I write often, it seems, about the "end of" this or that "universe," of a program closing a chapter without my knowing it at the time. Consider this the latest instalment, as we say goodbye to the recurring feature known as "Physical Evidence." It is dead; long may it live! And indeed, I didn't know at the time, but learned soon hereafter, that it was making Junior uncomfortable to record the voiceover. Without Junior, this feature is nothing, so away it goes. One of the "wrongs" with my undergraduate show which I set out to "right" with this one (shall we call it "post-doctoral?") is that I was always so deeply into myself and my own thing; this is, whatever it may seem, a family program.
On account of that, I have been wondering how much gas Bombast as a whole has left in the tank. Sometimes I feel that Physical Evidence was the program, though I am reminded that I've done many episodes that didn't include it, and that the show began without it, during a long period of unemployment, as something that was supposed to keep me connected to the world of people so that I didn't go completely feral, as I was threatening to do. So Bombast doesn't need Physical Evidence, but I also no longer need this radio thing in the same way. Why the existential dilemma, then? As I wrote back when Physical Evidence began under another, unfortunate, name, I wanted a way of dealing with the past, a way not to be doing "Today's Aberration, Tomorrow's Fashion" with the Forced Exposure catalog (that's an inside joke, sorry).
But one of my problems is that my head is frequently in the past and I have trouble "Being Here Now." So I am also thinking that a present-focused program may be a thing I need at the moment, and that maybe quitting this gig because my kid hit puberty isn't the most coherent course of action. Maybe. Also, it strikes me now (sorry if you've already realized this) as pretentious and condescending to think the present doesn't acquit itself perfectly well, or that I need to add value or focus to it.
I am guessing this will always feel like unfinished business: I have a list of about 100 things I was meant to play as part of this feature, but didn't get to. That will make me a little bit sad unless I find a way of folding those releases in somehow. I suppose I could do something like "playing the whole damn record," as I did with Lonely Is An Eyesore that one time, and which I didn't do often enough with the Physical Evidence releases. Or, you know, maybe I could just "sit with" my sadness and see how that goes. I'm doing the latter for the time being.
I come to bury Physical Evidence, not to praise it. And not even to eulogize it properly--this is a diary, not a collection of essays or even a proper blog. PE was truly the essence of the program in that it featured in some of my best shows, some of my worst, and a lot in the middle. But its absence is mostly a hole in my heart. Is that a tear rolling down my cheek as I write this? Yes, yes it is. Alright, we've both done enough work here for now.
So the "crime of the week" feature in these commentaries will have to wait for another time.
BOMBAST playlist, 2018 July 18, 2100-2300:
Everything is temporary
https://www.facebook.com/radiobombast?ref=hl
https://twitter.com/KidCatharsis
Live Flagrant, Make People Nervous: Transmission 473, 2019 June 26
U_D_M Detour 35, 2019 June 22
I Feel Something I Want To Be, Lesson One: Look at Me: Transmission 472, 2019 June 19
We Are Running Out of Love in the Time of Lexapro: Transmission 471, 2019 June 12
Flying Aboard the Seduction 747: Transmission 470, 2019 June 7
You Know How To Sing, You're a Diplomat: Transmission 469, 2019 June 5
Kiss All Your Posters, Hold All My Letters: Transmission 468, 2019 May 29
Do You Ever Want To Turn Around And Go? Transmission 467, 2019 May 22
All About the Screaming: Transmission 466, 2019 May 18
Saying Nothing So You Don't Have To Lie: Transmission 465, 2019 May 15
That Little Problem Our Boys in Engineering Find So Entertaining: Transmission 464, 2019 May 8
Cruising Altitude Departure 32, 2019 May 4
Let Me Take You Down the Corridors of My Life: Transmission 463, 2019 May 1
But What Does It Matter? Transmission 462, 2019 April 24
Validate What You Create: Transmission 461, 2019 April 23
Of Course You'll Scoff: Transmission 460, 2019 April 17
I'll Have To Stay By Your Side: Transmission 459, 2019 April 10
M Is For The Mean Things That This Mean Man Does: Transmission 458, 2019 April 3
Everything Is One, You Have Nothing To Do with It: Transmission 457, 2019 March 27
He's Scandinavian, That's Why I'm Confused: Transmission 456, 2019 March 26
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