Self Help Radio 101918: Radiation

(Original image on Wikipedia.)

On the television show Star Trek, they treat radiation exposure with a drug called hyronalin, which was my go-to drug while I handled lots of radioactive isotopes in preparation for this show.  Imagine my surprise to find out it's fictitious, & also I have lost some hair, some white blood cells, & I can't keep food down.  These are the things I do for Self Help Radio - & for you.

Now the doctors are telling me I don't have much time, so if you'll come closer, I'll need to ask you if the ship is safe, & tell you that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, & that you have been & always will be my friend.  No, wait, don't do that.  Man, getting too much radiation makes you all goofy & shit.

Go now & listen to this week's show at the Self Help Radio website.  There's a password & a username you'll need, that information is on the page, it's also right here: username SHR, password selfhelp.  The songs I played & the people I interviewed are available below.

Say, I remember an episode of Voyager where radiation damage was cured with nanobots - what?  Fictional as well?  Fuck.

Self Help Radio Radiation Show

"Radiation (US Mix 1989)" Lesson Seven _Collection 1988-1992_
"Radiation" Evan Johns & His H-Bombs _Rollin' Through The Night_

introduction & discussion

"Radiation" Suicide _N.Y. No Wave_
"Radiation" Loli & The Chones _PS We Hate You_
"Radiation" King Tuff _Black Moon Spell_
"Radiation" Epoxies _Stop The Future_
"Radiation" Fingerprintz _Distinguishing Marks_
"The Radiation" My Favorite _The Kids Are All Wrong_

interview with staff chemist Allen Shariaty

"Transparent Radiation" Spacemen 3 _The Singles_
"This Radiation" Claire Birchall _Library Records 1998 - 2003: The 7" Single Years, 1998 - 2000_
"Cosmic Radiation" Clinic _Free Reign_
"Radiation" The Apples In Stereo _New Magnetic Wonder_
"Pink Radiation" Death Valley Girls _Glow In The Dark_

interview with physicist Dr. David Fruchter

"My Radiation Baby (My Teenage Fallout Queen)" George McKelvey _Atomic Platters_
"Radiation Squirm" The Judy's _The Wonderful World Of Appliances_
"Maximum Radiation Level" Man Or Astro-Man? _Deluxe Men In Space_
"An Alternative To Radiation" Myq Kaplan _Small, Dork, & Handsome_
"Radiation Song" The Aquabats _Myths, Legends, & Other Amazing Adventures Vol. 2_
"Radiation Man" Sara Hickman _Misfits_

Dramatic Readings Of Classic Rock Songs: "Radioactive" by the Firm

"Radiation" Stiphnoyds _The History Of Portland Punk, Vol. 1_
"Radiation Nation" Metal Mike, Alison & Julia _Surf City Or Bust_
"Radiation" The Turbo A.C.'s _Radiation_
"Radiation" Permahorn _My Blood Carries My Dreams Away_
"Chinese Radiation" Pere Ubu _The Modern Dance_

conclusion & goodbye

"Cosmic Love Radiation" Miss Kittin _Calling From The Stars_
"Radiation Dance" Asmodaeus _Lies & Logic_
"Sunshine Radiation" Anthony Mudrick _Sunshine Radiation_

Whither Radiation?

(Yikes!  This scary image found here.)

So sorry to be writing this so late.  I've been busy working on the radiation show all day & I feel a little weak.  Actually, I decided in the interest of keeping things real, I would get an x-ray every hour on the hour today.  On the plus side, I have cool images of many things inside me.  On the minus side, I'm not doing so well.

But Gary! I hear you say. How can I hear you say my name? Am I getting powers from radiation like a 1960s Marvel superhero?  Anyway, I hear you say: There are non-lethal forms of radiation you could have exposed yourself to today like radio waves or the microwaves that apparently we use with our phones! & to that I say: now you tell me!

Look, I'm going to rest up & hope to get the show to you by noon tomorrow.  If so, it'll be at Self Help Radio online right on time.  If it's glowing a bit, don't worry.  It's not like it's enriched on anything.

Hm, I appear to be glowing myself.  Good news!  I can stop spending money on prohibitively expensive night lights!

Preface To Radiation: At Last The Radiation Show!

There was a program on the BBC in the 1960s called At Last The 1948 Show.  I am aware of that fact because I am a nerd & consequently a Monty Python fan, & that show predates Python & includes Graham Chapman & John Cleese, as well as Eric Idle as an occasional guest.

The show aired in 1967, so the title is a joke, & a very Pythonesque one, if you can call something Pythonesque before Monty Python existed.  When I titled this "At Last The Radiation Show," I of course thought of the British program, which I've never actually seen entire episodes of.  (The Wikipedia page says that it's available on Amazon Prime so I will check on that.)

In fact, the BBC erased the tapes on which the program was saved soon after airing, so it's been something of a quest to find copies of original episodes, & luckily there have been, I believe, eleven of the original thirteen discovered, of varying quality of course but better that than nothing.

Which makes me drawing attention to that show by calling this post something that reminded me of the show kind of pathetic, seeing how no one's really been waiting for the radiation show, nor will it be remembered after it's done.  But since I promised a radiation show - has it been three weeks now?  Or just two? - I'll deliver one this week.

Ooo, I can tell you're psyched about it.  Or maybe you're just glad that you now know there's more Cleese & Chapman out there to see!

Happy Global Cat Day!

Enjoy your global cat day!

On the local front, these are the feline bosses that rule my life:

They are not kind oppressors.

(PS I played a set for them this morning on the Tuesday Morning Blend.  I hope it will allow for some leniency when they take over the planet.)

This Cold & Rainy Day

There's a sense one gets living in Texas which is the same sense I imagine that folks in Southern California have, which is, the feeling that, you know, we don't really have weather.  In California, I'm sure it's mostly pleasant, but in Texas, it's not - it's just hot.  It's hot when you get in your car, it's hot when you wake up early to walk the dogs, it's hot when the sun goes down & the day's heat just radiates off the ground.  Some people are cool with it - my wife is a reptile so she loves it - but most aren't.

Yeah, okay, it does get cold.  Today it was around 41 degrees.  Yesterday it was twice that - 82 degrees.  In a couple of days it'll shoot back up into the 60s.  I used to tell folks that when the temperature started dropping in Kentucky, it was going to keep going down until Spring.  In Texas, it may be cold one week & then, in the middle of what might be called autumn or winter, weirdly it'll climb into the 90s.

& that's why we're so unprepared for it.  We think it's always hot here because it's usually hot here.  I don't have the statistics but if we consider any temperature over 80 degree Fahrenheit as "hot," there for probably like eight or nine months of the year it's hot.

What do you do on a day like today?  I'm wearing my KNON hoodie, long pants for the first time in months, & those fingerless hobo gloves I have to wear because my hands get cold despite the furious typing on the keyboard.  I walk outside & can see my breath, I tremble when a freezing wind hits me, my legs are cold.  How long has been since my legs have been cold?

Oh, & it rained all day today.  Our backyard looks as though it might be good for rice cultivation.  My poor dogs have been discussing learning how to use the facilities indoors.

What I wish I could do is enjoy it.  But after months of heat, it doesn't feel real - & in a sense, it isn't, as it'll be hot again soon enough.  This is a problem.  A problem with living in a place where the weather is the same, more of the same, it's the same, hot & hotter.

Fuck it, I'm going to go stand outside & pretend I live somewhere where the middle of October is discernibly different from the middle of September.  Or November.