New Intro Time Again Again Again Again Again Again Again Again Again Again!

(There's a sample from this movie in this year's intro! Image from IMDb.)

For some reason, I make a new intro for my show every year.  I didn't do this from the very beginning - I used the same intro from 2003 to 2005 - but it became a habit to do it annually after that.  I believe I would do it in May because that's when the schedule changed at KOOP (in Austin) but also when the summer semester started at WRFL (in Lexington).  Last year I didn't get around to it till June for some reason, which means I've used the current intro for less than a year.  But I had the notion to make one before May was done, & so I have!  & here it is:

Here's the 2022 Self Help Radio Intro!

This year Self Help Radio will turn twenty, which means I've left behind a lot of frickin' intros.  If you would like to hear the previous ones, here they are:

You can listen to the 2002 intro (my first!) here.

You can listen to the 2003 intro here.

You can listen to the 2005 intro here.

You can listen to the 2006 intro here.

You can listen to the 2007 intro here.

You can listen to the 2008 intro here.

You can listen to the 2009 intro here.

You can listen to the 2010 intro here.

You can listen to the 2011 intro here.

You can listen to the 2012 intro here.

You can listen to the 2013 intro here.

You can listen to the 2014 intro here.

You can listen to the 2015 intro here.

You can listen to the 2016 intro here.

You can listen to the 2017 intro here.

You can listen to the 2018 intro here.

You can listen to the 2019 intro here.

You can listen to the 2020 intro here.

You can listen to last year's intro here.

This is the only place I make a big deal about it, but I am a little sad I didn't get to say goodbye to this past year's intro.  I like it quite a bit.  But time marches on!

Random Friday Thoughts

This photo was just posted on the Self Help Radio Tumblr Blog with the caption "apparently things in that tree need to calm the fuck down."  I post a lot of pictures I take on that blog.  It has next to nothing to do with the radio show.  All of those pictures are posted to my Facebook account, too.  If only there were some kind of social media application that specialized in images!  But we know there's none.

Yesterday was Pete Townshend's birthday & on the Dickenbock Report I played a bunch of covers of Who songs to celebrate.  I'll put that show up after next week's Self Help Radio.  It's caused me to listen to Who records for the first time in a long time.  Gosh, I like them a lot.  If you'd ask me if I were a big fan of the Who just a week ago, I would've said, "I liked them a lot when I was in my teens & early twenties but now..."  Now I'd tell you I might be a bigger fan than I was then!

At dinner with a neighbor couple tonight, I discovered that the male half of that couple once worked on a documentary about The Highwaymen.  He told me Willie was the showman, Waylon the storyteller, Kris the insecure one, & Johnny the rather ailing one.  It was wonderful & it meant I am now just one or two degrees of separation from those country luminaries.  He also got to hang with Foghat.

In the evening (like now) my cat Bolan needs his dried food refilled or else he'll cry all night long so I usually fill a little bowl & toss some treats on top.  The treats are in a cabinet directly below the magnetic doohickey which keeps the cabinet doors closed.  Every time I grabbed the treats I scratch the top of my right hand.  Tonight I finally drew blood - & moved the fucking treats.  I was going to take a picture but I am too tired.  It's time for bed.

Self Help Radio 051722: Sting

(Original bee image here. Sting's face from here.)

Sometimes the internet fails you.  I had hoped that someone would have made an image somewhere of Sting getting stung by bees or something else.  But nope!  So I had to make one.  & that's what you see above - Sting's his usual cocky self, you just know he's going to get stung!  Fingers crossed.

Of course, the show had very little to do with Sting, just a couple of songs & a bit - most of the songs were about things that sting - bees in particular - & stings as things that hurt, as in "death where is thy sting?"  There's even a set with the word "stingy," which, I discovered, some from the word "sting."  Plus the usual nonsensical interviews.

Listen to the sting show now - it won't hurt you - at the KBOO web page or at the Self Help Radio web site.  Remember at the latter, you'll need a username - SHR - & a password - selfhelp - to listen.  But you can download the show!  All the stuff that happened (more or less) is below.

Self Help Radio Sting Show

"Sting Like A Bee" The Mighty Sceptres _All Hail The Mighty Sceptres!_

"Bumble Bee (Sting Me)" Wilson Pickett _In Philadelphia_

"Queen Bee" John Lee Hooker _The Classic Early Years 1948-1951_

introduction & definitions featuring the Definition-O-Tron 3000

"Beestung" Kristin Hersh _Hips & Makers_

"The Bees" Belly _King_

"Bee Sting Stings" Tullycraft _City Of Subarus_

"The Sting" Sad13 _Slugger_

"Bee" The Sugarcubes _Here Today, Tomorrow Next Week!_

interview with poetry teacher Mr. Jarvis

"Never Let The Same Bee Sting You Twice" Richard "Rabbit" Brown _The Greatest Songsters 1927-1929_

"Stinging Snake Blues" Memphis Minnie _Queen Of The Country Blues (All The Published Sides 1929-1937 In Chronological Order)_

"I Got Stung" Elvis Presley _Elvis 2nd To None_

"Honeybee" The New Birth _Shaolin Soul (Episode 2)_

"Sting Me Baby" Jo Ann Garrett _Dance Floor Disaster_

interview with scientist & educator Alex Hess

"Honey Bee (Keep On Stinging Me)" Diana Ross & The Supremes _Love Child_

"A Bee Without Its Sting" The Go! Team _Get Up Sequences Part One_

"(Hurts Like A) Bee Sting" Lucky Soul _Hard Lines_

"I Got Stung" Bonnie Dobson _Bonnie Dobson_

"Beesting" Buildings Breeding _Buildings Breeding_

trendspotting with Martie Smartie

"Sting Me Mr. Strange Man" Eloise Bennett _The Rise & Fall Of Paramount Records 1917-1927, Volume 1_

"Death Sting Me Blues" Sara Martin _In Chronological Order Volume 4 (1925-1928)_

"Oh Death Where Is Thy Sting?" Eric Mingus & Gary Lucas _The Harry Smith Project Live_

"Death Where Is Thy Sting" Pat Brennan _The Executioner's Last Songs Volume 2 & 3_

"The Sting" Editors _The Weight Of Your Love_

a dramatic reenactment of an interview with Sting

"Why Sting Is Such An Idiot" Allen Clapp & His Orchestra _One Hundred Percent Chance Of Rain_

"I Killed Sting" Bitesize _Beastfest 2002_

"A Bee Will Sting You" Barry Louis Polisar _Off-Color Songs For Kids_

"Honey-Bee Sting" Fire Hydrant Men _Missed It By That Much!_

"Bumblebee Sting" Dulcie Younger & The Silencers _Kitty, Kitty ...Growl!_

"Beesting" Winterpills _Central Chambers_

idioms!

"Stingy Blues" Cootie Williams & His Orchestra _1945-1946_

"Stingy Little Thing" Hank Ballard & The Midnighters _Nothing But Good: The Federal/King Recordings 1952-1962_

"Silas Stingy" Petra Haden _Petra Haden Sings: The Who Sell Out_

"Bee Stings" Warren Defever _I Want You To Live 100 Years_

"Stung" Deer Tick _Born On Flag Day_

"Sunlight Feels Like Bee Stings" HTRK _Rhinestones_

conclusion & goodbye

"I Got The Stinger" Jabbo Smith's Rhythm Aces _1928-1938_

"The Stinger" Sam Taylor, Jr. _The Tunnels Of My Mind_

"Stinger" Ursula 1000 _Mondo Beyondo_

"Sting Sting Sting" The Sick Lipstick _Sting Sting Sting_

"September Sting" The Pale Fountains _...From Across The Kitchen Table_

"Sting In The Tale" Red Guitars _Slow To Fade_

Whither Sting?

(image from here.)

As I mentioned yesterday, the theme this week is "sting" not "Sting," so don't expect songs by that Police man.  Instead, expect songs about being stung - a lot of time by bees - because (if you haven't already guessed) the show continues to work on themes during the KBOO Spring Membership Drive, also called the "Hive Drive."  We've had shows about bees, honey, buzzing, & now stings.  In addition to being quite a challenge - there aren't as many songs about being stung or stinging as one might expect! - it's also a chance to encourage you to help KBOO out during the Drive, which you can do by clicking here.

There are also a couple of cool limited edition shirts you can get: the "hive drive" shirt & the KBOO roots shirt.  All to help out the radio station that foolishly lets me do Self Help Radio.

Speaking of, the sting show (not the Sting show) is on tonight from midnight to 3am on 90.7 fm & online at kboo.fm.  I'd warn you about painful itching & swelling but that happens naturally during my shows, not just this one.  Hope you listen!

Preface To Sting: No, Not That Guy!

(image from here.)

When I was a kid - I guess around the time I was a tween into my teenage years - I was pretty big fan of the Police.  They seemed unlike most of the bands on the radio - & I never really liked a lot of what is now considered classic rock or heavy metal.  I was too poor to buy their records but luckily they were popular - on the radio all time - & I remember funny mishearings of lyrics because I didn't know the titles of the songs.  I had thought, for example, the song "Spirits In The Material World" - because Sting prefaces singing that in the song with "we are" - I thought he was saying "Obstinance In The Material World," with "obstinance" being one of those words I had to look up one time in a book I was reading.  Speaking of books, I had no idea who Nabokov was, so in "Don't Stand So Close To Me," I heard Sting sing "Just like the old man & that book by now becomes..."  In that sense, the song "Don't Stand So Close To Me" transformed into a book!  That seemed clever to me.

In ninth grade, the Police released Synchronicity & I remember finding it very weird that someone like Sting - handsome beyond imagining, obviously filthy rich, & undoubtedly painfully self-assured - look at that picture up there! - that he would write a song like "King Of Pain."  Also, the idea that the Loch Ness Monster was caused by pollution seemed pretty silly to even me at the age of fourteen.  The record seemed to lack some charm but I still listened to it lots, enough to get pretty sick of the hit single on it, which for some reason I can't recall & I'm not even going to try!

But like a lot of things with popular culture, what made me lose interest in the Police ultimately was people I didn't respect who really loved the Police.  It's probably a character flaw, but I have found that the fans of some artists/musicians end up making me think less of those artist/musicians  - even though of course it's not the artists/musicians' fault!  One of those people was a fellow in my Latin class who, for a presentation, played the song "Wrapped Around Your Finger" because it mentioned Scylla & Charybdis.  That's all he did!  Played the song & said, "See!  It mentions Scylla & Charybdis." & he got a fucking B!

(To be fair, I don't remember what I did, but I do know it involved actual research.)

What ultimately made me lose interest in Sting - I did listen to & somewhat like Andy Summers & Stewart Copeland solo projects - though not Animal Logic - what was I saying?  Oh yeah, what made me lose interest in Sting was his solo projects.  I tried really hard to like the Turtles album but its singles seemed insufferable to me, & the one after that - it has a pretentious Shakespeare title & that song that I never want to hear again about we'll be together & oh fuck oh fuck now it's stuck in my head my love is a flame that burns in your name get the icepick I will just keep stabbing my brain from my ear to hopefully kill the section that keeps that song there I don't care what memories or knowledge I lose just don't make me have to think about that song ever again.

These days I can listen to the Police & enjoy them but I don't think I'll ever listen to another Sting record.  & this week's show isn't about him, although I'll probably have to mention him.  No, it's about the sensation of being stung.  & I'll talk more about that tomorrow.