Snowy Night

In 2015, I had been taking random pictures with a little digital camera for only about a year.  So it's safe to say this picture, taken March 5, 2015, or seven years ago today, was one of the first pictures I took as part of a regular routine.  Chances are it was taken in the very early morning (I am regularly up late, & was then too), & I never have really good cameras, so it's a shabby, badly lit picture.  It's taken from my backyard in Lexington, Kentucky, on what was obviously a very cold night with snow covering everything.

Since then, I've lived in four different houses in two different cities, both very far away from Lexington.  I miss the idea of snow - it's snowed here in Portland a couple of times, but only once (or maybe twice?) so far the "shovel your driveway & sidewalk" kind of snow.  But I don't miss shoveling snow or the inconvenience of snow covering everything - it was more exhausting than beautiful in the end.

But gosh it really is beautiful. & on a cold night, so quiet & still.

The Disastrous Non-Introduction Of Scrooby Droop

(artist's rendition; image from here.)

Here's something that may be evident from listening to my shabby show: I work on it until the very last possible minute.  For last week's show, "the tangled show" (which you can listen to here or here), I decided to forego my usual guests so I'd have a little more time to spend on the show (& also with my wife, who considers my radio shows my mistresses).  I couldn't resist playing some characters, though, & I had the idea late Monday afternoon to introduce a new character - a filthy street "musician" who howls songs in a Scooby Doo outfit & who is brought in by Ned Dry to perform a song, since, you know, I didn't have any guests.  I set it up in a previous interviews, but - as is all too typical - in my haste, I forgot to mix the file down & didn't bring it with me.

It's all incredibly stupid but it made me laugh, & I might bring the character back at some point.  If you think you'd like to listen to it, you can click here to listen.  I won't just play it on next week's show because it wouldn't make any sense.  But if you heard "the tangled show," just imagine this happening in the very last airbreak.  That's where & when it was supposed to air.

As always, I deeply apologize for subjecting you to my nonsense.

Self Help Radio 030122: A Tangled Show

(Original image here.*)

This tangled world probably inspired this tangled show.  Though it's a tiresome, even boring process untangling things - wires, hair, whatever - I don't think it's the same listening to songs about tangled things, about being tangled up, about tangles in general.  & that's about a glowing a recommendation I can give for this silly episode.

Just one note: there aren't any guests on the show.  I felt the need to breathe a little, to not spend so much time on editing audio.  It caused me to make a big mistake!  Which I'll tell you about soon.

Meanwhile, enjoy the show if you need some untangling - either at the Self Help Radio KBOO page or at Self Help Radio dot net.  The latter will require a password & a username, selfhelp + SHR are those respectively.  What happened on the show is below.

Did I feel less tangled up after this show?  Just the contrary!

Self Help Radio 220301: A Tangled Show

"Tangleweed 'Round My Heart" Charlie Barnet & His Orchestra _1940 Vol. 2_

"The World's In A Tangle" Jimmy Rogers _The Complete Chess Recordings_

"Tangled Mind" Hank Snow _The Southern Cannonball_

introduction; a question about tangleweed

"Three Hearts In A Tangle" James Brown & The Famous Flames _The Singles, Volume 2: 1960-1963_

"Tanglefoot" Charlie Drake _Stampede - The United Artists Story_

"Wrapped, Tied, & Tangled" LaVern Baker _What More Can A Woman Do? Brunswick & Chi-Sound Sisters Of Soul_

"Tangled Web" The Browns _The Three Bells_

"Terrible Tangled Web" Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell _Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell_

definitions (featuring the Definition-O-Tron 3000)

"Like A White Star, Tangled & Far, Tulip That's What You Are" Tyrannosaurus Rex _Unicorn_

"Wrapped Up & Tangled Up In Jesus" Reverend Charlie Jackson _God's Got It: The Legendary Booker & Jackson Singles_

"Tangled Vines" Dolly Parton & Porter Wagoner _Just Between You & Me_

"Tangled Man" Anne Briggs _The Time Has Come_

"Tangled (Like A Spider In Her Hair)" Don McLean _Homeless Brother_

etymologies

"Tangled Up In Blue" Bob Dylan _Blood On The Tracks_

"Let Me Tangle In Your Vines" Yank Rachell _Chicago Style_

"Tangled" The Passage _For All & None_

"Tattered, Tangled, & Torn" Bradford _Bradford_

"Honey Tangle" The Adult Net _The Honey Tangle_

mathematical tangles

"Triangle Tangle Tango" Severed Heads _Rotund For Success_

"Bauble, Bangles, Emotional Tangles" The Band Of Holy Joy _Manic, Magic, Majestic_

"Tangled" Jane Wiedlin _Tangled_

"Tingle Tangle" The Lightning Seeds _Sense_

"Tangle" Bleach _Killing Time_

Ned Dry interrupts!

"Tangle Up" Poole _Tangle Up_

"Tangle My Shoes" The Cat's Miaow _A Kiss & A Cuddle_

"Tangles" Eric's Trip _Peter_

"Tangled Weeks" Licorice Roots _Licorice Roots Orchestra_

"Tangled Up In Blue" The Brilliant Corners _Creamy Stuff: The Singles 84-90_

"Tangled Up In Blue" St. Christopher _Lioness_

Sir Walter Scott & his tangled web

"Don't Want To Tangle With Me" Smokey Wilson _The Man From Mars_

"Tangled Up" Cranes _EP Collection Volumes 1 & 2_

"Tangle" Flare _Bottom_

"The Tango Tangle" Dirt Bike Annie _Show Us Your Demons_

"Tangled" The Black Heart Procession _The Spell_

"Tangled Up With You" The Mumlers _Don't Throw Me Away_

conclusion & goodbye

"Tangled Line" Brave Irene _Brave Irene_

"The Tangle Of Us" Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat _The Most Important Place In The World_

"Tangle Of Souls" Scott Cook _Tangle Of Souls_

"Entangled" Mamak Khadem _Remembrance_

* "Tangled technology" by stuant63 is marked with CC BY-NC 2.0.

Whither A Tangled Show?

(I once lived in these apartments. Image from Goggle Marps.)

Everything feels so tangled up I thought it might be appropriate to spend a little time playing a bunch of songs about being tangled up, tangled things, being entangled, stuff like that.  Maybe it might help things get untangled.  But probably not.

Not that special this week, sorry.

Listen at 90.7fm in Portland or online everywhere at kboo.fm.  From midnight to 3am.  Tonight - or Tuesday morning, howsoever you roll.

Preface To Tangle: Tangled Up In Blue

(image from Discogs)

"Tangled Up In Blue" is a Bob Dylan song from Blood On The Tracks, his fifteenth studio album, released in 1975.  It's catchy as hell, one of those Dylan songs without a chorus, just the phrase "tangled up in blue" repeated at the end of each verse.

Wikipedia tells us, "With 'Tangled Up in Blue,' Dylan used shifting perspectives of time, influenced by his recent studies under Raeben."  Norman Raeben was an American painter, & what little I know about him, I'm not sure what exactly Raeben taught Dylan but I was initially confused by the shifting pronouns in the song.  The confusion was compounded by different lyrics - & pronouns - on his Bootleg Series version & even more so the Real Live version, which feels about 65% rewritten.

Dylan denies the song is autobiographical but I suspect there's lots of real life in there somewhere.  The song (& the album) has been part of my life's soundtrack for decades now.

Around the same time I got into Blood On The Tracks, I was writing terrible poetry for a Usenet group & just beginning my radio adventure.  I remember trying to flip pronouns around like Dylan but of course I wasn't really trying to make a narrative.  I was just putting words together & hoping they sounded nice.

Once on a camping trip, my girlfriend & I at the time tried to sing the song from memory.  We didn't get it quite right.  But trying to do so took up a considerable amount of time - much longer than the song itself.

When I mentioned this week's theme on the air, someone texted & requested this song.  I was kinda hoping the person wanted the Bootleg Series version, but they specifically asked for the Blood On The Tracks version.  Which doesn't bother me, I love the song.