoot" Patti Smith Group _Wave_

interview with dancer David Fruchter

"Those Dancing Days" Those Dancing Days _Those Dancing Days_
"Dancing In The Public Eye" Frankie Cosmos _Zentropy_
"Him Dancing" Throwing Muses _The Real Ramona_
"Dancing Octopi Occupy The Mind's Eye" Drug Boyfriend _Dancing Octopi Occupy The Mind's Eye_
"Suita De Danturi De Jucat/Dant Pe Sus/Dant Pe Mijloc" Stefan Olar & Petre Huta _World Library Of Folk & Primitive Music Romania_

interview with felon Jerry Tausend about dance therapy for rehabilitation

"Dancing In The Dark" The Snuggle Ups _Bridging The Distance: A Portland OR Cover Compilation_
"Dancing In The Street" Martha & The Vandellas _The Complete Motown Singles, Vol. 4: 1964_
"No Dancing" Basement Apartment _Transistor!_
"No Dancing" Elvis Costello _My Aim Is True_
"Come Dancing" The Kinks _State Of Confusion_

"Dancing To Music I Hate" Shimmering Stars _Violent Hearts_
"Dancing (With A Hole In My Heart)" The Mantles _Extended Dorkout: Singles & Leftovers_
"Dancing To The Beat" Clarence Murray _Action Speaks Louder Than Words: The Best Of SSS International_

Whither Dancing?

(Image from here.)

"Dancing" is the theme for this week's Self Help Radio.  I am happy to report that it was not a theme I thought of myself.  Nope, someone suggested it.  They wrote to me at gary at self help radio dot net & asked, one, if I ever did a show about dancing (which was easy to check - though my memory is very faulty, there is an index page on the website which lists all the themes the show has covered), & two, if not, would I?  They also asked if I would not say their name, because, of course, being associated with Self Help Radio is never really a good idea.

That probably isn't a terribly satisfying reason for why the show has the theme it has this week, but it happens to be true.  It also happens to be rare - I always wonder why more folks don't request themes for the show.  One reason, of course, is that not many people listen to the show.  Other than that, I just don't know.  I don't think I've ever refused a theme, at least not in the last few years.  I would often, in the past, refuse themes that were way too general, like "cars."  One guy who listened in Austin called every so often to ask me to do a show about "cars."  If it had been around at the time, I would've said, "Bob Dylan covered it on his show already."  Who wants to follow Dylan?  He's a headliner!

Last week, technical problems at WLXU resulted in the previous week's show airing instead of that week's show.  I have received no information that suggests this will happen again, so let's hope that tonight's show about dancing finds itself ready to boogie from 9-11pm eastern at 93.9 fm in Lexington & online at LCR online.  I think I'll have a few drinks before the show; that way I'll be less self-conscious.  After all, we'll be dancing together for two hours!

Preface To Dancing: Too Pooped To Promenade

(Image from here.)

Ha!  I envy those dance marathon weirdos in the above picture because I was just as tired today but without anyone to lean on.  Listen:

While I was working on this week's SHR yesterday - I know it seems like the show is slapped together at the last possible minute but I really do put some effort into it - I got a text from a KNON deejay asking me if I could sub her show the next day, from 7-9am.  I said yes without realized what I was doing - I'll probably never get a show on KNON & I miss live radio so I jump at (almost) every opportunity.  When I realized I had a ton of work to do for Self Help Radio, I began to panic.

You're probably not like this, but when the pressure of a deadline approaches, I feel the urge to just take a nap.  It's dumb.  I get tired, I imagine that the closer it gets to something being due, the harder I work.  I forget that I get desperate & lazy.  But I began trying to work on two simultaneous shows.

Forcing myself to go to bed at midnight, I hoped to sleep five hours.  I tossed & turned & was back fretting about radio shows at three am.  Which is good - I had to turn in Self Help Radio to WLXU by four pm or it wouldn't get put on the automation by tomorrow (although these days that's not quite a guarantee either way) - so I got a lot of work done.  But!

KNON is about forty-five minutes away.  More if there's traffic.  & morning traffic starts in Dallas around 5am.  I got to the station.  I did the show.  I had fun!  The deejay has someone come in with a band or performer around 8:20 & I got to "record" someone on the air, something I haven't done for quite a long time.

Afterwards, I headed home.  Stupidly, I had caffeine.

A couple of years ago I gave up caffeine.  I had tapered off but during a long road trip I drank sodas to keep me awake; when I got home, I couldn't sleep, & the next day I had awful caffeine withdrawal headaches.  I said no more.  But today I was desperate.  I had had less than three hours sleep the night before.  & I still had stuff to edit!

That's the worst thing about prerecording a show.  Sure, I could just do it live to tape & send it off but that's not who I am.  If I can make something slightly better out of my miserable work, I'll try.  I didn't try much today, though.  I wanted to get it done.  & I did, hopefully on time.

Then I was up for three more hours while the caffeine made me jittery.  Holy shit.  All of this for radio.  Why aren't there opportunities for SHR in DFW?  IDK!

When I finally fell asleep, I was unconscious, dreamless, for around five hours.  The wife came home expecting dinner & instead thought about calling paramedics.

So - you see those exhausted dancing couples up above?  That's me today.  All of them.  All of them are me.

& you know what?  I don't think I'll get to bed at a decent hour.  Because I need to be up at 6am.  For fuck's sake!

Dancing, Not Danson

(Image from here.)

There appears to have been a misunderstanding.  The show this week is about dancing.  It is not about Danson, meaning Emmy-winning actor Ted Danson.

It's understandable why there would be a mix-up: the word "dancing" & the name "Danson" are almost homophones.  "Dancin' with Danson" would be a fun reality show or perhaps a Youtube series of shorts.  Or it could be "Danson with Dancin'," a series where talented dancers choreograph productions while images of Ted Danson are projected onto them.  Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if there were a troupe called The Dancin' Dansons, where each dancer assumed an identity based on characters Ted Danson has played: Sam Malone from "Cheers," George Christopher from "Bored To Death," Hank Larrson from "Fargo," etc.

What there isn't, alas, are a plethora of songs about Ted Danson.  Lots of songs about dancing, not many songs about Danson.  It would really just be me playing that "Where Everybody Knows You're Name" song for two hours & wondering how come I never saw any of the CSI episodes he was on.

Why would people think the show would be about Ted Danson?  That's easy.  Imagine someone is asking another person, in casual conversation, "Oh hey, what is Self Help Radio about this week?"  The person replies, "Dancin'."  & the first person hears "Danson."  I'm sure that happens all the time.  "Want to go dancin'?" a friend asks, & you reply, "Go Danson?  What does that mean?"  Frankly the man has been a linguistic nightmare for decades now.

My apologies if you wanted an entire show about Ted Danson.  Maybe in the future.  Well, most probably not.  This week the show is about dancing.

Again, sorry for the confusion.

Meet My Pets (Again) # 5: Bronte

Five years ago, when I detailed the animals in my house, I said about Bronte, here's the last of my pets.  I said that here.  Oh what a difference five years makes!

Bronte is no longer the youngest aminal in the house - she has three younger siblings!  & the famously asthmatic Bronte hasn't really had any respiratory distress in a long time - she is given an inhaler twice a day (if you'd like to know how that happens, click here) & she takes her meds & eats as much as she can & wanders around the house like the snuffleupagus she turned out to be.

She remains attached to Bolan, with whom she spends the most time, but also she will come to me or her mom & need to be petted, or need someone to pad on (what an old friend of mine used to call "making bread"), or just want to be loved.  She seems on the surface to be shy, aloof, skittish - but the last time we took her to the vet, she strolled boldly about the examination room, causing the staff there to say, "What a headstrong kitty!"

She is.  We are glad we were able to make her healthy so she could be that way.  Sweet Bronte!