Decide Yourself.

On my way to sit still with Amanda Lucas of WXNA for her Psychobabble radio show, I reminisced with Todd Greene over Nashville’s local radio scene and the gift it’s been to us over the centuries. I said aloud over the phone that we need to decide ourselves that radio’s gonna stay. Those of our scene will likely hear in that phrasing an R.E.M. reference. Before I knew it, we were pumping each other up over what was and is and also what still remains possible in love and art and self-respect. I was minutes from being on the air and Todd told me he’d listen to it as it happened.

I walked into the studio and beheld a big picture of my dearly departed friend Jim Ridley looking down on me. I noted aloud that I owe an awful lot of wherever and whoever it is I am to Chris Peltier (who has his own shows on WXNA). When we worked together at Brentwood Cinema, Chris appeared before me as a radically independent intellectual with an interest in just about everything. He read voraciously—and in public—whatever grabbed his fancy. We saw Terry Gilliam’s Brazil together. He was and is an inspiration. As Amanda put questions to me, I felt more and more at home.

We talked George Michael and R.E.M. and Octavia Butler and U2 and Andy Ogles and Cantina Band Theory. That last one is especially relevant for those who celebrate May the Fourth (as I do).

You can listen to it all right here. We’re the episode (5/1) archived up top. I am, however, told that it’s only available for two weeks following the airing so grab it while you can. It happened. It really did. But if you want it to happen to you, you’re gonna wanna happen upon it soon.

Did y’all know Micky Dolenz has a cover of “Radio Free Europe?” Well he does. It’s a revelation:

Any questions?