Self Help Radio 022118: In One's Head

(Original image here.)

This week you got to spend Self Help Radio in someone's head.  Was it in his head?  In her head?  In my head?  In your head?  Yes, yes, it was.

How could that be?  Was it a miracle of modern science?  Was it an aural hallucination?  Was it a trick of memory, a manipulation of senses?  Naw.  It was just a radio show with a bunch of songs about things "in my mind," "in your mind," etc.  But I think it went well!

You can listen to the show now & whenever at the Self Help Radio website*.  There is, you know, a username & password requirement, but those are not a secret, they're on the front page.  The show is in two approximately hour-long parts, & what's in those parts, including the interviews, is listed below.

Experience what it's like to be in another's head!  For once.

(part one)

"Too Many Stars In His Head" Pearly Gatecrashers _Spectacular!_
"Harmony In My Head" Buzzcocks _Operators Manual_
"In My Head" Skating Polly _Lost Wonderfuls_

"In My Head" Dum Dum Girls _Only In Dreams_
"Rockets In My Head" Astropuppees _You Win The Bride_
"Stuck In My Head" Tim & Adam _Tim & Adam_
"Heaven Is In My Head" Aquarian Blood _Last Nite In Paradise_

interview with Dennis Quaid

"Vacuum In My Head" Pere Ubu _Ray Gun Suitcase_
"In My Head" Asobi Seksu _Fluorescensce_
"Voice In My Head" Boys Forever _Boys Forever_
"Movies In My Head" The 6ths _Wasps' Nests_

"In My Head" The Psychedelic Furs _World Outside_
"I'm In My Head" toyGuitar _In This Mess_

(part two)

"Dead In Your Head" Bleached _Ride Your Heart_
"Your Words Are Still Stuck In My Head" The Garlands _The Garlands EP_
"In My Head" Holiday Ghosts _Holiday Ghosts_

interview with Dr. Karl Dolla

"Fire In My Head" The Nits _Ting_
"Music In My Head" Psychic Ills _Inner Journey Out_
"Sing In Your Head" Space Ghost _Yeah, Whatever..._
"Rocks In My Head" Mouse & The Boys _Just For Kicks, Vol. 1_
"All In My Head" Good Shoes _All In My Head_

interview with David Fruchter

"In My Head" The Ballet _Mattachine!_
"All In Your Head" Thomas Tantrum _Mad By Moonlight_
"In One's Head" Drug Boyfriend _In One's Head_
"In Your Head" Kendra Smith _Five Ways Of Disappearing_

"All In Your Head" Secret Shine _There Is Only Now_

* To go directly to the show, the link is this one.

Whither In One's Head?

(I found this image here.)

Back in the day, at KOOP in Austin, & I've probably told this story before, but maybe after all this time I'll have remembered different details or, worse yet, added some details in the telling, like you do, but I had one particular listener who really, really, really wanted me to do broad themes, like "cars" or "colors" or "birds."  Usually, it's because he had a lot of suggestions, but mainly because he was getting a little tired of some of my more - I don't know, shall we call them, conceptual? - themes.

The show that I think irked him somewhat, & set the precedent maybe for later shows that relied on phrases rather than nouns, was the one with the theme Here I/You/He/She/It/We/They Come.  In fact, when I wrote about it here on the blog eleven years ago, I think I was talking (in my head) directly to him:

Self Help Radio is not shackled nor trapped by the conventions of other radio shows that require their "themes" to be solid things, like the intestines or pellets or clubhouses or cheese. We attempt to expand the very idea of ideas. Everything can be a theme, especially those things that are least thematic. So we can have a phrase as a theme. Why not? It's not like there's a body out there that can tell me what I can & can't play on the radio.

Things would get much worse with the show's themes, of course, or perhaps it can't get much worse than "in one's head."  You know, songs in which what is in your head, in my head, in his head, in her head, etc. is discussed.  Is that a good theme?  We'll see, won't we?

The show is on tonight on 93.9 fm WLXU in Lexington & online on their website from 9-11pm eastern.  I just wanted to put that in your head.  Hope it stay in there!

Preface To In One's Head: Phrenology

(Image from here.)

Phrenology is/was (do people still believe it? I bet there are some) "a pseudomedicine primarily focused on measurements of the human skull, based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind, & that certain brain areas have localized, specific functions or modules."  That's from the Wikipedia.  It's a testimony to how silly it is that I've never met anyone who believes it or has even shown an interest in it.

This is in sharp contrast to both tarot card reading & astrology, two things I came across casually in my adolescence that I found mildly interesting but discovered, in college, that people really, really believed in.  I happened upon a tarot deck in my first year away from home, memorized what the cards were supposed to mean, & would do readings for my roommates.  I wouldn't say I got good at it, but I did notice that they took my "predictions" very seriously, to the point that one of them got anxious because it seemed like something bad was going to happen to him.  I stopped doing it soon after that - I quickly saw that I was using the information I knew about them to craft their future.  I never believed I was harnessing some kind of mystical power.

Astrology has a stronger pull (that's an astrology pun) on people, especially a couple women I was very fond of in my post-college days in Austin.  One of them runs an astrology business these days I think, & would probably be offended that I am lumping it in (that's a phrenology pun) with phrenology.  I remain unconvinced by it, & never really took it all that seriously, & I am surprised that people are still into it, but I do appreciate that if you really, really get into astrology, you get to learn fascinating skill which betray its astronomical roots, like using precision measurements of planetary positions to make charts.

There's another observation I often make about astrology, which is that it seems to me especially attractive to women for some reason.  Whenever I've met a man who is really into it, a little prodding leads him to confess it was a woman he knew (often one he had a relationship with) who indoctrinated him.  I should look to see if my own experience is something that others have noted.

Anyway, I do wonder why no one I came across ever really, really got into phrenology.  I think it would have been fun, or perhaps just creepy, had I known about it, to be the guy at the party that put his hands all over people's heads & told them that the part of their head that controls, say, their mastery of language, had weird bumps that told me they'd be good at Romance languages.  In those impressionistic days of college, I'm sure I would've convinced some folks there was something to it, & I wouldn't have had to really memorize what a card did or what Jupiter being in a constellation meant.

& yeah, I know phrenology was about what was on one's head, not in one's head.  But it was in my head just now so I thought I'd write about it.

2800

This is the blog's 2800th post.  It's bound to disappoint.

Right now I need to hit the hay as I have to wake up tomorrow & do the Tuesday Morning Blend on KNON.  Then I have to rush home & work on this week's Self Help Radio.

It's not hard to believe I've gone through two thousand eight hundred posts on this blog when they're as gripping as this one.

Should there be cake?  That's a lot of candles!

Thanks To You

At this point in time, I'm not sure if the other radio show I do, the Tuesday Morning Blend, will this week be another Pledge Drive show, because as I write the station is so very near its goal, but whether I have to beg on the air one more week (I will certainly have to do it again in May), I have many people to thank for it being a successful one for me & the station, even though the first two shows I did as the Tuesday Morning Blend were Pledge Drive shows.

& thank people I shall, on the air & here on the blog, as soon as I have a list of people to thank.  Wait, I don't have a list?  Not right now.  Sorry.  That may seem lame, as I did thank them on the air during the show, but in the hustle & bustle of the paperwork at the end of each show, it didn't occur to me until too late to just write names down so I'd know whom to thank whenever.  That's my bad & I'm sorry.

Back in the day, the last time I did Pledge Drive, at KOOP in Austin -

I was going to say something else, but let me tell you a brief anecdote.  At a recent KNON benefit at which I was volunteering, someone asked me about my past radio experience in Austin, & I said that yes, I have volunteered before at K-O-O-P.  I spelled out the call letters as one might do for a legal ID, although most of us usually just said KOOP, like co-op.  The station was supposed to be cooperatively run.

But the person I was talking to said, "Ah, yes, of course, KOOP" - KOOP rhyming with "poop."

Old-timers at KOOP hated when people said KOOP like "coop."  In fact, they insisted that we put a period in between the two Os on all official documentation, including bumper stickers & the like.  It would read KO.OP 91.7 fm.

Some disagreed.  I was one of them.  I myself never said "KOOP" like coop because I know it was supposed to be co-op.  But people who never heard the station - because no one on the air ever said it like "coop" - well, they generally didn't know the nature of the name, as they never really heard the station, just saw the call letters & pronounced it like they heard it in their head.  That's how we knew we were talking to a listener or not.  It was handy.

Of course I corrected the guy I was talking to, but he had given himself away.  He may have heard of KOOP, but he never actually heard the station.  Which is cool, I didn't judge him or anything.

End of digression.

- the last time I did a Pledge Drive, at KOOP in Austin, I did terribly.  I don't know why, the time the show was on, the smaller listening audience, my own inexperience, no one actually liking my show, I can't be sure, but past experience made me feel like I was not going to do terribly well this time around.  & that didn't happen.  I did pretty well.  Certainly better than I thought.

& that's all thanks to you, the folks who pledged.  Whose names I will share.  When I get them.  Which I will.  Thank you.