A Little Leftover Attitude

During the show I have a text line & three or four dedicated texters who like to send me stuff (well, I ask for stuff too) related to the show.  A fellow named Zaki sent me this photo on Tuesday morning:

He wanted me to say "photo by Zaki."  He texted: "This was my grandma's Attitude Adjuster.  She had it hanging above the door to her library office."

There was no way for someone on Twitter to know about this photo, but this happened Tuesday:

Here's a little leftover attitude for you.  & hey!  Look at how much fun it is to text the show & to interact on Twitter.  Why aren't you doing that?

(I hope Zaki doesn't get mad I didn't specifically name him on Twitter.)

Some Films With Attitude

(image from the IMDb)

This week on Self Help Radio - did you miss it? - it was our show about attitude.  Hey!  Don't take that attitude with me!  You can still listen to it over on the Self Help Radio website.  & when you do, you'll hear another installment of Chuck's Happily Unsophisticated Cinema Korner in which our resident cinephile explored some films featuring characters with built-in bad attitudes: juvenile delinquents.  You can listen to the episode to hear Chuck's thoughts, but:

He has prepared a Youtube playlist, two IMDb lists, & some Letterbox reviews.  Check it out:

The Youtube Playlist

The IMDb list of films tagged "juvenile deliquent"

The IMDb list of films tagged with "psychotronic"* & "juvenile delinquent"

Chuck's Letterboxd reviews

Keep up with the films Chuck is watching on his Twitter feed - he'll let you know what films he'll discuss the next time he's on the show!  If this doesn't change your attitude, you might need an attitude adjustment.  Use these films as an attitude check.

*If you're like me, & have never heard the term "psychotronic" before, try this link: toward a definition of psychotronic film.

Self Help Radio 022321: Attitude

(The "attitude color palette" in the background is from here.)

Self Help Radio copped an attitude this week.  Deal with it!  Or is that a "toxic attitude"?  Because if it is, according to this website, the first thing you should do to deal with a toxic attitude is "offer an ear to listen."  Which is exactly what a radio show wants from you, attitude or not!

So do listen.  After all, as one texter remarked to me during the show, "I think you have a good attitude, but you put yourself down a lot, which is humble & humorous!"  Seriously, it's the first person to ever suggest I might have a good attitude.

Listen now at the Self Help Radio website, selfhelpradio.net.  Please remember you'll need a username (it's SHR) & a password (it's selfhelp) if you visit.  You can also listen at kboo.fm although you'll have to listen to spots at the beginning & the show will fade out during the last song.  The vagaries of radio!  Everything that happened on the show is detailed below.

Self Help Radio Attitude Show

"(I Can Have) Attitude" Romanovsky & Phillips _I Thought You'd Be Taller!_

"Attitude" Pablo Moses _The Itinuation_

"Stretch The Attitude" Hula _Cut From Inside_

introduction & definitions

"Don't Take That Attitude To Your Grave" Ben Harper _Welcome To The Cruel World_

"I Got An Attitude" Antoinette _Hurby's Machine: The House That Rap Built_

"Attitudes" Norma Loy _Attitudes_

"Attitude Check" George Carlin _When Will Jesus Bring The Pork Chops?_

"Bad Attitude" Lisa Germano _Happiness_

Chuck's Happily Unsophisticated Cinema Korner discusses films featuring those attitudinal brats, juvenile delinquents

"Attitude Dance" Tower Of Power _Monster On A Leash_

"Attitude" A Place To Bury Strangers _Pinned_

"Attitude" The Slickee Boys _:30 Over D.C. - Here Comes The New Wave!_

"Kill Your Attitude" Darwin Deez _Double Down_

"Bitch With A Bad Attitude" Saffire - The Uppity Blues Women _Old, New, Borrowed, & Blue_

interview with self-help author Scott Raymond mountain climber Giorgio Franklin

"Negative Attitude" Lloyd Cole & The Negatives _The Negatives_

"Dig Your Attitude" The Booby Traps _Makin' It With The Booby Traps_

"New Attitude" The Babe Rainbow _Double Rainbow_

"Angel With An Attitude" The Ditty Bops _Moon Over The Freeway_

"Rude Attitude" The DJ Producer _The Cosmic Forces Of Mu_

interview with professional wrestler Mr Attitude

"Change Of Attitude" Bourgie Bourgie _Careless_

"Nasty Attitude" Walter Brown _The Chronological Walter Brown 1947-1951_

"Attitudes" Bar-Kays _Flying High On Your Love_

"Attitude" Brass Construction _Attitudes_

"Serious Attitude" Twin Hype _Twin Hype_

interview with high school guidance counselor Andy

"Common Attitude" Thomas Edisun's Electric Light Bulb Band _The Red Day Album_

"The Attitude" The Sugar Shoppe _The Sugar Shoppe_

"Romantic Attitude" John Fitch & Associates _The Rubble Collection 8_

"Practising Attitudes" Brian Protheroe _Brian's Big Box_

"The Girl With The Attitude Problem" Dead Famous People _Arriving Late In Torn & Filthy Jeans_ "Attitude" The Kinks _Low Budget_

a discussion of the "punk" attitude

"Attitude" Misfits _Collection II_

"Attitudes" Marie & Les Garçons _Kid Loco: AnotherLateNight_

"Attitude" Bad Brains _Black Dots_

"Bad Attitude" Testors _Complete Recordings 1976-79_

"Attitudes" The Brat _Attitudes_

"Bad Attitude" The Joneses _Tits & Champagne_

"Drop The Attitude Fucker" The Queers _Beat Off_

"Attitude" Chit Chat _Chit Chat 7"_

"Attitude" Mika Miko _666_

conclusion & goodbye

"The Attitude" NTNT _PDX Pop Now! 2013_

"Attitude Up" Lamont Dozier _Inside Seduction_

"Attitude" Hardknox _Hardknox_

Whither Attitude?

(image from here)

Isn't it time a nineteen-year-old self-help radio program had a show about attitude?  Just look at some of the quotes about attitude you can find online:

"A bad attitude is like a flat tire. If you don’t change it, you’ll never go anywhere." (attributed to Joyce Meyer)

"Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it." (Lou Holz)

"Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude." (Zig Ziglar - & do not let him choose the pilot if you're flying with him!)

"Your living is determined not so much by what life brings you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens." (Khalil Gibran)

"When you ain't got no money, you gotta get an attitude." (Richard Pryor)

That's as self-helpy as Self Help Radio gets.  Though tonight we will talk to a self-help author!

Yes, tonight!  Self Help Radio is on for three long hours from midnight to 3am on 90.7 fm KBOO Portland.  Technically it's Tuesday morning but for most of us, it's Monday night.  If it were up to me, I'd have every new day start around 5am.  But it's not up to me.  So.  You know.

Midnight to 3am!  90.7fm!  kboo.fm!  It's all attitude tonight!

Preface To Attitude: Preceding Essence

There's an old argument you get to learn about in first-year philosophy classes.  It's debating the answer to this: "Does existence precede essence?"  The answer "existence precedes essence" is the subject of a Wikipedia page focusing on existentialism.  It says, in part, "The proposition that existence precedes essence is a central claim of existentialism, which reverses the traditional philosophical view that the essence (the nature) of a thing is more fundamental & immutable than its existence (the mere fact of its being). To existentialists, human beings - through their consciousness - create their own values & determine a meaning for their life because the human being does not possess any inherent identity or value. That identity or value must be created by the individual. By posing the acts that constitute them, they make their existence more significant."

The Wikipedia page mentions Kierkegaard but I almost certainly encountered the thought in the writings of Jean-Paul Sartre (& before college philosophy class!).  I agree with them for the most part, since it would make absolutely no sense for someone to have any qualities before they existed - like an essence - though I don't know if I generally follow through with existential conclusions.  I just know as someone who doesn't believe in anything supernatural - primarily because I have never seen any convincing evidence that such things exist - it only follows that essence simply cannot precede existence.  How would it do so outside of supernatural explanations?*

This is on my mind because of an exchange that happened in my high school days with my "best friend" - the fellow with whom I spent a great deal of time but who, it turned out, was never really much of a friend.  His reasons for spending time with me remain murky, but almost certainly the entire time he held me in a great deal of contempt, as his later actions would demonstrate.  But let me attempt to diminish the hateful, truly cruel things he would do to me in the future that revealed to me how he completely despised me, & let me instead remember a moment from those days, when something he said struck me as wise.

He probably doesn't remember this at all, but since I loved & admired him, I tended to pay attention to things he said.  The context was that someone had accused me of having a bad attitude.  I'm not sure who had done that - probably someone at school - but it was something that weighed heavily on me.  I didn't even know what an attitude was, I wasn't even sure how to delineate between a good & bad attitude.  But I had definitely had discussions with him about the essence & existence chicken-egg situation.

So I asked him, "How important is one's attitude?"

He said, pithily, "Attitude precedes essence."

Even now that seems both very clever & quite wise.  To know such a thing at eighteen, well.  There was a reason that I admired him.  & the truth is, had I stayed a quiet & reverent disciple, we might have stayed close.  But of course I wanted & needed a friend.  & friends shouldn't & obviously can't openly despise their friends, right?

Still: "Attitude precedes essence."  That's good, right?  Credit where it's due.

* Perhaps in a genetic sense.  But that's not what the "essence precedes existence" crowd generally postulates.  As far as I know.