I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
Edgar Allen Poe

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
- H. L. Mencken

Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
-Bertrand Russell

What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
-James Branch Cabell

May 19, 2015 - 5:40 p.m.

I Am the Evening DJ WFDU

Why haven't I started writing? Well now I have. So there. Stop pressuring me! Good thing I'm cute; I'm damned annoying.

Last night I was a radio DJ? Is it radio if it is only on the internet? I mean nothing is radiated. It isn't broadcast, it goes through narrow wires. Well I want to consider myself Vin Scelsa's colleague so I am calling it radio.

I better be very cute if I want you to finish this.

If you just want to hear the show skip down to the horizontal line and I'll give instructions on how to do so.

If you know me you would probably assume I was on WFUV. I have volunteered there for 23 years. I promote the station. But if you know WFUV you know that wasn't going to happen. There are only four hours a week where they play my kind of music, John Platt and Bob Sherman's shows. No I was on WFDU. The way that happened was that the powers that be at the station foolishly um brilliantly gave my friend Brian a show. How did I meet Brian? He's been volunteering at WFUV even longer than me. Why might it be foolish to give Brian a show? He's liable to do something insane like inviting me as a guest DJ. Brian thank me. I just refrained from saying a very funny but very mean joke at your expense. That My Gentle Readers is the relationship that Brian and I have in a nutshell. Which is where it belongs as we are both nuts.

WFDU is the radio station of Fairleigh Dickenson University. My joke of the day is that if Brian is good they'll let him DJ at Very Dickenson University. There isn't enough cute in the world to make up for what I'm writing.

It was an expedition getting there as I don't have a car. It's in Teaneck New Jersey I walked from therapy near Union Square to Penn Station. That was easy. Then came the hard part. Figuring out the right bus. There are no signs telling you anything. I knew I needed a New Jersey Transit Bus. That means trouble. I have had a good experience with NJT. I asked at information where I get the bus to Teaneck. The woman told me gate 210. I asked where to get the ticket? She said by the gate. I found my way up to gate 210 on the second floor. I found the ticket machine. It doesn’t go by destination. It goes by bus number .She didn't tell me the bus number. I went over to the gate and saw the number but I also saw the stops and it didn't have River Rd. which is what I knew I needed. I asked someone if there was any information anywhere and was told I had to go back to that one information booth on a different floor and far from where I now was. Oh and I looked around and saw there were several busses to Teaneck. She must have figured she was psychic and knew which one I wanted. I went back to the information booth and this time asked for the bus to Fairleigh Dickenson University. She wanted to know if I wanted the express, Well of courses I wanted the express. She told me that it was downstairs and gave me a time for the next bush in 1 minute which was of course useless and another 15 minute later. I got down there and saw that she gave me the time and gate of the local bus. But the express was at the next gate. But there was no place to buy tickets. I had to go back upstairs to get my ticket. I got back about two minutes before the bus started loading. Whew. I told the bus driver I needed to get off at 1000 River Rd. She said I should look out for it. Now to make things more fun my phone was dead and my brand new charger didn't work. But the woman next to me was so nice she looked up the address on her phone and showed me where it was, it was across from a small park so when I saw that I knew I was there.

But of course my phone was just about dead. I called Brian when I got there and he was going to come and get me but then the phone died. He saw me from a distance and called to me .I couldn't see well enough to find him but I eventually did by following his voice.

Wow 759 words in and I haven't even gotten to the station.

I had pulled the CDS I wanted and loaded files of songs I don't have on CD onto my dropbox. I put all the CDs in the order I wanted them played. I had three sets planned, musicians I had heard the last few weeks, musicians I was seeing in the next few weeks, and covers of songs from the 60s and 70s. That latter was because the show is called Boomers and is ostensibly songs for Baby Boomers. Well I'm a Baby Boomer so any music I like should fit but I gave a nod to the audience.

We had a few hours before the show started but we did not use the time well. We never got around to going through my play list. But I did have the CDs in order and I made things even easier and put the music files on a thumb drive. The plan is that I'd hand him the CDs and tell him which songs to play on the computer. Plus there were two songs that he had on his computer I wanted. For the most part the files were for the first set. But then trouble hit. When he tried to play a file something totally random came on the air. I never found out where the feed came from. Brian eventually, hours later, straightened it out. Brian played his songs for 45 minutes before he started on mine but then because of the problems we didn't start in earnest for an hour and a half.

We ended up just skipping to things I had physical CDS of and one on his computer songs. I got to the other song on his computer near the end as I forgot about it as I was now onto CDs. Anyway here is a list of what I played.

These Boots - Harpeth Rising
Bohemian Rhapsody - Caravan of Thieves
Higgs Bosong - Mark Allen Berube
The Wildwood Flower - Sasha Papernik
Holland Town - Meg Braun
Kind of Brave - Kat Quinn
Fireflies - Maura Kennedy
Please Please Me - Deni Bonet
Don't Fear the Reaper - Bobtown
Uthsav on Six - Snehashish Mozumder
June 16th, 1935 - Meg Braun
I Never Asked - Meg Braun
Isn't Love Great - Sam Baker
Grandpa's Cheese Barn - Haas Kowert Tice
Umbrella - Jean Rohe and the End of the World Show
The Alabama Waltz - Miss Tess and the Talkbacks
Neptune - Carolann Solebello
You Can't Break Me Again - Scott Wolfson and Other Heroes
Girlz - The Lords of Liechtenstein
Some Do - Kristin Andreassen
Bodhisattva Blues - The Kennedys
Our Winter in New York - Robert Sarazin Blake
Rhiannon Giddens - Black is the Color
Keep it to Yourself - Amy Rigby
The Ruthless Wife - RUNA
Wheelhouse - Harpeth Rising
Man in the Middle - Chris Thile and Michael Daves
The Wedding Song - Anais Mitchell

You'll notice the three songs by Meg Braun. Now I love Meg and I love the songs but I didn't want to give anyone more than one song. Brian clearly has a huge crush on Meg and said he made mistakes and mixed up which CD was in which drive. Yeah, right. The weirdest was the last one. After he played "June 16th, 1935" He was supposed to play the Haas, Kowert, Tice song. He took out Meg's album and handed it to me. And started playing a song which was definitely not Haas, Kowert, Tice. But I couldn't figure out what it was. It sounded like Meg but it couldn't be Meg, he had just handed me her CD. Then I looked at the CD I put in Meg's case. It was Haas, Kowert, Tice. He has such a crush on Meg.

I also gave plugs for upcoming concerts at First Acoustics and Spiral Sounds Concerts

There was still time when left after I played everything I planned. I was prepared for that eventuality and I had just grabbed a few other CDs of favorites as I searched for the ones I wanted and Brian played those too. The reason there are two Harpeth Rising songs is I couldn’t decide which cover to play so I brought both albums. When there was time at the end I picked an original song of theirs from the other album.

The show ran till 1 AM and now I had to get home. We didn't get out of there till 1:30 or so and Brian drove me to Hoboken where I could get the PATH train. I took that back to the City then the home. I arrived around 3:15. Of course I didn't get to sleep till after 4;00.



Now maybe you missed the show last night Or maybe you couldn't listen for entire four hours. But now you can hear it all on the archives. Here is the link, Me on the Archives.. If you want to skip to my part here's what to do. You can advance the recording 15 minutes at a time. Skip three times, 45 minutes. Now there are the tech difficulties in the next two 15 minute segments but there are songs of mine in both of them. After that it isn't smooth sailing but you'll hear lots of me and my playlist.

Hopefully we'll do this again. If we do we are going to function like a well-oiled machine. I will write out the playlist beforehand with explicit instructions on what is on CD and what is on file. As for the random gremlins. Hopefully I drove them away with my cuteness. OK with my delusions.


I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.





Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018



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Horvendile May 19, 2015
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