Gaylord Fields invited me to stop by his excellent show on his birthday, August 6. His birthday is also the birthday of my late husband Robert Boyd, aka WFMU dj Mr. Boyd, who died in 2003. This used to be a fun and wacky thing they shared. Now it's a sweet and strange birth/death day that Gaylord and I share. It doesn't really lend itself to scrawling on cakes or cards, but it worked out just fine as a radio show (Real Audio archive).
Here's what we learned this year:
Gaylord doesn't believe in Heaven. But if he did (Real Audio), it would be a place where Wesley Willis and Rob are head-butting each other and feeling no pain.* In fact, Heaven would be a place where everybody is head-butting everybody else all the time and feeling no pain. Amanda thinks this is such a good idea for Heaven that Gaylord should start a religion. Gaylord thinks that Scientology was founded on less, and announces the birth of Butt-ology. (Amanda can't form words after hearing "Butt-ology," so Gaylord turns her mic off for the rest of that segment.)
Amanda gives Gaylord The Donut Book. At Rob's memorial service, Craig Shemin brought down the house with a story about how he and Rob inhaled unlimited quantities of helium from the sad remains of a Kermit the Frog Macy's Day balloon at a particularly windy Thanksgiving parade. But what stuck in Gaylord's mind was Craig's story of when Rob had The Donut Book up for grabs during one marathon and no one would pledge for it. Baffling. Mystifying. Maddening. Finally, Rob bellowed into the mic, “What is wrong with you people? This is the BEST DONUT BOOK EVER!” Afterwords, a curious Gaylord asked for more info on The Donut Book, and it took only 3 years for Amanda to get it to him. (User's note: “What is wrong with you people” is a handy phrase, but you really have to sell it.)
Gaylord makes Amanda do the right thing. Publicly (Real Audio). While preparing for the show, Amanda discovered a cache of Beatles novelty cds in her home. Thrilling detective work reveals that they belong to the WFMU record library (clincher: stickers that say “property of WFMU”). The cds are restored to their rightful place, but not before becoming the basis of a set called "Mr. Boyd's Playlist from Beyond the Grave."
Amanda can read a short piece she wrote about Rob out loud, but only barely (Real Audio). Fine, read it here and see if you can do better.
You can have too many versions of Brazil. But there were a lot more.
Thank you Gaylord Fields, and thank you and big love to everyone at WFMU.
*For more on Wesley Willis's head-butting incident at WFMU, get yourself a set of Great Moments in WFMU History Trading Cards. Donut pic by Inamourada.
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