Self Help Radio 011017: Evenings

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Evenings are good time for radio.  Or are they?  Aren't they better times for spending with family & friends (& by friends of course I mean "animal friends")?  In fact, evenings are terrible times to listen to the radio!  Who wants to listen to a dumb radio show while eating, for example?  No one!

What's more, one might be expected to don evening wear if one is going to listen to radio in the evening.  Absurd!  Ridiculous!  Who dresses up for the radio?  Not the deejays (in general) (I mean, I have seen some well-dressed deejays) (most of the time they're lucky I remembered pants)!  So why should you have on evening wear if the evening deejay(s) on the evening show doesn't bother?  It's an outrage & I am furiously penning a letter to my senator in my head.

Please note: I am penning the letter in my head.  I do not have a senator in my head.  But if I did, it would probably be Kirsten Gillibrand.  I mean, I would want it to be that senator.  It would probably end up being Mitch McConnell.

Where was I?  Who knows.  Here's Self Help Radio's show about evenings.  It's made with knowledge born of experience, as Self Help Radio has aired in the evenings now since gosh the fall of 2016.  So we know what we're talking about here.  For once.

Listen at the Self Help Radio website.  Remember the password/username info.  See what the two parts of the show contain below.

(part one)

"Wednesday Evening" John Lee Hooker _The Classic Early Years 1948-1951_
"Wet Wednesday Evening" The Hardy Boys _The Hardy Boys Play Songs From The Lenin & McCarthy Songbook_
"Good Evening" The Tickle _Real Life Permanent Dreams (A Cornucopia Of British Psychedelia 1965-1970)_

"In The Evening" Robert Petway _Big Joe Williams & The Stars Of Mississippi Blues_
"Some Enchanted Evening" Ezio Pinza _American Musical Theatre: Shows, Songs, & Stars, Vol. 3_
"The Evening News" George Carlin _More Napalm & Silly Putty_
"A Quiet Evening" The Silly Pillows _Woosh! Little Teddy Recordings 1991-2001_
"Evening Standards" The Jags _Evening Standards_

interview with fortune teller Freed Jonesin

"Return The Gift" Gang Of Four _Entertainment!_
"Evenings Fall" Louis Philippe _Delta Kiss_
"It's Getting Late In The Evening" Bobby Powell _Soulin' Vol. 4_
"Rapt: In The Evening Air" The Art Of Noise _The Seduction Of Claude Debussy_

"Music For Evenings" Young Marble Giants _Colossal Youth_
"Raymond Chandler Evening" Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians _Element Of Light_
"Evening Sun Goes Down" Reverend Gary Davis _Pure Religion & Bad Company_
"Evening Time" Allen Clapp & His Orchestra _One Hundred Percent Chance Of Rain_
"Evenings Of Damask" Tyrannosaurus Rex _Unicorn_

interview with the Rev. Dr. Howard Gently

"In The Evening" The Memories _Royal United Song Service_
"That Evening Train" T-Bone Walker _Stormy Monday Blues_
"Another Evening, Another Town" The Pooches _The Pooches_
"This Brilliant Evening" In Embrace _This Brilliant Evening_

interview with talk show host David Fruchter

"Evening Gown" The Left Banke _There's Gonna Be A Storm: The Complete Recordings 1966-1969_
"Evening Dress At 3pm" Fosca _The Painted Side Of The Rocket_
"An Evening Out" Brincando De Deus _Moshi Moshi: Pop International Style_
"Red Bar Evenings" Spring _The Last Goodbye_
"The End Of The Evening" The Airfields _Up All Night_

"Evening Of Light" Nico _The Marble Index

Whither Evenings?

Sometimes*, this show will have a theme somehow connected to the date, or to some recent event, or something topical**.  This will happen on Valentine's Day, Halloween, Christmas, etc.  But mostly, we have to admit, a theme has almost no bearing to what's going on in the real world, especially since it is formed in my brain, which is the very opposite of the real world***.

As Dave Gahan has said, "But not tonight!"  No, the theme this week is "evenings" & it just so happens - I mean, seriously, what are the odds - it's way too fitting to be a coincident - believe it or not, young Ripley - Self Help Radio is a radio program that airs in the evenings.

Crazy, right?

Tonight will be an evening show about evenings.  Hell, it might even represent an evening out**** of the divide between topical themes & arbitrary themes.  This evening's show about evenings may mark a new way of choosing themes for Self Help Radio!

But probably not.  Listen anyway, this evening, from 8-10pm central, 9-11pm eastern, on 89.3 fm in Lexington & online at selfhelpradio.net.  It may not be the best way to spend an evening, but I will be in fact one way to spend an evening.  & I am standing by that statement.

* Rarely.
** A topical topic.
*** True that.
**** You know, like making things even, not like going out for an evening.*****
***** You know it's a terrible pun when you have to explain it.

Preface To Evenings: Seriously, I Don't Know How Bees Do It

This evening I am busy working on tomorrow's Wednesday Morning Blend on KNON.  Which makes me busy as a bee.  Busy how?  Look:

Okay, maybe not busy as a bee.  But too busy to write nonsense in here tonight.  But listen tomorrow morning!  & then tomorrow night!

(Image from here).

Whirl

Hey! I can't write now! I have to do a radio show on KNON tomorrow morning!

Also! I have to do a radio show on KNON Wednesday morning!  & for a lot more Wednesday mornings after that!

& there's that show I do on Wednesday nights!  Oh no!

It will be a helluva radio week!  But it will make the blog lonesome & sad.

Sorry!

Prospects, Part IV

(This is an image of Prospect Park in Brooklyn, from here.  It has nothing to do with this blog post.)

Previously in this blog - here, here, & here - I detailed my attempts to find a home for Self Help Radio in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex.  I've lived here for about a year & a half, & I must say never has it been so difficult for me to find a place for the ridiculous radio show that I am attached to, & the truth is, I have been resigned to doing it on WLXU until such time as they tire of it.  (I hope that isn't any time soon!)

But there has been a development!  It's not that Self Help Radio has found a home on the Dallas airwaves, but rather, that I will be doing live radio in Dallas.  I have been chosen to helm the Wednesday Morning Blend on KNON starting this Wednesday, January 10th.

The idea behind the various Morning Blends is that it's a showcase - a blend, if you will - of all the different sounds you'd hear on KNON during the day & week.  If you've listened to Self Help Radio, you know I'm all right about playing different genres, so this should be a good fit for me.  But never underestimate my ability to screw things up!

But for now, I'm glad to have a chance to be on the radio in the city & I'm ecstatic it's on KNON, a legendary community radio station.  It's 7-9am central every Wednesday, starting this Wednesday.  I hope you'll stop by at some point!

Self Help Radio 010318: One Hundred Things

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One hundred songs?  Nope.  One hundred minutes of radio?  Not exactly (more like 120).  One hundred insights?  Not as such.  One hundred different voices?  No one counted but, probably not.  Just one hundred things?  No - hundreds of things!  In increments of one hundred!  One hundred lovers, calories, degrees, roses (& other flowers), pounds, fish, unread messages, pounds of clay, reasons, times, years, words, rooms, dollars, days, nights, brides, punks, cars, & percent!  That's probably one hundred times one hundred!  (No, it isn't.)

The first Self Help Radio of 2018 contained multitudes, including interviews with a spiritual mentor, a voice artist, & a travel writer.  The show can be listened to now at the Self Help Radio website but be aware!  It'll ask you for a password & a username, both of which are available on the site if you look hard enough.  The show is two hours long but divided in two so each mp3 is an hour long.  What's in the parts is listed below.

Here's hoping you listen one hundred times!

(part one)

"100 Lovers" Tennis _Small Sound_
"100 Calorie Man" Boat _Setting The Paces_
"100 Degrees" Shout Out Louds _Howl Howl Gaff Gaff_

"One Hundred Roses" The Smittens _The Coolest Thing About Love_
"£100 In 15 Minutes" Puritan Guitars _Messthetics Greatest Hits: The Sounds Of UK D.I.Y. 1977-80_
"100 Fish" Space Ghost _Yeah, Whatever..._
"100 Flowers" Gingerlys _Gingerlys_
"100 Unread Messages" Gruff Rhys _American Interior_

Interview with the Rev. Dr. Howard Gently

"The Hundredth Time (with Duffy Driediger & Ryan Peters)" Gigi _Maintenant_
"A Hundred Pounds Of Clay" Gene McDaniels _The Very Best Of Gene McDaniels_
"Give Me A Hundred Reasons" Ann Jones _The History Of Country & Western Music, Vol. 18 (1949-1950)_
"100 Other Lovers" Devotchka _100 Lovers_

"One Hundred Years" The Migil 5 _Ripples Vol. 4: Uptown Girls & Big City Boys (30 Brit Building Gems)_
"Hundred Times" Shapiros _Shapiros_
"100 Different Words" The Enormous Room _100 Different Words_

(part two)

"House With A Hundred Rooms" The Chills _Heavenly Pop Hits (The Best Of The Chills)_
"100 Years War" The Paper Cranes _Halcyon Days_
"100 Years" Vagabon _Infinite Worlds_

Interview with comedian Sasha Kaboingaboing

"I'm A Hundred Percent For You" Fats Waller _1934-1935_
"I Need A Hundred Dollars" One String Sam _Rural Blues, Vol. 1_
"One Hundred Million Dollars" John Mulaney _The Top Part_
"100 Days, 100 Nights" Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings _100 Days, 100 Nights_
"Wedding Of The Hundred Brides" The Motions _Rubble, Vol. 5_

Interview with travel writer David Fruchter

"One Hundred Punks" Generation X _Punk You! Vol. 1_
"100 Car Pile-Up" Scrawl _Nature Film_
"A Hundred Years Of The Street" The Victorian English Gentlemens Club _The Victorian English Gentlemens Club_
"100" Even As We Speak _A Three Minute Song Is One Minute Too Long_

"One Hundred Years" The Cure _Pornography_

Whither One Hundred Things?

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The first Self Help Radio of the year tells you one thing you probably already knew: nothing much is going to change.  Sorry about that!  It's going to be another year of mostly arbitrary themes, goofy interviews with "experts," & of course great music of all genres in service of the goofy & the arbitrary themes.

This is not an apology or anything - sorry if you thought that - wait - I just want to make it clear that a show like Self Help Radio is mostly impervious to things like resolutions.  Mostly.  I mean, it's like that Squeeze line, "I want to be good, is that not enough?"

With that in mind, tonight's show celebrates a bevy of things in the quantity of one hundred.  It also features interviews with a comedian called "the man of a hundred voices," with a travel writer who's written a book called "100 Places To Go," & with my spiritual mentor, who, I don't know, will tell us one hundred things maybe about the Numinous?  You'll have to listen to find out.

You can do that by tuning your radio dial to 93.9 fm WLXU in Lexington but also you can listen online.  It's from 9-11pm eastern.  It's bound to be an awkward way to bring in the new year.

Preface To One Hundred Things: Numbers

For a show based on themes, numbers may seem like an easy, go-to way to fill a few hours.  People are always singing about numbers; as long as you don't pick something weird like 37, you can probably find lots no problem.

In fact, Self Help Radio has done number shows before.  The number nine & the number zero come to mind, & recently seventeen, but I don't think the show has leaned on numbers as much as it could have.

It's much more fun to do things like I've done this week: a number of things.  I've done that too!  A million miles comes to mind.  But you know what?  When you aren't specific, like with "miles," the show is basically what you do when you do numbers anyway.  I could have just called this show's theme "one hundred" & it would've been the same.

Oh em gee this is boring.  But it has been a fun show to put together.  A hundred things!  I think you'll like it.

Happy New Year!

I think I'll let Charles Schulz field this New Year's wish.

That Was The Year That Was

It's time for end of the year accounting.  You don't need to be here for this.

Total number of radio shows I did this year is: 62

Total episodes of Self Help Radio: 51*
Total episodes of freeform radio: 11
Total numbers of radio stations I was on: 3**

Self Help Radio episode stats are going to be a little complicated.  As you see above, there were 51 episodes this year (although one was repeated on the air in Lexington in November when I took a week off, & as I note below, I did re-do two episodes on KVRX just two days ago).  Of those 51, you can say that 41of those had unique themes***, by which I mean themes that the show had never explored before & were not themes folded into a regularly scheduled holiday spot.

Because there are shows I do for special days, like Valentine's Day & Halloween, that may seem like repeated themes, which in some way they are, although I pick a different aspect of the holiday each year.  Here are the themes that recur, with the unique element covered this year:

My birthday: 1981
Valentine's Day: Sweethearts
Halloween: Black Cats

There are three shows I do which have the same theme but always feature different music.  Those are;

Magda's Birthday Show (all birthday songs, but ones never played for this show)
Gary's Favorite Music (songs from the year that I dug)
A Very Self Help Radio Christmas (holiday tunes I've never played before)

& then there's the Indiepop A To Z series, which happens three times a year, & which is a continuing alphabetical list of indiepop bands.  No two episode is the same, but it is part of a series.

Finally, one show is a repeat of a theme.  My anniversary show revisits an old theme, but adding new songs or perhaps reevaluating said theme.  This year, we went back to reconsider a show from 2004.  I am too tired now to see how many songs were repeated from the earlier show.

That adds up to 51!

Non-Self Help Radio data: I subbed ten shows on KNON in 2017, & played around for four hours on KVRX a couple of weeks ago just playing music.

That adds up to 62!

If you want to count the four hours I redid two Self Help Radio shows on the 29th, it's 63!  But I'm not greedy.

Certainly I hope to do more radio in 2018.  As for now - well, if I said I'd already started drinking, I'd be lying, but if I said I was thinking about starting to drink this early in the day I would not be lying.

Thanks for listening to Self Help Radio in 2017!  Look for more of the same nonsense in 2018!

* 53 if you count the two episodes I re-did on KVRX in late December.
** You can say four if you count the arts calendar I do every week for KFTW.
*** Here they are, in alphabetical order: Apples, Are You Ready?, Bars, Betty, Blondes, Cafes, Control, Cosmic, Crooked, Dancing, Diamonds, Dust, Fate, Ferris Wheels, Faces, Firsts, Foxes, Gas, Guards, Guilt, In The Sky, Johnny, Leonard Cohen Tribute, Lightning, Machines, Maybe, Mercy, One Day, Pencils, Questions, Rising, Rubber, Seventeen, Sidewalks, Smash, Tails, Turn It, Umbrellas, Venus, Visions, & Warnings.

Self Help Radio 122717: Indiepop A To Z # 55

(Almost all these covers came from Discogs.)

At this point, what is there to say about this series?  That it's delightfully alphabetical?  That it's quite poppy?  That it's a fool's errand which I'll never finish so really why bother?  Of course it's all those things & more.

It's the more that I adore.  You know what for.  Though there's a number up there, I don't keep score.  & I'm sincere to the core.  Like the band buttons you wore, you know what's in store.  Songs that soar till your heart is sore.  It's either/or not neither/nor.  Making it isn't a chore, so make it yours, your listening du jour.  I'm afraid I am beginning to bore, so before you start to snore or to show me the door, let me sit on the floor & just roar, roar, roar:

The show can be listened to now & any time at the Self Help Radio web site.  It's in two parts, each about an hour long; the songs in the two parts are listed below.  Oh!  If you've never listened, you'll need a username & a password - those are on the front page.  & previous editions of the Indiepop A To Z series can be found around here.  If you wanna listen.

Because I was climbing a tor with a boar & a centaur whom I was trying to ignore outdoors when one said, "Señor, I implore you to be my mentor!"  Etc.

(part one)

"My Cloud" Masters Of The Hemisphere _Seven Summers (International Pop Vol. 2)_
"Valerie Loves Me" Material Issue _Valerie Loves Me_
"Ha Ha" Mates Of State _Team Boo_

"Nothing Really Happened" Math & Physics Club _In This Together_
"My Record Collection" The Mathletes _#$@% You & Your Cool_
"I'm An Alcoholic" Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele _The Good Feeling Music Of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele_
"This & That" The Maybellines _You're Still Young At Heart_
"Montague Terrace (In Blue)" Mayfair Charm School _Bellissimo! Él Singles Part One_

"Dark House" The Mayfair Set _Young One_
"Deeper Than The Ocean" The Mayfields _Deeper Than The Ocean 7"_
"My Own Fellowship" Maylove _Sing Little Clam Sing 7"_
"Grey Rebel Suit Search" The McAllisters _Too Much Money Propaganda_
"Red Sleeping Beauty" McCarthy _Scared To Get Happy: A Story Of Indie Pop 1980-1989_

"Aware Of All" The McCluskey Brothers _Aware Of All_

(part two)

"Candleland" Ian McCulloch _Candleland_
"Lighting Fires" Grant McLennan _Fireboy_
"Jesse Rae" The McTells _What Happens Next_
"Me & My Paisley Shirt" Me & Dean Martin _The Sound Of Leamington Spa Vol. 3_

"Una Mañana" Me Enveneno De Azules _A Veces Quiero Estar Callado_
"Intestinal Bolognese" The Meanies _No Sleep 'Til Bedtime 7" EP_
"Don't Slip Up" Meat Whiplash _CD86_
"Smoke" Medalark Eleven _Smoke_
"Uncomfortable" Mega Emotion _Uncomfortable_

"Your Tears" Rose Melberg _Cast Away The Clouds_
"Final Flight" Melbourne Cans _Moonlight Malaise_
"Wildest Dream" Melodie Group _Seven Songs_
"Wait For A Decade" Melodika _The Sound Of Young Sweden, Vol. 2_
"Futuristic Lover" Melody Dog _Futuristic Lover_

"The Plea Before The Scream" The Melody Unit _Songs For The New American Century_

Whither Indiepop A To Z # 55

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Fifty-five episodes?!?  I know, right?  Geez.

When we last listened to indiepop in alphabetical order, we were visiting the letter M.  (You can listen to that episode here.)  We had finished with Mascott.  Which means we'll probably continue with Ma for a while, probably getting to Mc, & with a little luck & some discrimination, we'll start with Me.  Suddenly it feels like I am talking about elements.  Well, the joke's on you.  There are no elements who have those abbreviations!  What about mercury? you may ask.  Nope!  That's Hg.  Magnesium?  Mg, dude.  Mendelevium???  Um, wow.  That's a deep cut.  Still, no!  That's Md.

Thinking about it, a radio series called "Elements A To Z" would have been fun, & also I'd be done by now.

Not so with the Indiepop A To Z!  We're probably not even in the middle!

But surely it's not about the destination, but instead the journey?  I hope so.  Come back to the caravan tonight from 9-11pm eastern on 93.9 fm WLXU in Lexington & online at lexingtoncommunityradio dot org!  If you like jangle & twee, it's the place to be!

Preface To Indiepop A To Z # 55: The Process Explained

Oh golly I just a very long blog post describing in terrible detail the process I use to record & submit my shows & I don't even know why.  Even if years later, long after I've stopped doing Self Help Radio, I wanted some reminder of the trouble I went through to prerecord the show while I was in Texas & the show was on in Kentucky, I'm not sure I would've wanted or needed the level of description I was giving it.  What the hell is wrong with me?

Here are some facts about tomorrow's show that I wanted to share:

1) Because the station is closed for the holidays, I had to prerecord & turn it in early.
2) I usually turn in my shows the day before.  For example, the Christmas show, which aired last Wednesday, was sent to the station's Program Manager on Tuesday.
3) Because the station closed this week, I turned this week's show in on Thursday.
4) I have almost no memory of making the show, which is a little freaky.
5) I hope it's good?

There are other things I mentioned as well, like:

6) I miss doing the show live.
7) Because I did a show this morning on KNON.  I subbed for Nil on the Tuesday Morning Blend.
8) In general, my sub shows don't make it to my website, but if you want to hear it, you can go here.  It'll be there for the next couple of weeks.
9) Another reason to miss doing the show live is that I am also doing one more night at KVRX down in Austin.
10) Instead of just a random show, & so as not to make more work for myself, I will be repeating two Self Help Radios from this year.
11) Except, unlike the shows which are on the website, these will be live.

Yeah, so I miss doing live radio.  That probably won't change until I can do Self Help Radio live.  Which probably won't happen in the near or even the medium far away future.

Anyway, that was the gist of the much, much longer post I deleted.  I wonder how this week's show will turn out...

Christmas Memories

Above is a picture of my mother & siblings (& my first niece) some time in the late 70s.  From left to right is my brother Ralph, me, my mother holding my little brother Chris, my brother Steve, my sister Pat holding my sister Karin, & my brother Eddie holding his daughter.

My guess is that it's Christmas 1978, which means I'm ten years old.  I have come to that conclusion because the toy in my hands is a Cylon Raider from the original Battlestar Galactica series which premiered that year & of which I was a big fan.  But it might be 1979.  I think I even had a Battlestar Galactica lunchbox.  How the show didn't survive with a fan like me is a mystery.

As I have mentioned, I don't celebrate Christmas, except with my show.  That was not always the case.  As a child, I loved Christmas, because, you know, presents.  & in general I think I got most of what I wanted.  (Well, except for that time I got a pet rock.)  That was no mean feat, as we were quite poor.  Maybe I should ask my mother how she did that, if my siblings contributed in any way.  How my mother made money in those days is something of a mystery.

One thing I disliked about our Christmas is that, because my mother's German, we would have Christmas - which meant of course opening presents - on Christmas Eve.  Which meant that we (my little brother & I) would be up all night playing with toys & be bored with them by the next day, which is when our friends woke & opened their presents, & be having fun while we'd be tired & bored.  Like the year we got an Atari.  Hours of Asteroids.  All night long.  Our friends got an Atari the next morning.  We played that all night long!  Wouldn't they rather go out & play?

During college & afterwards I would come home for Christmas, mainly at my mother's insistence, but I stopped doing that even before moving away gave me a good excuse not to attend.  (My oldest brother lives in Washington & uses that excuse.)  I just don't really enjoy it anymore - I have the means to get myself all the toys I want - & decided not to attend this year, although I would've had to stay away anyway thanks to my cold.

My brain holds almost no memories about that picture up there - I remember getting the Battlestar Galactica toys, which I probably used interchangeably with my Star Wars toys - I often created my own universes with my action figures, even giving them new names & personalities.  But I'm glad we look happy & healthy in that picture.  Whether we were, who knows?  It was four decades ago.

Horrify The Family On Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve, babe, & I'm not in a drunk tank, but I do have a cold.  It happened all of a sudden this morning & I've been sucking lozenges for my throat & cough, & popping Sudafed for my sneezes.  Strangely I am not sleepy, so I've been listening to music & wondering when I'll be well again.

Here's hoping you're faring better on this holiday eve!  I'm terrible at promotion (I mean, jeez, look at the product I'm promoting!) but I figured I could let you know that there are Self Help Radio Christmas shows (very Self Help Radio) on the web site if you're looking to annoy someone in the family tonight or tomorrow.

Here is this year's show, which aired last week.  Here's last year's show, which aired last year, appropriately.  Here's the Christmas show from two years ago, which aired two years ago (imagine that) on a different radio station than the one the show is on now.  & here's the show from 2014 which aired three years ago.

Jeez I didn't know I had saved so many of them, but here's the show from 2013, which, oh you know. & holy crud, look!  Here's the 2012 show.  Good grief, there's even the Christmas show from 2011!

There wasn't a show in 2010 as I was in Australia.  That's crazy but true.

Wow, I didn't know I went as far back as the 2009 Christmas show.  But it's there.  Thankfully no earlier ones!  I really need to clean up the website.

You'll (not yule) need a password & username - username SHR & password selfhelp.  If you want to listen.  It may make family members leave sooner!

Happy Santa night!

Self Help Radio 122017: A Very Self Help Radio Christmas 2017

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Hello, Santa Claus here!  At this time of year, I often guest-write Christmas blogs for those blogs which share the holiday spirit.  I don't know much about Self Help Radio except this show was full of Christmas music & that's my favorite kind of music!  So even though I've not heard the show nor will I ever hear it frankly because I am a very busy man who's guest-writing dozens of blogs simultaneously, I will go ahead & recommend it because that is the nice thing to do.

& yes, I can see you when you're sleeping & I know when you're awake.  I have recently digitized my "naughty & nice" list & I ho ho hope it doesn't get hacked & put online!  I hope the elves have decent encryption!  Let's see, I'm supposed to say that not only does this show have wonderful Christmas music but well this is exciting, there are interviews with a Christmastologist - it's well-known I majored in that in college - as well as with a historian, a producer of holiday films, & a spiritual man who discusses the old holiday Yule.  I remember it well.  It was at a yule gathering I met Mrs. Claus!

Well, I suppose that's enough from me.  The show is on a web page called Self Help Radio - I see, after the name of the show - & it's a two hour show - that's about as long as it takes me to deliver presents in the United States! - & the songs & interviews in each section are listed below.

Have a happy holiday & maybe we'll espy one another on Christmas Eve!  I certainly hope there's nothing weird or disturbing about this show which will reflect badly on me!

(part one)

"Introduction, Good King Wenceslas, Caroling In The Dark, The Holly & The Ivy" Alan Lomax _Sing Christmas & The Turn Of The Year_
"Carol Of The Bells" Jingle Babies _The Jingle Babies: Rockabye Christmas_
"The Wildest Christmas" The Boys Next Door _The Boys Next Door_

"Ho Ho Ho (Santa's Gotta Go)" Smoota & Meah Pace _Ho Ho Ho (Santa's Gotta Go)_
"Santa, Bring My Baby Back To Me" Eleanor Friedberger _Holidays Rule_
"The Twelve Days Of Christmas" Norm MacDonald _Ridiculous_
"Number One For Christmas" Bubblegum Lemonade _Laz Christmas_

interview with Christmastologist David Frucher

"The Pagans Had It Right" Devil In A Woodpile _Bloodshot Records' 13 Days Of Xmas_
"Strangest Christmas Yet" Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers _The Long-Awaited Album_
"Christmas Eve Can Kill You" The Everly Brothers _Stories We Could Tell_
"Merry Christmas In The NFL" Willis "The Guard" & Vigorish _Merry Christmas In The NFL_

interview with historian Robert Hank Caligula

"Another Christmas Song" Remington Super 60 _Another Christmas Song_
"Christmas Blues" The Wave Pictures & Darren Hayman _Christmas In Haworth: An Advent Calendar From Darren Hayman, Fika Recordings, & Friends_

(part two)

"Christmas In Suburbia" The Perfect English Weather _English Winter EP_
"The Candy Kid" The Cowsills _All Time Hits_
"O Come, All Ye Faithful" Jim Nabors _Jim Nabors' Christmas Album_

interview with holiday filmmaker Lorenzo Schwab

"Christmas Time Is A Wonderful Time" Lard Dog & The Band Of Shy _Christmas Time Is A Wonderful Time_
"Jingle Bells (Dan The Automator Remix)" Dean Martin _Holiday Lounge: The Christmas Remixes_
"Case Study: HR Giger" Drs. Carter & Gourley _Superego Volume 3, Episode 10_
"Someone To Spend Christmas With" The Spook School _Someone To Spend Christmas With_

interview with the Rev Dr Howard Gently

"Yule Tide Me Over" The Minus 5 _Dear December_
"Birthday Cake For Jesus" Shinyribs _Birthday Cake For Jesus_
"Jingles, The Christmas Cat" Freddy Cole _Freddy Cole's Christmas Dreams_
"Eight Dates A Week (Song For Hanukkah)" The Holiday Scene _Eight Dates A Week (Song For Hanukkah)_

"Up On The House Top/Deck The Halls" "Two Ton" Baker The Merry Music Maker _Christmas Party_
"Auld Lang Syne" Frank C. Stanley with Orchestra Accompaniment _Frank C. Stanley, Vol. 1_

Whither A Very Self Help Radio Christmas 2017?

(found here)

Tonight is the annual Self Help Radio Christmas show.

Some folks don't like Christmas music, & that's cool.  I am a fan of Christmas music but I feel you should only have to listen to like two hours of it during the holiday season.  & you shouldn't have to listen to the same Christmas music each year.  So there are no repeated songs for any Self Help Radio Christmas show.  There are however lots of new Christmas songs, barely as old as the season.

Also the show will be informative in a way that repeated listenings of classic rock versions of familiar tunes are not.  You'll hear interviews with an actual Christmastologist (that's a thing), a holiday film maker, a historian, & a spiritual teacher.  Should you listen.

The campaign to get retail establishments to play Self Help Radio Christmas shows on a loop during the holiday season has failed.  It wasn't much of a campaign.  I made a suggestion to some guy at a local drug store & he pretended not to hear me.  So it's only tonight on 93.9 fm in Lexington or online at lexingtoncommunityradio.org that you'll be able to hear this year's a Very Self Help Radio Christmas.  That's from 9-11pm eastern.

Did you know mistletoe is poisonous?  So please don't snack on it during the show.

Preface To A Very Self Help Radio Christmas 2017: How Very?

Are there gradations of Christmas?

What might be a very Christmas?

You misunderstand.  It isn't a very Christmas.  It's a very Self Help Radio Christmas.

When talking about our animals, my wife will often say, "They love their rituals."

So too with a radio show.  It loves its rituals.

One of them is a Christmas show.  But it can't simply be a Christmas show.

It's on Self Help Radio.  But it's heightened for the holidays.

It's not just Self Help Radio Christmas.  It's very Self Help Radio Christmas.

Ask a philosopher.  The logic is sound.

Don't Make Me Beg

Okay, I'll beg.  I really hope you'll take a second to give just a few bucks to Lexington Community Radio during the Good Giving Challenge.  It's not just that they've given a place on air to Self Help Radio, but also that they've given a voice to so many different kinds of radio in Lexington & beyond.  A dizzying array of genres, community programs, issues, discussions.  Just think about what happens before Self Help Radio on Wednesdays - there is, starting at 6pm, two hours of hip hop, then at 8pm, an hour of important health information on Healthy Times, which I very much enjoy listening to before SHR.  Where else will you find such diversity, not just in Kentucky, but anywhere?  & that's just three hours!

So please go to the LCR home page to give or, if you want to be like a couple of sweet listeners, you can do it here in the name of SHR.

All of it goes to keep independent radio alive in Lexington.  So it's really, really worth it.

Monetize It

It's hard to convince people that someone is doing something because that person loves to do it.  The fact that I have been making radio since 1994 & have never been paid to be on the radio seems utterly nonsensical to some folks.   I remember a time at KOOP when a station manager told me that they were financially solvent enough to perhaps pay a stipend to some deejays who gave more to the station - implying I would be one of them.  I declined.  I had never accepted money to be on the radio before - it would be icky.

Which is a weird way to say I find it strange that Facebook - which, admittedly, thinks my show is a band, because when I signed up, I couldn't sign up as a radio show - is constantly asking me for money to promote a show for which I receive no money.

Here's a screenshot of the last three messages I've received from them:

You can't turn this off - I checked.  They will keep hounding you until, I guess, you give in & pay a few bucks to harass people who don't know about you - & doubtless don't care - have to see your shit in their feed.

Yeah, yeah, I'd love more people to know about this dumb radio show - I'd love to know how many bother to listen & then utterly reject it - but I'd keep doing it even if no one listened.  I do believe I have!  There were late nights in Austin two decades ago, & late nights in Lexington two years ago, that if I had called for help on the air, if there had been gunshots & sounds of distress & terror, no one would have come to my aid, because quite frankly no one was listening - & I still gave it my all.  Because I was having fun, playing music, being dumb on the air.  It's what I do.

& yeah, I wish I had that ambition, I know the wife would love it if I could bring in a few bucks doing this.  But I can't where SHR currently is, & in fact where Self Help Radio currently sits, any money raised goes to the saintly station that airs the show, not me.

How I wish I could make money that way!  I am terrible at it, frankly.  Even worse than I am at radio!