Self Help Radio 071814: Candles

An entire radio show made in defiance of electric light!  That's how it is.  The candle show flickered briefly & then was extinguished, but I have saved an impression in mp3 form.

The show was fun.  I spoke with a fellow who claimed to own the world's oldest candle, Tania called in & played a song, & a jet-lagged Dr. Howard Gently talked about the spiritual significance of candles - in addition to all the great music played!

You can listen now at the Self Help Radio website.  Please remember that the mp3s are now password protected, so if you want to listen, you'll need a username/password combo, which is on the site, or you can just remember SHR/selfhelp.  The songs I played are below.

Enjoy the scents & the beautiful flame!

(part one)

"Candle Song" Holly Golightly _Laugh It All Up!_
"Candle Mambo" Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band _Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)_
"Candle" Lydia Ainsworth _Right From Real, Pt. I_

"Don't Burn The Candle At Both Ends" Louis Jordan _Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five_
"Burn My Candle (At Both Ends)" Shirley Bassey _Burn My Candle: The Complete Early Years 1956-58_
"Burn That Candle" Bill Haley & His Comets _Live It Up!_
"Wax Candle" Harverson Apricot _Psychedelic Schlemiels: Lost Sounds From The Britpsych Scene 1966-1969_

"Candle" Sonic Youth _Daydream Nation_
"Candleland" Ian McCulloch _Candleland_
"Glass Candle Grenades" Cocteau Twins _Head Over Heels_
"Black Candle" Leo Graham _Lee Scratch Perry: Public Jestering_

"Brief Candles" The Zombies _Odessey & Oracle_
"Light A Candle" Neil Young _Fork In The Road_
"Can I Get There By Candlelight" David McWilliams _Reflections Of David McWilliams_

(part two)

"A Candle's Fire" Beirut _The Rip Tide_
"Light A Candle" Orange Cake Mix _Infinite Beauty_
"Six Hundred Candles" Tiny Town _No Place Like Rome_

"No One Can Hold A Candle To You" Morrissey _I Have Forgiven Jesus_
"The Candle Burned Out" The Shout Out Louds _Work_
"Candlesticks" The Cannanes _Caveat Emptor_

"Seven African Powers" Russell Miles _Six Tunes By "Russ"_
"Candlelight" The Gestures _The Big Hits Of Mid-America: The Soma Records Story 1963 - 1967_
"Black Candles" Blue Bus _Magic Cube_
"Light The Glass Candle" Glass Candle _30 Seconds Before The Galico Wall_

"Roman Candle" Bedhead _Beheaded_
"Roman Candles" Half Japanese _Greatest Hits_

Whither Candles?

When I first came to Austin, I was responsible for the very first time for buying all of my food for myself.  I had applied to the University of Texas too late to get into the dorms, so I didn't have a cafeteria or a meal plan.  Up until that point, I had survived on meals made by my mother or me at home (from foodstuffs in the house) or on fast food.  Luckily, there was a big supermarket within walking distance of my apartments, & visit there I did all the time those first two years I lived in apartments south of the river in the area known as the "Riverside Student Ghetto."

(I just tried to find the place on Google Maps, but the area is so developed now - it's been over twenty-five years, man - that there are shops in front of the supermarket, instead of the giant parking lot I knew.  The street in front, too, has been widened.)

I had of course been in supermarkets before, so it wasn't like this was a new experience, but in general, the grocery stores I'd visited in Garland were much smaller, & didn't have things like housewares or more than two aisles of frozen foods.  One of the aisles I came to enjoy, for no apparent reason, was the aisle that had the religious candles.  They were solid, sturdy things, with lots of colors, & weird things written on them that I hadn't encountered so far in my life, being surrounded mainly by protestants.  I mean, look at this assortment from the Wikipedia:

Astonishing, right?  I bought a couple, sheepishly, but didn't really light them.  I wouldn't have known what they were for.  In a way, my fascination was filled with mockery; but I can't deny that they held an attraction for me: the lovely, unfamiliar images (Jesus with his heart glowing out of his chest!) & the prayers on the back (concentrate on your petition!) were just outside my world enough to make me feel I was being somehow transgressive - even though I was never really a Christian.

I gave one of the candles to a friend in the early 1990s, & he did what I could never do - he wrote a song about it.  I will play that song tomorrow.

I've decided to have a look around to see if I can find these candles in Lexington, & if so, I'm going to buy them & keep them somewhere around the house.  They were, in a way, the inspiration for this show.

& it's happening tomorrow!  Seven to nine a.m. (7-9am) on 88.1 fm WRFL in Lexington, online at the same time at the WRFL web site.  & later, of course, before the candles burn at, at Self Help Radio's new secure location.

You May Have Noticed (You Haven't Noticed)

All mp3 files on the Self Help Radio home page are now password protected.  I know!  I complained about it yesterday & today it's like, wow!  The username & password are on the front page, in a sort-of but not obvious place.  It's this paragraph:

(You can click it to make it bigger.)

I didn't want to write USERNAME: + PASSWORD: but I didn't want it to be hard to find, either.

Why is this happening?  Well, a couple of weeks ago, someone created a kind of program which went through my site & downloaded all the files.  This is a problem because there are a lot of radio shows there, & my web provider got mad at me (although it wasn't my fault) & shut down my site.  I begged & pleaded & did a few things that were probably useless, & my site reappeared.

Then, last week, it happened again.  I did more begging & pleading & a lot of reasoning.  My site came back up but it seemed obvious I needed to do something else.

Here's the thing: very few people know about my radio show, & there a smaller subset of those folks who listen to it.  (A smaller number, I would say, like it enough to download whole episodes.)  So when there's suddenly someone downloading (in a small span of time) 73 episodes, it's probably someone causing mischief.  Password-protection can hinder most of these situations, although, as one technical support person mentioned to me, there are people out there who can write sophisticated programs, too.  I hope I'm not on those folks' radars.

I hope that this doesn't keep people from listening to or discovering my dumb little radio show, & in that spirit, I will mention that, if you can't find the username on the web site (for whatever reason), & you can't find it written somewhere on the Facebook page, then I can only perhaps suggest that if you had to have a username, it might as well be SHR, & if you had to have a password, it might as well be selfhelp.

At this point, it's the best I can do.

Now let's hope I can put all this drama behind me.

On Pins & Needles, Not On Candles At All

Didn't I do a needle show recently?  Oh yeah!

Remember last week around this time, when my site went down?  Well, I am in the process of trying to make the site slightly less susceptible to attacks by douchenozzles, but I am waiting for the folks from my hosting company to communicate with me about my changes.  If I don't hear from them today - a week after we've last spoke, I think - I'll contact them again.  Meanwhile, I'm waiting for the next attack - & the next flurry of phone calls in which I try to explain to every other person - I get a mean person & then a nice person, each time, over & over - that I am in fact doing everything I possibly can short of gutting my website & isn't there now a paper trail?

There appears to be (in my completely unscientific survey) in about half of the tech folks I talk to a lack of empathy & a weird desire to conform to whatever rules there are, no matter how much I explain.  To them, I am violating the terms of service & anything that has gone wrong is my fault.  They refer to files downloaded by an automated program as "malicious," as if they were asking to be used to disrupt online traffic.  The other half act like they're completely on my side, & they're the ones that actually help.  I hope they get more money than the meanies.

I went to the dentist today & while the dentist did the drilling, it appeared that the dental assistant did the filling.  That's unusual, isn't it?  Now the novocaine is wearing off.  It's a terrible feeling, like getting drunk at lunch & sobering up in the afternoon.  Ugh.  Ow.  I think I chewed up my lip while it was numb!

Woke Up Early One Morning Blues, Episode Eight

Memphis Minnie

I woke up early Friday morning feeling a little lonesome so the music I played on the show reflected that.  Maybe listening to some lonesome blues will help you feel less lonesome.

The show can be enjoyed now at Self Help Radio on the web.  The lonesome songs I played are huddling together below.

"Lonesome Woman's Blues" Rosetta Crawford _Clarence Williams & The Blues Singers, Vol 1: 1923-1928_
"Lonesome Weary Blues" Bertha "Chippie" Hill _Louis Armstrong & The Blues Singers_
"The Lonesome Road" Gene Austin _The History Of Pop Radio (1920-1927)_

"Lonesome Lovesick Blues" Blanche Calloway _1925 - 1935_
"Lonesome & Sorry" Lillie Delk Christian _Hociel Thomas & Lillie Delk Christian: 1925-1928_
"Long Lonesome Blues" Blind Lemon Jefferson _The Best Of Blind Lemon Jefferson_
"That Lonesome Rave (Bertha Henderson, vocals)" Blind Blake _All The Published Sides_
"Lonesome Blues" Henry Williams & Eddie Anthony _Violin, Sing The Blues For Me_

"So Lonesome" Ramblin' Thomas _Roll & Tumble Blues_
"Lonesome Frisco Line" Tom Darby & Jimmie Tarlton _Roots 'N' Blues: The Retrospective_
"Lonesome Man Blues" Lee Green _Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 1 (1929-1930)_
"Lonesome Mind Blues" Speckled Red _Complete Recorded Works 1929-1938_
"Lonesome Day Blues" Blind Willie McTell _Complete Recorded Works, Vol.2 (1931-33)_

"Homesick & Lonesome Blues" Blind Boy Fuller _The Slide Guitar: Bottles, Knives & Steel_
"Look Down That Long Lonesome Road" Unknown Group _Deep River Of Song: South Carolina - Got The Keys To The Kingdom_
"Minnie's Lonesome Song" Memphis Minnie _Queen Of The Country Blues: All The Published Sides, 1929 - 1937_

Self Help Radio 071114: Ruby

Is my website still up?  For now?  Okay.

This morning I had a gem of a show - all about rubies, or Rubys, as the case may be.  Only one person called to tell me he didn't like anything I was playing!  It was a good day.

The show is here as long as the website is: Self Help Radio website.  It's also in two parts, here & here.  The beautiful deep red songs I played are below.

Please enjoy & thanks for listening!

(part one)

"Ruby" Merkin _Music From Merkin Manor_
"Ruby" Silver Apples _Contact_
"Ruby" Sneakers _Sneakers EP_

"Ruby" Ray Charles _Genius & Soul: The 50th Anniversary Collection_
"Ruby" Boss Hog _Girl Positive EP_
"Ruby" Simon Bonney _Everyman_
"Ruby" The Apples In Stereo _Her Wallpaper Reverie_

"Ruby" Kristin Hersh _Sunny Border Blue_
"Ruby II" Amy Millan _Honey From The Tombs_
"Ruby" Kaiser Chiefs _Yours Truly Angry Mob_
"Ruby" Tania & Juan _Ruby_

"Ruby Tuesday" Melanie _Melanie_

(part two)

"Rubylove" Cat Stevens _Teaser & The Firecat_
"Little Ruby Rain" Markley _A Group_
"Ruby Dean" Bobby Womack _Understanding_

"Rock & Roll Ruby" Warren Smith _The Sun Records Collection_
"My Little Ruby" Chan Romero _The Del-Fi & Donna Records Story_
"Wicked Ruby" Danny Zella & His Zell Rocks _Wicked Ruby_
"Rock-Ola Ruby" Sonee West _Rock-A-Billy Dynamite_

"See Ruby Fall" Johnny Cash _Hello, I'm Johnny Cash_
"Ruby Ann" Marty Robbins _Marty Robbins Rocks_
"Ruby, Are You Mad At Your Man?" Cousin Emmy & Her Kinfolk _From The Vaults: Decca Country Classics 1934-1973_
"Ruby Dear" Talking Heads _Naked_

"Hey Ruby (Shut Your Mouth)" Ruby & The Party Gang _The Sound Of Philadelphia - Funk, Soul, & The Roots Of Disco 1965-73: Philadelphia Roots, Vol. 2_
"Ruby Horse" The Wonder Stuff _The Eight Legged Groove Machine_
"Rhubarb Ruby" The Spectors _Beat Is Murder: Cockfights & Cakefights 1992-1996_

Whither Ruby?

God, it's been an exhausting week.  Website attacks, dentists, lack of sleep - blergh.  I just need to stare at a picture of cute animals being sweet to one another:

Well, that helps a little.

Tomorrow, a show about people named "Ruby" & also lots of talk about the gemstone called a ruby.  It's happening from 7 to 9 am on the 88.1 fm frequency in Lexington & its surroundings, or online at wrfl dot fm.  I hope you can listen - there's lots of neat stuff happening then & there.

If I still have a website in the afternoon, though, I'll put the show up for you, if you're not up to hear it.

Site Down

While I was on vacation last week, I got an email from my web hosting service that said that my site had been suspended because too many files had been downloaded from the server in a short period of time.  In talking with a support person at the place, I discovered it looked like it came from a handful of very similar IP addresses.  We both agreed it seemed malicious, & although it violated the company's terms of agreement, it wasn't my fault (though of course it was my responsibility to deal with it).  They gave me several options, I picked the cheapest one (which was free but required I enter in the offending IP addresses & block them).  Then my site was restored.

The same thing happened today, but the person I just talked to, while trying to be a sensitive bro, told me I had to remove the offending files before my site could be restored.  That's basically every radio show on the site.

Do you know how many people download & listen to my shows?  Very few.  I've been with this hosting service since 2009.  Nothing like this has happened before this month.  & yet, for some reason, I'm being told the only two solutions are gutting the site (well, I could put the shows on Soundcloud or Youtube - this seems the equivalent of the folks at Wal-Mart telling me how to get food stamps) or paying more for a private server which would also be shut down the minute some asshat wrote a program that downloaded the entire site in an hour.

I am so exhausted by all this.  I no longer want to stay with this company, but I also have no time to research other companies to find something better or at the very least not worse (though the bar has been set rather low).  Until such a time, or in the small chance there's a simpler solution to the problem (they haven't yet responded to my last "ticket"), the site won't be there.

This is something they haven't said to me, but I'll say it to you: I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

Tumbler

The front page of the Self Help Radio Tumblr site

You've heard me say this before: I'm terrible at promoting things.  I have a Twitter account (here) but I don't feel nearly clever enough to write something in it every day (I've been trying to put into words some wry observation I've wanted to make about realtors but can't seem to do it); I only got it because I felt like everyone was saying it was a good thing to use to connect with "fans," something I'm not sure I have.  & a while back, someone was talking about Tumblr.  So back then, sure, I started a Tumblr blog.

Wow, Tumblr has become something very different than I thought it would.  It's sort of true to say it's kind of an open-air Facebook, but also not.  Initially, I used the Self Help Radio Tumblr site (here) to post pictures I scanned or stole from the web with music videos.  It was something I did when I remembered it existed.

A couple of months ago, though, some of the Tumblr blogs I stumbled on had photographs - not reblogged photos, but photos taken by the owners of the blog.  They weren't spectacular, but there was a nice, personal feel to them.  & I said to myself, I have a digital camera, I should take pictures, &, if I like them, I can put them somewhere.

So I share them on my personal Facebook account, but also on my Tumblr site.  Above you can see the most recent two pictures I've taken.  I don't give any details on the blog (no one cares), but I will here: one of those was taken at an elementary school playground in Dallas, & another in downtown Lexington.

I know the pictures are mainly interesting to me.  But in case you didn't know they existed, I wanted to show them to you.  If you don't want to tell me what you think, that's cool.

Woke Up Early One Morning Blues, Episode Seven

Sleepy John Estes

I have put up the most recent episode of my blues show, Woke Up Early One Morning Blues, on the Self Help Radio website.  You can listen now!

The show, which I hastily prepared after I returned from vacation, features songs I didn't have time to play on my previous six shows.  I don't think it sounds awful for all that - but what I played is below:

"The Old Folks Started It" Minnie Wallace _Memphis Jug Band: Associates & Alternate Takes (1927-30)_
"The Gallis Pole" Lead Belly _Country Blues Outlaws_
"Black Woman Swing" Champion Jack Dupree _Cabbage Greens_

"Louise Louise Blues" Johnny Temple _Essential Blues Friends Blues_
"Easin' Back To Tennessee" Sleepy John Estes _Working Man's Blues_
"The Meeting In The Air" Mr & Mrs F H Lacy _Black Religious Music (1930-1956)_
"Poor Lazarus" Vera Ward Hall _Deep River Of Song: Alabama From Lullabies To Blues (1934-1940)_
"Whiskey Head Woman" Tommy McClennan _Tommy McClennan, Vol. 1: Whiskey Head Woman_

"Pony Blues" Sonny Boy Nelson _Complete Recordings...1936_
"Mama, You Don't Mean Me No Good" Little Brother Montgomery _Complete Recorded Works (1930-1936)_
"Tampa Strut" Georgia Browns _Atlanta Blues: Big City Blues From The Heartland_
"Good Looking Girl Blues" Furry Lewis _The Complete Vintage Recordings Of Furry Lewis (1927-1929)_
"Sleepy Woman Blues" Robert Petway _Mississippi Blues (1935-1951)_

"Pinebluff, Arkansas" Bukka White _The Complete Bukka White_
"I'm Going To Write & Tell Mother" Robert Hill _Blues Cafe_
"The Devil's Dream" Sid Hemphill _Afro-American Folk Music From Tate & Panola Counties, Mississippi_

Self Help Radio 070414: Limes

Limes!  America's fruit!  I hope!  There seems to have been a miscalculation somewhere!  Keep smiling!

The lime-song shortage is greatly exaggerated.  There are loads here!  Listen at the Self Help Radio website or directly: part one is here & part two is here.  Lime songs below!

Happy birthday, limes of America!

(part one)

"The Lime Song" Leslies _Totally Brilliant_
"Lime Tree Arbour" Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds _The Boatman's Call_
"Limes" Tania & José _Limes_

"Lemon & Lime" Herman's Hermits _Mrs. Brown, You've Got A Lovely Daughter_
"Lemon & Lime" Three Finger Cowboy _Kissed_
"Lemon & Lime" Jad Fair & R. Stevie Moore _FairMoore_
"Two Lemons, One Lime" The Wave Pictures _Beer In The Breakers_

"Coconut" The Muppets _Muppet Hits_
"The Lime-Juice Tub" A.L. Lloyd & Martyn Wyndham-Reade _The Great Australian Legend_
"The Lime Juice Ship" John Roberts & Tony Barrand _Across The Western Ocean_
"Out Of The Lime" New Mendicants _Into The Lime_
"Leaf & Lime" High Llamas _Beet, Maize, & Corn_

"A Little Splash Of Lime" Sportique _A Christmas Gift From Fortuna Pop! Volume 2_
"Nesbitt's Lime Soda Song" Negativland _Escape From Noise_

(part two)

"Fizzical Lime" Sheer Agony _A Fixture Records Sampler_
"Gin & Lime" Esbee Family _Peace Of Mind_

"Cherry In My Lemon & Lime" Three Riffs _Hot Harmony Groups 1932-1951: That's The Rhythm, Vol. 1_
"Cherry Lime" The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion _Extra Width_
"Lime Jelly Grass" Renaldo & The Loaf _Songs For Swinging Larvae_
"Limes & Skulls" Jonathan Fire*Eater _Jonathan Fire Eater_

"Lime-Lime" Subsonics _In The Black Spot_
"Lemons & Limes" Fuzzy Bunnies _Lemons & Limes_
"Lime House" Breeders _Pod_
"Lemon & Lime" Mark Morriss _Memory Muscle_
"Emerald & Lime" Brian Eno _Small Craft On A Milk Sea_

"Wrong Number" The Cure _Galore: The Singles 87 - 97_
"Lemon-Lime Face" The Octopus Project + Black Moth Super Rainbow _The House Of Apples & Eyeballs_

Whither Limes?

I think I just wanted to play the Leslies song called "The Lime Song."  I don't think the song mentions limes at all.  It should set the tone for the whole show.

I have it on good authority that the Reverend Doctor Howard Gently (whom you should follow on Twitter, duh) will call & I've arranged to interview the Lime King.  That should be fun!

It's happening tomorrow morning from 7 to 9 am on 88.1 fm in Lexington & online at WRFL on the web.

Yes, I know it's the Fourth of July & you'll be in bed, but I couldn't be bothered to do an America-themed show.  Anyway, there's a parade & stuff later.  You can go to that.

Limes!  What was I thinking?

Back On Track

I got back from vacation yesterday but I didn't write to tell you here because there was a problem: my website was down all day long.  I spent the evening on the phone with nice tech support people for my hosting company, who were cool & professional even though I was a bit impatient & stressed out.  It was a weird end to a nice vacation - to get an email in the morning in Memphis saying my website was down for reasons I didn't understand.  It turns out, it was attacked by a Chinese bot of some kind that basically downloaded the site, & because there are lots of mp3s of radio shows, it clogged up everything.  Maybe one day I'll tell the entire story.  But the upshot is, I'm home working on a show about limes, & my website is happily up.

I just found this picture on the Wikipedia in the section about the color lime.  I think we had this book when I was growing up.  I wish I had the whole series now!

I look forward to returning to the show, & I thank Daryl for subbing last week.  He was probably amazing - I shouldn't listen to the show or else I'll feel like just giving it to him.  Rats!

Preface To Melancholia: I'm On Vacation, Damn It!

Please remember that the wonderful Daryl Cookie will be hosting Self Help Radio this week instead of me.  I wish I could be there to listen to his show!  Instead, I'll be hanging out with a bunch of skunks.

You get to listen to it, though!  You're lucky!

Woke Up Early One Morning Blues, Episode Six

Jaybird Coleman

I won't be hosting Self Help Radio this week, as I'll be on the road tomorrow & in Dallas by Friday, but if you have the time & inclination, you can listen to last Friday's episode of my country blues show Woke Up Early One Morning Blues.  It's available for listening now at the Self Help Radio website.  This episode is all about harmonicas!  The artists I played are below.

Also: there won't be an episode of Woke Up Early One Morning Blues this week, but I'll be back on the Fourth of July!

"Whiskey & Gin Blues" South Street Trio _Bobby Leecan & Robert Cooksey: Complete Works in Chronological Order, Vol. 1 (1924-1927)_
"Police & High Sheriff Come Ridin' Down" Ollis Martin _Barrelhouse Blues_
"Man Trouble Blues" Jaybird Coleman _Blues Masters: Country Southern Blues_

"El Watson's Fox Chase" El Watson _The Great Harp Players (1927-1936)_
"Davidson County Blues" DeFord Bailey _When The Sun Goes Down, Vol. 1: Walk Right In_
"Touch Me Light Mama" George "Bullet" Williams _Alabama Harmonica Kings (1927-30)_
"Mean Low Blues" Blues Birdhead _American Primitive: Pre-War Revenants 1897-1939, Vol. 2_
"Sugar Pudding" Memphis Jug Band _Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 2 (1928-1929)_

"Wang Wang Harmonica Blues" The Carver Boys _Mountain Blues: Blues, Ballads & String Bands 1927-1938_
"Riding The Blinds" Eddie Mapp _Georgia Blues (1928-1933)_
"Medley Of Blues: All Out & Down, Old Time Blues, Hog In The Mountain" Freeman Stowers _Sinners & Saints (1926-1931)_
"Mr. Devil Blues" Jed Davenport _Broke, Black, & Blue, Vol. 2: Broke & Hungry Blues_
"Devil In The Wood Pile" Noah Lewis _Gus Cannon & Noah Lewis Vol. 2 (1929 - 1930)_

"The Spasm" Daddy Stovepipe & Mississippi Sarah _Good For What Ails You: Music Of The Medicine Shows, 1926-1937_
"Lost John" Sonny Terry _Complete Recorded Works 1938-1945_
"Poor Boy Blues" Jazz Gillum (as Bill McKinley) _Roots 'N' Blues: The Retrospective_

This Week

I'll be visiting Dallas this week.  Going to see the Mom & also eat at the city's amazing vegetarian & vegan restaurants.  Have I mentioned that there are no vegan or vegetarian restaurants in Lexington?  A barbecue place just closed nearby & this sign was up for a while:

There's a chalkboard behind the front door that says, "New restaurant coming soon!"  I don't imagine it'll be too vegetarian/vegan friendly.

There's a nice website - happy cow dot net - which has a helpful list of vegetarian, vegan, & veg-friendly restaurants in various places.  I used it to find places to eat when we were in Puerto Rico last year, & will use it when we go to Vietnam in a couple of months.  I keep meaning to write more reviews for it, but I tend to get shy of my own opinions from time to time.

Who'll be doing Self Help Radio this week if not me?  My buddy Daryl will.  You can look at the sorts of things he plays on the playlist at wrfl dot fm.  He says he'll do a show about "melancholia."  I believe him!

& I know I usually put up my blues show on Mondays but I've been trying to gather things to listen to for the drive.  So I'll do it tomorrow.  I promise.

Self Help Radio 062014: Racing

I may not ever have won any sort of race, nor even seen a horse or automobile race live, but I know a thing or two about racing.  Like everything else I know, it's what I've absorbed from songs.  This show is the sum of my knowledge.

Also!  I interview Nick Ramirez, horseracing's biggest fan, & the Reverend David Fruchter of the Church of NASCAR, & Tania calls & sings a song for me.  & you, too!

You want to listen?  No?  If you change your mind, the show is over at the Self Help Radio website, or through direct links: part I & part II.  Vroom vroom!  The songs I played are below!

Buckle up for safety!

(part one)
"A Day At The Races" The Art Of Noise _In No Sense? Nonsense!_
"The Race" Christopher _Piccadilly Sunshine, Vol. 1: British Pop Psych & Other Flavours 1968-1970_
"It's A Race" The Enemy _Streets In The Sky_

"Hot Rod Race" Ramblin' Jimmie Dolan _Juke Box Boogie_
"Race With The Devil" Gene Vincent & His Blue Caps _Loud, Fast & Out Of Control: The Wild Sounds Of 50s Rock_
"Drag Race" Don Pearly _Drag Race_
"Cat Racing Track" Bob & Ray _1975_
"Hot Rod Lincoln" All _Allroy's Revenge_

"Camptown Races" Abner Jay _The Backbone Of America Is A Mule & Cotton_
"Race-Track Blues" Johnny Moore's Three Blazers _Charles Brown 1946_
"A Race Between A Ford & A Chevrolet" Oscar Ford _Folk Music In America, Vol. 10: Songs Of War & History_
"The Race Is On" George Jones _The Essential George Jones_
"Bicycle Race" Be Your Own Pet _Killer Queen: A Tribute To Queen_

"Arms Race" The Attractions _Mad About The Wrong Boy_
"Space Race" Mi-Sex Mi-Sex _'79 - '85_

(part two)

"Wild Goose Race" Brigadier Jerry _129 Beat Street: Ja-Man Special 1975-1978_
"Rat Race" The Specials _The Singles Colection_
"The Submarine Races" Jan & Dean _Ride The Wild Surf_

"Racing With The Moon" Vaughn Monroe _The Great Ones_
"Super Racearound II" Firesign Theatre _Boom Dot Bust_
"Formula One Racing Girls" Helen Love _Radio Hits 1_
"Speed Racer" Two Nice Girls _Like A Version_

"Boy Racers A Go Go" The Haywains _Get Happy With The Haywains_
"Boyracer" The Brunettes _Boyracer EP_
"The Boy Racer" Morrissey _Southpaw Grammar_
"Raceway" Comateens _Comateens_

"The Race Is Over" Phillip Boa & The Voodoo Club _Diamonds Fall_
"The Race Is On Again" Yo La Tengo _I Am Not Afraid Of You & I Will Beat Your Ass_

Whither Racing?

a racing flag

I used to have a friend, he came out to me in 1987, he was the first (semi-) openly gay person I knew (although not, it turned out, the first gay person I knew, since later a couple of people I knew in high school came out).  He has nothing to do with racing, which is the theme of thing week's Self Help Radio, but as I thought about racing just now, having to write this blog entry, I thought about racing flags, like the one pictured above, & I remembered how this friend once told me & my buddy Joe (who also knew he was gay), he told us this:

"I don't like the word flag.  I don't know why."

My friend Joe started laughing & said, "It's because it sounds like fag!  You don't like being called fag!"

My gay friend said thoughtfully bit his lower lip, "No, that's not it."

But try as he might, he couldn't put his finger on his aversion to that word.

People become friends because they have something in common, & I did have a lot in common with my friend, & one of those things - which, even though I haven't spoken to him in years, I would bet is true - is that we both never attended any sort of race.  Not any track & field-type competition, not a car race, not even a horse race.

What!?  I live in Lexington, Kentucky, & I haven't gone to a horse race?!?  It's true.  Something about the "sport" makes me uncomfortable.  Actually, a lot of things.  I've spoken with people who work in the field & they assure me that (they always say "in their experience") the horses are treated with respect & love, but then there are articles like this one: "The Ugly Truth About Horse Racing," which have a journalistic objectivity that those invested in the horse racing world can't really have.

It makes it hard for me to actually motivate to go see a race - even if I could probably walk to the nearest track from my house.  I became vegetarian because I didn't want animals to have to die for my survival; I'd hate to enjoy the brutal treatment of animals for entertainment.

Nevertheless - without celebrating or going into specifics - Self Help Radio tomorrow morning will be about racing in general.  It's on from 7 to 9am on the 88.1 fm frequency if you're in Lexington, & online at wrfl dot fm.  (& you don't have to race to a radio or computer to hear it if it's on too early - I'll put it up on my website later in the day, promise!

Preface To Racing: No, Not Songs About Race

It's not that hard to find songs about racing but it's also not hard to find songs about race, & I didn't want to do a show about race.

I read a recent tweet somewhere that said (paraphrase) "In ten years marijuana & gay marriage will be legal but people will still hate black folk."

One time I was sitting around the dinner table at my sister's & someone said, "I don't know why they want us to learn about the Civil War.  It was so long ago, what's it got to do with today?"

I got to bust out my historical knowledge & say, "Everything about the Civil War is still around in our culture today!"

Which is my way of saying, yeah, that tweet is probably right.  If we haven't mended centuries of racial oppression in a hundred & fifty years, it'll probably not be fixed in a decade.

I am pessimistic about a whole swath of things, so feel free to ignore me.

But the songs will be about vroom vroom racing & stuff this week, not races & racism & that sort of thing.

Here's another negative tweet I read recently, this one by Brandon Baskin: "You're about 500 years, 7 colonized continents, and countless atrocities too late for the whole 'we're all one race' stuff."

Again, not about race, but racing.  That's my point.  That's all I meant to say.

Something I Like (Maybe You Will Like Too)

I like this person, Sarah Andersen.  Well, I know next-to-nothing about her - but I like her comics, especially what she calls "Sarah's Scribbles."  Maybe I wouldn't really like her if I knew her but there's something about her comics that makes me think I'd like her.  I've been reading comics, comic books, comic strips, etc., for a long time.  I think the people whose work I like best are people I'd like.

I could be wrong.  I met Dave Sim once.  I don't think I liked him all that much.  (He didn't like me very much, either.)

In any event, you can look at Sarah Andersen's comics here: sarahcandersen.com.  I recommend them.  Maybe you will like them as much as I do.