Through A Lovely Analog Console, Which Apparently Doesn't Matter: Transmission 236, 2015 September 16

"Sorry we're late, but here we are." As with NBA teams, the second night of a "back to back" often produces an inferior display, but such is not the case here. This was a fun program to do, and it has been fun listening back. No features, just goodness. True, it falls apart at the end, when I seem to forget that a) this is a show about segues and b) my "job" is sometimes to provide information and novelty. But you can't have everything.

I'm reminded today of 5th grade, when for a short time I was learning to play the viola. I was not particularly good, and I was just playing in a group of kids, not taking private lessons or anything. One day at the end of class I went for my instrument case...and it wasn't there. I knew that I had brought it back to my regular classroom, but it was nowhere to be seen, and my teacher didn't know anything about it. We looked everywhere, without success.

The next day, a dismal, rainy Saturday, my whole family, including my little siblings (aged 7 and 4 at the time) searched the school grounds and the neighboring park for my instrument case, again without luck. That was one of the worst days. It was gone--nothing to be done. My biggest fear at the time was that my viola (borrowed from the school supply) was worth, like, $10,000 or something, and my family would be hopelessly in debt (it was a lot of money in 1978) on account of something that I was sure was my fault. Give me a break; I was a child.

Only it wasn't gone. I found out two days later that someone had returned it to the school, smashed to bits. That seemed a rather pointed gesture--it wasn't enough just to take the viola from me, and/or destroy it; people had to know these things had been done--and it wasn't lost on me that it hadn't happened to anyone else's instrument, just mine.

I'm musing about this because lately I've encountered senseless opposition to my work and creativity, this program being one facet of that. It's always been there, I guess, but its acuteness comes and goes.

It explains why I have felt for a long time that my "art," such as it is, is most effective when I see it as a weapon. If it ever feels that way, to you, this is part of the reason, and it's not your fault.

BOMBAST playlist, 2015 September 16, 2100-2300:

1. "Hounds of Love" | The Futureheads | The Futureheads | Sire
2. "Coastlines and Laughter" | July Skies | Dreaming of Spires | Rocket Girl
3. "Right Hand" | Ghetto Ghouls | Collisions | Monofonus
4. "Does It Matter Irene? (radio session version)" | The Mothmen | Pay Attention! | On-U Sound
5. "Tisnant an Chatma" | Tamikrest | Taksera | Glitterbeat
6. "Push Thru the Veil" | Herbcraft | Wot Oz | Woodsist
7. "Walk Now..." | Orbital | Orbital 2 (Brown Album) | Rhino
8. "Shattered Lens" | Sunday Painters | 4th Annual Report | What's Your Rupture?
9. "Breaking the Hex" | Gnod | Infinity Machines | Rocket
10. "Hop the Railings" | Hey Colossus | Radio Static High | Rocket
11. "Flood of Mendoza" | The Butterscotch Cathedral | The Butterscotch Cathedral | Trouble In Mind
12. "Das Katerer" | The Fall | The Unutterable | Let Them Eat Vinyl
13. "Crank" | Palm | Trading Basics | Inflated
14. "Native Willow" | Will Samson & Heimer | Animal Hands | Karaoke Kalk
15. "Open Room in Hell" | The Ukiah Drag | Crypt Cruiser | Wharf Cat
16. "The Earth Melts into Red Gashes Like the Mouths of Whales" | Pyramids | A Northern Meadow | Profound Lore
17. "DerDieDas" | Kolsch | 1983 | Kompakt
18. "Sonic Instruments of War #01" | Kerridge | Sonic Instruments of War | Contort
19. "Who's Foolin' Who?" | Karl Hector & The Malcouns | Unstraight Ahead | Now-Again
20. "Rock Steady" | Byron Lee & The Dragonaires | Uptown Top Ranking | VP
21. "Shatner" | The Wedding Present | George Best [reissue] | Edsel
22. "Nowhere" | Valet | Nature | kranky
23. "Green Light" | Sonic Youth | EVOL | Goofin'
24. "The Theme from Judge Judy" | EXEK | The Theme from Judge Judy | Homeless Vinyl
25. "In Another Way" | My Bloody Valentine | m b v | MBV
26. "3 Speed Limiters" | Christian Fitness | love letters in the age of steam | Prescriptions
27. "White Werewolf" | Weird Owl | Interstellar Skeletal | A Recordings
28. "Slipping Into Darkness" | The Senior Allstars | DUB from Jamdown - Darker than Blue | Echo Beach
29. "Austin Texas Mental Hospital Part 1" [excerpt] | Stars of the Lid | The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid | kranky

I didn't touch another instrument for six years

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