Silos

On this day in 2014, we drove from Kentucky to Texas to visit my mother.  We did it yearly at the time.  Usually in May, but I guess late June when it conflicted with my wife's work schedule.  We had three dogs at the time, all beagles, & I asked someone from the radio station to stay at our place & take care of our cats.  & we drove to Memphis, where if I recall correctly we stayed in an Air B&B that was decidedly moist.  We understood that most of the summer Memphis was sweaty, but we had hoped that we might be a little cooler & drier indoors.  We were going to stay there on the way back, but instead went to a hotel.

On the drive I took pictures out the car window like that above, probably on the so-called "Bluegrass Parkway" which is a lovely drive.  & usually quite chill.  Although the picture could also have been taken in Tennessee along Highway 40.

Those are drives I miss, I haven't driven very far for a couple of years.  Maybe that will change.  Certainly it's very pretty around here.

Just Terrible

(I found this on Twitter. It was uncredited.)

It's well understood that I am just a random fellow with a dumb radio show & no one who listens (that very small group) knows or cares about my political thoughts.  But I have been so sad & angry today - a day when I had hoped to work on next week's Self Help Radio - about the Supreme Court's decisions this week - not just killing Roe V. Wade but the general backwards-looking, "guns have more rights than people" tenor.  I have nothing to add to anything but my heartbreak, my dismay, my absolute sadness at the misery this will cause in the coming years.  I can't do much about it - I have no voice but my vote & I used that, to no avail, in places like Texas & Kentucky, where a vote against a Mitch McConnell or a Ted Cruz was not enough to unseat them.  They are getting the theocratic world with people armed to the teeth that they apparently want, where anyone can carry a concealed weapon with impunity but a state can deny a woman her most fundamental right, where the police can't be sued by violating your Miranda rights & anyway, if you're within one hundred miles of the border, you have very little rights against the police anyway.

In school I loved learning about American history.  I don't believe one can be truly proud of a country one was born in - it wasn't your choice, after all - but I sometimes admired this place.  & I admire the fuck out of the people still fighting.  But I suspect we've lost.  It was ugly when a fat, spray-tanned b-list celebrity most famous for playing a billionaire on television became the president because of a white supremacist institution in the Constitution, & it was an ugly four years.  But I think I didn't know what ugly was.  Ugly is about to show its truly ugly face.  & there will be so much death & suffering.

Yeah, I know, go back to doing dumb radio shows.  I will.  Today though.  Glad I'm not on the air today.

Self Help Radio 062122: Sighs

(I don't recall where the original image came from. But it's brilliant!)

How many times a day does the average person sigh?  Listening to this show you'll discover that it's about once every five minutes.  How about the average Self Help Radio listener?  Trick question!  There's no such thing as a "Self Help Radio listener"!

What happened was there were three hours of radio filled on a Tuesday morning with songs about sighing.  Sighing was discussed.  I ever sighed a few times.  It was the standard affair.  Although I did learn that researchers are still studying sighing.  Which makes me think: what about yawning?  But that's a question for a different show.

You can listen to this show now & anytime at either the KBOO website or at Self Help Radio's website.  (At the latter, use the username SHR & password selfhelp to log in.)  The show was guestless so it was just me & songs & an article about why we sigh & some poetry.  Details below.

& I'm sorry I can't recall who made that cool *sigh* coaster above! If anyone knows, please tell me - I'll be glad to give that person credit!

Self Help Radio Sigh Show

"Between A Kiss & A Sigh (Helen Forrest, vocals)" Artie Shaw & His Orchestra _1938_

"A Pillow Of Sighs & Tears" Red Foley _Old Shep (The Red Foley Recordings 1933-1950)_

"The Bridge Of Sighs" Georgia Gibbs _The Best Of Georgia Gibbs: The Mercury Years_

introduction & definitions

"Cry Baby, Sigh Ba-A-By" Marty Gino _Teen-Age Dreams Vol. 6_

"Sighin'" Melrose Bagby _Brunswick Rock & Roll Party Vol. 2_

"Sigh, Cry, Almost Die" The Everly Brothers _The Absolutely Essential 3 CD Collection_

"I'd Sigh I'd Cry" Bobby Vee _Rarities_

"The Sighing Game" Rainbow Ffolly _Sallies Fforth_

"I Love Your Sigh" Zen _Hair_

"Why We Sigh" by Shayla Love Part I

"Try This For Sighs" Adam Ant _Friend Or Foe_

"The Hedonists Sigh" The Nightingales _Pigs On Purpose_

"Sigh's Smell Of Farewell" Cocteau Twins _Love's Easy Tears_

"When Sunday Comes (She Sighs)" Choo Choo Train _Briar High (Singles 1988)_

"Silent Sigh City" Happydeadmen _Classics - A Decade In Pop_

"Why We Sigh" by Shayla Love Part II

"A Sigh" The Golden Palominos _Drunk With Passion_

"Some Mysterious Sigh" Katydids _Shangri-La_

"Sigh" The Orchids _Epicurean: A Soundtrack_

"Angel Sigh" Spiritualized _Lazer Guided Melodies_

"A Gentle Sigh" Blueboy _Some Gorgeous Accident EP_

"Why We Sigh" by Shayla Love Part IIII

"Sigh" Curve _Faît Accompli_ (Charisma, 1992)

"La Tristesse Durera (Scream To A Sigh)" Manic Street Preachers _Gold Against The Soul_

"A Sigh Is The Softest Shout" Colin Clary _One Hundred Decembers_

"Appalachian Death Sigh" Bill Fox _Shelter From The Smoke_

"Ah! The Sighs" June Tabor _At The Wood's Heart_

"Why We Sigh" by Shayla Love Part IV

"Slow Soft Sighs" Trembling Blue Stars _Slow Soft Sighs_

"Bridge Of Sighs" Brief Candles _They Live We Sleep_

"A Heavy Sigh" Edwyn Collins _Home Again_

"Bridge Of Sighs" Palomar _All Things, Forests_

"No Sense In Sighing" Orwell _Nouvelles D'Hier_

sighing poems by Coleridge & Hardy

"I Just Sighed. I Just Sighed, Just So You Know" Los Campesinos! _Romance Is Boring_

"Sigh, Inhibitionist (Come All Day With Me)" A Sunny Day In Glasgow _Autumn, Again_

"Sighs" Asobi Seksu _Fluorescensce_

"Sigh" The Bilinda Butchers _Regret, Love, Guilt, Dreams_

"Sigh-Fi" Plastic Animals _Pictures From The Blackout_

conclusion & goodbye

"And Then Sigh" Backwords _Quilt_

"Sigh The Day Away" Magic Bullets _Magic Bullets_

"The Deepest Sighs, The Frankest Shadows" Gang Of Youths _Go Farther In Lightness_

"Primal Sigh" Elvis Depressedly _Depressedelica_

Whither Sighs?

(Charles Schulz was the king of the comic sigh. Image from here.)

Occasionally, Self Help Radio has to remind itself it's a radio show.  That it's mainly a bunch of sounds emanating from a radio tower or from a computer.  It makes the deejay - in this case, me - think about all the sounds me make.  & what is a more strange & powerful sound than a sigh?  It's not quite sad - though it can be profoundly sad - but it's not quite happy - though it can express a sort of contentment.

Someone made me sigh one day & I thought, "How many songs are there that somehow mention sighing?"  Tonight's show is the answer to that question.  & I'll talk a lot about sighing as well.

That'll happen midnight to 3am tonight on 90.7fm & kboo.fm.  Perhaps you'll sigh when you hear the sighing.  Or is that yawning?  I think that's yawning.

Preface To Sighs: Hassling Me

As someone who grew up reading Peanuts every day, who loved the cartoons, who related to Charlie Brown a bit too much, doing a show about sighs (which is this week's Self Help Radio theme) immediately made me think about this particular strip, which was first printed on February 5, 1976.  & while I could have read it in the papers then - I was eight years old & was definitely reading the funnies at the time - I almost certainly first read it in this little trade paperback that collected the whole "Charlie Brown & Peppermint Patty share a schooldesk" storyline:

(image from Goodreads)

Looking for the strip - eventually I found it in the Fantagraphics 1975-1976 Peanuts collection, & took a picture with my phone, which is why it's so crappy - I discovered the sequence also ended up in one of the Peanuts cartoons, specifically Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown.  It's here.  (I have bad luck embedding video on this blog, sorry.)  They've moved Charlie Brown & Peppermint Patty overseas for the story, when originally (if I remember correctly), Charlie Brown had to go to Peppermint Patty's school because Charlie Brown's school committed suicide.  You read that correctly!

One last thing: is this the only Charlie Brown cartoon where the voice of the teacher (or any parent) is understandable to the viewer?  & if so, is it because it's someone with a French accent?