Saturday List

Here is Saturday's list:

1) Tortilla chips
2) Chatty cashiers
3) Mowing & re-mowing the lawn
4) Books on tape on iPhone
5) Three false alarms
6) Millet
7) You don't really need to
8) Text interrupts nap
9) Time is tight
10) Late for show

Self Help Radio 070516: Bread

(Original image here.)

No fooling, I gained weight during this show.  I kept going to the pantry for "research."  For "inspiration."  Finally I realized I had a problem.  With bread.

This show celebrates bread, so anyone who can eat an entire baguette while in the midst of a casual conversation should stay away from this show.  I even heard that three local bakeries had to close because of a rush on artisan breads!  I heard that from my cats, though, & they wouldn't know such a thing.

For those who can stomach it (pun intended), here is this week's Self Help Radio, about bread.  It's at the Self Help Radio website.  It's wrapped for freshness.  Actually, it's sliced - into only two slices, but it is sliced!  The different songs that are in each slice are listed below.  Pretend it's a list of essential vitamins & minerals & that the show is actually nutritious.  Spoiler alert: it's not!

Now if you'll excuse me, there's a hunk of sourdough bread positively screaming my name.

(one slice)

"The Breads In Your Bakery" PBNJ Buchanan _The Breads In Your Bakery_
"Bread" Jonny _Jonny_
"Bread" Norma Tanega _The DynoVoice Story_

"Breakin' Bread" Fred Wesley & The JB's _Breakin' Bread_
"Welfare Bread" King Khan & The Shrines _What Is?!_
"(Get Off That) Booze & Garlic Bread" Denny Rockwell _(Get Off That) Booze & Garlic Bread_
"Bread & Butter" The Newbeats _The Best Of The Newbeats_

"Ezekiel Bread" Half-Handed Cloud _Thy Is A Word + Feet Need Lamps_
"Es Como El Pan" Jonathan Richman _Because Her Beauty Is Raw & Wild_
"(I'm Just A Crumb In Your) Bread Box Of Love" Ted Taylor _Taylor Made_
"Wooden Bread" Bruce Haack _Hush Little Robot_

"Dry Bread" Hank Thompson _Songs For Rounders_
"Bread & Circus" Marc Almond _Varieté_

(another slice)

"Yea! Heavy & A Bottle Of Bread" Bob Dylan & The Band _The Basement Tapes_
"Beans & Corn Bread" Louis Jordan _Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five, Vol. 4: 1947-1949_
"Bread Crumbs" Bishop Allen _Lights Out_

"Good Old Bosom Bread" Hot Lips Page _1938-1940_
"Bread Line Blues" Slim Smith _Hard Times Come Again No More, Vol. 1 (Early American Rural Songs Of Hard Times & Hardships)_
"I Love Bread" Jim Gaffigan _The Last Supper_
"The Baker's Wife" The Lucksmiths _Boondoggle_
"Bread" Neil Phillips _Supermarket_

"Bread & Gravy" Martha Davis _1946-1951_
"Two Little Fishes & Five Loaves Of Bread" Sister Rosetta Tharpe _The Original Soul Sister (1943-46)_
"Breaking Bread" Johnny Cash _Unearthed_
"Goodbye Bread" Ty Segall _Goodbye Bread_

"Cuttin' The Cornbread" Ralph Stanley _Old-Time Pickin': A Clawhammer Banjo Collection_
"Bread & Gravy" Homer & Jethro _Ooh, That's Corny_
"I'm Your Bread Maker, Baby" Slim Harpo _The Excello Singles Anthology_

Whither Bread?

(Image found here.)

Oh good grief I eat a lot of bread.  I just ate bread with my lunch, & also chips.  It was a dish called "southwestern mac & 'cheese'" so of course I trebled up on the carbs & starches.  Damn it!

One thing I've never made (since I do cook all the time) is bread.  I don't know why I haven't.  I mean, I've made cornbread, which is a kind of bread, but never wheat bread.  Or potato bread or rice bread or whatever.  Okay I'll admit it: I'm a little scared of baking.

What about cake?  I've made cakes.  Does that count?  Not really?

As I finish up listening to all the songs I've gathered for the show - far more songs about bread than will fit in two hours - I can tentatively promise you a pretty good show.  As well, I have interviews out the wazoo, which may be, after all the bread I've consumed, the only thing coming out of the wazoo for a while if you know what I mean & I think you do.

So do listen today from 4-6pm on 88.1 fm & simultaneously on wrfl dot fm.  I hope that all the music & chat that I have prepared will be hearty enough to fill two hours like two giant slices of sandwich bread.

Ho ho, I crack myself up.

Preface To Bread: On The Fourth Of July I Compare My Dogs To Different Types Of Bread

In discussion with my wife today, who may or may not know that Self Help Radio this week is about bread, we agreed upon four things (a rarity) in regards to the types of bread our canines would be if they were to suddenly become bread.  Here's what we decided, from the youngest dog, to the oldest.

Yoko would be cornbread.

Delicious.

Pauline would be a baguette.

Scrumptious.

Winston would be an onion bagel.

Messy but tasty.

& old Ringo would be rye bread.  Probably very dark rye bread.

Earthy.

If you've ever wondered what gets talked about during dog walks, well, it probably doesn't get a whole lot deeper than this.

The Obligatory Pre-Independence Day Calvin & Hobbes Cartoon

One Last Chance To Take It Easy

When first thinking about the idea of Self Help Radio - well, what I was going to say was just not true.  I wasn't thinking much about "the idea of Self Help Radio" back in 2002 when I started this show.  I was thinking about doing a radio show again after not having a regular gig since I left KVRX in 1999, & I had to come up with a kind of gimmick to justify my existence on KOOP.  This is true - most of the things that make up the average Self Help Radio episode - with the exception of songs adhering to a theme - weren't there in the first episodes.  Maybe not in the first year!

Anyway, later on, I would ask folks who were musicians (& usually friends of mine) if they would like to contribute to the show in some way - mostly, of course, by contributing a song for a particular theme.  The big question is of course "Why?"  Why would anyone want to contribute anything to this unimportant radio show?  Luckily, some people did - for reasons I can't imagine - & just this week it happened again!

Jenny of Owlsey County recorded a lovely, slyly transformative version of a song I have issues with.  I am so very grateful she took the time to do it, & am very flattered it appeared on this week's show.  Here it is, please enjoy:

Self Help Radio 062816: Take It Easy

(Original image here.)

This was a fun show for me to do.  I had a great time finding songs - there were so many I left out! - which mentioned "take it easy" - seriously, I had a bevy of them from the 1930s to the present.  Plus, my collaborators - you know, the funny people on the show - were totally on point.  & best of all, local musician Jenny A from Owlsey County performed for the show a lovely cover of an Eagles song that I am now going to stop complaining about.

The irony, of course, is that so much work went into a show about taking it easy.  I hope it showed.  I felt pretty good after this one, which was a weird feeling for me.  I thought I might have food poisoning or strep throat or something.  I almost went straight to the emergency room.

But anyway, here it is, this week's show about taking it easy.  That's a link to the show's website.  Pay attention to password info, available in the paragraph above the show's playlist.  Meanwhile, the songs I played are listed below.

The rest of the day, I think I'll just take it easy.

(part one)

"Take It Easy" Fats Waller & His Rhythm _1935, Volume I_
"Take It Easy" Speckled Red _Complete Recorded Works 1929-1938_
"Take It Easy" Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians _The Sweetest Music This Side Of Heaven_

"Take It Easy, Greasy" Lil Johnson _Complete Works In Chronological Order, Vol. 1 (1929-1936)_
"I'm Gonna Take It Easy" Gabriel Brown _Roll & Tumble Blues: A History Of Slide Guitar_
"Taking It Easy" The Weavers _Goodnight Irene, 1949-1953_
"Relax & Take It Easy" Tommy Duncan With The Ranger Trio _Atomic Platters_

"Take It Easy, Greasy" Bobby Charles _The Chess Story, 1947-1975_
"Take It Easy Baby" Rufus Beacham _Soldier Boy: The Scepter Records Story 1961-1962_
"Take It Easy" The Animals _Animal Tracks_
"Take It Easy" Hopeton Lewis _The Story Of Jamaican Music: Forward March 1958-1967_

"Take It Easy" Jenny _Take It Easy_
"Take It Easy" Mint Royale _Pop Is_

(part two)

"Take It Easy My Brother Charles" Jorge Ben _Tropicalia: A Brazilian Revolution In Sound_
"Take It Easy Baby" Ty Karim _The Complete Ty Karim: Los Angeles' Soul Goddess_
"Take It Easy" Manuela & Drafi _Die Grossen Hits_

"Takin' It Easy" Johnny Tillotson _Here I Am_
"Gotta Take It Easy" The Cherry Slush _Day Don't Come_
"Takin' It Easy" Jack Wild _Everything's Coming Up Roses_
"Take It Easy (In Your Mind)" Jerry Reed _Smell The Flowers_
"Take It Easy Rider (feat. Guy Clark & Larry Jon Wilson)" David Allan Coe _I've Got Something To Say_

"Take It Easy" Gary Young _Naked In The Afternoon: A Tribute To Jandek_
"Take It Easy" Bourbon Family _Happy Bourbon Party_
"Take It Easy" Stanley Brinks & Freschard _Pizza Espresso_
"Take It Easy" Ghinzu _Mirror Mirror_

"Take It Easy" Surfer Blood _Astro Coast_
"Take It Easy" Willie Rodriguez & The International Stars _A Bunch Of Bongos_

Whither Take It Easy?

(This is from here.)

Before I forget: there's a story I've been meaning to mention.  Last week I was on my way to a meeting, a meeting I hope I can tell you about one day soon, & I noticed a big black ant in my car.  These ants occasionally find their way into my house, I'm always swatting them away in the kitchen.

Now, even though I am a vegan, I am ambivalent about insects.  I don't feel much closeness to them, except maybe bees, & besides I'm scared of scary insects, & have stomped them out of fear without remorse.  & so, in general, I am not as sad about a dead ant as I might be about a chipmunk which my dog Pauline (my beautiful murderer!) has killed in the backyard.

& yet, as I was driving to this meeting, just me & this ant, I started to feel very, very sad about her.  She was very far away from her anthill (or whatever social ant situation she lived in), & it seemed to me that, even if the ant stayed in the car until I got home, she might not be able to find her way back.  In fact, when I pulled in to the place where I had the meeting, the ant had disappeared into a vent on the dashboard.

Truth is, I had forgotten all about the little thing by the time the meeting was over, & I had to go run some errands.  The windows were open & I was singing along to something when the little ant crawled out onto the door right next to me, took a wrong turn, & flew out the window into the warm summer day.

She probably didn't die - insects are awful sturdy - but she was now impossibly far from home.  & that made me sad.  It was a feeling that I couldn't shake for the rest of the day.  I don't feel any real emotion when I step on a bug, but something about the little ant finding itself so very far from home got to me.  What's up with that?

What does this have to do with today's theme, which is "take it easy"?  Oh who knows.  Just be aware, it's on from 4-6 pm today on 88.1 fm WRFL & online at wrfl dot fm.  Like usual.  I hope you'll listen.

Special note to ants: stay out of the car!

Preface To Take It Easy: Well, I Haven't

This is perhaps a thing: I don't really know how to take it easy.  I wouldn't even know how.  I mean, what does that even entail?

Look at this link.  "Taking it easy" is framed as a kind of battle between you & stress.  Is that it?  When one "takes it easy," is one combatting stress?  Or are we vilifying stress?

Before anyone attempts to answer that, it must be said that Self Help Radio & its subsidiaries (should it have any) do not in any way support or promote stress.  It is commonly & correctly understood that 

stress is a bad thing.  But is it?

This is not a question I am asking nor an argument I am wanting to have.  It isn't even a subject I am (to be frank) interested in.  However, I had a stupid argument tonight with my wife about something completely dumb involving leaving doors open that cats who aren't allowed outside are able to use to get outside which leads to cats being lost or whatever & then whose fault is it?  The person who opened the door or the person who left the door open?  Anyway it's lucky Boone came back isn't it?  ISN'T IT?

Ahem.  It remains to assure you as a valued listener that even if the host of Self Help Radio ("Gary") finds it difficult if not impossible to "take it easy," this does not mean (we hope) there will be any loss of quality for a show with such a theme.  We hope.  Did we already say "we hope"?  Well, there you have it.

Apropos "Take It Easy"

That's this week's theme, "Take It Easy."  I understand there's a famous song, called "Take It Easy," performed by one of the most extinction-worthy dinosaur rock bands out there, the Eaglets.  (I think that's the name.)  I've heard that song - which was released in 1972, when I was four - most of my life, & so have you.  I can close my eyes & run the song through my head.  This is not to say I enjoy it.  I don't.  I find it stupidly masculine & embarrassingly misogynistic.  But it's been on the radio since around the time I learned to read, & therefore it's in my brain, probably replacing a happy childhood memory or two.

None of this means I won't play some version of the song on my show this week.

It was with a small amount of sadness that I learned that the song was written by Jackson Browne, whom I don't hold in terribly high regard but I certainly don't think of him in the same sad sense as the Eagleys (is that thename?).  This is what Jackson Browne looked like in 1972, when he wrote the song with recently dead Eagerly, Glen Frey:

(Image from this web site in a foreign language.)

Somehow I don't associate Jackson Browne with the sort of bullshit cowboy machismo of the dreadful Eagrets.  I have always - perhaps unfairly - lumped him in with the more sensitive singer-songwriters of the 1970s, not as wimpy as James Taylor but certainly not as sincerely brilliant as, say, Cat Stevens.  I will confess to liking one or two Jackson Browne songs.

But not this one.  In an email recently I referred to the audacity of Browne, whom I called a "wimpy little pre-emo shit," cursing the world with such awful lines as "driving down the road trying to loosen my load" & "I'm looking for a lover who won't blow my cover."  Pretty boys lead such complicated lives!

What is there to do with the problem of this problematic tune?  I believe I've found an elegant solution, but you'll have to wait till Tuesday to hear it.

I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself

Is a song by Burt Bacharach & Hal David.  The first time I heard the song was by Elvis Costello, from his "sort of punk" years:



In those days - I was still in high school - I was pretty earnest about my Elvis Costello studies, so I recall being particularly moved by the lines:

Like a summer rose
Needs the sun & rain
I need your sweet love
To beat all the pain

It was my first experience with the brilliance of Hal David's lyrics.

Later on, of course, I heard the version lots of folks think is definitive, which is Dusty Springfield's:



Although there are those who prefer Dionne Warwick's:



Maybe because it was produced by Bacharach himself?

Is it weird I still prefer Elvis Costello's?  & no, I can't listen to the White Stripes version.  Nope.

Self Help Radio 062116: Torture

(Poor old bear!  Original here.)

Does a show about torture constitute torture?  Is it a form of self-torture to be tortured by that question?  Are these real questions or are they rhetorical so one need not torture oneself to discover the answers?

The answers won't surprise you: no, no, they're rhetorical.  Boom!  All done.  Everyone can go home now.

Of if you didn't hear the show, you can listen to it now as if you're chained to a wall & have nothing better to do with your time at the Self Help Radio website, which can be pretty torturous if you don't know there's a username & password & that that username & password combo is on the front page.  The songs are listed below.

Oddly enough, no one gave me any of the information I wanted during the course of the show.  Dad gum it, torture doesn't work after all!

(part one)

"Torture" Del Shannon _Home & Away: The Complete Recordings 1960-1970_
"Torture" A-440 _Mindrocker: Anthology Of 60s US-Punk Garage Psych, Vol. 4_
"Torture" The Everly Brothers _Gone, Gone, Gone_

"Torture" The Cure _Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me_
"Torture" The Psychedelic Furs _Midnight To Midnight_
"Torture" King Khan & The Shrines _The Supreme Genius Of King Khan & The Shrines_
"Ye Tortures" Spike Milligan _Muses With Milligan_
"Torture" The Virgin-Whore Complex _Stay Away From My Mother_

"Two Years Of Torture" Percy Mayfield _The Swingtime Records Story_
"My Tortured Mind" Amos Milburn _The Complete Aladdin Recordings_
"It's Torture" Maxine Brown _Oh No, Not My Baby: The Best Of Maxine Brown_
"Torture" Hairy Diamond _Beikoku-Ongaku Magazine # 19 - Fall 2001_

"Torture Day" The Notwist _12_

(part two)

"Methods Of Torture" Negativland _Escape From Noise_
"It's Torture" Jean Shepard _The Melody Ranch Girl_
"Water Torture" Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel _Hole_

"Tortured Soul" The Fauves _Tortured Soul_
"The Torturers" Po! _Little Stones_
"Sweet Torture" How Many Beans Make Five _One Last Look_
"The Spanish Inquisition" Monty Python _The Final Rip-Off_
"Life Is A Tortured Love Affair" Coke Escovedo _Coke_

"Tender Torture" Islands _Vapours_
"You Torture Me" Art Kubin _The Hit Sound Of Art Kubin_
"Torture Me" Harlem _Hippies_
"Torture Me" Peter Himmelman _The Musings Of Someone_

"Torture" The Wolfhounds _Lost But Happy: The Wolfhounds 1986-1990_

Whither Torture?

(This is from here.)

May I give you a little backstory?  When I first started doing this blog, I conceived of a weekly entry - always to begin with the pretentious word Whither? - detailing how I came up with those darn themes every week.  Over time, this task - which I have continued to do nonetheless, for almost ten years now - revealed itself as something mostly mundane.  There were never any great revelations about why I had decided to do a theme.  In fact, they mostly came down to a few reasons:

1) It's a time of year (Halloween, Christmas, etc.)
2) I was listening to a song or lots of songs & the theme was in the song(s).
3) Someone suggested it.
4) I can't really remember.

This is not scientific - I'm not going to go back & read ten years of posts to check - but I wouldn't be surprised if reason number four is the most common explanation I've used.  Actually, it might not be, not because it isn't true, but because out of embarrassment for reason number four, I often come up with this:

5) Make something up.

It's not that I have a great imagination or anything, I just get tired of saying "I don't remember why I thought of that theme."  I'm certainly not intending to deceive.  These are no Donald Trump-level lies - in fact, the only thing they have in common with Trump's lies are their obviousness.*  No, I am making shit up because I don't want to have to write "Who knows where this theme came from?" over & over, week after week.

Having said all that: I don't know why I thought about doing a show about torture.  It might have been from listening to Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me a couple of months ago.  I don't know!

But no matter.  The Self Help Radio show about torture is on today from 4-6pm on 88.1 fm in Lexington & online at wrfl dot fm.  If you resist, we have ways of making you listen.

Get it?  I threatened to torture you if you didn't listen!  Humor, it's fun.**

* Sorry, sudden political content.
** I'm also on from 2-4pm today subbing Tyler's show.  I'm sorry this isn't a proper footnote, but I couldn't think of where to say this anywhere up there.

Preface To Torture: Being Provocative On The Radio

(I found this here.)

In general, Self Help Radio isn't a political show.  In general, it can hardly be considered "entertaining."  But when I told some folks the show this week would be about torture, they reacted like I was becoming the next - well - whoever's a popular talking head on radio these days.  I have no idea.

Here's the thing: my topics are basically just outlines to be filled by the music available that comes somewhat close to being about whatever the theme is.  & I promise you, there aren't a whole lot of songs that talk about torture in the sense of Abu Ghraib.  Mostly it's a hyperbolic description of how someone - usually an object of love - has made you feel.

In fact, most of my themes - the ones that aren't goofy phrases or words that don't intrinsically give themselves over to thematic radio shows - veer toward the metaphorical rather than the actual.  My show about chickens from so very long ago was not always about chickens - you know, because "chicks" can mean something other than baby chickens.

While I can't promise I won't utter the phrase "enhanced interrogation," I can promise you that most of the torture on the show will not involve implements from the Inquisition.

Most.  But maybe some.

In any event.  I hope I have set your mind at ease.  In case, you know, you're a fan of torture.  Or something.

Cradle To Grave, Episode Twenty-Five

Here it is, the last episode of Cradle To Grave!  It was a bittersweet affair, starting late (I was outside the studio chatting with someone), & beset by technical difficulties (user error), which I corrected in post (ie, removed from the recording because embarrassment).  Oh my god, did I say "corrected in post"?  I don't deserve a radio show!

One nice thing is there's a song that's a tribute to my cat Beatrice.  If I had done the show longer - & paid more attention - I would've tried to incorporate people I know (since most of the people I know are cats) in some way.  I didn't do it, but I promised I'd make a list of the birthdays of the sorts of folks (you know, indie musicians) (as well as my friends) who don't make it onto "on this day in music history" type lists.

Ah well.  Water under the bridge.  Lessons to be taken to heart when/if Cradle To Grave comes back.

Meanwhile, you can listen to this last show by visiting the Self Help Radio web page.  The deaths & births I talk about are listed below, although sometimes it's a sideperson whose life is the subject, so you gotta listen to find out who!  Whom?  To find out whom!

& thanks to anyone who might've listened to this show & the twenty-four that preceded it!

(birthdays)

"Tennessee Saturday Night" Red Foley _The History Of Country & Western Music, Vol. 14 (1947-1948)_
"Barnyard Banjo Pickin'" David Stringbean Akeman _Old Time Banjo: Vintage String Sound_
"The Cry Of The Wild Goose" Terry Gilkyson _Troubadours: Folk & The Roots Of American Music, Part 1_
"Who Threw The Whiskey In The Well" Sing Miller _Old Times With Sing Miller_
"Hogan's Heroes March" Hogan's Heroes Cast _Hogan's Heroes Sing The Best Of World War II_

"Pussy Cat" Twink _The Broken Record_
"Be-Bop-A-Lula" Gene Vincent _Classic Rockabilly: Swing Bop Boogie_
"Pogo Dancing" Chris Spedding & The Vibrators _Pogo Dancing_
"Television Screen" The Radiators From Space _The Chiswick Story: Adventures Of An Independent Record Label 1975-1982_
"Kill The Poor" Dead Kennedys _Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables_
"Living In Vain" Snakefinger _Change The Beat: The Celluloid Records Story 1979-1987_
"I Write The Songs" Me First & The Gimme Gimmes _Barry 7"_

"Early In The Morning" Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five _Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five, Vol. 4: 1947-1949_
"Wail Of The Scromph" Gene Sedric & Al Casey _The World Of Swing_
"Where Are We Going?" Donald Byrd _Black Byrd_

(death anniversaries)

"Oriental Strut" Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five _Hot Fives & Sevens_
"The Moon Song" Kate Smith _Hollywood Sings! The Girls_
"My Ship" Jackie Paris _Jackie Paris Sings The Lyrics Of Ira Gershwin_
"The More I See You" Jeff Chandler _Jeff Chandler Sings To You_
"Tristeza De Nós Dois" Wanda Sá & Durval Ferreira _Um Cantinho, Um Violão E Bossa Nova_

"Rock Around The Clock" Bill Haley & His Comets _Loud, Fast & Out Of Control: The Wild Sounds Of '50s Rock_
"A Little Loving" The Fourmost _The British Invasion_
"Open Up Your Door" Richard & The Young Lions _Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era, Vol. 4_
"Thread The Needle" Clarence & Calvin _The Fame Studios Story 1961-1973_
"Just Friends" Chris & Peter Allen _The Get Easy! Sunshine Pop Collection_

"We're Looking For A Piano" Original Cast _Salad Days (Original London Cast Recording)_
"Space Oddity (Live)" Flying Pickets _The Best Of Flying Pickets_

"Infinity" Eon _Void Dweller_

Oh, Hey

Um, I did my last episode of Cradle To Grave yesterday, & normally I put the show up on the day after, but, you know, it's weird, it was draining, I just wanted to take a day off.

So I took the day off.  I hope you don't mind.

Self Help Radio 061416: Fog

(Original image here.)

Yes, a radio show about fog.  It occurs to me I didn't mention why I was doing a radio show about fog.  The answer is, I'm not sure.  I don't know when the idea came to me or why it came to me in the first place.  Honestly, I usually don't pay much attention.  It's like I'm in a fog much of the time.

Luckily, it was perfect weather for a foggy show, & you can find that show (& maybe even some weather) over at the Self Help Radio website.  It was two hours long, but for reasons that I don't understand, I've divided the show into two, & the music in each part (but not the chatter, nor the interviews) is listed below.

Interviews!  Yes!  I interviewed a meteorologist who likes fog, a cult leader whose organization worships fog, & my own spiritual advisor, who has help lift me out of my own personal fog.  That's in the show, too!  It's not just music.  Duh.

Geez, I can't see my hand in front of my face!

(part one)

"FOG" Richard Davies _Barbarians_
"Fog" Peppermint _Keep Your Chin Up There, Sailor_
"Fog" Kristin Hersh _Sky Motel_

"Foggy Mountain Breakdown" Flatt & Scruggs _1964-1969_
"Foggy River" Bill Monroe _Bluegrass (1959-1969)_
"Foggy Mountain Top" Hasil Adkins _The Wild Man_
"Footsteps In The Fog" Ceramic Hello _The Absence Of A Canary_

"Foggy Foggy Dew" Paddy Roberts _Songs For Gay Dogs_
"Bad Fog Of Loneliness" Neil Young _Archives, Vol. 1: 1963-1972_
"Shadows On A Foggy Day" Flying Machine _Flight Recorder_
"Fogbound" The Smoke _The Smoke_
"Foggy Bottom" Halo Benders _The Rebels Not In_

"Foggy Notion" Velvet Underground _Peel Slowly & See_

(part two)

"Fog Song" Antarctica Takes It! _The Penguin League_
"The Fog Of Trujillo" The Lucksmiths _Warmer Corners_
"Foggin' Up The Window" Robin Luke & Roberta Shore _Robin Luke: The Complete DOT Records Singles_

"Foggy Eyes" Beat Happening _Music To Climb The Apple Tree By_
"Foggy" BMX Bandits _Bee Stings_
"The Morning Fog" Kate Bush _Hounds Of Love_
"Feel Like Snakes Twisting Through The Fog" Liliput _Kleenex/Liliput_

"Fog Bound Pinhead" Thee Headcoats _The Kids Are All Square - This Is Hip!_
"Fog Over Frisco" Yo La Tengo _That Is Yo La Tengo_
"The Fog Rose High" Craft Spells _Idle Labor_
"A Foggy Day" Lyn Collins _Check Me Out If You Don't Know Me By Now_

"Foggy Tuesday" Saker _We Can Fly, Vol. 5_
"Kisses & Fog" Pines _All Is Fair In Love & Chickfactor: CF Mixtape 1_

Whither Fog?

(Lots of fog pictures like this one here.)

Before I moved to this part of the world, an acquaintance regaled me with stories about the epic fog that happened in the Appalachian Mountains, telling me that there were times that highway 64 was closed down because of so much fog.  It reminded me of a time when I was returning from Houston - this had to be in the 1990s - back to Austin, driving down highway 290, which was at the time basically a one-lane road, & which that night was covered in fog.  There was no light save the light from my control panel in the car, & the light from the headlights was basically stopped by a wall of white just a few feet away.  I couldn't see houses or businesses I was passing, I couldn't see streetlights.  I concentrated on the yellow lines, & I drove slowly - a car could easily come out of the fog right in front of me - or worse, someone could be driving faster than I was behind me, & ram me.  Texas drivers, like every other kind of American driver, are assholes.

Something was happening in my head, & I had turned off whatever I was listening to - or, since it was a cassette, I think it came to that point on the cassette where there was silence leading to end of the side - & suddenly it was just me, the car, the headlights, & the fog.  & I reached over & turned off the headlights.

To this day I have no idea what the fuck I was doing.  I was suddenly driving a car at around 45 miles per hour on a highway in the middle of Texas in a thick, thick fog, with no lights on.  I don't know how long I did this - probably just seconds - but I felt a pain behind my eyes & said, "Shit!"  I turned the lights back on, & changed the cassette - very carefully.

There's no explanation for what happened.  Certainly I had no death wish at the time, nor was I ever prone to daredevil thrills.  Later on I wondered if there were some kind of "fog sickness" that's just as insidious as seeing a mirage in the middle of a desert.  Or if I were just a dumbass.

Speaking of me being a dumbass, Self Help Radio is on from 4-6 today on 88.1 fm, wrfl dot fm online.  I'll have a dry ice machine in the studio!

No, no, I won't.

Preface To Fog: Cloudy Days

(This image found here.)

Actually, I'm a little freaked out by fog.  I've never even seen the movie The Fog.  I think it might really freak me out.

You probably already know this but there is a Facebook page for the show, & sometimes I link to these dumb blog posts, & yesterday's Facebook post was read by & reacted to by a lot of folks.  I'm sorry the announcement wasn't more interesting.  I'll try to really have something important to announce the next time I make a big deal about announcing something.

But here's an embarrassing story: This morning I was very, very tired, but I had to take the dogs on the daily walk.  I try to walk them every morning around eight, & usually there's no one around, but today I ran into a couple & their little girl in a park with their dog, whom I had met before, & I asked about her name.  The little girl told me, & I repeated it, & I said, "Yeah, she's really fucking cute."

The parents didn't respond but I immediately felt mortified, & my dogs were barking to play with the other dog so I skulked away without apologizing.  There isn't any excuse, it was an awful thing to do, & I have been angry at myself all day for it.  I'm not going to be neighborly anymore, & certainly not with only a couple hours sleep in me.

How I wished it had been foggy this morning!

Another Damn Announcement

(Clip art found here.)

You may recall that last year I made a couple or three "announcements" on this blog.  The first announcement was in anticipation of leaving Lexington, which was a plan that fell through, as announced a little over a month later.  God, that was humiliating.

Later on, I announced that I would be doing another radio show.  That show, called Cradle To Grave, has run for twenty-four episodes, with its twenty-fifth airing this Friday.  This announcement has nothing to do with the first announcement; instead, this "announcement" has to do with the latest announcement, as kind of a booked.  That announcement goes like this:

The twenty-fifth episode of Cradle To Grave will be the last one I do, at least for now.  If you haven't heard the show, well, you're not missing anything; but if you have, you may wonder how much work goes into it.  It turns out, a lot.  It's partially my fault.  For example, a show on KOOP radio in Austin called Graveside Service, which was an inspiration for Cradle To Grave, wisely devotes its time to musicians who have died during the week of the show, not just the day of the show.  I doubled-down, in my usual unthinking way, by focusing on both death anniversaries & birthdays.  I do a lot of research, & for artists who are not band leaders or big names, I have to spend time to discover if, for example, a notable jazz bassist has played on any records I have.  It is rather time-consuming.

& honestly I can't say I have better things to do, but I do have other projects (at least one of which I get paid for) that are taking up more & more of my time.  & I don't want to sacrifice the time it takes to do Self Help Radio, which is my baby, & a show I have the most fun doing.

Therefore.  Sigh.  To reiterate: this week's episode of Cradle To Grave will be the last one I do.  At least for now.  If in the future I find myself with the free time, I'll come to WLXU, hat in hand, on my knees, begging it please, might I have another go.  But for the present, I would like to walk away from the show doing it the way I designed it, the way I wanted to do it, & not be forced to change it just because I don't have the time for it.

As always, I hope you understand.