Cradle To Grave, Episode Twenty-Four

Here's the twenty-fourth episode of Cradle To Grave!  Lots of birthdays & death anniversaries!  I am both celebratory & sad over the course of two hours!  There's not much else to say about this show!

Plus, it's weird to talk about things that happened on yesterday in history so it seems to me I am mainly archiving these shows for posterity, but perhaps June 10th means a great deal to you because it's your birthday or it's the day you died & you'd like to know what musicians were born & died on your birthday/death day.  If so, this show is for you.  & probably only for you.  Ah well.

The show is now at the Self Help Radio website, which is password protected but that information is on the page so it shouldn't be a problem.  The shows I played are below but in many cases you'll have to listen to find out just who is being celebrated/commemorated!

(birthdays)

"Barataria" Halfway House Orchestra _A Portrait Of New Orleans Jazz_
"Careless Love" Bunk Johnson's Street Paraders _The Good Time Jazz Story: New Orleans_
"I Mean You" Coleman Hawkins _1946-1947_
"Sentimental Summer" Buck Clayton's Big Eight _Buck Clayton 1945–1947_
"I Thought I'd Do It" Hattie McDaniel _The Ladies In Blues_

"The Man That Got Away" Judy Garland _The Great Ones_
"Samba De Monha Terra" João Gilberto _Getz/Gilberto # 2_
"Smokestack Lightnin'" Howlin' Wolf _The Chess Box_
"Beautiful, Beautiful Love" Schoolboy Cleve _Tuff Enuff: The Ace Blues Masters, Vol. 3_

"One Too Many Mornings" Bob Dylan & The Hawks _Live 1966 (The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert)_
"Angel Fingers" Wizzard _Let's Have A Party_
"Cannonball" Breeders _Last Splash_
"How About Hero" Kelley Deal 6000 _Go To The Sugar Altar_
"Hypocrite" Lush _Split_

(death anniversaries)_

"One By One" Jimmy Elledge _One By One_
"Three Miles South Of Cash (In Arkansas)" Carolina Cotton _Yodeling Blonde Bombshell Vol. 1_
"Giddy Up A Ding Dong" Freddie Bell & The Bellboys _The Cruisin' Story: 1956_
"Rockin' Rollin' Stone" Andy Starr _Classic Rockabilly: Hot Rock_
"One Summer Night" The Danleers _The Doo Wop Box_

"I've Got News For You" Ray Charles _Genius + Soul = Jazz_
"Fever" Earl Grant _The Versatile Earl Grant_
"I Wouldn't Give A Cripple Crab A Crutch" Gene Conners _Coming Home_
"Will You Love Me Tomorrow" The Shirelles _The Best Of The Girl Groups, Vol. 1_
"Rocking Chair" Ruddy Thomas _Rocking Chair 7"_

"Nobody's Sweetheart" Jacques Gauthe _Paris Blues_
"Moon River" Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians _By Special Request!_
"Sunshine Day" Osibisa _Welcome Home_

"Love Can't Turn Around" Farley Jackmaster Funk & D. Pandy _The History Of The House Sound Of Chicago_

Self Help Radio 060716: All Yours

(Original image here.)

No, I can't say I understand the show this week.  Yes, maybe I think it failed to accomplish what it set out to do.  No, I don't believe that I know what it actually did set out to do.  Yes, I should spend more time thinking about the show's theme & less time just pulling ideas out of my ass.  No, nobody is actually asking me these questions.  Yes, I'll stop pretending someone is.

If you must listen to this show, listen for the interviews: a listener named CJ calls in; a writer named David Fruchter is interviewed; & my spiritual mentor the Rev. Dr. Howard Gently phones to warn me that I might have brought some evil back from Scotland.  You can do like my wife does & tune all the times I talk out.

The show is all yours at the Self Help Radio website.  The songs I play are below.  I'll try better next time.

(part one)

"Yours" Julie London _Sings Latin In A Satin Mood_
"Yours" Mickey & Sylvia _Love Is Strange_
"Yours All Yours (vocals Sally Gooding)" The Three Peppers _1937-1940_

"Yours Truly" Pee Wee Crayton _Pee Wee's Blues: The Complete Aladdin & Imperial Recordings_
"Yours Sincerely" Rosemary Clooney _Love_
"Forever Yours" Bobby Vinton _Mr. Lonely_
"Lovingly Yours" Mockingbirds _The Mod Scene_
"Truly Yours" The Spinners _The Complete Motown Singles, Vol. 6: 1966_

"Yours Love" Porter Wagoner & Dolly Parton _Always, Always_
"Exclusively Yours" Rupie Edwards _Hot & Sticky: 26 Killing Rocksteady Shots_
"Yours Eternally" Don 'Sugarcane' Harris _Sugarcane_
"Instantly Yours" Bill Nelson _The Two-Fold Aspect Of Everything_

"Emotionally Yours" Bob Dylan _Empire Burlesque_
"Yours Truly" Mighty Mighty _Sharks_

(part two)

"Chemically Yours" Pilgrims _Something's Burning In Paradise_
"Sincerely Yours" Brideshead _In & Out Love_
"Compulsively Yours" The Mendoza Line _I Like You When You're Not Around_

"Take Me, I'm Yours" Squeeze _Squeeze_
"Obsessively Yours" Adorable _Sistine Chapel Ceiling_
"Incomprehensibly Yours" David Candy _Play Power_
"Accidentally Yours" Irene _Apple Bay_

"Yours Untruly" Gramercy Arms _The Seasons Of Love_
"Yours Tonight" Burnt Palms _The Girl You Knew_
"Yours Alone" Dum Dum Girls _I Will Be_
"Severely Yours" Wax Idols _American Tragic_

"Baby I'm Yours" Math & Physics Club _Baby I'm Yours_
"I'm Not Yours" Angus & Julia Stone _Down The Way_

Whither All Yours?

(I don't know what it means either, but I found it here.)

Yeah, really!  What the hell does that theme mean, "All Yours"?

To understand this theme, we need to travel back in time, 123 years in fact, to June 7, 1893.  We're also traveling over to South Africa, where a very young, very moustached Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi performed his first act of civil disobedience, causing a stir by refusing to move from segregated first class.  He was thrown off the train.

But young Gandhi was allowed to ride first class the next day, which did not stop him from becoming a pain in the butt of the British Empire, then in its height (the Empire, not its butt).  For you see, the British looked at the world & said, "It's all ours!"  & Gandhi said, "It's not all yours!"

Now, a century & twenty-some-odd years later, people from the former British Empire play Americans on television & in the movies, while many Americans see an orange-haired toad as their savior.  Stay with me, I'll make sense in a second.  I had written something down about jazz & about salt.  The salt march, I think, figured into this, or maybe it has something to do with high blood pressure.

Well, anyway, something-something & that's how Self Help Radio became all yours!  It's really a glorious story, & when I find my notes, I'll update this post.  Oh no!  The cat's eaten them.  Sigh.

Since the show is all yours, you might as well listen.  It's on from 4-6pm on 88.1 fm WRFL in Lexington & wrfl dot fm.  Since it is all yours, you may want to come early - there might not be a lot left at the end of the show.

Preface To All Yours: Everything I Own Is Digital

"What is 'cloud'?" asked the master.  "Have they tricked us into thinking what we own is in the air?"

The pupils looked amazed, & paid heed.

"Cloud," said the master, "is just a way for those who have to own the things they sell to those who have not."

The pupils puzzled over their master's provocative pronouncement.

"You!" said the master, pointing to a pupil, "you have bought a thing which you cannot hold in your hand!"

"It is true, master," said the pupil.  "Yet I hold its container in my hand."

He proudly displayed his cellular phone.

"Bah!" said the master.  "You do not even own that!"

The pupil looked ashamed, for it was true that he leased his phone.

"Indeed," said the master, "you should heed the words of the prophet Watterson: 'There is no cloud.  It's just someone else's computer.'"

The pupils were astonished, for the master had quoted a meme.  One pupil giggled.

"Oh stop being so juvenile," said the master.  "Like our ancestors in their dusty tomes would know a thing about computers!"

The pupils hung their heads in deference.

"All right, all right," said the master, testily.  "Go meditate or something.  Just leave me be!"

But Now I Have To Eat Twice As Much Since You're Not Here!

Says the cook to the Skype image.  The Skype image is frozen., the connection is bad  Something is cooling on the stove, & it worries him.  It's dinner for two, & there is only one person here.

The cook contemplates eating out.  He lives in a small town, but every driver seems impatient to get to the somewhere near they're going as fast as they can to get to.  He barely misses a collision on the way to get take-out.  One car, trying to change lanes to pass another car, does not check its blind-spot, & does not stop changing lanes when the cook leans on the horn like he is flattening dough.  The cook, shaken & in utter disbelief, decides to get take-out anyway.

He is the only person in the town who uses the turn single.  He is very aware of this.  He uses the turn single when he is leaving his driveway.

Household duties, once divided between two people, seem incredibly onerous now.  But as he doubles up on chores & obligations, he finds his mind is a blank when it comes to halving recipes.  Just use half the ingredients! he says to himself in the empty kitchen.  He realizes he hasn't needed to run the dishwasher for two days.

The house seems quieter somehow.  It must be, with only one person stumbling through it.  He turns the ceiling fans on in shifts, to make the air circulate in different ways throughout the day.  Thinking music might help, he plays a record he loves, & he plays it loud, but the silence between the tracks is louder, like a chasm.

Yet he has no trouble getting to sleep.  Yet he has no trouble waking up.

Cradle To Grave, Episode Twenty-Three

Back! After a month away!  I was completely unmissed!

Also I apparently beat the technical difficulties I dealt with a month ago.  I did this by doing the show on a laptop, something that I never thought I'd do.  I think it went okay - & it was surprisingly easy.  But - should radio be easy?  Maybe not.

Some great births & deaths to celebrate & commemorate today!  Available now at the Self Help Radio website!  The songs I played are below!

(birthdays)

"Bumble Bee" Memphis Minnie _Queen Of The Country Blues: All The Published Sides, 1929-37_

"J'ai Deux Amours" Josephine Baker _Exotique_

"My Heart's Delight" Dakota Staton _I Hate Cherries (Serious 50s Female Jivers)_

"Hold On This Time" Fontella Bass _I Need To Be Loved_

"Love Ain't No Toy" Yvonne Fair _The Bitch Is Black_

"Howl (Radio Edit)" Allen Ginsberg _Howls, Raps, & Roars_

"Walking By Myself" Jimmy Rogers _Blues Greats_

"Wild & Free" Curtis Mayfield _Curtis_

"Tijuana Taxi" Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass _Going Places_

"Yakety Sax" Boots Randolph _Yakety Sax_

"What A Way To Die" The Pleasure Seekers _What A Way To Die_

"Country Honey" T.Rex _Tanx_

"Little Doll (Original John Cale Mix)" The Stooges _The Stooges_

"One Of The Boys (UK Single Version)" Mott The Hoople _All The Young Dudes_

"Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken?" Lloyd Cole & The Commotions _Rattlesnakes_

"Fantastic Cat" Takako Minekawa _Losing Money & Losing Friends_

(death anniversaries)

"It's Gonna Be You (vocals Ozzie Nelson & Harriet Hilliard)" Ozzie Nelson & His Orchestra _The Uncollected Ozzie Nelson & His Orchestra_

"Strange Enchantment" Skinnay Ennis & His Orchestra _Swingin' Uptown: Big Band 1923-1952_

"The Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" Sam Butera & The Witnesses _Ultra-Lounge Vol. 4: Bachelor Pad Royale_

"Slow Down & Cool It" Piano C. Red _Slow Down & Cool It_

"Birth Of The Boogie" Bill Haley & His Comets _From Western Swing To R-O-C-K_

"Zorba The Greek" Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass _!!Going Places!!_

"The Rockford Files" Mike Post _Television's Greatest Hits 70s & 80s_

"Around" David Carradine _Grasshopper_

"Lonely Boy" Andrew Gold _Super Hits Of The '70s: Have A Nice Day, Vol. 19_

"Whatever I Am, You Made Me" Koko Taylor _Koko Taylor_

"Lipstick Traces (On A Cigarette)" Benny Spellman _Crescent City Soul: The Sound Of New Orleans 1947-1974_

"The Whole World Is A Stage" The Fantastic Four _Beg Scream & Shout: The Big Ol' Box Of '60s Soul_

"Jesus, Puerto-Rican Boxing Champion" Elodie Lauten _ Orchestre Modern_

"Sonic Reducer" Dead Boys _Young Loud & Snotty_

Self Help Radio 053116: Scottish Pop (Again)

(All album/single covers taken from discogs.com.)

All right! We get it! You went to Scotland! Enough already! Jeez! No one makes this big a deal about their vacation! Cripes! Sheesh! For fuck's sake!

Whatever.  These are great tunes from a great time in music from a great land.  Sue me if I get to process vacations on the radio & you don't.

Listen to show: here.
Username/password (important): SHR/selfhelp
Songs I played (in each part):

(part one)

"Chance Meeting" Josef K _Chance Meeting_
"Gone Wrong" Avo 8 _Gone Wrong_
"Simply Thrilled Honey" Orange Juice _Simply Thrilled Honey_

"Mattress Of Wire" Aztec Camera _Mattress Of Wire_
"Candyskin" Fire Engines _Candyskin_
"Forevermore" The Bluebells _Forevermore_
"Feathers-Oar-Blades" Cocteau Twins _Lullabies_
"Honey At The Core" Friends Again _Trapped & Unwrapped_

"Stop The Rain" Suede Crocodiles _Stop The Rain_
"Fifty Years Of Fun" Biff Bang Pow! _Fifty Years Of Fun_
"Where The Traffic Goes" The Jasmine Minks _Where The Traffic Goes_
"Dreaming" The Wee Cherubs _Dreaming_
"Upside Down" The Jesus & Mary Chain _Barbed Wire Kisses_

"King Mob" Rote Kapelle _Big Smell Dinosaur EP_
"Don't Slip Up" Meat Whiplash _Don't Slip Up_

(part two)

"You Supply The Roses" Memphis _You Supply The Roses_
"All Fall Down" Primal Scream _All Fall Down_
"Paper Wraps Rock" Momus _Circus Maximus_

"I Don't Wanna Be Friends With You" The Shop Assistants _Will Anything Happen_
"Hang-Ten!" The Soup Dragons _Hang-Ten!_
"Going To Heaven To See If It Rains" The Close Lobsters _Forever, Until Victory! The Singles Collection_
"E102" BMX Bandits _E102_
"Sign On The Line..." Fizzbombs _Sign On The Line..._

"Splashing Along" Jesse Garon & The Desperadoes _Cabinet Of Curiosities_
"Heard About Love" Big Gun _Heard About Love_
"Get Out My Dream" Clouds _Get Out My Dream_
"Forever (Swansong)" The Incredible Blondes _Where Do I Stand?_

"Not Unloved" The Pastels _Comin' Through_
"A Secret Goldfish" Baby Lemonade _A Secret Goldfish_
"Driving Skills" This Poison _Magazine_
"Jack & Julian" The Bachelor Pad _The Albums Of Jack_

Whither Scottish Pop (Again)?

(This is from Wikipedia.)

To make something very clear: I actually didn't visit any record stores when I was in Scotland.  Did I mention it?  I was in Scotland for a week!  Anyway, none of the music I will play today is from magical "finds" made in dark Edinburgh basements.  This is all music I have loved for a very long time, put under a theme ("Scottish pop") & played hopefully in an enjoyable way.

& as I explained yesterday, I have sort of done this before.  What I wanted to do on this show, was play the non-Scottish song, "Scottish Pop," by Spearmint, which you can listen to here, in which the singer namechecks several Scottish musicians/bands:

The Secret Goldfish, Edwyn C,

Nectarine No. 9, Bobby G...

Stephen Pastel, Raymond McGinley

Adventures In Stereo, Emma P,

Stuart Murdoch, Duglas T

These are truly giants of Scottish music.  In case you don't know, Edwyn C is Edwyn Collins of Orange Juice, Bobby G is Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream, Stephen Pastel is the patriarch of the Pastels, Raymond McGinley is from Teenage Fanclub, Emma P is Emma Pollock of the Delgados, Stuart Murdoch is from Belle & Sebastian, & Duglas T is Duglas T. Stewart of BMX Bandits.  Most of these artists date from around the time of the Spearmint song, but as I started gathering music, I was finding that there was so much Scottish pop in the 1980s, that I abandoned my idea to base it around the Spearmint song.  Instead, my focus was going to be music much earlier.

No Scottish pop post 1980s?  That means no Secret Goldfish, Nectarine No. 9, Teenage Fanclub, Adventures In Stereo, Delgados, or Belle & Sebastian!  Oh no!  Yeah, so maybe my obsessive-compulsive self will feel like continuing the series into the 1990s.

As it stands, actually, I might not even get to bands from 1987!  You can find out how it goes by listening to Self Help Radio today from 4-6pm on 88.1 fm WRFL Lexington, wrfl dot fm online.  It won't be much more than me & music, so don't expect any bells & whistles or even fake Scottish accents.  Just lots & lots of Scottish pop!

Preface To Scottish Pop (Again): What, Again?

Yes, again.

Technically - if you wanna get technical - I've never done an episode of Self Help Radio with the theme "Scottish Pop."  Oh sure, if you go to Self Help Radio's "Table Of Contents" page - it's actually more like an index, but whatever - it shows that I did a show with the theme "Scottish Pop" on the first day of the year, 2005.  That was over a decade ago, at a radio station a thousand miles away.  But!  If you look carefully, it says "Ear Candy Sub Show."

"Ear Candy" was an awesome show on KOOP that ran for more than ten years I think & was hosted most of the time by one or two women named Jennifer.  (I actually had both Jennifers precede me for a time in the slot before my old 9-11pm KVRX show in the 1990s.)  The KOOP website may still have a page for the show.  It does.  It's not much help.

Anyway, since it was New Year's Day, & since even back then it was widely known that I don't have a life, I was often asked to do radio shows on that & other holidays.  & that day, inspired by the Spearmint song "Scottish Pop", I did an entire show of, well, you know.

So, why revisit the theme again?  There are two reasons: one, I just got back from a trip to Scotland; & two, I needed a theme close to my heart that I could complete in just a couple of days.  & guess what?  Here it is!

But I suppose I'll talk more about it tomorrow.

Things To Do During A Week Without Self Help Radio

Silly!  There'll be a Self Help Radio this week!  It'll just be hosted by Matt!  & it'll be about swimming!

It's a safe bet it'll be better than a Self Help Radio hosted by Gary, so tune in!

Going Away Again

After tomorrow, this blog will be refreshingly silent - I'll be "vacationing" again, but this time I'll be away a week.  The awesome Matt Clarke, who does "The Weekend Wave" on WRFL on Fridays in the same time period Self Help Radio is in (only on Fridays instead of on Tuesdays) will be hosting.  I'll talk a little more about that tomorrow.

What shall I talk about today?  Here's a funny story: I take a particular prescription pill every day with vitamins because I must NO I'M NOT TELLING YOU WHAT IT IS, but for reasons I don't understand, I keep in a similar bottle right next to it on the shelf a bottle of muscle relaxants which I was prescribed a while back for something I don't remember NO I'M NOT BEING COY.  Today, I accidentally took the muscle relaxant instead of the regular pill so I've been sleepy all day.

Holy Pharma!  It just occurred to me that I maybe should take a couple of those so I can sleep on the plane tomorrow!  I can't sleep on planes, you see.  I'll ask the wife if that's safe.  Or if I'll be groggy for too long.  Because I am a little groggy now, & I took the pill more than eight hours ago.  I took it on an empty stomach, too.  Hmm.

Anyway, I thought had something to say today, but as the wife pressures me to pack my bags & get my shit together, I suddenly got all queasy because it's becoming real, the long wait at the airport, the flight, the reorientation - I wish it were something I could get used to.  & I might not get any sleep tonight!

Self Help Radio 051716: Attack!

(Original image here.)

Well, that was a weird show.  Hey!  I always say that the reason that I like doing Self Help Radio, especially with the concept of organizing shows around "themes," is that it forces me out of my comfort zone, where I would probably play the same stuff over & over.  This week got diverse, I tell you what!

It's also my last Self Help Radio for two weeks, so I hope you'll tune in next week when Matt Clarke, who hosts the excellent Weekend Wave show.  He'll do a show about swimming!

Meanwhile, this week's show can be listened to by visiting the Self Help Radio web page.  Just enter username "SHR" & password "selfhelp" & you'll be ready to attack.  There are two distinct hours of the show, & the songs I play for you in each hour are listed below.

See you in a couple of weeks!

(part one)

"Attack" The Toys _The Toys Sing "A Lover's Concerto" & "Attack"_
"Love Attack" Spencer Wiggins _Goldwax Northern Soul_
"Man Attack!" The Revillos _Attack!_

"Heart Attack" Don & Dewey _Shakin' Fit_
"Broken Heart Attack" Jerry Reed _Alabama Wild Man_
"Sweet Heart Attack" Dolenz Jones Boyce & Hart _Dolenz Jones Boyce & Hart_
"Heart Attack" Classic Ruins _1+1<2_ p="">"Heart Attack" The Deltas _Boogie Disease_

"Camouflage Attack" Swell Maps _Messthetics #103 ('D.I.Y.' & Indie Postpunk From The Midlands 1978-1981, Pt. I)_
"Attack" Public Image Limited _Public Image (First Issue)_
"Anxiety Attack" Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel _Sink_
"Ready 2 Attack" Special Ed _Legal_

"An Actual Attack" Negativland _Ikebana: Merzbow's Amlux Rebuilt, Reused, & Recycled_
"Asthma Attack" The Fiery Furnaces _Gallowsbird's Bark_

(part two)

"Panic Attack" Buttersprites _Buttersprites_
"Under Attack" Scout _All Those Relays_
"Tak! Attack!" Black Affair _Pleasure Pressure Point_

"Groovy Heart Attack" The Hit Parade _More Pop Songs_
"Heart Attack" Wavves _V_
"(Like A) Heart Attack" The Briefs _Off The Charts_
"Kurt Wagner's Heart Attack" Lambchop _Treasure Chest Of The Enemy_

"Delay-Decay-Attack" Meanwhile Back In Communist Russia _Indian Ink_
"Attack Music" These New Puritans _Hidden_
"Attack" Seedling _Let's Play Boys & Girls_
"Panic Attack" Atmosphere _You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having_

"On The Attack" Langhorne Slim & The Law _The Way We Move_
"97 Heart Attack" Earlimart _System Preferences_

Whither Attack?

(I found this image here.)

Oh no, this is another one of those shows for which I have no real reason why I chose the theme.  "Attack"?  Where could that have come from?

But it turns out there is a story from this, & it turns out, it's about Halloween.  What?  Listen:

Quite often I have complained (like here) that at some point I am going to run out of scary Halloween themes.  I've covered all the big ones - vampires, mummies, zombies, etc. - what happens when there are no more?  In recent years, I've managed to find ones I thought were cool though off the beaten path: graveyards, haunted houses, clowns.  As I was gathering material for this week's show, it occurred to me that I was using up a potential Halloween theme: there were many songs with the names of classic horror films, like "Attack Of The Giant Ants" or "Shark Attack."

This has happened before.  Once, I did a show about Cupid - in July.  It would've been a great Valentine's Day show.  & once I did a show about snakes, which would've been a great Halloween show.  Well, I wasn't going to let this happen again.  I took the songs that would've fit the Halloween theme out of consideration for today's show.  They'll be part of a future Halloween show.

Will it be this year's Halloween show?  Nope!  While I was fretting about wasting a theme, I came up with another one, a good one.  You'll find out what it is in October.  I wish my mind didn't work like that but damn, it does.

Meanwhile, today's show about "attack" (whatever that means) is on from 4-6 pm on 88.1 fm in Lexington & online at WRFL web site.  Spoiler alert: lots of songs about heart attacks.  That could've been an entire other theme!

Preface To Attack: Cartoonish Violence

Have a look at this cartoon, the first part of which is this:

At some point in your adult life, you'll turn around & look at the cartoons/comics you enjoyed when you were a kid, & you'll be astonished at all the violence in them.  Sure, the violence is exaggerated - it's a cartoon, after all - but boy, is it weird from an adult perspective to, say, see Lucy constantly beat up her little brother Linus, or, as the comic above illustrates, see Homer Simpson choking out his son.

This is not an attempt to blame cartoons or comics for violence, or to suggest there's a desensitization at work, or anything like that.  When I was a kid, I was pretty aware they were not real.  But there is real violence in the world, & especially violence toward children, & boy does the cartoon violence translate badly into the non-cartoon world!

Validation! (or is it) Confirmation!

Do you remember back here when I wrote this:

My brain believes that when certain memories I have are put somewhere else - saved in a journal, or a letter, or an email, or anywhere other than my brain - it (the brain) can safely forget them, or store them someplace obscure in the dusty vaults of the mind.

It turns out that scientists have been studying this for some time now.  This article, for example, says outright that "We know we can depend on Google for information, so we don't bother remembering it."

Another study I read this weekend - which I can't find anywhere right now - basically had a group of people memorize answers to trivia questions, & were told that some of the answers could be found via search engine while some couldn't.  The subjects of the study were more likely to remember the answers they were told they couldn't find online later.

The strange thing is, a lot of these studies feel familiar to me, so think I've read these articles before.  Thus, this probably isn't "my brain theory" at all, but the results of scientific studies I once perused which correspond with my own experience.  But why can't I remember reading them in the first place?

Oh yeah - I knew they were online.

What Is Vacation, Anyway?

There are many reasons why I might not like vacations.  One is, simply, that at home I am surrounded by everything I love, not the least of which are my dogs & cats, who (usually) can't come with.  A second might be that I grew up quite poor, & didn't ever take vacations as a child.  It just wasn't something we did.  When my mother would go back to Germany - she took me once, when I was six - it was to visit her family.  When I went again, in 1992, at the age of 24, I was bored out of my mind.  I didn't speak German well, I didn't really know anyone there, & my mother was at home, so when I suggested sightseeing, she understood it to mean I was taking her away from being with her brother & sister & their kids.

When I finally started  going other places when I was in my twenties, I didn't understand a lot of the common things folk did on vacation.  First & foremost, flying seemed out of the questions.  Why fly when you could rent a car? Never mind that that took much, much longer - flying seemed a luxury.  Another thing: hotels.  When I drove to see my friend Dale in Los Angeles, in 1995, I dropped off my girlfriend in Moab, Utah (that's a long story), & made the trek across Utah & Nevada toward the Bay Area.  When it seemed obvious I wouldn't make it in one go, I didn't find a cheap motel outside Reno to hole up in - I slept in the car.

That was half my life ago.  Whether I am better or not about traveling is a matter of debate - my wife likes to boast she is always the last person on the plane, while just contemplating such a situation increases my blood pressure to dangerous levels.  Hotels remain a weird, uncomfortable place for me - & not just because someone else was sleeping here the night before - or bedbugs, or whatever,  but just because they're not places I was ever made familiar with as a kid.  & don't get me started about Air B&B!

Luckily my wife, who was raised in a more affluent family, navigates this world better than I do.  She has to put up with my anxieties (which she mocks me for) & my occasional nervous outburst, but she knows what she's doing & most importantly knows she's in charge.

As for enjoying the vacation - oh good lord, how does one do that?

Self Help Radio 051016: Forgetting

(Original image here.)

Hooray! I remembered to do a radio show!

Probably I've thanked Jenny enough for the suggestion.  There were so many songs that I could've filled four hours if four hours were mine to fill.  Can you believe Self Help Radio was once an hour long?

Here's something I do at the end of each day: I keep something like a diary or journal.  It's not full of deep thoughts - don't really have those - but rather it's a list of things I did that day.  I imagine one day when I read over it, I'll be puzzled (or saddened) by my meaningless waste of days, or my memory will fill in the blanks (which may still leave me puzzled or saddened).  One thing I will do is mention what television shows I may have watched that day.  I always forget them.  I can't even rely on a particular show that's on a particular day because I DVR most shows & watch them later.  Even if I've taken two hours to watch a movie, I will struggle at the end of the day to remember which movie it was.  Such is my brain.

But you know what?  I know the words to lots of Elvis Costello songs.  A fair trade-off?

Before I forget: the show about forgetting is over at Self Help Radio website.  It's in two parts.  What's in each part is below.

That's all I can remember that I wanted to tell you.

(part one)

"Forget" Mission Of Burma _Forget_
"Forget" Witches _Forever_
"Forget" Ed's Redeeming Qualities _It's All Good News_

"Forgive & Forget" Acid House Kings _The Sound Of Young Sweden_
"Forgive & Forget" Making Marks _A Thousand Half-Truths_
"Forgive & Forget" I Was A King _Old Friends_
"Laughter & Forgetting" David Sylvian _Gone To Earth_

"How Can I Forget" The Temptations _Emperors Of Soul_
"Forget About That Mess (Part 1)" The Marvels _Absolute Funk, Vol. 4_
"The Kind Of Boy You Can't Forget" The Raindrops _The Best Of The Girl Groups Vol. 2_
"You Won't Forget Me" Sandie Shaw _Sandie_
"Clean Forgot" The Cannanes & Steward _Communicating At An Unknown Rate_

"I Keep Forgettin'" David Bowie _Tonight_
"True Love Tends To Forget" Bob Dylan _Street Legal_

(part two)

"I Forgot To Remember To Forget" Elvis Presley _The Sun Records Sessions_
"I Can't Forget" Leonard Cohen _I'm Your Man_
"I Don't Mind If You Forget Me" Morrissey _Viva Hate_

"Amnesia" The Mekons _Rock & Roll_
"Teach Me To Forget You" Lyres _Lyres Lyres_
"Everyone Will Forget You" Watoo Watoo _This Is Stereophonic Sunshine_
"Forget" Burnt Palms _Back On My Wall_

"Forget You All The Time" Cloud Nothings _Cloud Nothings_
"You Forget So Easily" ExLovers _You Forget So Easily_
"Have You Forgotten The Bomb?" Barcelona _Zero One Infinity_
"Forget The World" Kleenex Girl Wonder _Ponyoak_

"Should God Forget" The Psychedelic Furs _Book Of Days_

Whither Forgetting?

(I found this image here.)

The reason I'm doing a show about forgetting is simple: Jenny suggested it!

That seems crazy, doesn't it?  You can just email me or call me during the show & I'll do a show based on the theme you thought of?  That's some kind of craziness!  But it isn't.  I will always assume your ideas are better than mine because, you know, I am intimately familiar with my ideas.  They are usually bad ideas.

So: today you can listen how Self Help Radio ruins Jenny's idea for a show!  It's on from 4-6pm today on 88.1 fm WRFL Lexington + also too online at wrfl dot fm.  I hope you remember to listen, but, you know, if you don't - fair enough.

Preface To Forgetting: My Stupid Brain Theory

This is a theory of the brain I have, which I am certain is stupid, & which may apply only to me, & which I don't have any evidence to back it up with except my own personal experience, & which I haven't actually gone out & read anything to try to support it, possibly because I am afraid I am wrong.  So it's probably best called the Narcissistic Gary Brain Thought-Thing.  Here it is:

My brain believes that when certain memories I have are put somewhere else - saved in a journal, or a letter, or an email, or anywhere other than my brain - it (the brain) can safely forget them, or store them someplace obscure in the dusty vaults of the mind.

The most recent example of this happened when I was re-reading this short story I wrote over twenty-five years ago.  It's a sad truth that I one time wanted to be a writer - but, as this blog demonstrates, it's obviously not something I was ever good at.  But in the story, I described something that had really happened to me, involving my mother & a relative.  It was a somewhat traumatic experience, & it shook me - I was accused of something I hadn't done, & luckily my protestations of innocence were accepted.  But I hadn't thought about it for years - probably not since I wrote the story.  How could that be?

Because my brain said, Oh, he wrote this down. Put that somewhere way down. Let's make more space for Bob Dylan lyrics!

It gets worse: now that my brain knows that I can access almost any information on the little computer I keep in my back pocket, it stores in difficult-to-access parts of itself things that I really should know.  I couldn't bring immediately to mind the director of It's A Wonderful Life the other day!  Frank Capra!  How hard is that to remember?  Not hard at all!

Honestly, it'll only get worse.  & it could just be old age, or alcohol use, but I suspect we're all experiencing some aspect of this in our lives.  We know we have access to so much information that we used to either have to keep in books or in our brains.  No more.  If I can't remember that guy that was in that film, I can describe the film in a search engine & it's better than any recall I've ever had.

Forgetting, alas, is the future.  Let's just hope we don't forget how to work the external brains that will have more information than we would ever need or want.

Not Another Movie Review!

No, of course not.  But I did see Captain America: Civil War this afternoon, & my only comment here, since this isn't a movie review, is that it was the Marvel movie I have enjoyed most since the first Avengers movie.  (Well, not counting Deadpool, but that didn't feel like it took place in the same universe.)

Instead of a movie review, here's a movie experience review, sort of like I wrote here.  The experience today was nowhere near as unpleasant as that, but I was surrounded by (all male) geeky types whose (mostly happy) comments I could hear as they whispered to each other about different things in the movie.  To my direct right were two young men who, before the movie & during the credits, talked about the comic series from which Civil War was drawn, how exciting certain comic book movies were on cable ("Dude! Fantastic Four is on HBO Go!" "Dude! Is it any good?" "Dude! The first half is!"), & random comments about how the various preceding movies related to one another.

Not to suggest this hindered my enjoyment of the movie - they weren't rude or anything.  I was just bemused by it all, as if I were somehow better.  & then - sigh - during one of the scenes with the Scarlet Witch & the Vision, I leaned over to my wife & said, "In the comics, those two get married."

My wife couldn't have cared less.  But I thought to myself, Oh no! Me too!

Look: I knew it all along.  I was just amazed at how, in middle of my eye-rolling, I so quickly, in that element, reverted to my core geek mode.