Only One Day Behind!

I may be an old man but music keeps me young. In fact, it keeps me downright immature.
As long as I can still walk, I can still pogo-dance around the DJ booth and play air guitar- my mandatory 48 oz. Sunday coffee blast doesn't hurt either.
Today's show was one of the most enjoyable ones I've done for a long time- and it was all because of other people! I'll explain later.

After the show, my car- which is already in dire need of tire alignment- wouldn't start. It would gasp and die. Grrrrooowww....putter.....stop. This went on until I flooded the engine over and over- so I did the rational thing and went for a caffeine break to soothe my nerves. Then I returned and hurled hi-speed profanity at my Volvo. It took three '"motherfucks" and one "suck my balls, you piece of shit" to get it started, albeit even more herky-jerky and sputtery than before... that goddamn "Check Engine" has been on since February or March.
I'm beginning to suspect it means something.

I managed to get it home, but not before calling for help- my friend Mike arrived just as I was getting it started...sorry Mike! Thanks for comin'!

By this time I'm wired and upset, but I still have a good vibe from my morning show, so I grab some tools and head outside to fix my car. Mind you, I have very little, if any, skill with automobiles but I do perform quite a bit of PC and audio troubleshooting. I decided to use the same techniques that I use on my other gear on my car- I found everything electrical that could be unplugged or unhooked and then I disconnected it. Any wires or cables that couldn't be disconnected were given the old 'jiggle/wiggle' treatment. While I was doing this I found two notable things :
1) A CD-sized fragment of shattered headlight glass that fell out of somewhere and sliced me up worse than 1,000 cats...it must have been blown into the motor when I hit that deer on July 4th- I can't imagine any other reason for lamp glass to be under my hood.

2) A dry rotted vacuum hose that threatened to crumble at my touch. I wonder if the auto parts shop is open tomorrow? I make an Occam's Razor note of this hose and leave it alone for the moment.

Then I removed all the fuses and checked each one- all fine. For good measure, I disconnected the battery in hope that the car's computer might reboot or something (a lesson I learned from my digital TV modem)- then I went inside and smoked a fatty.

Feeling better, I went back outside and put everything back together. 4,3,1,2...sure am glad I wrote that down...and then I connected the battery.
Insert key.
Turn.

Vroom. That fucker purrs like a kitten. It's so smooth that it's hard to tell it's running- just like the day I bought it!
My elation lasts until I shift into Drive- sputter, shake, gasp- CHECK ENGINE. Fuck!

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Today I drove to the parts shop and spent five bucks on four feet of hose and a connector. I traced the hose back to where it was still sheathed and solid and amputated the rest of it. Then I hooked up the new hose to the engine and reset the CHECK ENGINE light.

Vroom. Purr. I'm cautiously optimistic. I take the long way home and it runs wonderfully, idling at well under 1k rpm -approx 750-800ish, looks like. I don't know what that means but I read on a Volvo forum that that is a good number, especially for a really old engine. The CHECK light remains dormant.
I got home fine and so far, so good...tomorrow: the tires.
(More thanks to Mike for suggesting that I replace the hose before I spent money on a mechanic. Over the years, Mike has saved me a fortune just by giving me good car advice.)

It's been a pretty decent pair of days but life happens much faster than I can blog about it - I still haven't posted this week's playlist. So:

The New Breakfast Snob, Sept 2, 2007

Savoy Brown- Take It Easy, Baby
This is a great morning song. It's a great night song too.

Pretty Things- The Letter/Rain
Dear John,
Is it raining or are you crying on this letter? No matter.
Goodbye forever,
J
PS: I never loved you.

Maire Brennan-Against The Wind
Always against the wind...her sister is Enya and but I like Brennan anyway.

Damien Dempsey- Hold Me
Dude. Damo is brilliant.

Larry Graham- Can't Stand The Rain
What is rain? The last time it rained here, this LP was new.

Syd Barrett- Long Gone
Ah, poor Syd. I told a bit of his story and used it to remind both of my listeners that taking gobs of LSD is probably not a very good idea no matter how talented you are.

Arctic Monkeys- Riot Van
A gift from one of my fave bloggers- I gotta say North Carolina produces some good blogfolks- this song describes the coppers bustin' up a group of loitering, drinking UK youth. This band reminds me of what the children of the Stranglers might sound like- until I saw pics of the Monkeys. They look so young that they might be the Stranglers grandchildren- if you combined the ages of all the kids in the band, they still probably aren't old enough to drink. Thank Godzilla they are old enough to play guitars.

Soweto Gospel Choir- So Many Rivers to Cross
This just flat-out sounds good. Sound is everything.

Robyn Hitchcock- Rain
Ex-Soft Boy Robyn Hitchcock has a knack for writing evocative and disturbing songs without ever using profanity. He is a subversive genius who listened to a lot of Syd Barrett...luckily, Hitchcock never went psychotic- at least as far as I know.

Captain Beefheart- Where's There's Woman
There's trouble brewing. The good kind.

Cardiacs- Wind and Rains is Cold
My blog reader 'Schlep' actually assembled a set of great CDs from his stash and went to the radio station and delivered them to me. I thought Schlep was my pal "he-who-remains -nameless", but he isn't. He isn't even a DJ- but he should be.
Schlep totally set the the upbeat tone for my weekend with his surprise gift! Big Thanks!
I had barely heard of the Cardiacs- it as if they relish being obscure- the world isn't ready for them, but I am. Check them out but please don't ask me what they sound like.

When I introduced this song, I talked about how great it is to have an international fan club and how much I missed my Swedish Teenage Internet Girlfriend...sigh. I used to be huuugge in Stockholm...now I am forgotten.
When I got home, I had a message from her. Not so forgotten after all!

Dead Can Dance- Summoning of The Muse
This was an oblique request that I was happy to fill. It worked magically.

Pentangle- Mirage
I probably play this song more often than I should, but it's one of the finest-sounding recordings I have ever heard. And it's exactly 120 seconds long, which is very useful in a broadcast context.

Altan-Stor, Stor A Ghra
Thanks to Bill L. for sending this CD to me for station review. Old, but new for me. I'm developing a Celtic fetish as I age. I need Gaelic lessons.

Signal Hill- Cecelia
You're breaking my heart...actually my heart feels pretty good. I like this cover.

Fiona Joyce- Trees
Q: How can you listen to LA punk, speed- metal, hippie crap and girly Celtic music?
A: How can you not? I like Fiona Joyce as much as I like Motorhead- and I love Motorhead. Sure wish I had a night-time show sometimes...

801 Live- Tomorrow Never Knows
Jeez...this would be a hard song to play live- the Beatles couldn't do it...Brian Eno , Phil Manzanera and friends could, however. Amazing.

Crack the Sky- I am the Walrus
Another Beatles song that was too difficult for the Fab Four to play live. This version kicks ass- listening to twin guitars following the string arrangements...the synth nails the horn parts...spectacular.

Ray Manzarek- Art Deco Fandango
It's my theory that Manzarek is a musical genius and the Doors would have been truly awful without him. Jim Morrison was overrated in every way except debauchery, but Ray was different... he went on to produce X, one of the best punk bands EVER.
This tune has a New Orleans swing to it. Everybody fan-dan-go!

Snakefinger (Live)- 36-22-36
The person who gave me this wonderful CD called while I was playing it. We DJ's love it when people call, and this was an especially cool call. If you like your local indie station, take time to call the DJ and tell them...you do have a local indie station, right? Oh.

One of the things I do is train new DJ's on Sundays.
My reasoning is: If you can drag your ass into the studio early on a Sunday morning, you might just be dedicated enough to be a good DJ. So far, so good.
The next set was selected, announced and played by my latest trainee- who better come up with a 'handle' soon. If I have to pick your 'radio name' for you, you will not like it.

Mystery DJ mini- set:

Howlin Wolf-Moanin at Miidnite
Jones Bros.-Gospel Train
Capt. Beefheart-Diddy Wah Diddy
The Count Five-Psychotic Reaction

He done good. Back to me and my bitterly self-referential play list:

Supertramp- Another Man's Woman
I'm not going into the details. Yet.

Gong- Cat in Clark's Shoes
Gong had started sliding into Jazz Fusion at this point, but I still like the grooves on this LP, Shamal. The show after mine is straight Jazz, so I sometimes try to exit on a jazzy note- plus it's six minutes long and my bladder hurts!

I already mentioned my car problems, but I had another surprise too:

- The owner of a local music store/recording studio called me at my house on a holiday weekend. He'd finally seen my resume and wasn't exactly sure what kind of job he might have, but since I am qualified to run the studio, the store and the office why don't I come down Weds. at lunchtime and meet him. Maybe he could make a job for me, me being all multi-talented and all...I've gotten my studio job hopes up plenty of times before and had them dashed, but I'm going for it again. It was a good phone call.

- And no emergency calls from the hospital. That was a good non-call!