Cradle To Grave Tonight!/Cradle To Grave News!

Here's a reminder that my other radio show, Cradle To Grave, is on tonight from 7-9pm on 95.7 fm WLXL + also too online at the same time at the WLXL website.  I hope you'll listen - birthdays this week include Paul Robeson, Mance Lipscomb, Carl Perkins, & Tom Lehrer, while folks who died on this day include Yank Rachel, Brook Benton, Phil Ochs, & Thomas Dinger - because it'll be the last time you'll hear the show on a Saturday night.

What's this?  Is it over?  Is it at long last finally over?

Well, no.  I mean, yes, it won't be on Saturdays any more, but it will move to a new time this next week, Fridays from noon to 2.

This is exciting for me mainly because it means I'll get to do the show live.  I don't mind prerecording - I've done it before when Self Help Radio is in-between radio stations - but this show took a lot of prep, & it was starting to wear me out.  Now I can do radio the way radio is supposed to be radio.

There will doubtless be another announcement here - & of course on the Twitter & the Facebook too - when the time comes.  In the interim:

Listen to the show tonight, damn it!  7-9pm!

Self Help Radio 040516: Taking Sides

(Original image here.)

Forced to choose sides, the cheese stands alone!  That's the first line of action-packed young adult novel I never finished writing.  In fact, I never started writing it.  I just have that beginning line.  Forced to choose sides, the cheese stands alone!  It's my own "It was a dark & stormy night."

That has only a tangential connection to this week's show, which is about taking sides.  Is "taking a side" the same as "choosing a side"?  Online idiom dictionaries suggest there's a difference.  To take someone's side is "to agree with or support someone," while choosing sides is "to select from a group to be on opposing sides for a debate, fight, or game."  These are specific, however.  I think I can take the side of a person, or a group of people, or a supernatural entity.  I can also choose the side of these things.  Therefore I would say the only difference is emphasis - taking a side seems more forceful, impetuous; choosing a side seems more deliberate & thoughtful.

But what the hell do I know?

The show is available at the Self Help Radio website.  In case you didn't know, there's a password requirement, but that info in on the page.  The show is in two parts, one following the other, so it's not like they're two sides competing with one another.  What's in each side - er, I mean, part - below.

Remember: if you're on Self Help Radio's side, Self Help Radio is on your side!

(part one)

"I'm On Your Side" The Frugal Sound _Ripples Vol. 3: The Autumn Almanac (Soft Rock & Folk Baroque Sounds Of The UK)_
"I'm On Your Side" Fosca _Diary Of An Antibody_
"I'm On Your Side" You Say France & I Whistle _Angry Men_

"Time Is On My Side" Wilson Pickett _The Wicked Pickett_
"Time Is On Our Side" Hot Rain _The Sound Of Leamington Spa, Vol. 1_
"Time Is Never On Our Side" Laura Watling _Early Morning Walk_
"Time Is On Your Side" Earth, Wind & Fire _The Eternal Dance_

"Hope Is Still On Your Side" The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir _...And The Horse You Rode In On_
"History's On Your Side" Shy Camp _History's On Your Side_
"God Is On My Side" Hefner _Breaking God's Heart_
"With God On Our Side" The Neville Brothers _How Many Roads (Black America Sings Bob Dylan)_

"On My Side" Mysteries Of Life _Keep A Secret_
"On Your Side" Brakes _The Beatific Visions_

(part two)

"On Your Side" The Radio Dept. _Passive Aggressive (Singles 2002-2010)_
"On Your Side" The Shondes _The Garden_
"Three Cheers For Our Side" Orange Juice _You Can't Hide Your Love Forever_

"Which Side Are You On?" The Almanac Singers _Songs For Political Action: Folk Music, Topical Songs & The American Left 1935-1954: The Almanac Singers, March 1941-July 1941_
"Which Side Are You On?" Billy Bragg _Brewing Up With Billy Bragg_
"Whose Side Are You On?" Grant McLennan _Fireboy_
"Which Side" Red Lorry Yellow Lorry _Paint Your Wagon_

"You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side" Morrissey _Your Arsenal_
"Your Side" Fear Of Men _Early Fragments_
"Shot By Both Sides" Magazine _Real Life_
"Take My Side" Will Butler _Policy_

"Down By The River" Neil Young _Live At The Cellar Door_

Whither Taking Sides?

(I found this image here.)

This is a true story: at some point during my time at KOOP radio, there was a call for volunteers to submit some art & copy for the upcoming Membership Drive.  (We are WRFL are sooooo lucky we don't have to do pledge drives!)  I drew a picture - very rough, I'm not a great artist - with two panels:  one had a sweet little girl lying in front of a radio labeled "KOOP," a huge smile on her face, a heart emanating from her to show how happy she was; the other had a giant monster radio with its mouth open, shoveling money into its gaping maw - it was labeled "corporate radio."  The text at the bottom said "KOOP Membership Drive - Choose Sides!"

The station manager at the time - who openly didn't like me, so it was always extremely awkward talking to her - asked me to come to her office & sat me down, to reject the idea.  "It's so provocative," is the only comment she made about my submission.  She chose instead a perfectly nice, but decidedly more neutral, piece made entirely of clip-art.

Why in the world am I thinking about this?  Because of today's theme, silly!  I initially just wanted the show to be about songs with "my side" or "your side" in them, because of the song that gave me the idea: Neil Young's "Down By The River," which begins with the lines,

Be on my side

I'll be on your side, baby

But obviously there are more sides that yours or mine.  So the show grew from there.

Excluded from the show are songs about the actual sides of things.  No songs about being by your side, or on the sunny side of something, or even boys who may or may not have thorns in their sides.  It's really all about taking sides today.

Which is why I need to tell you that the show will be on (naturally) from 4-6pm on 88.1 fm in Lexington & online at wrfl dot fm.  The show won't necessarily encourage you to choose a side, but chances are, during or after the show, you'll make the decision to defect to the other side.

Preface To Taking Sides: Napping

If you want me on your side, make sure your side takes naps.  Because I love naps.  I can sleep a full, uninterrupted, delightful eight hours & still want a nap in the afternoon or early evening.  I used to not be able to take short naps - & frankly I don't think any nap shorter than an hour is worth it - but for example today I took a 75-minute long nap.  & it was great.

One of the things that I love about naps is that, for whatever reason, my brain goes straight into REM sleep.  I dream like a crazy person.  I know listening to people's dreams is super boring, so prepare to be super-bored, because here's what I dreamt about sometime between 1 & 2:15 pm this afternoon:

The dream I remember begins in the middle, it's a "driving around" dream, & I witness an accident in front of me.  I get out of my car to help (later in the dream I try to remember whether I parked the car properly or not), but already there are good citizens freeing someone who's been trapped under a crushed car.  The person is okay!  WRFL is nearby (in reality, it's nowhere near a busy road), so I go in, & I need to go to an office to talk to one of the directors.  Lots of people are there, & they're excited to talk to me, because somehow they think I am the hero of the recent car crash.  I tell them that I didn't do anything, but they try to get me to give them details.  I manage to lose them in labyrinthine hallways which of course don't exist in the station.  The director I talk to asks about my foot, because I am limping, & I figure something happened in the accident (when in reality I did hurt my left toe, & it was throbbing as I slept).

The dream changed course & I'm not sure whether there was a segue or whether I woke up (even in REM sleep, I am a light sleeper) & settled back into the dream, but suddenly:

At a dinner party at my house, one of the guests tells me she's never heard Blood On The Tracks.  I can't believe it - she has told me she's a big Dylan fan - so I go to the room in my house where I keep my CDs to let her borrow it, where I discover that my wife has rearranged the room.  In the process, all of my CDs are out of alphabetical order, & when I try to find the Dylan CD, it's not with its compatriots.  Worse yet, trying to sort the CDs makes the shelf tip over, & CDs spill onto the floor.  Grumpily, I swear to myself that I will make my wife clean it up.

Now, the dream changes again into some kind of video game thing - I am swimming across a moat toward a chameleon-like monster who may or may not be my ally - when my alarm wakes me up.  I rush to tell my wife about the cool dreams, but she's napping in the living room.  There are lots of reasons we married, & our love of naps is maybe one of those reasons.

As I've probably said before, I don't think dreams "mean" anything.  They do however keep my mind agile in a world where days can be humdrum, especially Mondays, when I have to put together a radio show, which can be fun but can also be tedious.

There was an article I once read about a dude whose rigorous timetable had him awake for eight hours at a time, & slept between those eight hours exactly four hours.  I think I might even have wanted to try that at some point (I was in college so it was impossible, since classes were scheduled all around the daytime hours).  Now when I think about that schedule, it kind of horrifies me.

You see: no naps!

Cradle To Grave, Episode Seventeen

Here is a radio show that never aired.  It was never on the radio.  It was supposed to be on the radio.  It was made to be played on the air.  Why was it not played when it would normally have been played?  I don't know.  What's more, I have no evidence to even speculate.  But I think I can say with certainty one thing: it wasn't pre-empted because of some qualitative assessment.  That is to say, the management of WLXL didn't give it a listen & say, "Oh jesus, this is terrible.  Do not under any circumstances air that program!"

If that was something that was a possibility, nothing I do would ever be allowed on the air!

No, my guess is it was an error.  All the weekend shows at WLXL are pre-recorded, & so, as happens from time-to-time, a mistake was made.  The wife was very apologetic to me last night, as if she had a hand in it; I know she was thinking of all the work I put into the show.  But I know how hard they're working at WLXL to make a radio station - it's something I can't imagine myself being able to undertake without fucking up all the time.  That there are so few mix-ups is a testimony to how seriously they're taking that great task, & I for one am in no position to do anything but help in what little way I can & to watch (& listen) with admiration.

Again, they're building a radio station from the ground up.  That's incredible.

Anyway, I knew I could put my show on my website if anyone wanted to listen.  & so I have.  It's at the regular place.  You can listen if you want.  Lots of great people celebrated & commemorated on that day.  Yesterday.  The day before.  The songs I played are below.

(birthdays)

"Novelty Blues" Jazz Wizards _Omer Simeon: The Rarest & Greatest Tracks 1929-1954_
"Jim Jam Stomp" Joe Marsala's Chicagoans _That Devilin' Tune: A Jazz History (1895-1950)_
"Sometimes I'm Happy" Benny Goodman & His Orchestra _Bunny Berigan: The Pied Piper (1935-1940)_
"Beer Barrel Polka" Jim Robinson _Jim Robinson With Kid Thomas, Ernie Cagnolatti, & De De Pierce_
"That's Entertainment" Jack Buchanan, Fred Astaire, Nanette Fabray, & Oscar Levant _The Band Wagon OST_

"Walkin' Home" J.T. Brown _Ham Hocks & Cornbread_
"Pepino The Italian Mouse" Lou Monte _Your Hit Parade: Golden Goofers_
"True Love Ways" Buddy Holly & The Crickets _Greatest Hits_
"A Six Pack To Go" Leon Russell _Dylan, Cash, & The Nashville Cats: A New Music City_
"Here Come The Martian Martians" Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers _Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers_

"Je T'Aime... Moi Non Plus" Serge Gainsbourg _Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg_
"Love Hurts" Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris _Grievous Angel_
"Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)" Marvin Gaye _What's Going On_
"Rock & Roll (Could Never Hip Hop Like This)" Handsome Boy Modeling School _So... How's Your Girl?_

(death anniversaries)

"Onion Eating Mama" Cliff Carlisle (as Bob Clifford) _Roots 'N' Blues: The Retrospective_
"Chain Gang" Sam Cooke _The Man & His Music_
"April In Paris" The Modernaires with Paula Kelly _Singin' & Swingin'_
"Harbor Lights (vocals Kenny Gardner)" Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians _Enjoy Yourself: The Hits Of Guy Lombardo_
"The Very Thought Of You" Al Bowlly with The Ray Noble Orchestra _Al Bowlly With Ray Noble 1931-1934_

"Moten Stomp" Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra _Body & Soul: 80 Years Of RCA Jazz_
"S'il Vous Plait" Miles Davis Nonet _The Complete Birth Of The Cool Sessions_
"Shank's Pranks" Bud Shank (with Shorty Rogers) _Bud Shank Quintets_
"Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" The Buddy Rich Big Band _Mercy, Mercy_

"Love's Made A Fool Of You" The Esquires _The Singles... Plus_
"Send Me A Postcard" Shocking Blue _We Can Fly, Vol. 3_
"Hot Smoke & Sassafras" Bubble Puppy _A Gathering Of Promises_
"Anywhere" B.J. Baker _Anywhere_

"Funky Music Sho Nuff Turns Me On" Edwin Starr _The Complete Motown Singles, Vol 11A: 1971_

April's Fool

It's very windy outside now.  In a little over an hour, I'll be doing my other radio show, "Cradle To Grave," on 95.7 fm WLXL in town, online at lexington community radio dot org.  I think today's show will be fine, because I've already done it.  The show is pre-recorded.  You knew that, right?

There's a part of me that feels the need to apologize for the low energy of the show.  I recorded the airbreaks very early Friday morning.  I'm talking 4am.  Everyone in the house was asleep - even the cats, who generally have a blast at night.  In fact, if I'm remembering the process as it happened, I appear to perk up late in the show, when I am talking about how some of the musicians died (botched tonsillectomy, aneurysm after a show at Carnegie Hall).  It makes me come across as a kind of ghoul, I think.  Apologies for that.  I want to say something like, "It was the caffeine kicking in," but since I don't drink caffeine, that can't be the case.

Maybe it was the sun coming up.  I rarely am awake at sunrise, it's always a little thrilling to watch the world brighten slowly.  Where I sit, at my computer, where I also record my airbreaks & the other nonsense for Self Help Radio, I have a window to my left, & I can look into our sun room.  The world was waking up, maybe it helped me wake up too.

However, for most of the show, I am what Donald Trump would call "low energy."

This doesn't mean the show will suck.  There's a very good chance it will suck, of course - it's a radio show I am doing, after all.  But I think the music is great.  Birthdays today include Serge Gainsbourg, Emmylou Harris, & Marvin Gaye.  Deaths on April 2 include Kentucky's own Cliff Carlisle, plus Buddy Rich & Edwin Starr.  The music on the show makes it all worthwhile, I think.

Yeah, seriously - ignore the me talking.  It'll pass.  Enjoy the show instead!

Self Help Radio 032916: The Neighborhood

(Original image here.)

Did I use up all the neighborhood references during this week's show?  I said "neighborly" at least twice.  I had a song by Mr. Rogers, a parody of Mr. Rogers, & I said something about it being a wonderful day for a neighbor.  I talked about neighbor associations & I talked about neighborhood watches - probably too much.  Yes, I believe I killed that joke to death.  Nothing subtle about this radio show!

Speaking of, on the show I did talk to my next-door neighbors, as well as Mark Miller in Hollywood about his neighborhood, & found out that Howard Gently is coming to our neighborhood.  Plus, you know, songs.  I played songs.  I get to do that.  Play songs.  On the radio.

If you feel brave enough to venture into Self Help Radio's neighborhood - I mean, it's not unsafe or anything - at worst you might get bored - you can do so at the front gate.  There is a password to get in but don't worry, our alcoholic "guard" will tell it to you because he needs to get back to sleep.  The neighborhood is two hours long so it's split into two halves; the sites you'll see are listed below.

Property values?  Are you kidding?

(part one)

"Won't You Be My Neighbor?" Mister Rogers _Bedtime_
"The People In Your Neighborhood" Bob McGrath & The Muppets _The People In Your Neighborhood_
"A Neighborhood Is A Friendly Place" Ella Jenkins _Multicultural Children's Songs_
"New Kind Of Neighborhood" Jonathan Richman _Modern Lovers '88_

"In The Neighborhood" Tom Waits _Swordfishtrombones_
"So Many People In The Neighborhood" Ween _Quebec_
"Neighborhood Threat" Iggy Pop _Lust For Life_
"Neighborhood Watch" Mike Krol _Turkey_

"Brand New Neighborhood" Fletcher Smith _Rhythm & Blues Goes Rock & Roll_
"Strange Neighborhood" Gene McDaniels _Big City Soul, Vol. 1_
"On The Avenue (In The Neighborhood)" Jimmy Ruffin _The Complete Motown Singles, Vol. 8: 1968_
"I Killed The Neighbours" Misty's Big Adventure _Misty's Big Adventure & Their Place In The Solar Hi-Fi System_

"We Are Neighbors" The Chi-Lites _(For God's Sake) Give More Power To The People_
"Hey Neighbor" Jenny O _Automechanic_

(part two)

"Mr. Roberts # 1" Christopher Guest & Bill Murray _That's Not Funny, That's Sick_
"Neighborhood Children" Tiny Tim _Tiny Tim's Second Album_
"Neighbor, Neighbor" Jimmy Hughes _Sweet Soul Music_

"In My Neighborhood" Bonniwell Music Machine _Beyond The Garage_
"Neighbours" The Bats _Compiletely Bats_
"Neighborhood Survival Gunstore" Firesign Theater _Eat Or Be Eaten_
"The Neighborhood" Jackie Lee _The Duck_
"You Woke Up My Neighborhood" Billy Bragg _Don't Try This At Home_

"My Neighborhood" The New Year _The New Year_
"Neighbours" Shack _Waterpistol_
"Neighborhood" David Byrne _Look Into The Eyeball_
"My Next Door Neighbor" Jerry McCain & His Upstarts _Folk Music In America, Vol. 7: Songs Of Complaint & Protest_

"The Universality Of Neighbourliness" Tall Dwarfs _Throw A Sickie_
"My Neighbor" Tochigi _Tochigi_
"Have You Seen Your Neighbour In The Bath" Pig Rider _Bloody Turkey Sandwiches_
"Neighbors" And The Kids _Turn To Each Other_
"Pretty Little Neighbor" Giant Drag _Hearts & Unicorns_

Whither The Neighborhood?

(I found this silly clip art here.)

Is it safe to say everyone lives in a neighborhood?  I mean, maybe not hermits.  Or maybe not people who live in high-rises - would you call the folks that live on the 17th floor "a neighborhood"?  How about people who live in isolated rural areas?  There's a county in Texas, Loving County, where there are less than one hundred people living there.  Is the entire county a neighborhood?  Probably not.

Can I then say that a majority of people in the United States lives in a neighborhood?  As a child, I lived mainly in apartments, but we often befriended & played with kids who lived in the neighborhood.  Did they think of the apartments of part of the neighborhood?  Can people who live in apartments join neighborhood associations?  Oh dear, this little scribble of mine is asking more questions than I can answer.

Let's play it safe & say some people in the United States live in neighborhoods.  & let's hope you're one of them!  Because today's show is for you!  Or maybe I can say, lots of folks want to live in neighborhoods, so today's show is also for you!  Hey, & I can add, a great deal of people lived in neighborhoods, found it horrible, & fled to places like Robertson County, Kentucky (the state's least populated county), so listening to today's show will remind them why they made that decision - so this show is for those folks too!

The show is on from 4-6pm today on 88.1 fm in Lexington & online at wrfl.fm in your favorite online neighborhood.  Wait.  Is there such a thing as an online neighborhood?

Damn it!  More questions!

Preface To The Neighborhood: Spell Checked

Do you know what the CDDB is?  If not, you can read about it here.  If so, you know the experience: you put a CD into your computer, & as a program like iTunes reads it, it queries the database & returns the CD's tracklisting, artist name, album name, genre, etc.

There are some real numbnuts out there who take delight in propagating incorrect names - or misspelled names - or other idiot errors when putting the data into the database.  This isn't a complaint about them.  Most of the time, their errors are easy to fix - especially if you know how common words in English are spelled, or if you have the frickin' CD in front of you & can see how the two separate tracklistings match up.  Anyway, to complain about that would take too long.

No, this is a complaint about a particular spelling error that has popped up in many of the CDs I've listened to in regards to this week's show.  It has to do with the way Americans spell the word "neighbor," as opposed to how the British & the Canadians spell it, which is "neighbour."

Want to argue about which is the correct spelling?  Too bad!  You can't.  One nation spells it one way, some others (all associated with a dead empire) spell it the other.  I have no problem with that.  If you're visiting Boston from Toronto, you'll perhaps learn about the exciting history around Boston Harbor.  If you're visiting Victoria, British Columbia, from Seattle, you may enjoy spending time at the Victoria Harbour.  The way the people spell it is how you spell it, despite how insistent my (American) spellcheck is that I'm misspelling "harbor."

Here's the rub.  If you're some dude in Montreal & you get to be the first people to enter into the CDDB let's say Jonathan Richman's CD "Jonathan Sings!" & you get to the track "The Neighbors," spell it the way it is on the CD.  It's not "The Neighbours."  It isn't.  If Jonathan Richman had a track called "Muzza Fazza Babba," you'd copy it exactly that way, wouldn't you?  You wouldn't assume he means "Mother Father Baby" & put that into the database, right?  What's more, you don't grammar correct song titles, do you?  Like, you wouldn't enter the song "I Can't Get No Satisfaction" as "I Can't Get Any Satisfaction," would you?

It seems as disrespectful as it is irritating.  & I noticed it over & over & over when I listened to CDs for this week's show.

Interestingly, I hardly ever - maybe never - saw the opposite.  I never had a CD by an English, Scottish, Canadian, Australian, or New Zealand band where the CDDB spelled a track "neighbor" instead of "neighbour."  I wonder what's up with that.  I guess respect isn't always a two-way street.

No one who enters shit into the CDDB will ever read this, but if they do, here's a thing: just put the names of the songs & the band & the record down as it says on the damned CD please.  When you see the playlist of songs from the show tomorrow, you'll see the two different spellings, & you'll know whether the band is American or from a former British colony.  Because that's how the artists who made the music spelled it.  Not you, sitting at your computer, being all pedantic & shit.

While we're at it, can you also look up when the actual album was released & not the year your version came out? This pertains to reissues, of course, but also, use your damn common sense.  How much more difficult is it to take the time to find out when something was actually recorded than just the lazy copyright on the CD's back cover?  If you're not going to do that, don't submit the info to the database.  You aren't being helpful.  You're passing on bad information that most probably is going to stay there, because I don't think people at the CDDB check any of it anyway.

Which is probably the real shame.

Cradle To Grave, Episode Sixteen

Cradle To Grave is back!  & cradle to graver than ever!

Did I explain it here or on the Facebook or whatever?  I had a couple of issues pop up last week (the week before last, I guess you'd say), which totally waylaid me & sucked up all my time.  Since it does take a while to gather first the information about birthdays (I use several sources) & death anniversaries (ditto), & then to actually go through the music to decide what to play, it takes me almost an entire "work day" to put the show together.  If anything happens - say, an animal needs a veterinary visit - the entire day is shot, & the chances of successfully putting the show together diminish greatly.

This is my way of saying that sometimes I choose sleep over making a radio show.  I hope you understand.

However, this week the show returned & I think it's pretty good.  You may say to yourself, "Why would I want to listen to a show about people who were born or who died on the day that was yesterday?"  If you feel that way, perhaps you can download the show & wait 364 days until it's relevant again.  That might be the correct way to approach it.

The show is now at the Self Help Radio website.  It's in two parts, one for artists who were born on March 26, the other for artists who died that day in history.  The song I played are below.  I hope you enjoy.

(birthdays)

"Flight Of The Bumblebee" Rafael Méndez _The Legendary Trumpet Virtuosity Of Rafael Méndez, Vol. 1_
"Gone With The Gin" Hot Lips Page & His Band _1938-1940_
"Nightmare" Joe Loco _Let's Go Loco_
"You Can't Hurry Love" The Supremes _The Complete Motown Singles, Vol. 6: 1966_
"Can Your Monkey Do The Dog" Rufus Thomas _The Complete Stax/Volt Singles 1959-1968_

"Wally Ballou, Roving Reporter" Bob & Ray _Bob & Ray On A Platter_
"Mr. Blue Sky" Electric Light Orchestra _Out Of The Blue_
"Phasors On Stun" FM _Black Noise_
"Moments In Love" Art Of Noise _(Who's Afraid Of?) The Art Of Noise!_
"Cubik" 808 State _90_

"Get Up, Get Down, Get Funky, Get Loose" Teddy Pendergrass _Life Is A Song Worth Singing_
"Never Can Say Goodbye" The Communards _Red_
"Myspace/Email" Todd Barry _From Heaven_

(death anniversaries)

"Traumerai" Albert Spalding _The Definitive Collection Of The 19th Century's Greatest Virtuosos_
"April Kisses" Eddie Lang _Jazz Guitar Virtuoso_
"A Room With A View" Noel Coward _This Year Of Grace_
"Backtrackin' (Dr. Daddy-O)" Paul Gayten _Gettin' Funky: The Birth Of New Orleans R & B_

"Betty Betty Go Steady With Me" Dickie Pride _The Sheik Of Shake_
"Lookie, Lookie, Lookie" Ronnie Smith & The Poor Boys _Buddy's Buddies: Holly For Hire (1957-1959)_
"I've Been Wrong" The Buckinghams _Pebbles, Vol. 6: Chicago Part 1_
"Dead Man's Curve" Jan & Dean _All The Hits, From Surf City To Drag City_
"Jumping At Shadows" Duster Bennett _Smiling Like I'm Happy_
"I'm In The Mood" The Chesterfield Kings _Drunk On Muddy Water_

"Country Girl" The Jacobites _When The Rain Comes_
"Lyke Wake Dirge" Pentangle _Gather In The Mushrooms: The British Acid Folk Underground (1968-1974)_
"Mama Told Me (Not To Come)" Three Dog Night _It Ain't Easy_
"Streets Of Calcutta" Ananda Shankar _Look Into The Flower (Trip On Psychedelic Grooves With Blue Note)_

"We Want Easy" Easy-E _The NWA Legacy_

Garry

For the past several weeks, I've been running a stupid series on Saturdays that I was calling "The Gary Files," in which I featured a different famous Gary, since the name is going extinct.  In fact, I did one for Garry Shandling, which you can read here.

In many ways, I had very little to say about these other Garys, & a lot of the time, I tried to be funny rather than attempt something substantive, since I mostly copied info from their Wikipedia page.  Funny was attempted with the Garry Shandling entry, in which I pretended to have an argument about whether the names Gary & Garry were the same or different.

But in that entry, I did say he was a genius.  & I believe it.  He was an amazing stand-up, & when I was a kid, I liked it when he hosted The Tonight Show.  I confess I wasn't able to appreciate It's Garry Shandling's Show when it was on - I was too young, there were too many levels of comedy going on.  But when I saw The Larry Sanders Show, oh shit.

The first episode I saw was the one in which Elvis Costello is on & trashes the green room because Larry Sanders talks during his musical performance.  I watched it because I am a big Elvis Costello nerd - but I ended up liking the show in its entirety - I even think I thought Costello's performance was the least interesting thing on the show!

Somehow - I didn't have HBO at the time - I managed to acquire several episodes of the show.  I consumed them.  I talked the show up to friends, made them watch them.  & I evangelized up till this very day.

Also I followed Shandling on Twitter, & Bill Maher this week showed clips from his many appearances on Real Time, which I saw.  I watched all the extra interviews he did for the first DVD reissue of Larry Sanders.  I loved it when he hosted the Emmys.  I was a fan.  I was an admirer.  I kind of worshipped the guy.

As you know, he died this past week, at the age of 66.  It is so sad, so tragic on many levels.  66 is too young, & I like to believe he had some other greatness he was preparing to unleash on the world.

This is my way of saying, you know what?  With one less Gary in the world (this one spelled Garry), I think I'm going to retire my Gary files.  It might not have been much fun to read, but it'll certainly be less fun for me to do it.

Goodbye, Garry Shandling.  Thank you for being so smart & funny.  I'm going to pretend for the rest of my life that I was named after you.

Self Help Radio 032216: Slow Down

(Original image here.)

Self Help Radio this week is showing its age.  Yes, at an elderly thirteen years old, it has taken to grumpily mounting a rocking chair on the front porch, a wine cooler in one hand, the other hand balled up into a fist, ready to hurl invectives at cars going even one half-mile over the speed limit on the road in front of its house.

But it isn't just speedy drivers that has irked this show.  No, it's the fast pace of the modern world - its internet, its power lunches, its frantic afternoons at the gym fast-forwarding through streaming media on smart phones - that has gotten the show's dander up.  Didn't know a radio show could have dander?  You learn something new every day!

The result is this week's episode: slow down!  An imperative sentence said again & again & again with the hopes that, maybe, just maybe, someone out there could slow down a tiny bit.  Slow down & see the world at its regular speed.  Fall back into the regular vibrations.

Once the show was over, of course, everything would naturally accelerate again.

You can relive the futile attempt to slow things down whenever you have a space two hours at the Self Help Radio website.  To slow you down, a password & username will be required.  That information is on the front page.  The show is in two leisurely parts.  The songs played are below.

Self Help Radio will now be going down slow.

(part one)

"Slow Down" Anita O'Day _The Complete Anita O'Day Verve/Clef Sessions_

"Slow Down Baby (Russell Jacquet, vocals)" Illinois Jacquet _The Chronological Classics: Illinois Jacquet 1947-1950_

"Slow Down" Lou Mac _Rockin' At Midnight At The Parrot Club_

"Slow Down" Larry Williams _Loud, Fast, & Out Of Control: The Wild Sounds Of 50s Rock_

"Slow Down" The Cochran Brothers _Eddie & Hank: The Cochran Brothers_

"Slow Down Sandy" Eddie Quinteros _Rockin' On Broadway: The Time/Brent/Shad Story_

"Slow Down" Gus Jenkins & Orchestra _Jericho Alley Blues Flash! Blues In Los Angeles 1956 - 1959_

"Slow Down Brother" Ferlin Huskey & His Hush Puppies _Out & Out Rockabilly_

"Slow Down Heart" The Temptations _Emperors Of Soul_

"Slow Down" Tammi Terrell _The Essential Collection_

"The Merry-Go-Round Is Slowin' You Down" The Surprise Package _The Other Me 7"_

"Slow Down" Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge _Breakaway_

"Slow Down" Taboo _Violators: The No Future Years_

"Slow Down" Maduu _Bombay Beats, Vol. 1_

(part two)

"Slow Down" The Feelies _The Good Earth_

"Slow Things Down" The Soup Dragons _Hang-Ten!_

"Slow Down" Blur _Leisure_

"Slow Down" Dump _I Can Hear Music_

"Hold On, Slow Down" Earlimart _Treble & Tremble_

"Slow Down" The Jordans _Katydid_

"Slow Me Down" Aberfeldy _Young Forever_

"How Do You Slow This Thing Down" Gothic Archies _The Tragic Treasury: Songs From A Series Of Unfortunate Events_

"Slowing Down" Blank Dogs _Under & Under_

"The Steady Slowing Down Of The Heart" Lloyd Cole _Cleaning Out The Ashtrays: Collected B-Sides & Rarities 1989-2006_

"Slowing Down the World" Savages _Adore Life_

"Slow It Down" The Frank & Walters _Greenwich Mean Time_

"Slowdown" Peter Murphy _Ninth_

Whither Slow Down?

(Image found here.)

A show about slowing down, eh? Yes!  Has the show been moving too fast?  No.  Does it seem to go by in the blink on an eye?  Heavens no!  If someone has ever been asked, "Does it seem like there's not enough Self Help Radio?" has the answer ever been "Yes!"  No, never!

Yet here we have a show about slowing down.  Well, the theme is "slow down."  Perhaps the show is being bossy.  Maybe the show thinks anyone who might be listening should slow down!  Maybe even slow the hell down!  But why would the show think that?

A related question might be: is life in Lexington - Central Kentucky - more fast-paced than any other place in the United States?  Can that be true?  Does this city deserve a radio program that's asking - or even telling - its listener to "slow down"?  Moreover, are these questions the show will answer?

Damn, there are a lot of questions here.  & they were only really answered in the first paragraph.  So.  Here's a stab at some answers for the rest: Because it thinks whatever it wants.  No, most definitely not.  No, not even in its most New Yorkish dreams.  It does not.  No.

Well!  Now that we've gotten all that out of the way, we can listen to another meaningless Self Help Radio today from 4-6pm on 88.1 fm in Lexington & online at wrfl dot fm.  Yes, I'll archive it later.  If you slow down too quickly to listen.

Preface To Slow Down: Wouldn't A Better Theme Be "Slowing Down"?

Ugh, everybody prefers the gerund.

Did I ever mention I took Latin in high school?  It wasn't because I was on my way to be a pretentious twat, although certainly that road was right there in front of me.  No, I did it to spite my mother & my family.

My mother, you see, is German, & all her other kids took German in high school.  The same high school I was at, actually.  The same damn German teacher, too; her name was Frau Phillips.  I had actually had Mrs. Phillips for English in the tenth grade.  When the time came to take a foreign language, though, I chose Latin.

It might have broken my mother's heart.  Or it might just have irritated her.  Or she might have thought, well, he's a smart boy, & smart people learn dead languages.  Or she didn't give a fuck.  She never said.  But the idea that I was doing something that no one else in my family had done - that I was somehow breaking with what maybe the family felt was tradition - that pleased me.

It's no surprise that my family didn't like me much when I was that age.  I assume they like me less now, but most certainly being different, when they all worked so hard to be the same, must have baffled them.  Well, if they stopped to think about it, which they didn't.  "Gary's weird," is probably as deep as that thought went.  Mostly I don't think they noticed me.

Damn it, I didn't want to start talking about my family!  I wanted instead to talk about Latin.  Latin!  I remember impressing Mrs. Phillips by using the word celerity - she didn't know that word - in a poem I wrote for her class.  "It comes from the word celer," I told her.  "Latin for 'speed.'"  Helpfully, I added, "Like in the word accelerate."

Did I say 'impress'?  She might have just thought me a pretentious twat.

Actually what I learned most about Latin - this is true - was how English works.  I knew all about nouns, verbs, pronouns, etc., mainly because of Schoolhouse Rock - but there were ways the parts of speech worked in a sentence that completely escaped me.

Latin nouns have endings depending on their use - they call them "declensions."  I learned about indirect objects, objects of prepositions, etc.  & of course Latin verbs conjugate much more regularly than English verbs.  Putting a Latin sentence together was kind of a puzzle, the rules of which were laid out before you if you took the time to know them.

In English class, I had struggled with the idea of the passive voice.  In Latin, it made sense because the pieces of the puzzle had to fit a certain way to make the sentence do what it needs to do to be correct.

The fact is, I learned more about English from studying Latin than I learned in English class.

Also, I almost got beat up in Latin class for saying I thought Eddie Van Halen looked "a little gay" in the video for "Jump."  But that's neither here nor there.

In any event, I don't feel tied to the idea of noun forms for my show themes.  They can be short sentences, like "slow down."  I might have thought that subjects should be nouns once upon a time, but no more.

Also, I've retained virtually no Latin.  What I remember from two years taking that language is pretty much the word "celer."  Also, "agricola."  That means "farmer."  Hence, "agriculture."

Damn, I am such a pretentious twat!

2,301 Posts

Wow, I completely missed the three-thousand-three-hundredth post of this blog!  I would have missed it even more if I had spent the Sunday, as I usually do, posting the week's Cradle To Grave show.  So, hooray?

2301 posts is a lot of writing.  I guess it will soon be ten years - ten years! - that I have had this blog. & I still don't know entirely what I'm doing with it.

Using the internet randomizer tool at random dot org, I will share with you portions of four random posts from the blog's almost-ten years.  See if any of them make any damn sense:

(from post # 768, January 9, 2010: Vulgar Boysenberry):

Here then is a threshold parallelogram which we daresay may one day serve as a simulacrum of the course to steer to free you of the filthy waters & harsh desert nights of rejection & abjection. You may even consider this, due to the serious nature of our newly-crapped-out decade, first in a series:

1) Cards & letters are all but useless in moments of sheer decision. Learn adorable ways to hem & haw.
2) Do not rush romance unless you can afford generous quantities of moderately-priced & delicious alcohol.
3) If the partner says a tattoo is not necessary, this is an easy "out" & not as many presidents have told us in their State Of The Union messages a "dare."
4) Bleached teeth frighten thieves.
5) No one really carries around their money in bags with dollar signs painted in green on the side. Really? Really.
6) Hand holding may be a lost art, but do not imagine that foot-whipping nor thigh-tickling share the same room in the Mansion of Glorious Petting. They do not. They live in the Creepy Third-Floor Apartment Of Sado-Masochistic Awkwardness.
7) Let's return once again to the societal glad-handling called the "gentle reminder."
8) Love poetry? More like love pottery!
9) Tears should not be accompanied by either screaming or clawing. If you find it such, you also have an explanation as to why the local constable is asking you to put your hands behind your back.
10) Something about an omelet is both nasty & ridiculous. Be careful.

(from post #1336, January 15, 2011: Does The Cat Want Her Medicine?):

You were at that impressionable age when you thought every example was the perfect example, when you thought the types you met were the only types that existed. You'd hear snatches of conversation that made absolutely no sense so you'd twist them around in your head until they made your kind of sense. Like that man who made the comment about "the next door over, past the railroad tracks." You got it into your head that a town's limits were circumscribed by railroad tracks. You finally got brave enough to tell your observation another kid & he said scornfully, "What did they use before railroads? Moats?"

(from post # 485, May 12, 2008: From Dynamite To Los Angeles):

Suddenly I am regretting not beginning all of my blog entries with a salutation. What a dreadful miscalculation! Now my blog has no personality! It's just like me!

(from post # 2205, November 9, 2015: Preface To Turtles: The Hunt For Turtle Songs):

Of course a radio show that's all instrumental is fine.  I have programmed electronic & jazz & surf shows which featured predominantly non-vocal music.  But something about Self Help Radio makes me want to make sure that the songs at the very least mention the theme, or something relating to the theme. 

I know one thing I can glean from this: the show's blog has become less interesting as time has gone by.  That's a shame.  Well.  Probably nothing I can do about that!  Happy anniversary!

The Gary Files # 25: Gary Grimes

(I found this image here.)

An explanation: Since the name Gary is going extinct, I thought it incumbent upon me to celebrate more notable Garys than myself.  This is the twenty-fifh of a series!

Gary Grimes is, according to the Wikipedia, "a former American actor."

What does that mean, "former"?  It means he acted for a time, & left the business.

Would I know him from anything? He appeared in a handful of television shows, & only six motion pictures.  They were: Summer Of '42 (1972), The Culpepper Cattle Co. (1972), Class Of '44 (1973), Cahill U.S. Marshal (1973), The Spikes Gang (1974), & Gus (1976).

Then he just quit?  Apparently so.

Was it because of drugs or something like that?  Did he go insane?  Not at all.  According to an interview he did in 2011, he said, "I got to the point where the work wasn't up to the quality that I wanted."

Were you familiar with his work?  Not a lot.  I mainly know about him as the guy who walked away.  Not a lot of folks leave a life of stardom behind.

Even if he might not have been a big star?  It seems to me that there are people in the industry that hold on to the smallest amount of fame & milk it for whatever they can get.  I kind of feel like most television I watched in the 1970s was filled with "stars" desperate to extend their fifteen minutes.

Did you know there was another Gary Grimes who was somewhat famous?  There was?  Who?

This guy.  Freaky.  That's a crazy thing to me, to build a career essentially performing as another musician, & one that's still alive.  The really Paul McCartney outlived his fake twin.

Apparently both of them were really named Gary.  The living Gary Grimes is probably sad to see the name go.  Plus!

What?  His name is alliterative!  That's too cool.

Self Help Radio 031516: Connections

(I have no idea what this image is supposed to mean except it's called "connections" & the original version of it is here.)

During Spring Break, when students go home or go to Austin for SXSW or go to the beach or just plain go, campus is pretty deserted, as is the radio station, & I assume, with forty thousand or so people no longer in the city, so is the listenership of WRFL.  It's of course at that point that Self Help Radio decides to make a radio show about connections.  Connecting with people, connecting things, managing things that connect us (like telephones).  All when there's less of a chance for people to be listening than usual.  Timing!  One day the show will master it!

Luckily you can now connect with the show anytime at the Self Help Radio website, which itself is someplace where connections are made.  The show is in two parts, & what songs I play in the two parts are below.  What's not below is that I talked to a person who makes connections, to the inventor of the "loose connections" section of the classifieds, & to my spiritual mentor the Rev. Dr. Howard Gently.  But that happened too!

Thanks for trying to connect.  I find I try less & less as I get older & older.

(part one)

"Connection" The Rolling Stones _Between The Buttons_
"Connection" Can _Unlimited Edition_
"Connection" The Brunettes _Paper Dolls_

"Connection" Elastica _Elastica_
"Connection" King Tuff _Was Dead_
"Connection" Call & Response _Tiger Teeth_
"Connections" Smog _Julius Caesar_

"Super-Connected" Belly _King_
"Get Connected" The Jessica Fletchers _Less Sophistication_
"The Connector" The Futureheads _The Chaos_
"The Connection Man" Ty Segall _Manipulator_

"Loose Connections" Channel Light Vessel _Excellent Spirits_
"Bad Connection" Tullycraft _Lost In Light Rotation 7"_

(part two)

"Bad Connection" The Square Peg _Kilt By Death: The Sound Of Old Scotland_
"Making Connections" The Saps _C'mon Already, Start A Fire_
"The Farm Yard Connection" Fun Boy Three _Waiting_

"The Rainbow Connection" Majestic _Just For A Day_
"Love Connection" Annette Snell _Southern Grooves_
"Tight Connection To My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love?)" Bob Dylan _Empire Burlesque_

"Me! I Disconnect From You" Tubeway Army _Replicas_
"Disconnected" The Creatures _Anima Animus_
"Disconnect" Plastikman _Closer_
"Disconnected" Beat Union _Disconnected_

"Mothership Connection (Star Child)" Parliament _Mothership Connection_
"Only Connect" Harper Lee _Go Back To Bed_

Whither Connections?

(I found this image here.)

As someone who's spent an entire life having difficulty making connections with people, I am the last person on earth to pretend to be an expert about connections.  I'm not even an expert about the television series Connections, which I've never watched, or I should say, I watched a couple of episodes, & found the connections the host made a little strained.

Indeed, I know so little about connecting with other human beings that I doubt it's even some kind of therapy to do a show about connections - a chance for me to learn more about connecting with others.  Because, seriously, if I haven't learned basic human interaction at this point in my life - way past its halfway mark, almost certainly - then what are a few songs going to teach me?

But you might find something helpful!  So have a listen today from 4-6pm on 88.1 fm in Lexington, &/or online at wrfl dot fm.  Who knows?  Maybe we'll make a connection ourselves!

Okay, probably not.

Preface To Connections: Missed Connections

Spoiler alert: one of the fake interviews I'll be doing tomorrow involves that section of the old classifieds (which one can now find on Craigslist) called "Missed Connections."

Did you ever peruse this section of the paper?  I never did - like Morrissey, "having learned my lesson, I never left an impression on anyone"* - but I remember working for a time in a hip video store in Austin, & the hip boys who worked there often read that section every week to see if they got any shout outs.  (If that's what you call a mention in a "missed connections" column.)  They struck pay dirt once (maybe more than once, but only once when I was there), & the "missed connection" co-worker went through a bunch of customers' accounts to see if he could figure out who had placed the ad.  As far as I know, nothing came of it - the people there made very little money, & certainly not enough to respond to an ad in the classifieds!

(Is it me or has that section always leaned heavily on men looking for whatever?  Even in the Craigslist link it skews heavily toward dudes.  I guess men are still more aggressive in our society.)

My favorite section of those kind of classifieds was the "Variations" section.  Not because I was ever into that sort of thing, but because when I used to do long, long fills on KVRX back in the 1990s - I'd be on the radio from midnight to 9am sometimes - I would often run out of things to say during airbreaks, & would also be delirious from lack of sleep, & one thing that would focus me was reading the Variations column from The Austin Chronicle  to weirdos who might be listening late at night or very early in the morning.

Luckily no one ever got mad at me for reading their ads!

& probably no one ever had a Missed Connection that began: "You: very tired, on the radio, trying to figure out what BDSM means..."

* After I wrote this, someone on Facebook noted that today was the 28th anniversary of Viva Hate, the record from which the song I'm quoting comes.  I'd like to believe Morrissey was working his magic through me on this special anniversary.

Cradle To Grave, Episode Fifteen

Fifteen episodes!  That's almost four months!  & I want to confess something: I thought doing this show might get more difficult as it went on.

Which is a dumb thing to dread, because one works out a system & over time streamlines it.  But here's my greatest fear: a day when nothing has happened.  It's probably not a reasonable fear, given probability, but I do worry there'll be a day, just one day out of 365, when very few musicians of note were born or died.  What do I do then?  Do I just play more than one song by an especially important (in my opinion) performer?  Do I attempt to find songs that are about a particular performer, or, in the case of a non-musician, some famous person from history?  The truth is, I don't know.  I don't know what I would do in that case.

Does that day exist?  So far - fifteen shows in - that has not proven to be the case.  There are musicians I've had to leave out of both hours.  But does that day exist?  In my heart, I think it does.  & I always assume it's going to be next week's show.

However!  This week's show is filled to the brim, & you can listen to it now (despite it being about people born or died yesterday) at the Self Help Radio website. It's in two parts - delineated below - & you can move easily from birthday party to funeral should you choose.  Like going backwards through time!  I hope it's good to listen to.

(birthdays)

"Man In The Street" Don Drummond & The Skatalites _Trojan Explosion! Intensified Club Reggae Classics_
"Little Chick-A-Dee" Kell Osborne & The Chicks _Little Chick-A-Dee_
"Baby I Need Your Lovin'" The Fourmost _The Best Of The Sixties_
"Mother Dear" Barclay James Harvest _Barclay James Harvest_
"Just A Chance" Badfinger _Wish You Were Here_

"Browns Ferry Blues # 2" Callahan Brothers _Roots N' Blues: The Retrospective_
"Head Rag Hop" Romeo Nelson _The Many Faces Of Boogie Woogie_
"Louisiana Boogie" L.C. Williams _Houston Jump 1946-1951_
"San Francisco Bay Blues" Jesse Fuller _The Good Time Jazz Story: Ragtime, Blues, Banjos_
"Walkin' All Night" Little Feat _Dixie Chicken_

"You're The Cream In My Coffee" Gordon MacRae _The Best Things In Life Are Free_
"New York, New York" Liza Minnelli _New York, New York_
"The Awakening" Pizzicato Five _Romantique 96_
"City Hall" Graham Coxon _A+E_
"Up The Bracket" The Libertines _Up The Bracket_

(death anniversaries)

"Stay A Little Longer" Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys _San Antonio Rose_
"Heaven" The Bailey Brothers _Take Me Back To Happy Valley_
"Down Yonder" Champ Butler _Down Yonder_
"Hey Jack" The Dozier Boys _Jive R&B: Vocal Group Classics, Vol. 2_
"Put On My Shoes" Mary Ann Fisher _Put On My Shoes_

"Ornithology" Charlie Parker _Complete Savoy Live Performances: Sept. 29, 1947-Oct. 25, 1950_
"Take Five" Dave Brubeck Quartet _Time Out_

"Baby Don't Look Down" The Blues Council _That Driving Beat_
"Apple Green" June Valli _Oh Why_
"Look For Me Baby" Goldie & The Gingerbreads _Rare Mod 3_
"Love Song" Lesley Duncan _Gather In The Mushrooms: The British Acid Folk Underground (1968-1974)_
"Hop Dedik" Erol Buyukburc _Love, Peace & Poetry: Turkish Psychedelic Music_

"Don't Let Me Go" Rockie Charlies _Born For You_
"From A Buick Six" Alex Taylor _Dinnertime_