Self Help Radio 060926: Haloes

Gosh, I don't know what else I can say about haloes that I haven't already said. I had waaay too many songs about haloes & lots of them were a little longish. But that didn't stop me from playing my faves! I also talked to people who can see halos, to an artist who paints halos on things he's not supposed to, & to a friend who claims he likes the video game Halo.

All that's left to say is that you can listen to the show on the KBOO website & also on the Self Help Radio website. & that most of the stuff you will hear is listed below.

Also, my wife doesn't like stories about haloes. She is mean about it, too.

Self Help Radio Haloes Show

"Is That Your Halo" The Rock Shop _Fuzz, Flaykes, & Shakes Vol. 4: Experiment In Color_

"Halos Are For Angels" Blanche Carter _The Wigan Casino Story Volume Three (The Final Chapter)_

"Rusty Old Halo" Hodges, James, & Smith _Power In Your Love_

introduction & definitions

"Halo Fading" The Chills _Soft Bomb_

"Haloes" House Of Love _Audience With The Mind_

"Halo" Mad Scene _A Trip Thru Monsterland_

"Shallow Then Halo" Cocteau Twins _Garlands_

interview with Brother Matthew & Sister Jane

"Halo Flaming Lead" Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel _Sink_

"Hammer The Halo" The Wolfgang Press _Standing Up Straight_

"Halo Bender" The Halo Benders _Don't Tell Me Now_

"Halo Of Fire" Lydia Ainsworth _Sparkles & Debris_

interview with my friend Jarvis

"Halo Mary" Robyn Hitchcock _There Goes The Ice_

"Smoke Ring For My Halo" Kurt Vile _Smoke Ring For My Halo_

"Halo" Starstreamer _Going Against Maz's Advice_

"Chrome Halo" Shiva Burlesque _Mercury Blues_

"Halo" Texas _White On Blonde_

interview with street artist Spanksy

"Halo Coming Down" Walker Kong _Transparent Life_

"Broken Halo" Dot Dash _Half-Remembered Dream_

"Heroes & Halos" The High Violets _Heroes & Halos_

"Black Halo" Black Pistol Fire _Look Alive_

"Halo" Alice Phoebe Lou _Shelter_

conclusion & goodbye

"Halo" Kicking Giant _Halo_

"The Golden Halo" Cloud Nothings _Final Summer_

Whither Haloes?

(image from here)

You might think that the idea for a radio show about haloes came from wandering around the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam & seeing lots of paintings of Jesus & other folks - like the one above, although that one is not in the Rijksmuseum - sporting all kinds of haloes. You would be mistaken.

The idea for this show came from a sketch or something comedic I was thinking about, about a "street artist" who wants to paint haloes on famous paintings, both in public & in museums. He wants to keep his identity a secret, & pretends it's a secret, but he tries to paint a halo on the Mona Lisa & gets arrested so everyone knows who he really is. The sketch idea went nowhere (like most of my ideas) but it did encourage me to do a show about haloes. & who knows? That street artist may even turn up on the show!

It happens midnight to 2am on KBOO - which is at 90.7fm on the dial in Portland, & all over the world online at kboo dot fm.

It's also our Spring/Summer Membership Drive so if you can help, we would greatly appreciate it. Go to this page to become a member of KBOO!

Preface To Haloes: A Childhood Memory

(comic by Easterby)

This is a story I'm sure I've told before but since almost noone reads this blog it's fine if I tell it again. But first I want to tell you that it's been a constant in my life that the things that I have wanted to believe have butted up against the things that are. This is not much of a problem for many people, who are able to contextualize their experiences so reality corresponds with what they believe - whether they've chosen to believe it, or whether it was indoctrinated in them somehow. No judgements - I'm almost certain they're happier than I am.

When I was six, my mother - who was German - took me, my little brother, & I believe one of my older brothers, Ralph, to Germany. It was an experience for which I was wholly unprepared. I mean, I was six. Another country? What the fuck?

For example, I remember being fucking terrified at seeing men walking around with military-grade weapons - I guess whatever the equivalent of AK-47s was at the time - at the airport. It is a memory that came back to me when, just two weeks ago, I arrived at the Berlin airport on my way home to see soldiers patrolling the space with such weaponry just as they did fifty-some-odd years ago.

One thing I was excited about was the flight. If there was one thing I was almost certain I knew, it was that angels lived on top of the clouds. You couldn't see them from down below - of course not! don't be stupid! - they were on top of the clouds. I felt, at age six, I had seen so many pictures of angels on clouds (probably not photos but, again, I was six years old) that they must be there. I pictured not whole cities of angels - although why not? - but rather the occasional angel here & there, plying their wares. I don't know if I imagined harps or other such things, but I knew I would know them by their wings - & white robes - & their haloes.

Because angels had haloes. I am fifty-two years removed from that little dumbass so I can't explain what I might have been thinking but I do have a memory of looking out of the window of the plane - my mother had the window seat, I think, so I had to clamber over her - & saw clouds as far as the eye could see - all strikingly bereft of angels. Did I check now & again to see if maybe angels congregated in other spaces? I don't recall. But it was perhaps one of the first times - if not the first - the world took something I thought was almost certainly true & said back to me, "Nope."

For many people at age six, a question to an adult might have resolved the issue: "No, dear, angels are in heaven not on tops of clouds." But I didn't confide in anyone my disappointment because my family had a way of making me feel stupid when I was wrong ("You thought what? Are you fucking stupid?"). Therefore I kept these observations & revelations to myself. But I'm pretty sure from that point forward I came to think there were no such things as angels.

& maybe haloes too?