Coming Up Tomorrow On The Dickenbock Report: National Author's Day

For some reason, Dick Dickenbock has given us a German book about authors to prepare the staff from National Author's Day, which is November 1. I suppose it's better than wire reports.

Remember to tune in to The Dickenbock Report in its new timeslot, Sunday noon to 2pm, for news & reports about all sorts of authors. Which means we'll include poets. Lowly, lowly poets.

That's Sunday November 1 on 91.1+107.1fm in Portland, xray dot fm everywhere.

This Week In Self Help: October 25 + 27

The spooky house above lets the people of Portland know that in honor of its favorite holiday, Halloween, I only did two radio shows this week, & they were both Halloween shows.

A show about graveyards & cemeteries on Visit A Cemetery Day which was October 25. That show was The Dickenbock Report & it was on XRAY FM on Sunday. You can listen to that show here.

Self Help Radio's Halloween theme this year was "spooky." It happened on October 27 on KBOO. You can listen to that show here. & you can download the show here.

Happy Halloween!

Self Help Radio 102726: Halloween 2026 - Spooky!

Here is Self Help Radio's Halloween show for 2026 - hopefully sufficiently spooky.

There's not much else to add - if you wanna listen, go to either the KBOO website or to the Self Help Radio website. Most everything that happened on the show is below.

There are lots of Halloween shows on the website - I might share those links tomorrow. But if not - Happy Halloween!

Self Help Radio Spooky Halloween 2026

"Halloween Spooks" Lambert, Hendricks, & Ross with the Ike Isaacs Trio _High Flying With Lambert, Hendricks, & Ross_

"Spooky" Count Stephen _The House Of Horrors (27 Spooky Tales For Your Halloween Party)_

"Spooksville" The Nu-Trends _These Ghoulish Things: Horror Hits For Hallowe'en_

introduction & definitions

"Spooky Movies" Ron Barrett _Bomp In The Night_

"Run Spook Run" Rodd Keith _The American Song-Poem Anthology_

"Spooks In Space" Perrey & Kingsley _The In Sound From Way Out!_

"Spooky, Spooky, Lend Me Your Tomb" Spike Jones _Go Crazy With Spike Jones_

"Spooky Lady On Death Avenue" Barnes & Barnes _Spazchow_

"Spooky" Lydia Lunch _Queen Of Siam_

interview with spooky trolls Bartholomew & Itchy

"It's Spooky" Jad Fair & Daniel Johnston _Jad Fair & Daniel Johnston_

"Sure Is Kinda Spooky" Portion Control _I Staggered Mentally_

"Spooky Room" 9353 _We Are Absolutely Sure There's No God_

"Spook Opera" The Hawaiian Pups _Spook Opera_

"Spooks In Space (Discomix)" Aural Exciters _Mutant Disco Volume II: A Subtle Discolation Of The Norm_

"Ain't Nuthin' Spooky" Rudy Love & The Love Family _Rudy Love & The Love Family_

our resident cinephile Chuck stops by

"Positively Spooked" Band Of Holy Joy _Positively Spooked_

"Spooky Scary Skeletons" Andrew Gold _Andrew Gold's Halloween Howls_

"Spooks Night Out_ The Legendary Invisible Men _Halloween Hootenanny_

"Spooky (Diabolo's Theme)" The Ghastly Ones _Unearthed_

"Spook-O-Rama" Circus Contraption _The Half-Wit's Descent_

"Spooky Hollywood" Jackie B & The Mini Band _Spooky Hollywood_

interview with Josh Simpson, who makes spooky music

"Spooky Song" Lung Leg _Maid To Minx_

"Spooky Girlfriend" Elvis Costello _When I Was Cruel_

"Spooky Rhodes" Laika _Sounds Of The Satellites_

"Spooky Kabuki" Momus _Oskar Tennis Champion_

"Ménage À Trois, Spooky Scat" Dominique Cravic & Les Primitifs Du Futur _Tribal Musette_

conclusion & goodbye

"The Spooky Wheer" Martha Wentworth As The Old Sea Hag _Terror Tales_

Whither Spooky? (Halloween 2026)

Every year on Halloween, I like to explore a different, specific theme. My previous Halloween shows have included ghosts & vampires, zombies & werewolves, witches & wizards, mummies & monsters in general & Frankenstein in particular.  There have been shows about haunted houses, graveyards, ghost towns, even hell.  Other scary things I have explored are black cats or spiders or clowns or scarecrows or all kinds of horrible things attacking. Also things like voodoo & nightmares & death. (Most of those links will take you to a place where you can listen to those shows, too, by the way.)

What this means is I have to get a little creative when it comes to Halloween shows. This year I just decided to focus on a word: spooky. How is spooky used in songs? What things are identified as spooky in a song? That's what tonight's show is about. Some of the spooky songs will be Halloween-ish. Some probably not. But it will be someone's idea of spooky in many cases.

Tonight from midnight to 2am on KBOO - 90.7fm in Portland, kboo dot fm everywhere. & don't be afraid of me. I am not the least bit spooky.

Preface To Halloween 2026 - Spooky! The Tuff Little Ghost

Spooky The Tuff Little Ghost was a character from Harvey Comics who was a cousin to the more famous Caspar. Judging from the panel above - which I took from a scanned copy I have of Tuff Ghosts Starring Spooky, from 1964, he wasn't as friendly as his cousin. I don't recall much about this particular ghost except he talked like a tough Brooklyn kid from a 1940s movie, & he was in love with a girl - who was also a ghost - named Poil. Not Pearl. Everyone called her Poil like Spooky did.

Gosh I read a lot of Harvey Comics when I was a kid.

Let's think of Spooky as the mascot of this show, which will feature songs about spooky things, but which will probably not be all that spooky. Who knows? I haven't finished it yet!

Coming Up Tomorrow On The Dickenbock Report: Visit A Cemetery Day

October 25 is Visit A Cemetery Day! Just in time for Halloween! The Dickenbock Report reports on cemeteries, graveyards, & the like.

Remember! XRAY's Fall Fund Drive is happening right now!
Go here to support the station!
Go here to support the Dickenbock Report!*
(* supporting the Report is supporting XRAY!)

Listen to our eerie Halloween cemetery/graveyard show tomorrow from 11am to 1pm - probably the safest time to be in one of those places - on 91.1+107.1fm in Portland, xray dot fm everywhere.

& stay tuned for an important announcement at the end of the show.

This Week In Self Help: October 16 18 + 20

Some time ago I took a picture of a newly slaughtered tree. I think I thought I'd count the rings & see how old it was when it was murdered. But I never did. Maybe you can do it & tell me. Hey something else depressing is all the radio I did this past week.

A week ago October 16 on The Songcircle on KBOO I played a lot of my favorite Halloween music. You can listen to that show here.

Then on Sunday October 18 on The Dickenbock Report on XRAY I played lots of Sunday songs on National Sunday Day. You can listen to that show here.

Then on Tuesday October 20 on Self Help Radio on KBOO I had a radio show about violins. You can listen to that show here. & you can download that show here.

Finally (thank god) on Tuesday October 20 on Corporate Standardized Programming on KBOO I played a buncha new releases. You can listen to that show here (after Self Help Radio). & you can download that show here.

On second thought don't tell me how old the tree was when some asshole killed it. It was too young in any case.

Self Help Radio 102026: Violins

Thousands of tiny violins played as I ended my violin show because I really wasn't all that sad. Isn't that what the idiom is? The Wiktionary tells us "world's smallest violin" means "a notional violin that plays tragic music for the afflicted; used in dismissive responses to oversensitive complaining." Fun fact: Oversensitive Complaining was one of the names I had to choose from before I picked Self Help Radio!

In any event there were a fair number of violins on the show about violins so anyone who is pro-violin can't complain too much altho pro-violin people would probably not listen to this show. If you want to listen, you can at at the KBOO website or at the Self Help Radio website. The stuff that happened is below. You know the drill.

Seriously tho I should've called this show Oversensitive Complaining!

Self Help Radio Violins Show

"The Ragtime Violin" American Quartet _1912: 'Waitin' On The Levee'_

"Violin Blues" Johnson Boys _Violin, Sing The Blues For Me (African-American Fiddlers 1926-1949)_

"An Old Violin (Olive Grooves, vocals)" Alfredo Campoli _Salon Music Of The Thirties_

introduction & definitions

"A Thousand Violins" Patti Page _The Singles 1946-1952_

"I Love A Violin" Petula Clark _Petula Clark In Hollywood_

"The Violin Lesson - Part 1" Jack Benny _The Jack Benny Album_

"Violin Shop" The Alan Bown! _Outward Bown... Plus_

"You're The Violin" Rosey Grier _Munich City Nights - Vol. 20_

"The Older The Violin, The Sweeter The Music" Hank Thompson _Kindly Keep It Country_

interview with Tina Smith & Carlyle Goblockser part I

"Violin" Kate Bush _Never For Ever_

"Violins" Marc Riley with The Creepers _Cull (The Singles Mid '83 - Mid '84)_

"The Violin Lesson - Part 2" Jack Benny _The Jack Benny Album_

"Like 1000 Violins" 1000 Violins _Like One Thousand Violins_

"Trains & Violins" Black Cillas _Step Outside Love_

"Violin" East Village _Hotrod Hotel_

interview with Tina Smith & Carlyle Goblockser part I

"Violin Sherbet" Blurt _Pagan Strings_

"Sax & Violins" Talking Heads _Popular Favorites 1976-1992: Sand In The Vaseline_

"The Violin & The Princess" Joan Gerber _The Story Lady_

"One-String Violin" Heidi Berry _Heidi Berry_

"The Violin In Winter" Jon Rose _Art Bears - The Art Box_

"Violin" They Might Be Giants _No!_

Joseph Cooper & The Sinfonia Of London explain The Violin from A Child's Introduction To The Instruments Of The Orchestra

"Senseless Violins" Sparks _Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins_

"When You Play The Violin" The Gothic Archies _The Tragic Treasury: Songs From 'A Series Of Unfortunate Events'_

"Trumpets & Violins" Suburban Kids With Biblical Names _# 3_

"The Loudest Violin" The Bug Club _Rare Birds: Hour Of Song_

"The Piano & The Violin" Polo & Pan _22:22_

"Love Without Violins" The Gift _Altar_

conclusion & goodbye

"Violins" I'm From Barcelona _Growing Up Is For Trees_

"Gazillions Of Minature Violins" The Crimea _Tragedy Rocks_

Whither Violins?

There's one thing you need to know about Self Help Radio shows about musical instruments: they don't necessarily feature in every song that particular musical instrument. Because the songs are about the instrument, you might not hear that instrument in the song. That was probably true in the show I did about drums. & in the show I did about guitars. & in other shows about musical instruments which I may have done but have now forgotten about.

As for why the show is about violins, well. It shouldn't surprise you that I am a fan of the violin. I wish I had had a parent who forced me to learn how to play the violin. I was happy once to kiss a girl who could play the violin. But this show is because of a pun. Someone was using the old pun "sax & violins" in a call to me at KBOO. Then they said, "Have you ever done a show about sax & violins?" I said, "I can do a show about violins if you want." & that's how it all started.

Sorry I didn't get the name of the person who suggested the show. But glad I could do it!

Self Help Radio's show about violins is on tonight from midnight to 2am on KBOO - 90.7fm in town, kboo dot fm everywhere.

& don't fret! Some of the songs about violins will have a violin in them.

Preface To Violins: Peanuts April 8, 1963

This is a very famous Peanuts strip from 1963 - April 8 to be precise. The first panel is used all over the place, in particular for Record Store Day. I also feel like there are some panels where a different record - like perhaps a Smiths record - is placed in Schroeder's hand in the first panel.

My computer image search found this because the word "violin" is in the second panel, but obviously the strip isn't about violins. This week's Self Help Radio will in fact be about violins. But like this strip might not have actually have many violins in it.

By the way I scanned this strip myself from the Fantagraphics Complete Peanuts collection. Obviously the rights do not belong to me.

Coming Up Tomorrow On The Dickenbock Report: National Sunday Day

Even though it would seem logical that every Sunday, being Sunday, would be by definition Sunday Day, it turns out that October 18 is National Sunday Day. So we at the Dickenbock Report, rather than being closed on Sunday, will celebrate Sunday.

It's also the XRAY Fall Fund Drive so if you're able, visit this website to donate to the station that keeps this hard-hitting news program on the air. If you'd like to support The Dickenbock Report directly, you can do so at this particular link. The money goes to XRAY, of course, but it gives the show bragging rights.

Listen to the Sunday show tomorrow, October 18, from 11am to 1pm on 91.1+107.1fm here in Portland, xray dot fm everywhere.

This Week In Self Help: October 11 13 + 15

(image found here)

What did I do on the radio this week? Who wants to know?

Sunday October 11. It's My Party Day on The Dickenbock Report on XRAY.
Listen to the show here.

Tuesday October 13. A show about chariots on Self Help Radio on KBOO.
Listen to the show here. Or download the show here.

Tuesday October 13. Corporate Standardized Programming on KBOO. More artists we lost this year celebrated.
Listen to the show here (after Self Help Radio). Or download the show here.

Thursday October 15. Welcome To Your Good Day on XRAY. I sub one more time.

Listen to the show here.

Also I did a show on KBOO today but I'll mention it next week.

Self Help Radio 101326: Chariots

(original image found here)

Here is my show about chariots. Listening to the show, I realized I have never ridden in a chariot. I don't know if I'd want to, but I kinda wish someone would have at some point offered me a ride in a chariot. I've actually only ridden a horse once, & it wasn't that much fun. But a chariot - especially as a passenger - might have been exciting. Oh well.

Listen to the show if you wanna at the Self Help Radio website or at the KBOO website. Most everything that happened on the show is listed below.

Seriously, if you have a chariot, invite me along, willya?

Self Help Radio Chariots Show

"Swingin' At The Chariot" Anthony & The Sophomores _Play Our Oldies Mr. D.J._

"Some Trust In Chariots" Rod McKuen _The Loner & 13 Other Rod McKuen Songs Of Love & Loneliness_

"Horses & Chariots" The Open Mind _The Open Mind_

introduction & definitions

"Chariots Of Silk" Tyrannosaurus Rex _Unicorn_

"Painted Chariot" The Incredible String Band _Liquid Acrobat As Regards The Air_

"Roll The Old Chariot (feat. Mary Benson)" Louis Killen, Stan Hugill, & The X-Seamen's Institute _Sea Songs_

"General Chariot Corp." Bob Newhart _The Button-Down Mind On TV_

"Broken Chariot" CocoRosie _Tales Of A GrassWidow_

interview with Ben Howard, who was a chariot maker in his past lives

"Chariots Of The Gods" The Stampeders _From The Fire_

"Chariots Of The Gods" Russell Miles _Archaeology_

"The Chariot" Janis King _Tarot Mastery: Decoding The Tarot With Definitive Card Meanings_

"Chariot" Beach House _B-Sides & Rarities_

"Chariots" Horse Jumper Of Love _Natural Part_

interview with Buddy Howard, who owns a chariot

"Chariot" Aoife Nessa Frances _Protector_

"Chariot" Babehoven _Water's Here In You_

"The Chariot Race" Ben Blur _The Chariot Race_

"The Chariot" The Cat Empire _The Cat Empire_

"Chariot Rock (feat. Genesis Blu)" Free Radicals _White Power Outage Volume 1_

a discussion about the most famous chariot song of all

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" Paul Robeson _On My Journey: Paul Robeson's Independent Recordings_

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" Langston Hughes _The Glory Of Negro History_

"Let Me Ride (Swing Down Chariot)" The Staple Singers _Chicago Hit Factory - The Vee Jay Story 1953-1966_

"Good News (Chariot's Comin')" The Four Tunes _The Complete Jubilee Sessions_

"Sweet Chariots" Bid _The Monochrome Set: Volume, Contrast, Brilliance... (Sessions & Singles Vol. 1)_

conclusion & goodbye

"Chariots On Fire" Rocket From The Crypt _All Systems Go III_

"Chariot" Knife & Fork _The Higher You Get, The Rarer The Vegetation_

"Chariot" Professor & Maryann _Runaway Favorite_

"Charioteers" Social Studies _Wind Up Wooden Heart_

Whither Chariots?

(photo by Giovanni Dall'Orto from Wikipedia)

Why do a show about chariots, you might wonder. Is it because of having heard one of the literally hundreds of versions of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" out there? No. Is it because I either watched the film or heard the soundtrack recently for Chariots Of Fire? No. Oh no Gary is it because you someone found yourself reading the pseudoscientific book Chariots Of The Gods? Is that it? Oh say it isn't so!

In case you have never heard of that book, which came out the year I was born, let me tell you, it was written by a Swiss author named Erich Von Däniken & Wikipedia adds the delightful fact that "The book was extensively rewritten by its editor, Wilhelm Roggersdorf," Ouch,

Here's the thesis, courtesy of the Wikipedia: "The main thesis of Chariots Of The Gods is that extraterrestrial beings influenced ancient technology. Von Däniken suggests that some ancient structures & artifacts appear to reflect more sophisticated technological knowledge than is known or presumed to have existed at the times they were manufactured. Von Däniken maintains that these artifacts were produced either by extraterrestrial visitors or by humans who learned the necessary knowledge from extraterrestrials."

So, you're thinking, it's also a little racist? Yeah.

But no, I wasn't reading the book. It was one of the books my friend Russell was fascinated by as a kid - the sort of thing his character Howard Gently would later make fun of. Before I did the last Howard Gently show a month ago, I re-listened to Russell's album from 1984 called Archaeology on which he has a song called (you guessed it) "Chariot Of The Gods." I wanted to play it on the radio & thought I might find more songs about chariots. & so I have.

The chariots show airs tonight on KBOO - 90.7fm in town, kboo dot fm everywhere - from midnight to 2am. Thankfully my show is so amateurish no one has ever suspected aliens are actually behind it!

Preface To Chariots: Chariot Racing

(Still from Ben Hur grabbed at the link I mention in the post.)

At some point in the childhood of the average American kid in the 1970s, you got to watch Ben Hur on television. We were poor so didn't have a color television so the first time I saw it - probably in a very edited version chock full of commercials - I didn't see it in glorious color. & by the time I saw it, the movie had been around for almost twenty years, so all the elements of the race had been parodied many times over - especially in cartoons. Still, I do recall being thrilled by the race & looking forward to it when I saw it again. You can watch all of it on You Tube.

It's not the reason I'm doing a show about chariots - I'll talk about that tomorrow - but it's one of the first things I think about when I hear the word "chariot" - & maybe it is for you, too.