Self Help Radio 090514: Disco

A radio show about disco, but featuring very little actual disco.  Yeah, that sounds like the sort of show Self Help Radio would do.

In addition to the great music played (listed below), the show had lots of human talking guests.  I interviewed David Fruchter, who used to bartend at Studio 54; I interviewed Nick Ramirez, who has protested disco for decades; & I interviewed Nancy Gold & Mary Storm, co-discoverers of the element disconium.  & of course Mark Miller reported about Hollywood, & Tania wrote us another lovely song.

It's all available for your lighted dance floor & mirror ball at the Self Help Radio website.  Please pay attention to password/username info while you're there.

Thanks for listening!  I have to take off these boogie shoes now.  They're killing me.

(The show is in two parts at the website; below is what's in the two parts.)

(part one)

"Discotheque" Bad Dream Fancy Dress _Choirboys Gas_
"Freestyle Disco" S.I. Futures _The Mission Statement_

"Disco's Dead" The Bags _All Bagged Up '77-'80_
"Smash The Discos" The Business _Punk & Nasty_
"Disco Pope" The Prats _Rough Trade Shops Post Punk 01_
"Disco Romance" UK Decay _The Black Cat EP_
"Disco Hotline" National Lampoon _That's Not Funny, That's Sick!_
"Disco Man" The Damned _Eternally Damned_

"Changwah Disco" Chantana _Thai Beat A Go-Go, Vol. 3_
"Disco Clone" Cristina _Mutant Disco_
"How Long Are You Staying?" Bill Joy _The American Song-Poem Anthology: Do You Know The Difference Between Big Wood & Brush?_
"Red Neck Disco" Glenn Sutton _Redneck Country_

"Rock & Roll People In A Disco World" Sparks _Terminal Jive_

(part two)

"Cambia El Disco" Tania Rivas _Cambia El Disco_
"Disco Biscuit" Lung Leg _Maid To Minx_
"Disco" Backfish _It's Emily's_

"The World Is A Disco Ball" Future Bible Heroes _Eternal Youth_
"Shifty Disco Girl" Helen Love _Love & Glitter, Hot Days & Muzik_
"Indie Disco" The Lancashire Hotpots _Pot Sounds_
"At The Indie Disco" The Divine Comedy _Bang Goes The Knighthood_

"Born Disco/Died Heavy Metal" Cornershop _Hold On It Hurts_
"Discoking" The Leslies _Totally Brilliant_
"Panic" The Guild League _Romantic & Square Is Hip & Aware_

"Death Of A Disco Dancer" The Smiths _Strangeways, Here We Come_
"Disco Pop Stars" Altered Images _Pinky Blue_

Whither Disco?

Blah blah blah, it's a show about disco with very little disco, blah blah blah.

One of the things I started doing this spring - in case you haven't noticed - is regularly feature people I know who are far more funny & talented than I am.  So you've regularly heard my friends Russell, David, Mark, & Nick pretend to be "experts" weekly on the show, as well as Tania singing her songs & an occasional appearance from my wife as the monster that lives under the station.  I asked a couple of current RFL deejays - Macy & Maria, who do a show on Sundays from 2 to 4pm - if they'd also like to be experts.  They said yes!  So their "expertise" will be featured on tomorrow's show.  & - spoiler alert - they're great.

It seems pretty obvious to me that my "experts" aren't really.  But I've had a couple of calls that suggest some people who stumble onto the show don't listen carefully enough.  I keep wondering if I should have some sort of disclaimer.  What do you think?

Tomorrow's show is jam-packed with fake experts - plus lots of fun music - so I hope you'll listen.  It's on from 7 to 9am on 88.1 fm in Lexington & online at wrfl dot fm.  I'll archive it later on Self Help Radio web.  Oh boy!

Preface To Disco: Neglectfulness

As I approach - what is it? - nineteen hundred blog posts on this blog of mine - that's a lot - I feel like I am neglecting it a bit.  Part of it is the general feeling, which co-exists with my lack of self-esteem & all-around self-loating, that I have nothing of value to say.  Part of it is that I spent the day (what free time I had) working on the radio show that this blogs exists to support (or whatever).

I am envious of people like Marc Maron, whose podcast I admire, because he does have something to talk about, twice a week, before his interviews.  He returns to themes - he is his most popular subject - & I'm not comfortable being as frank about myself in that manner, although I tried it for a time on some of the shows this spring.  But he still manages, between awkwardly pitching products for his sponsors, to have lively, interesting discussions about ideas & events that I can't really manage.

I wonder if this blog would benefit from small events & ideas that happen throughout my brain at any given moment.  I would probably resist biographical entries that didn't have something like a point or a clumsy punchline - for example, the wife & I just watched (& enjoyed) the first episode of the television show Please Like Me - but instead just have random train-of-thought observations. Like:

Tonight, someone made the comment that Enya never performed live.  She couldn't.  Too many voices.  But she has performed live, says the Wikipedia.  Just never had an actual concert.

That's not that interesting, but it was interesting to me at the time.  & funny!  It reminds of the time Leah at KOOP told me that Bob Marley died of toe cancer.  I thought it was such a dumb idea I bet her five bucks it wasn't true.  It was!  I paid up.

The other night we were walking the dogs & I thought I saw a shape in the sidewalk in front of us.  It was a sweet black lab whose name I later found out was Mandy.  I recognized her because she barks at us from her backyard & I've always wanted to walk up to meet her.  We banged on her owner's door for several minutes (we guessed he was in the bathroom) & finally he opened the door & we asked if she was his.  She was, but she wanted to come with us - three beagles & two sweet humans are better than a cigarette-smoke-filled home!

The next day or so he explained that the dog was not his but his ex-wife's.  He said he didn't really want her but liked having her around.  I got the impression that he would have loved for us to adopt her.

Tonight I thought, "What if he had let her out that night & hoped she went away?  & we ruined his plans?"

She's a sweet dog, & twelve years old.  I hope the situation isn't what I fear.

Would this blog be better with entries like that instead of - well, what does this blog contain, anyway?  What have I written for almost nineteen hundred entries?  I have no idea.  I have no idea.

Twits Tumble

See this?

That's a picture of my dog Ringo.  I take a lot of dumb pictures, a lot of them of my pets, a lot of them when I'm out & about with my pets.  I "archive" them (if you want to use that fancy word) on the Self Help Radio Tumblr site.  Why not on this blog?  Who the hell knows?

See this?

That's something I tweeted.  From my Tweety Account.  I mean, my Twitter account.  I don't spend a lot of time there, since I don't feel all that clever, but I do "live tweet" my shows (I hope I am using that phrase correctly) & let one know when my shows are available on the site.  Usually by linking to this blog.  Oy.

Anyway.  A friend was telling me today how well an old fogey like me uses Social Media.  (I didn't even mention the Facebook page!)  But I'm not really using Social Media all that well.  Mainly I'm clumsy & awkward about it.  Like most things in my life.

But I thought I should mention these other things (all linked of course on the web site).  So it might seem I am using Social Media well.

& not, as it feels, a little antisocially.

Short Sad Monday Poem

I have a cold.
Sore throat & sniffles.
Still I did three hours
on the radio this morning.
It's been raining all day.
I wish I could have slept all day.
My wife says,
"90% of my laundry
is Jazzercise clothes."
My teeth hurt
because I've been sucking cough drops
all the time.
Going to sleep again
after I feed all the animals.
I hope I am well enough
to do Self Help Radio
this week.

Self Help Radio 082914: Indiepop A To Z # 45

Jesse Garon & The Desperadoes

Oh man, forty-five installments of this & I'm only in the letter J.  I might finish the Js next time around - when will that be?  Probably the end of the year.  For now, enjoy all the bands I thought were important or influential or just plain indiepoppy enough to fit between the Jakpot & the Jigsaws (those bands included).

I should say a big thank you to the people at TweeNet whose list of bands forms the basic skeleton of this series.  If I just stuck to what they consider indiepop, I'd be nearly done now.  Alas, I am contrary.

The show is available now at the Self Help Radio website.  Pay attention to password info, if you're going to listen.  The songs I played - in glorious alphabetical order - are below.

Thanks for listening!

(part one)

"Turning Point" The Jakpot _Turning Point EP_
"Not Happy" Jale _Dreamcake_
"Town Called Malice" The Jam _The Gift_

"I Heart Labrador Records" Jam On Bread _A Railcard Adventure_
"Puppet Girl" Wendy James _Now Ain't The Time For Your Tears_
"Skullduggery" James _Stutter_
"Oh, Grateful" James Dean Driving Experience _Clearlake Revisited_
"Vote For Love" Jamie Wednesday _Vote For Love_

"It's A Fine Day" Jane _It's A Fine Day_
"Mourning Glass" Jane From Occupied Europe _Coloursound_
"Sanitized" Jane Pow _Love It Be It!/State_
"Love Has Flown" The Januaries _The Januaries_
"Cut Me Deep" Jasmine Minks _Another Age_

"Looking For Lot 49" The Jazz Butcher _Fishcotheque_

(part two)

"Nothing At All" Jazzateers _Jazzateers_
"Elemental" The Jean-Paul Sartre Experience _The Size Of Food_
"Before I Know" Jenka _Be_
"Driving Into The Sun" The Jeremiahs _Driving Into The Sun EP_

"Ordinary Sleep" Jessamine _Jessamine_
"The Rain Fell Down" Jesse Garon & The Desperadoes _The Rain Fell Down 7"_
"Just Another Fashion Band" The Jessica Fletchers _What Happened To The?_
"Flowers" Jesterbells _Rain Keeps Falling EP 7"_
"Just Like Honey" The Jesus & Mary Chain _Psychocandy_

"Sister Dream" Jesus Couldn't Drum _Ruttling Orange Peel & Blind Lemon Pie_
"Suicide" The Jesus Trip _You Can't Be Loved Forever, Vol. 1_
"Wenn Deutschland Traumt" Jetzt! _Liebe In Grossen Stadten Kassette_
"Snap Me Up" Jim Jiminee _Welcome To Hawaii_
"Camouflage" The Jigsaws _Camouflage 7"_

Which Indiepop A To Z # 45?

Who knows why anyone does anything?  Why a radio show at all?  Isn't radio dying?  What about this thing called "indiepop" (which yesterday I referred to as "obscure")?  Who pays attention?  Does anyone really want to listen to what I think it is?  & in alphabetical order?  What the hell?

So, "whither indiepop a to z number 45" indeed.

I just think it's good music.  I listen to it a lot.  Some of my favorite bands are either square in the genre definition (like the Lucksmiths) or influenced it (like the Smiths).

& it's nice to have a radio show now to share all the silly music I have - indiepop or otherwise.

& by the way - Self Help Radio is on tomorrow morning from 7 to 9am at 88.1 fm on the dial & online at wrfl dot fm.  Yes, it'll be archived at some point in the day.  What, with all this music, do you think I have time to do anything else?

Did this have too many questions in it?  Will anyone answer them?  Or were they rhetorical?  Have I done this before?  Why can't I remember if I did or not?

Preface To Indiepop A To Z # 45: Keep Going, Keep Going

I've had a leisurely week - it's warm & unbearably humid in Lexington so, except for the requisite evening dog walks, I've been inside - so I've had a chance to listen to entire albums by the subjects of this installment of the "indiepop a to z" series.  It's been fun - it's such a diverse & interesting genre of music, one that for the most part is more obscure now than even when it was the opposite of punk in the mid-1980s.

Well, maybe not the opposite of punk - the do-it-your-own-damn-self aesthetic was there.  Among other things.  I'm not in the mood to theorize right now - & anyway, I'm reading Jon Savage's Sex Pistols book right now, so it's probably muddling up my thinking.

I'm in the letter J at this point, & it's the tenth letter of the alphabet.  If it takes forty-five shows to make it to J, where will I be at the twentieth letter of the alphabet (the letter T, right)?  & if I only do three of these shows a year, it'll happen well over a decade from now.  Will there even be radio then?  Will I even be alive?

Oh well.  Keep going, keep going.  The letter J.  Lots of good stuff.  I'll show you on Friday!

This Is One Of Those Times

…when you find something that would've been perfect for last week's show.

So you show it anyway.

Woke Up Early One Morning Blues, Episode Fourteen

Victoria Spivey

As mentioned previously, this was the last episode of my little blues show - at least for a while.  Lots of folks - students, mainly - return to Lexington for school in the Fall & of course they deserve a place at the student radio station.  I feel lucky I got to keep my Friday morning!  I can only imagine everyone else wanted to sleep in &/or had an eight o'clock class.

My last show featured some Texas blues greats, with an especial set on Texas blues women, & a few obscure tunes as well.  It may be because I am Texan that I love Texas blues so much - but I am surely not the only one.  It could be the subject of an entire ongoing radio program - & probably has.

This final Woke Up Early One Morning Blues (I'm glad no one complained about the clunky name!) is available now at the Self Help Radio website.  Pay attention to username/password information.  The Texas-flavored songs I played are below.

Thanks to everyone who listened this summer!

"Bull-Doze Blues" Henry Thomas _Texas Worried Blues (Complete Recorded Works 1927-1929)_
"Falling Rain Blues" Lonnie Johnson _Lonnie Johnson Vol. 1 (1925-1926)_
"Booster Blues" Blind Lemon Jefferson _The Best Of Blind Lemon Jefferson_

"Motherless Children Have A Hard Time" Blind Willie Johnson _Dark Was The Night  (1927-1930)_
"Texas Blues" Willie Reed _Let Me Tell You About The Blues Texas (The Evolution Of Texas Blues)_
"You'll Like My Loving" Otis Harris _The Male Blues Singers Vol. 1_
"Cryin' For You Blues" Sammy Hill _Texas Blues_
"Kentucky Blues" Little Hat Jones _Tex-Arkana-Louisiana Country 1929-1933_

"Big Houston Blues" Victoria Spivey _Victoria Spivey Vol. 1 1926-1927_
"Deep Water Blues" Hociel Thomas _Louis Armstrong & The Blues Singers_
"Doggone My Good Luck Soul" Hattie Hudson _Texas Girls (1926 - 1929)_
"Penitentiary" Bessie Tucker _I Can't Be Satisfied, Vol. 1_
"Shake It Down" Lillian Glinn _Lillian Glinn 1927-1929_

"Ground Hog Blues" Ramblin' Thomas _The Voice Of The Blues: Bottleneck Guitar Masterpieces_
"Blue Goose Blues" Jesse "Babyface" Thomas _Blues From The Western States 1927-1949_
"Lone Wolf Blues" Buddy Woods _Texas Slide Guitars 1930-1938_

Self Help Radio 082214: Bulls

Yup, the radio show today was about bulls.  Not papal bulls, not people who are confident in the stock market, not police officers.  The male version of cows.  Bulls.  Lots of songs about those kinds of bulls, & especially bullfighting & bull riding.  I even had guests to talk about it!

It's not available for you to listen to at Self Help Radio: the website.  Pay attention (if you go there to listen) to username + password information.  The songs I played are below.

Toro!  Toro!

(part one)

"The Bull Is Coming" Lee Fields & The Devil's Personal Band _Rare Funk Liberation_
"Ride The Bull" Quasimodo Jones _Robots & Rebels_
"Lezomkomo (Praise The Cows & Bulls)" Ladysmith Black Mambazo _Songs From A Zulu Farm_

"Little Black Bull" Pete Seeger _Sing With Seeger_
"Little White Bull" Tommy Steele _The Best Of Tommy Steele_
"Ferdinand The Bull" Slim & Slam _The Original 1938 Recordings, Vol. 1_
"El Toro De Goro (The Peace Loving Bull)" Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs _Li'l Red Riding Hood_

"The Cattle Call" Eddy Arnold _Heroes Of The Big Country_
"Bad Brahma Bull" Tex Ritter _Collectors Series_
"Oscar The Yodeling Bull" Peter Denahy _Peter Denahy_

"El Matador" The Kingston Trio _Sold Out_
"The Matador" Johnny Cash _Legend_
"The Matador" Major Lance _Best Of Soul Time: A Selection Of Northern Soul Classics From The Archives_

(part two)

"Old Bull" Wylie & The Wild West _Bucking Horse Moon_
"Bull In The Pen" Black Uhuru _Anthem_

"The Bullfighter Dies" Morrissey _World Peace Is None Of Your Business_
"The Bulls (Les Taureaux)" Shawn Elliott & Company _Jacques Brel Is Alive & Well & Living In Paris_
"Bull Rider" Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell _Old Yellow Moon_
"Bulls" Tania&Juan _Bulls_

"Bull In The Heather" The Go! Team _Proof Of Youth_
"Bullfighters' Bones" The Shrubs _Full Steam Into The Brainstorm 12"_
"Bullfighting" Airport Girl _Slow Light_
"Bullfighter Jacket" Miniature Tigers _Fortress_

"Cattle & Cane" The Go-Betweens _Before Hollywood_
"The Bull Run" Titus Turner _A Walk On The Wild Side_

Whither Bulls?

A long time ago, I was dating a girl, & she liked to go camping.  We would go camping together.  We knew someone who was a park ranger in Utah, so we'd go camping there.  I didn't own a car, so I'd rent a car, & we'd drive together from Austin to Utah to go camping.  Once, after driving forever on what was probably 183 past Llano - or maybe it was 290 west - or maybe it was I-10 on the way to El Paso, depending on how we were getting to wherever we were going - we stopped because she wanted to see some cows who were near the fence.  We pulled the car to the shoulder & walked over to say hello.  They were friendly & glad to have the company I supposed.

At some point some highway patrol officers appeareded & wanted to know what we were doing.  We said we were saying hello to the cows.  They told us we were on private property & needed to be moving along.  They seemed amused that we wanted to say hello to cows.  "You never seen cows before?" they asked us.

I hadn't grown up with cows but a couple of years before I had visited with other friends a dairy where the calves were very friendly & would suckle your fingers.  We slowly realized that it was kind of sad, since they wanted their mothers' milk, but the mothers were busy being milked to give to humans.

Anyway, when we were on the highway, walking back to the car, the highway patrol officers wondering if we were on drugs or something, I noticed that there was a lone bull in a separate section of the fenced-off land.  I guess if he were with the cows he'd be mating with them.  Or maybe he was a steer, a castrated bull, who was just separated from others I couldn't see.  Or maybe I just saw a cow I thought was a bull & made up an entire story from looking at him.  I do that.  You do that too.

I tried to find photos, using Google search, of handsome bulls, but all that comes up is pictures of pit bulls, who are dogs & not bulls at all.  (Some were quite handsome, though.)

The reason for the show is I wanted to play something from the new Morrissey record & I liked the song "The Bullfighter Dies."  I had to scramble to put the show together in less time than I usually take for my show.  I hope it's all right.

Tomorrow from 7 to 9am on 88.1 fm in Lexington, Kentucky, & online at the same time at wrfl dot fm.  I'll put the show up later in the day on the Self Help Radio website in case you can't wake up or won't wake up or read this years later.

It's years later.  I never stop to say hello to cows anymore.  But I do wave from the car.

Preface To Bulls: The Power Out

It has been a weird day.  I took a nap as is my wont & woke up, ready to make dinner, & there was a magnificent thunderstorm happening.  (I could've slept through it, but the wife woke me by saying, "Wake up & fix me dinner, depressed person!")  As I walked into the kitchen, everything in the house just stopped working.  At first, it seemed like there was still power, as the washer or dryer continued to spin even as it lost electricity.  But no, the whole house was off.

Here's the news, which I was able to access thanks to my smarty-pants phone: power outage story.

We decided to order out, but it took a while - probably a nearby cell phone tower was out or otherwise incapacitated.  We managed to call one of our few favorite local restaurants - the poorly named Asian Wind - & I ventured out into the world.

Two things first: our garage door opener is of course electric.  So I had to hold the door open as the wife drove the car out.

The other thing was Twitter.  When I finally got some bars, I checked the Twitterworld to see what folks were saying about the power outage.  What they said was, basically, DON'T GO DOWNTOWN.  Apparently students are moving in right now & the absence of power took out all the traffic lights.  Crash smash chaos.  But Lexington loves its sirens, & the power wasn't out for five minutes before we heard screaming sirens all around the city.

I didn't see any accidents, but I did see people being kind as traffic cops waved us through intersections without lights.  It wasn't much of a problem getting to the restaurant to pick up the food, but there was a problem with finding a place to park - lots of folks were escaping from their homes to go out to eat.

We watched old SCTV episodes on the computer while we ate by candlelight.

Which is all my way of saying that I meant to write something else but the world intervened.

I used to tell folks that big storms like we have in Texas don't really happen around here.  At least with the fierceness or regularity that is characteristic of Texas thunderstorms.  But I can't do that anymore.

Man, I am glad the power's back on.  It's sad, strange, & weird how our lives - or at least my life - needs its electronics.

Solidarity

Woke Up Early One Morning Blues, Episode Thirteen

Alger "Texas" Alexander

For my next-to-the-last episode of Woke Up Early One Morning Blues (next-to-the-last? what? see next paragraph!), I played some catch-up.  I would find so many songs to play for each show but couldn't fit them all in one hour, so this show contains songs that "belonged" to previous shows.  I still think there's a nice flow.

So next-to-last - well - the new WRFL schedule starts a week from today, & there'll be many more students back in town who need precious airtime, so I am losing an hour of my show.  That hour will be Woke Up Early One Morning Blues.  I am sad to see it go, but my focus has always been on Self Help Radio.  The show will reappear at some point - possibly next summer - because the early blues is always on my mind, & I enjoy doing a blues show.

You can listen to this past week's show now at the Self Help Radio website.  The mismatched collection of songs is listed below.

"Whiskey & Women" Black Ace _Texas Slide Guitars 1930-1938_
"Romance In The Dark" Lil Green _Romance In The Dark_
"Where He Leads Me I Will Follow" Blind Willie Harris _Goodbye, Babylon_

"Lonesome Lovesick Blues" Katherine Henderson _Vol. 2 (1927-1932)_
"Whiskey Headed Blues" Sonny Boy Williamson _Sonny Boy Williamson: Complete Recorded Works, 1938-1939_
"On My Way To Heaven" Blind Roy Hays _Sinners & Saints (1926-1931)_
"Snatch It Back Blues" Walter "Buddy Boy" Hawkins _William Harris & Buddy Boy Hawkins (1927-1929)_
"Black Gal, What Makes Your Head So Hard?" Joe Pullum _The Easin' In: Essential Recordings Of Texas Blues_

"Six Weeks Old Blues" John Henry Barbee _Memphis Blues 1927-1938_
"Lonesome Road Blues" Sam Collins _Before The Blues Vol. 1_
"Ain't Going To Lay My Armor Down" McVay & Johnson _Kentucky Mountain Music, Part 3_
"Friday Moan Blues" Alfred Lewis _Harmonica Blues 1920s & '30s_
"Boogie Woogie Stomp" Albert Ammons & His Rhythm Kings _The Many Faces Of Boogie Woogie_

"Dark Was The Night (Cold Was The Ground)" Blind Willie Johnson _Dark Was The Night (1927-1930)_
"Long Lonesome Day Blues" Texas Alexander _Texas Alexander Vol. 1 (1927-1928)_

Self Help Radio 081514: Normality

Who're you calling normal?  Not this radio show!  Oh, all right, just for today, Self Help Radio will be normal.  Why not?  Why not for once be a normal radio show?  I mean, really.

Show is here: Self Help Radio website.  Remember, if you have to have a username & a password, then SHR & selfhelp will probably work.  The songs played today are below.

Stay normal!

(part one)

"I'm Normal" The Emperor _I'm Normal_
"We Are Normal" The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band _Urban Spaceman_
"C'est Normal" Ceux Qui Marchent Debout _Handclapping Zone_

"Normal" Martin Mull _Normal_
"The Speed Of Normal" John Wesley Harding _John Wesley Harding's New Deal_
"Mr. Normal" Wayne County & The Electric Chairs _Man Enough To Be A Woman_

"Pronounced Normal" Wild Man Fischer _Pronounced Normal_
"Pass for Normal" Culturcide _Home-Made Authority_
"Normal People" The Members _The Choice Is Yours_
"Watch Out For The Normal People" The Boomtown Rats _A Tonic For The Troops_

"Dan Abnormal" Blur _The Great Escape_
"Crazy Kind Of Normal" The Rosehips _The Rosehips_

(part two)

"This Is The New Normal" Bubblegum Lemonade _Some Like It Pop_
"Every Boy Wants A Normal Girl" Colleen Green _Sock it To Me_
"Life Returns To Normal" Northern Portrait _Criminal Art Lovers_

"Suis-Je Normale?" Nini Raviolette _Change The Beat: The Celluloid Records Story 1979-1987_
"Total Normal" Eiskalte Engel _Total Normal_
"Normal" Astrud _Superman EP_

"The Normal Family" Andrei Codrescu _No Tacos For Saddam_
"Making People Normal" Bis _Social Dancing_
"Normal" Screaming Females _Castle Talk_
"Normality" Tania&Juan _Normality_

"Gillian Is Normal" Instant Automatons _Messthetics Greatest Hiss # 110: An Introduction To The D.I.Y. Cassette Scene 1979-1984_
"Tight But Normal Squeeze" Robert Pollard _Jack Sells A Cow_
"Normal" Bel Divioleta _Espejos_

Whither Normality?

I have no idea what normal is.  Normal is relative, anyway.  Some people live in fear & hunger, & that's normal for them.  What was normal even a century ago would seem weird to us now - & vice versa.

I do know that WRFL is not a normal radio station.  I don't mean that as an insult, but as a compliment. Every other radio station in the world - or I should say, the vast majority of them - are owned by one of two or three corporations, & they're programmed by a few people in one place, & piped out to each station. It's apparently very profitable for them, but it's such a depressing & cynical way to use the airwaves that could be filled with so much creativity & good music & fun.  It's why a station like WRFL is so valuable.

Will Self Help Radio celebrate normality, or will it (as you probably suspect) have several songs snarkily suggesting that what is normal is dull, mindless, hypnotized, brainwashed, conservative, square?  You'll have to listen to find out.

It's on tomorrow morning from 7am to 9am on 88.1 fm in Lexington, & online at wrfl dot fm.  Of course I'll do what I normally do & put it on the Self Help Radio website after the show, if you're not normally up that early.

It's normal for me to hope you'll listen, right?

Preface To Normality: Normalcy

You can read about Warren Harding's use of the word "normalcy" in his 1920 election campaign.  Though detractors at the time believed he made the word up, or mispronounced "normality," it turns out "normalcy" had been in use for around sixty years before that.  People use it to mean "normality" to this day, probably because of the hubbub surrounding Harding's use of the term.

But according to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word normalcy was coined by mathematicians, first recorded in 1857, & used to mean a "mathematical condition of being at right angles."  It notes, wryly, "The word prefered by purists for 'a normal situation' is normality," which, it notes was first recorded in 1849 - barely a decade before "normalcy" was recorded.  Etymologists believe it came from the French.

I don't have a dog in this fight.  I like that the English language is elastic & mutable & I love that words change their meanings over periods of time.  It's sometimes sad when words like "literally" come to mean their opposite because of people who don't really know the word's definition, but if I don't mind a word like "normalcy" being used to mean "normality," I can't complain about changes in the language I don't like.  It's better than the opposite: word stagnation.

Harding, by the way, is known as one of the most corrupt presidents in history.  That might not be entirely true - but he did seem to surround himself (mostly friends & contributors from Ohio) with awful people.  For no real reason, here's a picture of him:

Woke Up Early One Morning Blues, Episode Twelve

Gladys Bentley

I loved encyclopedias as a child, & I have a mind that loves to categorize & alphabetize.  This week's episode of Woke Up Early One Morning Blues starts something I might never finish - a list of the great female blues singers of the 20s & 30s.  When people think of the blues, they often don't think of these women - but they were among the most popular blues performers of the time.  I go from Ora Alexander to Susie Edwards (of Butterbeans & Susie) on this show, but since I only have two more episodes of the show, I might not return to the list for a good long while.

In any event, you can listen to the show at the Self Help Radio website.  Pay attention to the password info there.  & enjoy the songs I played, which are listed below:

"You've Got To Save That Thing" Ora Alexander _Them Dirty Blues_
"St. Louis Blues" Mildred Bailey _The Ladies In Blues_
"Don't You Make Me High" Blue Lu Barker _The Chronological Classics: Blue Lu Barker 1938-1939_

"Worried Blues" Gladys Bentley _Maggie Jones & Gladys Bentley: Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order Vol. 2 - May 1925 To June 1926 & August 1928 To March 1929_
"West Indies Blues" Esther Bigeou _Esther Bigeou (1921-1923)_
"The Pawn Shop Blues" Lucille Bogan _Lucille Bogan (Bessie Jackson) Vol. 1: 1923-1930_
"Evil Mama Blues" Ada Brown _Territory Singers Vol. 1 (1922-1928)_
"Song From A Cotton Field" Bessie Brown _Down In The Basement: Joe Bussard's Treasure Trove Of Vintage 78s: 1926-1937_

"Peddlin' Man" Liza Brown _(Original) Bessie Brown (1925-1929) & Liza Brown (1929)_
"Mean Eyes (Too Late Blues)" Kitty Brown _Female Blues Singers Vol. 3 (1923-1928)_
"Aunt Hagar's Children Blues" Alice Leslie Carter _Female Blues Singers Vol. 4 (1921-1930)_
"Everybody Does It Now" Martha Copeland _I Can't Be Satisfied, Vol. 2_
"Give Me A Break Blues" Ida Cox _The Blues 1923 To 1933_

"Blind Man Blues" Katie Crippen _Fletcher Henderson & The Blues Singers Vol. 1 (1921-1923)_
"Winter Blues" Madlyn Davis _Paramount Jazz_
"He Likes It Slow" Butterbeans & Susie _Louis Armstrong & The Blues Singers_

Come In, Orson

Words fail.  Words are all we have.

As a child, I was a huge comic book nerd.  I read them & re-read them all the time.  I loved reading other things, but comics were the first thing I read, & I loved them so much I would read them most - even the ones, like war comics, I wasn't terribly interested in.

I loved when things comic-book-y showed up in places other than those little booklets.  I loved Star Wars - a comic book movie if there ever was one.  I loved Star Trek - each episode like a different issue, with recurring villains, revisited plotlines.  & I even loved the silly stuff - like an alien showing up in a television show (Happy Days, of all places) & then getting his own show.

That's the first time I saw Robin Williams, & he made me laugh.  Laugh, laugh, laugh.  Later, in films like Dead Poets Society & Good Will Hunting, he showed a depth that his manic stage persona (his real persona?) didn't hint at.  He seemed human, humble, ridiculous, wise, caring, strong, & devoutly strange.  A comic book character come to life.

Of course, he was more than that, he was like me & you (or at least like you - I could never hope to be so talented), he had problems.  More information will come out in the next few days, but for now I'm going to spend the evening watching YouTube clips & laughing.  Laughing because Robin Williams was really so goddamned funny.

"Mork calling Orson, come in, Orson.  Come in, the Incredible Bulk."  He couldn't help constantly making fat jokes to his space superior.  Oh god, so funny.