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
Forgive Me, Forgive Me: Transmission 420, 2018 August 15
Past Lives in Warmer Climates: Transmission 419, 2018 August 11
Still Life with Ample Parking: Transmission 418, 2018 August 8
U_D_M Detour 32, 2018 August 4
We'll Keep Heaven Rolling Along: Transmission 417, 2018 August 1
Maybe Heaven Is All That's There: Transmission 415, 2018 July 15
You Will Have an Experience That Will Seem Completely Real: Transmission 414, 2018 July 4
Lights Flicker, Time To Start The Show: Transmission 413, 2018 June 27
Distant Sounds Inside Your Head: Transmission 412, 2018 June 13
Astonishing Empathy, or So It Says Here: Transmission 411, 2018 June 6
No Need for You To Cry: Transmission 410, 2018 May 30
Got the Tools but Don't Know the Rules: Transmission 409, 2018 May 23
Circa Nineteen-Eighty-One: Transmission 408, 2018 May 16
Every Fool Will See His Madness Crowned: Transmission 407, 2018 May 15
Sees the Stars at Lunchtime, Says He Has a Plan: Transmission 406, 2018 May 9
Undaunted I Will Be: Transmission 405, 2018 May 2
Tough Kids Love Sad Songs: Transmission 404, 2018 April 25
We're Probably Not Going To Be This Ambient All Evening: Transmission 403, 2018 April 18
Looking into the Void, You're Reckoning with a Question: Transmission 402, 2018 April 11
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