This week's Wednesday

Wednesday is my day off from retail work, which makes it my designated day to record my parts for each week's edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio and to try to get around to doing whatever else needs doing. I always run out out of Wednesday before I run out of Wednesday things to do.

The road to this week's Wednesday runs through Monday and Tuesday. That's...yeah, that's how calendars work. Got it. But much of what I would normally do on this week's Wednesday was addressed by action--and ADVENTURE!--in the preceding two days.

Mindful of a couple of commitments on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, I asked Dana if we could program this coming Sunday night's radio show on Monday night instead of Tuesday night. Done! Setting the playlist early also gave me the opportunity to record my parts on Tuesday, giving me a little bit more elbow room to accomplish other Wednesday stuff on Wednesday.

The results were way better than last week's experiment with Tuesday recording, which were compromised by trying to record back announcements late at night without, y'know, yelling. I'm a rock 'n' roll DJ! I've GOTTA yell! IT'S MY JOB! This week, after finalizing the playlist in the afternoon, I recorded back announcements in my parked car, yelling to my heart's content. Mission accomplished. It's gonna be a terrific show, with new music from P. Hux (covering Raspberries), Jim Basnight, the Hellflowers, and the Sonny Wilsons, a few recent releases we haven't played before (Nick Piunti and the Complicated Men, Strawberry Alarm Clock, the Len Price 3), a new archival release from the Chesterfield Kings, a Ramones track we've never gotten around to programming over the past 1309 shows, and a lively mix of new 'n' old by Sorrows, the Chelsea Curve, the Selecter, Color Me Gone, Marvin Gaye, the Isley Brothers, Blondie, Vegas With Randolph, the Half/Cubes, the Buzzcocks, the Go-Go's, the Shirts, Carlene Carter, the Spongetones (also covering Raspberries), Buddy Holly, the Kinks, King Elvis I, and more. I do so love co-hosting a great radio show, and I dig getting the damned thing completed ahead of schedule.

On Tuesday night, my friend Dave Murray and I had a joint in-person author event at the Brewerton branch of Northern Onondaga Public Library. The staff could not have made us feel more welcome and valued--Authors! VALUED!!--and Dave and l are so grateful for all they did to make it so. It was particularly gratifying to see how invested Adult Services Librarian and event coordinator Susan Cutri was in promoting and facilitating the whole thing. We felt like big shots. We had a small but engaged audience, giving us both an opportunity to talk about our books and the experiences that forged them, to chat and exchange questions and answers, and to encourage one audience member to follow her dream of publishing a book of her poetry. We even sold some books! HuzZAH! Big, big thanks to everyone involved. Dave and I have another in-person event coming up next month: Monday, December 15th at NOPL's North Syracuse branch, with special added auxiliary author Paul Canavan. Be there!

On to this week's Wednesday. I had to get to the DMV to renew and upgrade my driver's license. As much as people complain about their own DMV visits, I've almost always found the folks working there to be courteous, friendly, and professional, and that was certainly true of this visit. Granted, we all wish these things could go a little faster, but c'mon--it's the DMV, not a Ramones show. Website issues made it impossible to schedule an appointment beforehand, but I was greeted and welcomed as a walk-in shortly before 11:00 am, and my task was completed within the hour. (It would have gone even faster if the agent assisting me hadn't suddenly felt ill, forcing him to pause, apologize, and arrange to leave his post immediately. Hope he's okay.)

We stopped at Comix Zone to pick up my fresh funnybook supply--Amazing Spider-Man, Batman, Birds Of Prey, and JSA--before returning home, where we decided we would remain for Wednesday's duration. I had a tele-medicine appointment set for 2:00, and I had more than an hour open to catch up on a few little tasks and get a tiny bit of writing done before the session commenced. I continued those efforts after the tele-chat ended at 2:20, then joined Brenda for a comfort-food early dinner of spinach quiche and New England clam chowder. Then it was back to the computer for whatever else I could accomplish before the cloudy and rainy gloom of the afternoon slipped into range of the coiled darkness of post-Daylight Savings dusk.

Freed of the need to do any Wednesday work for the radio show, I was able to spend some time on the long process of editing initial interview transcripts for my projected 2026 book Make Something Happen! The DIY Story Of A Power Pop Band Called THE FLASHCUBES. This editing process is slow-going but vital, and it's important that I get through the transcripts on hand before continuing with the many additional interviews the project requires. This exchange from my preliminary interview with 'Cubes guitarist Paul Armstrong illustrates the sheer energy I want this book to convey:

CC: Time waits for no one. How were the crowds initially at the Brookside? How receptive were they to the Flashcubes' gigs in the early days? 

PA: Well, I gotta say, I did get laid at that first gig. 

CC: [laughs] Hey!  

This is going to be one hell of a book. There's a lot of work to be done, but it's gonna be worth it.

Also on Wednesday: This blog passed its 1,900,000th view. Fingers crossed that we hit two million clicks before Boppin's tenth anniversary in January.

One more thing to note about the evening before this week's Wednesday. You've all seen the news of the blue wave that buoyed the hopes of so many of us across this land. In the commentary for our most recent radio show, I wrote about how America broke my heart one year ago this week, a wound I said may never heal. Effective with the election results this week, it's starting to feel like healing might be possible after all. Long way to go. But there's a light above the path now, a light I couldn't sense until now. This land is our land, emphasize on our land, for all of us. On this week's Wednesday, I allowed myself a moment to smile at the possibility of better days to come.

Feels good, man. Here's hoping it feels even better very soon.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. You can also become a Boppin' booster on my Patreon page.

I compiled a various-artists tribute album called Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, and it's pretty damned good; you can read about it here and order it here. My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get my previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. You can read about our history here.