Self Help Radio 010419: What Is Life?

(Original image here.)

Welcome to the first Self Help Radio of 2019!  Also, apologies.

This episode features many answers to the question "What is life?"  It can be a bowl of cherries, or a gas, or a dream.  It can also be funky, fine, confusing, & meaningless.  Life contains multitudes.

& it's entirely up to you - I don't advocate a particular answer - but I give you many, many choices.  Maybe share your answers?  But I haven't.  So maybe not.

There's also The Happy Philosopher!  & a performance by the band Shuran Shuran!  Maybe this show is the life!

Probably not.  But you can listen now at the Self Help Radio website.  Even if you don't know what life is, I'll tell you that the username is "SHR" & the password is "selfhelp."  What's on the show is listed below.

Enjoy!  & happy new year!

Self Help Radio What Is Life? Show

"What Is Life" George Harrison _All Things Must Pass_
"What Is Life" Black Uhuru _Reggae Greats_
"What Is Life" Ebo Taylor & Uhuru-Yenzu _Life Stories_

introduction

"Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries" Rudy Valle & The Connecticut Yankees _Brother Can You Spare A Dime? Great American Songs Of The Depression_
"Life Is Fine" Jimmie Lunceford & His Orchestra _The Decca Singles, Vol. 4: 1941-1945_
"Life's Full O'Consequence" Eddie Anderson & Lena Horne _Lena Horne At Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer: Ain' It The Truth_
"Life Is A Problem" Sister O M Terrell _Life Is A Problem_
"Life Is Like A Card Game" Big Joe Turner _The Chronological Joe Turner: 1949-1950_

interview with the Happy Philosopher David Fruchter

"Life's What You Make It" Talk Talk _The Colour Of Spring_
"Life's A Gas" T.Rex _Electric Warrior_
"Life's A Gas" The Ramones _¡Adios Amigos!_
"Life's A Trippy Thing (with Nancy Sinatra)" Frank Sinatra _The Complete Reprise Studio Recordings_
"Life's A Ball (While It Lasts)" Different Shades Of Brown _The Complete Motown Singles Vol 12A: 1972_

interview with new wave band Shuran Shuran

"Opus Dei (Life Is Life)" Laibach _Opus Dei_
"Life Is Long" David Byrne & Brian Eno _Everything That Happens Will Happen Today_
"Life Is Better Than Death" Martin Mull _Perfect/Near Perfect_
"Life Is But A Dream" The Genders _Phone Home_
"Life Is But A Dream" Twink _The Broken Record_

Marge Most interviews biologist Dr. Robert "Bob" Stinkë

"Life Is Meaningless" Oblong Boys _Pizzazarama Universe_
"Life's A Boring Game" The Legendary Bang _Big Bluff_
"Life Is" The Marmalade _Rainbow: The Decca Years (1969-1972)_
"Life Is A Dream" Noel Harrison _Where The Action Is! (Los Angeles Nuggets 1965-1968)_
"Life Is Funky" David Wilcox _Out Of The Woods_
"Life Is Love" Sam Cox _West Coast Winners, Vol. 1_

conclusion

"It's What Life Is" Masters Of The Hemisphere _Epithalamia_
"Life Is A Fear" Editors _In Dream_
"Life Is Suffering" Deerhoof _The Magic_
"Life Is Confusing" Langhorne Slim _Lost At Last Vol. 1_
"Life Is Just Okay" YJY _The Enduring YJY_

Whither What Is Life?

(Image from here.)

It is a question many ponder, this "What is life?"  I am frankly not one of them.  No, I'm more likely to ask, "When do we eat?" & then follow that question up with, "What are we having?" & of course "Can I have some more?"  There are deeper questions still, like, "Is that all?" & "Are you going to finish that?"  & of course there's "Don't tell me I ate too much!" which isn't a question but like many imperative sentences does lead one to another question which of course is, "Did I eat too much?"

However, this week's show - the first of 2019! - has chosen instead to tackle the question, "What is life?"  It wasn't my decision, but I did sign off on it, probably while eating.  It's easy to get me to sign off on things if I am stuffing ungodly amounts of food into my mouth & down my craw.  I think I proposed to my wife while eating.  The process of eating is for me such a culinary trip that I am incapable of thinking about anything besides what I am consuming & also probably wondering whether there's more & maybe occasionally looking about to see if it's nearby.

Should you think perhaps the question can easily be answered "life is food" & you don't have to listen after all, may I remind you that the show explores its themes - in 2019 as well as before - through music, so why not let the musicians & also the show's guests help with that question?  If I were a musician & I wrote songs, I most certainly might write a song called "Life Is Lunch" but I am not a musician I am a curator so why are you arguing with me about this?  Either listen to the show or don't, why focus on my obvious eating disorder?  I thought 2019 was going to be different.

The show happens tomorrow at noon at Self Help Radio dot net.  There will be lots of answers to the question but you will have to make your own mind up.  Also, you'll need to make your own meal, if you listen while you eat.  & if you make some for me, that will be greatly appreciated.  I'll swing by after the show to get it.  Excellent!

Preface To What Is Life?: Is This Life?

Here's a picture.  Is this life?

It is not.  It's a salt shaker, but without salt.  I found the image on the Bed, Bath, & Betrayal website.  I think they might be afraid that, if the image were shown with salt, the customer would expect the shaker to come pre-filled with salt.

Do you remember when salt was extremely expensive?  You do?  You must've been born a long time ago.  Because it's been pretty cheap for a while now.  I know it hasn't always been cheap.  But it's not like you lived in India during the Salt March.  Or did you?

Anyway, while salt is essential to life I can assert that it's not life itself.  This is not to diminish in any way, shape, or form, the greatness of iodine, an essential nutrient.  Nor is iodine life, at least not life as we know it.  Hear me out.  I have reason to suspect - the evidence is mostly anecdotal but in my defense it's anecdotes beamed into my brain from another planet, called Sashabroom, which is somewhere near Betelgeuse - I have reason to suspect that right under our noses there's an entirely new lifeform which we call "iodine" which has been secretly entering our bodies & making us susceptible to alien suggestions.  This is not something I'm supposed to talk about so please ignore this paragraph & pretend there's a - well - I dunno - maybe a pepper shaker here?  But it will be empty, of course, because I don't want you believing that it comes pre-filled with pepper.

This concludes what I hope was an edifying lesson.  But it's only the beginning.  For most of the rest of tonight & well into the weekend, I'd like you to stop people whom you pass, point to something, & ask, "Is this life?"  You will soon get a more or less strong sense of what is & is not life.  Point to things at random!  Don't just point at people!  If it turns out they're not life, they're going to be quite offended.  Same with bees.

But it's cold now so the bees are vacationing in the tropics, so perhaps point at a bee, if you see a bee.  I don't think any bees who are working while their sisters are on vacation will mind.

Oh my look at the time.  Really, look at the time.  Do you see?  Is this life?

Happy New Year/What Did I Do Last Night

Oh yeah, I'll let Bo Burnham handle this one:

The Last Post Of The Year

Oh golly I almost didn't write here today. I think I thought it was Sunday. Having a cold all week & being mostly alone (just me & the critters, as the wife is with family in California) makes one lose track of the time.

The older I get the more I am loathe to say "good riddance" to anything but boy so much of 2018 sucked.  I lost two of my babies, one of whom I had known since she was a kitten.  I lost a radio station but gained another, although I fear Self Help Radio languishes in its current state, & I am unable to think of any way to revitalize it. Can I tell you a story?

For about two years I volunteered with a local low-power fm station here in Fort Worth.  They shall remain nameless but they wouldn't let me do Self Help Radio because their "brand" (as they described it to me) was that they only played local music. I really couldn't have done Self Help Radio the way I like to with only local music. After two years of producing a weekly events calendar there, I felt it was time to move on, & not long after I did, they proudly trumpeted the fact they had a new show - one that features non-local music. I tried not to take it personally.

The station at which I do the Tuesday Morning Blend wouldn't let me do a show on any other area station (which is weird to me - I guess I thought all noncommercial stations should stick together) but I would've left that station to do SHR live here in town.

That's 2018 in a nutshell.

& I'm not even going to get to do a show on the radio this week - my friend Carole has been helping out with the Pledge Drive on KNON so I'm letting her do the Tuesday Morning Blend tomorrow. It's the least I could do, & it's her first radio show in maybe twenty years. All day long I felt like something strange was happening in my head, & I realize it's that I wasn't preparing a radio show today. It's like I walked around all day with my foot asleep.

But Carole will do great, & I'll pretend I needed a day off.

This seems a little melancholy & maybe it's sentimental old me being wistful at year's end.  Tomorrow is another year.  I'll do my best to make sure it's fun.  Happy new year to you!