Self Help Radio 102414: Walk Away

(Original photo here.

This morning there was a Self Help Radio with the improbable theme "walk away."  I wonder how many people subconsciously stop listening to a radio show that constantly tells them to walk away?  It's something I should've thought through before I went ahead & did it.

But!  Did it I did, & it's available now at the Self Help Radio website for your listening ambivalence.  Pay attention to the password information on the page.  & you can see the songs I played below.

Thanks for listening!

(part one)

"Walking Away by C. Day Lewis" Jill Balcon _Poetry Please: The Anniversary Edition_
"Walk Away" Jess Conrad _Jess For You: The Decca Singles Compilation_
"I Walked Away" T-Bone Walker _The Complete Imperial Recordings: 1950-1954_
"Walk Away" Mitty Collier _Shades Of Mitty Collier: The Chess Singles 1961-1968_

"Walk Away Renee" The Left Banke _There's Gonna Be A Storm: The Complete Recordings 1966-69_
"Walk Away Renee" Billy Bragg _Reaching To The Converted_
"Walk Away" Suburban 9 To 5 _Quagmire, Vol. 7_
"Walkin' Away" The Fifth Order _Sixties Rebellion, Vol. 1_
"Walk Away" The Dirty Shames _Coconut Grove_

"Walk Away" Ann Peebles _This Is Ann Peebles_
"Love You Just Can't Walk Away" Dean Courtney _Big City Soul, Vol. 3_
"Walk Away" Frank Sinatra _The Complete Reprise Studio Recordings_
"As If You Walked Away" Claudine Longet _Cuddle Up With Claudine Longet: The Complete Barnaby Records Sessions 1970/74_
"Walk Away From Love" David Ruffin _Hard To Find Motown, Vol. 1_

"Walk Away" TV Smith's Explorers _The Last Words Of The Great Explorer_
"Laugh & Walk Away" Shirts _Street Light Shine_

(part two)

"Walk Away Boy" The Hit Parade _The Sound Of The Hit Parade_
"All You Ever Do Is Walk Away" The Magnetic Fields _Holiday_
"Walk Away" The Sisters Of Mercy _First & Last & Always_

"Walk Away" The English Beat _Wha'ppen?_
"Don't You Walk Away From Me" Miss Ludella Black & The Masonics _From This Witness Stand_
"Walk Away" Pink Industry _Who Told You, You Were Naked?_
"Don't Walk Away From Love" Simon Bonney _Everyman_

"Walk Away" The Sleepers _Painless Nights_
"Walked Away" Shirley Lee _Shirley Lee_
"Walk Away" Tony Molina _Dissed & Dismissed_
"I Love You When You're Walking Away" Plumtree _Moshi Moshi (Pop International Style)_

"Atmosphere" Joy Division _Closer_
"Walk Away" Shimmering Stars _Violent Hearts_
"She Tore It Up & Walked Away" Go-Kart Mozart _Instant Wigwam & Igloo Mixture_

Whither Walk Away?

This is a story about a man named Gary, who was always walking away.  For example, when he was
young, in the mornings, he often walked away from his home, &, later, walked away from the school where he spent his days.

Later, he walked away from every class he took, at least once a day.  When he got older, he walked away from home nearly every weekday morning, & then in the late afternoon, sometimes later, he'd walk away from the place he worked.  He did it so many times, it's a wonder he was never fired!

He does a radio show now, on Friday mornings.  But after two hours, he walks away from it.  Every week.  & perhaps to flaunt it, this week he's doing a show with the theme "walk away."  What nerve!  What gall!

Don't encourage this disrespectful behavior!  If you have the radio tuned to 88.1 fm WRFL (or are listening online at wrfl dot fm) tomorrow morning from 7 to 9 am, just walk away from the show.  Make him understand what it feels like, all that walking away!

It's more well-mannered to run away, after all.

Preface To Walk Away: Walk Over Here

Is it that time of the time again that I plug the Self Help Radio Tumblr site?  Initially I used the site for music videos because I had no other real use for it.  Now I use it as a place to put all the dumb digital photos I take when I am walking the dogs or am walking around in other places, including my home.  Some pictures I think are neat, some I think are dumb, & some I think are curious, but none of them I think are good compared to photographers who have a great eye.

I especially like the pictures I take that are turn out fine even though the circumstances are accidental.  This one, which was taken on my dog Pauline's birthday, was me snapping the picture before she got into place - but it was better than any other picture I took of her that day:

Anyway, there are lots of pictures of stuff that I notice while I'm walking, & lots of pictures of my pets, & thankfully no pictures of me, at selfhelpradio.tumblr.com.

All right!  Time to stop the bad self-promotion for awhile.  I'm really uncomfortable with it.

Dreams Are Boring

A scientific fact: dreams are boring.  Not individual dreams specific to the dreamer.  Dreams except for ones that you have dreamt are boring.  Unless.  Unless you believe dreams are full of hidden imagery, a signal that your subconscious is trying to explain you to yourself, or any number of supernatural other explanations of dreams.  In that case, both the dreams & the people who feel that way about dreams are boring.

It's fun to fuck with people like that.  They're so self-important & faux-earnest.  One fellow I knew, once upon a time, when I was telling someone else within his earshot about a recent dream (I was boring the hell out of her, though it had been a neat dream), overheard me say something in the (long-forgotten) dream about a window.  "Whoa," he said, exaggeratedly wide-eyed in an exaggerated manner, "Don't you know how important it is when you dream about windows?"

Boring.  But I affected a wide-eyed manner & asked him to explain what windows mean in dreams.  It didn't take too long before he used the word "archetype" & of course "Jung," which he pronounced with a hard J.  The other person I was talking to knew I was pretending like I gave a shit, so she did her best to stifle her laughter.  It ended with the dream interpreter giving me his card & telling me he'd give me a discount on the first visit.

Having said all that, I have to tell you about a dream I recently had.

No, I don't.  I don't have to.  I feel compelled to tell you because sometimes dreams are the most interesting thing to happen to me.  They're not only interesting to me, they're mostly consistently interesting.  Things one might think are interesting that I do aren't always as interesting.  For example: I enjoy doing my radio show, but talking to people about my radio show, the process of doing the radio show, things that may happen behind the scenes during my radio show, those aren't usually too terribly interesting.  The show itself may be interesting (probably not) but what I do during the show - with the exception of the occasional goofy phone call - not too interesting.

My dreams, though - virtually every morning I wake up & think: wow, that was an interesting thing that happened to me!

One reason dreams are boring to anyone except the dreamer is that most dreams are experiences that are felt & don't travel in a narrative arc.  Last night, I dreamt that I was in a bad part of town (what town? who knows? in the dream KVRX & WRFL were basically the same place) but when I wanted to show the bad part of town to someone, suddenly there were shops & stores there, & it didn't seem as derelict as I believed it was earlier in the dream.  The whole place changed, & I was a little surprised, but the dream moved on.  That was probably very boring, but it wasn't for me, & whatever the narrative was in the dream, I thought about it a lot when I was waking up.

In fact, I (& I'm probably not alone) often try to get back to dreams if I am wakened before the time I've supposed to actually get up.  That's how interesting my dreams are to me!

& yet - boy, are dreams boring.  It's sneaky of me to have shared a snippet of a dream in this denunciation of dreams.  I didn't meant to be sneaky.  I needed to make a point.  A point of how tedious dreams are.  Oh my god.  Let's not talk about dreams anymore.  Not to each other.

Please.

The Weather Turns

I've probably observed/complained here before that I now live in a place where it's cold much more often than it's hot.  Having grown up in Texas, & spent most of that time in Austin, I am used to the opposite.  Austin has a fitful winter, which is often interrupted with warm spells, & a truncated autumn & spring.  Lexington (where I now live) tends to have a spring that slowly frees itself from the icy muck of winter & then casually waits around for summer to get started.

But autumn officially began last month & the idea of it has taken hold.  I write this with a window to my left, & out of the corner of my eye I can see the occasional yellow leaf fall.  The trees here are still mainly green, but there are those that have embraced the autumn colors of red, orange, yellow, & a few that have already dumped their leaves for the winter.

& it's colder.  This week it'll get no higher than 70 degrees Fahrenheit.  Just like the house gets warmer when it's warmer outside, it gets colder in here when the nights are below 40 degrees,

But the reason this is on my mind is not because I think you're interested in the weather, or even my banal observations about differences in geography.  It's because - well, here, let me show you.  This is what my left hand looks like right now:

(I couldn't take a picture of both hands because one had to hold the camera, but my right hand is equally attired.)

I am not a beggar on the cold streets of London - I am a person whose hands are freezing.

That was the most fascinating thing about living in this part of the world - it gets cold in your house during the winter, & one's extremities get cold.  When we first moved here - the first season in this clime - I suffered through the entire winter with frozen hands.  My arms, legs, feet, even head, I could keep covered, but as long as I was tapping on my computer, my hands were exposed & it was cold.

& generally speaking, it's hard to use a keyboard in mittens or your average winter gloves.  It was probably the wife who suggested these - probably after watching me try to warm my hands by sitting on them, or, worse, putting them down my pants.  To warm them, I mean.  Anyway.

(My fingers are still cold.)

The summer seems short now, but there were days when the heat & humidity were pretty unbearable.  All of that now is so very far away - we have at least six months now of mainly cold, cold weather, with the prospect of a crippling winter & the return of the polar vortex on the grey horizon.

My dumb point is this: when the weather turns around here, it doesn't turn back.  Not for a while.

Self Help Radio 101714: Soup

Mmm, soup!

Lots of soupy songs today (including soups that may not exist) & some soupy talk on the show.  I have nothing really to add, except the show has been sufficiently salted.  You really don't need to add any more.  Think of your blood pressure!

The show can be listened to now & any time really at the Self Help Radio website.  Pay attention to the password info!  & the songs I played are listed below.

Enjoy!

(part one)

"The Soup Song" New Singers _Songs For Political Action: Folk Music, Topical Songs & The American Left 1935-1954, Vol. 1 - The Leftist Roots Of The Folk Revival_
"No Soup" Charioteers _Swing Low, Sweet Charioteers_
"Soup" The Impacts _Now Is The Time_

"Chicken Soup With Rice" Tammy Grimes _Where The Wild Things Are & Other Stories by Maurice Sendak_
"Strange Things In My Soup" Allan Sherman _My Son The Box_
"Romany Soup" Tyrannosaurus Rex _Unicorn_
"The Same Old Soup" Joe Tex _Green Green Grass Of Home_

"The Wonderful Soup Stone" Bobby Bare _Bobby Bare Sings Lullabys, Legends, & Lies_
"Praise The Lord & Pass The Soup" Johnny Cash _The Folk Singer_
"(Take Your Elbow Out The Soup) You're Sitting On The Chicken" Ian Dury & The Blockheads _Laughter_
"Too Many Cooks (Spoil The Soup)" The 8th Day _The 8th Day_

"Soup Pot" The Billy Nayer Show _The Billy Nayer Show_
"Soup Spiller" Bitter Springs _Five Die Filming This Lazy Lark_
"Cold Dog Soup" Guy Clark _Cold Dog Soup_

(part two)

"Soup" The Mighty Boosh _The Complete BBC Radio 4 Series The Mighty Boosh_
"Pumpkin Soup & Mashed Potatoes" The Fall _The Unutterable_
"Stone Soup" King Khan & The Shrines _Mr. Supernatural_
"Ketchup Soup" Teen Idols _Short Music For Short People_

"Nine Bowls Of Soup" They Might Be Giants _Here Come The 123s_
"Soup" MJ Hibbett _Hibbett's Superstore_
"Soup" The Wedding Present _El Rey_
"Can Of Soup" Deniz Tek _Detroit_

"Alphabet Soup" Catnaps _Why Don't You Whisper?_
"Eyeball Soup" The Uncluded _Hokey Fright_
"Quantum Soup" Laetitia Sadier _Something Shines_

"Soup" Can _Ege Bamyasi_

Whither Soup?

Do you need a reason, ever, to do a radio show about food?  I try to stay away from food, myself, on the radio, mainly because there are lots of songs about meat, & I don't want to play them.  I remember reviewing a CD recently in which a person talked about going to heaven & eating barbecue up there.  It completely baffled me that someone would imagine going to heaven - the place where the god they believe in lives - & they'd still slaughter animals to eat.  It conjures up the image of the soul of a poor calf mistreated & murdered for veal, & its soul rising up to heaven, & once there - it gets murdered again!  How awful!

There are a few meat soup songs on tomorrow's show, I confess.  I suffered through them.  But mostly, you know, the soup songs are silly or metaphorical.  Like all that is important in life.

Is that true?

The show's on tomorrow morning from 7 to 9am on 88.1 fm WRFL in Lexington.  It's also online at WRFL dot FM.  & of course I'll keep the soup show warm & put it on the
Self Help Radio website.

But if there's no bread left when you get there, it's your own damn fault!

Preface To Soup: I Was In Louisville All Day

I went to Louisville to see an old friend.  We ate at a weird fusion sushi bar & then had whiskey across the street at a bar waiting for people who want to dance to show up.  I took my friend to his hotel as soon as the people who wanted to dance started showing up.

I didn't have any soup at the sushi restaurant.  I think I'll make myself some soup tomorrow.  Because I should.

Comic Book Nerd Television Show Round-Up

No one cares, but I should mention that my dumb ratings for dumb comic book television shows if not for you but for me why the hell not?

"Gotham" is not terribly interesting at this point.  I wish someone like Ed Brubaker were writing it.  It seems to suffer from what I call "episoditis," a disease that afflicts television shows that want to stay on the air as long as possible.  The show treads water as long as it can, waiting for milestones or (more likely) ratings weeks to do interesting things.  It's the reason cable is better than network television.  Apparently there'll be a full season of the show, but it needs to find some kind of focus or else no one will give a shit.  Despite being extremely fertile ground for storytelling.

Tonight's "Agents Of SHIELD" was fun but I am still not interested much in the show.  Clark Gregg is great as Coulson but I often find his wisecracking, in the context of the show, utterly awkward & baffling.  But I stick with it despite, seriously, being bored with most of what's going down because, & I can't stress this enough, I watched all ten seasons of Smallville
.  So if I finally give up on this show in a couple of years, no skin off my back.  I wish it were better.  But I forget it, most of the time, right after I've seen it.
"The Flash" is a lot of fun, & the machinations of Professor Zoom are enough to keep me at the edge of my seat.  It's only two episodes in, so I reserve the right to change my opinion later, but I've enjoyed the two episodes I've seen.  I just hope they don't kill the whole "he's new at this!" to death.  Barry Allen is a smart guy.  He'll learn fast.  Get it?  "Fast"?  Why aren't I writing this show?

"Arrow" was the best comic book show I've watched in a long time the last two seasons.  Ask me in December how I'm feeling.  I'm still a little heartbroken at the death of Caity Lotz's character.  Let's hope she gets a superhero show all her own.  Oh my!  Caity Lotz as Wonder Woman?  Did I say that out loud?

I Am Skeered Of Twitter

There are two (or maybe three, why in the world would I even attempt to make this sort of generalization) kinds of folks on the Twitter:

1) Funny people being clever.

2) People who think Twitter is like Facebook but they don't know everyone can see everything they write.

Now that I think about it, there are more, which includes people who promote shit on Twitter plus people who forward things on Twitter, & really, how different is Twitter really from Facebook because oh who care there's no argument here move along.

I feel like I can't be genuine on Twitter because I represent a radio show but also I feel like I can't compete with the funny people because I'm not really funny.

This is an example of a Twit I wrote today:

"Someone asked me how long I've been married & if I had 'the seven year itch.' I said I might have, but it turned out to be terrible eczema."

Not funny!  Someone's done this before!  It made random people laugh but they're not Twitter!  What the fuck am I doing?

Ah well.  I'm used to this.

Self Help Radio 101014: Heaven Revisited (A 12th Anniversary Show)

Yay! 12 years of Self Help Radio! Oh boy! Oh no!

I think it was a fun show.  I like being able to do an entire show with every song having the same title.  I've only done that once before.  & I may never get a third chance.

The show features twenty-four songs called "Heaven" (not counting the songs in the airbreaks over which I talk, which are also called "Heaven") plus interviews with heaven expert Jeff Stevenson, with author Charmagne Fluffernutter, author of The Six Animals You Meet In Heaven, & with my spiritual advisor, the Rev. Dr. Howard Gently, who knows a thing or two about heaven.  Again, it was a fun show, although not good enough to justify twelves years of this nonsense.  Twelve years!  Where did my life go?

Listen at the Self Help Radio website!  Pay attention to password info.  Pray there's not twelve more years of this!

Thanks for listening!

(part one)

"Heaven" Joey & The Lexingtons _Heaven_
"Heaven" The Rascals _Freedom Suite_
"Heaven" Boxcar Willie _20 Great Tracks_

"Heaven" Pere Ubu _Datapanik in the Year Zero: 1975-1977_
"Heaven" Squeeze _East Side Story_
"Heaven" Girls At Our Best! _Pleasure_
"Heaven" Psychedelic Furs _Mirror Moves_

"Heaven" Talking Heads _Stop Making Sense_
"Heaven" Robyn Hitchcock _Fegmania!_
"Heaven" Eurthymics _Savage_

"Heaven" Kristin Hersh _Strange Angels_
"Heaven" The Woodentops _Wooden Foot Cops On The Highway_

(part two)

"Heaven" The Frazier Chorus _Ray_
"Heaven" The Golden Palominos _Pure_

"Heaven" Majestic _The Majestic 12 Years 1994-1998_
"Heaven" The Rapture _Echoes_
"Heaven" Bitter:Sweet _The Mating Game_
"Heaven" Club 8 _The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Dreaming_

"Heaven" Envelopes _Here Comes The Wind_
"Heaven" Pocket (feat. Mark Burgess) _A Force Of Nature_
"Heaven" Frankie Rose _Herein Wild_

"Heaven" Popstrangers _Antipodes_
"Heaven" ChameleonsVox _m+d=1(8)_
"Heaven" Pomegranates _Heaven_

Whither Heaven?

On December 3, 2003, I did what was somewhere between my 45th & 49th episode of Self Help Radio*.  The theme was heaven.  My show in those days was an hour long, & not terribly well-constructed**.  I didn't, for example, have music under my voice during airbreaks.  In a real sense, I was still "finding my voice" for the show.

I believe I have a tape of that show, but I didn't think about playing it till just now, & I don't have time to try to find it & digitize it.  Too bad!  It would be interesting to listen to it!***

In 2008, when the show was six years old, I hit upon the idea of revisiting an old theme on my anniversary.  So when this, my twelfth anniversary, rolled around, & I was looking at old playlists, it hit me that I could re-explore a theme & also do something I love to do (I've only done it once before, though): have a show where all the songs on the show have the same title.  It'll happen tomorrow: the show will revisit the theme "Heaven" & all the songs will be called "Heaven."  Yay!

It's on Friday morning from 7 to 9am on 88.1 fm in Lexington or online at WRFL dot fm.  If you're celebrating the anniversary early, & aren't able to wake up early enough, I understand, & I'll put the show on my website later in the day.

Twelve years!  I can't imagine there'll be twelve more.

* I don't know how to count which shows are official shows.  At that time, there was a show called "The Pilot Show" the hour before SHR.  I was the person tasked with being there to watch over new & trainee programmers.  Oftentimes, they would cancel at the last minute, so I made it a habit to have an extra themed show prepared in the case that that occurred, which it did somewhat often.  But do I count those?  If so, 49th is the more or less right number.

** Yeah, yeah.

*** For interesting, read: painful.

Week Of Heaven: Thursday

Last day of Self Help Radio's anniversary week celebration of obvious songs.  Because the show debuted in Austin on 10/9/02 - exactly twelve years ago today! - this week the show revisits an old theme - "heaven."  Here's the last music video with "Heaven" as its title - & all the songs I'll play tomorrow will be titled "Heaven" - today it's the Eurythmics!

Week Of Heaven: Wednesday

Continuing Self Help Radio's anniversary week - the show began on October 9, 2002 - I revisit an old theme on anniversary shows - I'll return to the theme "heaven" (first visited in December 2003) & every song I play on Friday will be called "Heaven." I'm posting videos of the most obvious "Heaven" songs I know. Yeah, they're all from 1978 - 1987. Today: Robyn Hitchcock!

Week Of Heaven: Tuesday

As I said yesterday, this week's show is Self Help Radio's 12th Anniversary.  On my anniversary shows, I revisit an old theme, & so I'll be revisiting the theme "heaven" &  every song I play on will be called "Heaven."  I'm posting videos of the most obvious "Heaven" songs I know.  No surprise: they're all from 1978 - 1987.  Today: Psychedelic Furs!

Week Of Heaven: Monday

This week's show is Self Help Radio's 12th Anniversary.  The show first went on the air on October 9, 2002, in Austin, on 91.7 fm KOOP.  On my anniversary shows, I revisit an old theme, & so I'll be revisiting the theme "heaven."  Plus, every song I play on the show will be titled, simply, "Heaven."  From Monday to Thursday this week, here & on my blog, I'll post videos of the most obvious "Heaven" songs I know.  No surprise: they're all from 1978 - 1987.  First up, Talking Heads!

Self Help Radio 100314: Thrills

What a thrilling show!  What a show full of thrills!  A show for thrill junkies & thrillseekers!  You'll be thrilled!  I'm certainly thrilled!  Or am I over-selling this?  Are songs about thrills - even when thrills are gone - intrinsically thrilling?  I think thrills are in the eye of the be-thrilled.  If that's a word?

The show is now available for listening at the Self Help Radio website.  In addition to lots of music, which is listed below, there are interviews with actual thrillseekers as well as an on-the-street report by Marge Most.  It's as thrilling as I could make it, anyway.

Thanks for listening!

(part one)

"Thrills" The Jean-Paul Sartre Experience _The Size Of Food_
"Cheap Thrills" The Mothers Of Invention _Cruising With Ruben & The Jets_

"The Thrill Is Gone" Rudy Vallee & His Connecticut Yankees _They Called It Crooning_
"The Thrill Is Gone" Roy Hawkins _Bay Area Blues Blasters_
"The Thrill Is Gone" Clydie King _Brown Sugar_
"Thrills & Chills" Helene Smith _Eccentric Soul: The Deep City Label_

"Simply Thrilled Honey" Orange Juice _Coals To Newcastle_
"My Biggest Thrill" The Mighty Lemon Drops _Happy Head_
"Life Without A Thrill" Brideshead _Some People Have All The Fun_
"The Thrill Was All Mine" The Cherry Orchard _This World Is Such A Groovy Place_
"Less Than Thrilled" Love Is All _Two Thousand & Ten Injuries_

"You're My Thrill" Billie Holiday _The Definitive Collection_
"Baby You Thrill Me" Amos Milburn _The R&B Years: 1954_
"I'll Thrill You" Shirley & Lee _Shirley & Lee Rock!_

(part two)

"Thrill Me" Camille Howard with Roy Milton & His Solid Senders _The R&B Hits: 1947_
"Thrill Of Your Love" Elvis Presley _From Nashville To Memphis: The Essential 60s Masters_
"You Thrill Me (Through & Through)" The Everly Brothers _The Price Of Fame_

"Thrill Of The New" St. Christopher _Bacharach_
"The Thrill Of It All" Bauer _Can't Stop Singing_
"Thrill" Daniel Johnston _Rejected Unknown_
"The Thrill Of Thirty Seconds" Skint & Demoralised _Love, & Other Catastrophes_

"Thriller!" Pere Ubu _Dub Housing_
"The Thrill Of It All" Hey! Hello! _Hey! Hello!_
"Thrill Me" The Undertones _Get What You Need_

"The Thrill Of It All" Roxy Music _Country Life_
"You Still Thrill Me, Babe" Webster's New Word _You Still Thrill Me, Babe_

Whither Thrills?

A long time ago, attempting to make Self Help Radio into a better show, I started trying to imitate the Firesign Theatre - not their high concept albums, but their radio shows on community radio in the late 60s/early 70s.  They were mainly improvised, & very very funny.  Since I was doing the show myself, & since I'm not terribly funny, I forewent improvisation, but I attempted to copy a couple of Firesignish things.  One of them was fake ads.  I'd read them out in those days - I didn't always have a lot of time for editing, & wasn't that good at it, & also didn't have a decent mic at home.

I stopped doing that once I started doing shows outside of Texas.  I don't know why - I had more time to try to be funny, & could have gotten better equipment.  But I started doing it again this year, & every show now has at least four attempts at me being funny: two fake ad spots, two "others," sometimes skits, sometimes other stuff.  Are they funny?  Oh, probably not.

I also started this year something I've wanted to do for a long time: have the same people on regularly as "experts" - but pretending to be different people.  I have asked my funniest friends if it's something they'd like to do, & most of them (not all of them) have said sure!  One of them, my friend David, can be awfully convincing.  On the RFL Facebook page, a fellow asked people who don't listen to my show about bullfighting in Kentucky - I think this person didn't know it was all grade-A David Fruchter horse-hockey.  That's how good he is.

Anyway, I had a point, & it was this: I didn't want to do the same characters over & over.  I said to myself, "Every skit or voice that I do on the show should be unique."  It actually makes me think that the reason I stopped doing that is because it can be pretty exhausting.  Listening to comedians talk on Marc Maron's podcast, one learns that some of these people spend years honing a character.  & I, an untrained, mostly unfunny dumbass on a little radio show, was poo-pooing that?  What a douche.

I'm thinking about this not because it has anything to do with this week's show, which is about thrills (& of course this blog post is completely unthrilling), except one thing: there's a recurring character appearing on the show.  I have changed my mind, & I repeat people.  He's a "poet" called Archibald Von Poesy, & his main characteristic is that his "poems" all rhyme, but each line rhymes.  So the rhyme scheme would be AAAAAAA etc.  He returns to the show tomorrow.  I have no idea if anyone likes him or thinks he's funny.  I find him easy to slip into.

Actually, there are two recurring characters: disgruntled reporter Marge Most shows up again.

Again, there's no real reason for me to mention any of this.  But the show is on tomorrow from 7 to 9am on 88.1 fm WRFL Lexington, online at wrfl fot fm, & of course I'll put it up as soon as I can afterwards on the SHR website.  I also live tweet it, so you can follow along on my twitter thing if you're so inclined.

Oy this is so the opposite of thrilling.  I hope the show is better!

Not To Put Too Fine A Point On It

You might think that I am trying to somehow curry favor with the fine, funny comedians over at Superego because I keep talking about the time that they followed & then didn't follow me on Twitter, but really, if I talk about them, it's because they are awesome & however much I yell about them, I hope it means more people discover them.

Which is why I was ecstatic that there was a new Superego podcast released today.  & it's so good & it's so funny.  Holy shit, I wish I could be as funny as these people.  Please, go download it & listen, & seek out their old episodes, & pay them lots of money, & turn them into superstars, & have them replace everything that's considered famous or good in our popular media, because it will be a better world, a funnier world, a smarter world.

If the superegos behind Superego would create & produce the new Fall television schedule, there would be fewer failures, & more exciting dramas.  Shunt McGuppin as a crime-solving country music singer?  Holy shit, I'm there for seven or more seasons!  Also, I'm buying the DVDs, & then, later, spending money I don't have on Blu-Ray versions of episodes I already own!

Seriously, though - these folks are giant comedic talents & you need to listen to them.  Go to their website. You'll be glad you did.

(I said that last bit in a Wilford Brimley voice.  Could you tell?)

Moments On Twitter, Part II

I understand that the people I like & admire are nowhere near as famous as the people most humans like & admire.  For example, if I had tweeted something & some huge pop star were to favorite it or retweet it, I'd think it was nice, but not really care much about it.  (I generally assume that the super famous have people who handle their social media for them anyway.)  So when something happens that makes me happy on Twitter, it's bound to be musicians or comedians or writers that I wish were as famous as the nameless, faceless, usually blonde pop stars that teens look up to & music writers waste time writing about.

I mentioned last week how happy I was for the brief moment - oh so brief! - that the comedy geniuses at Superego followed Self Help Radio on Twitter.  (I'm @SelfHelpRadio, by the way.  If you want to follow me.)  Today something equally exciting happened to me.

One of my favorite bands in the world is My Favorite, who are sort of defunct.  The main songwriter, Michael Grace Jr., has an entertaining Twitter feed that I follow, & occasionally briefly interact with.  (On Friday we agreed on the greatness of the Psychedelic Furs' Talk Talk Talk for example.)  (By the way, Grace's follow-up band to My Favorite, the also-now-defunct Secret History, is amazing too.)

Today, as I was reading that this day in history was the day that James Dean died, at the age of 24, in a car accident, I was reminded of a lyric from the My Favorite song, "James Dean (Awaiting Ambulance)."  I looked around for pictures of Dean & then tweeted something to Michael Grace, Jr.  Below is the tweet & his response.

As you can imagine, it made me very, very happy.

In the way a retweet from [insert whoever has the number one single in the United States right now] never would.