Self Help Radio 021418: Valentine's Day 2018 - Roses

(Original image here.)

Well, now that Valentine's Day is over, what are we supposed to do with all these damn roses?  They're obviously not going to stick around for long.  Plus, dried flowers are a bit depressing.

Or are they?  According to this website, you can do many things with dried rose petals, from potpourri to bath tea.  Bath tea?  Read the website, I don't have time to explain it to you.

In any event, watching flowers given out of love die doesn't have to be a metaphor for your relationship.

One thing that won't dry up & crumble away is this year's Valentine's show for Self Help Radio, which was about roses.  If you want to think of lost love, or never-gained love, or just roses, this is the show for you.  In addition to bouquets of tunes, there's interviews with a spiritual dude, a rose vendor, & a Dr. Love.

The show is coming up roses over at the Self Help Radio website.  You'll need a username & password to listen, but it's there, on the page.  The show is in two parts, & the songs & other things in each part is listed below.

Happy Valentine's Day!

(part one)

"Roses" The Magnetic Fields _69 Love Songs, Vol. 2_
"He Who Picks A Rose" Edwin Starr _25 Miles_
"Cover Me With Roses" Jackson C. Frank _Blues Run The Game_
"New Rose" The Damned _Damned Damned Damned_
"Red Roses" Lefties _Pop American Style_

"Sally Go 'Round The Roses" The Jaynetts _Sally Go 'Round The Roses_
"Bouquet Of Roses" Dean Martin _Dean "Tex" Martin Rides Again_
"The Yellow Rose Of Texas" Stan Freberg _Capitol Collectors Series_
"A Good Year For The Roses" George Jones _The Essential George Jones: The Spirit Of Country_
"I Threw Away The Rose" Merle Haggard _Down Every Road 1962-1994_

interview with the Rev Dr Howard Gently

"I Touch Roses" Book Of Love _Book Of Love_
"Roses In The Park" Liechtenstein _Survival Strategies In A Modern World_
"Everything's Coming Up Roses" Johnny Mathis _Rhythms Of Broadway_
"White Roses For Blue Girls" My Favorite _Joan Of Arc Awaiting Trial_
"Luminous Rose" Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians _Globe Of Frogs_

(part two)

"My Rose Of Old Kentucky" Bill Monroe _Blue Moon Of Kentucky_
"Poisoned Rose" Elvis Costello _King Of America_
"I Got A Rose Between My Toes" Lou Carter _Louie's Love Songs_
"The Palace Roses" Todd Andrews _I'm Just The Other Woman! MSR Madness Vol. 4_
"Honeysuckle Rose" Fats Waller & His Rhythm _1934-1935_

interview with rose vendor Bingham Killkid

"Love Is A Rose" Neil Young _Decade_
"A Rose For Emily" The Zombies _Odessey & Oracle_
"She Is Like A Rose" The Orange Peels _Square_
"You Supply The Roses" Memphis _You Supply The Roses_
"Rose In The Devil's Garden" Castaway Stones _Make Love To You_
"Rose" The Fall _Shift Work_

interview with Dr Love

"Stoned Roses" Drug Boyfriend _Stoned Roses_
"The Rose" Jonathan Richman _You Must Ask The Heart_
"One Red Rose" John Prine _Storm Windows_
"Room Full Of Roses" George Morgan _The History Of Country & Western Music, Vol. 17 (1949)_

Whither Roses?

(Found here.)

Why a show about roses?!?  Because it's Valentine's Day, of course!

Valentine's Day is one of those shows that I celebrate every year, except instead of a general theme (like Christmas), I focus on one aspect of the holiday.  I have done a Valentine's Day show nearly every year since the show's inception, except in 2006, when the show was off the air because the station had caught fire.

In 2003, I did a general show, thinking I'd be doing it much like the Christmas show, but the next year found me following my instincts toward more specific themes.  Thus:

On February 11, 2004, the show was about love.
On February 9, 2005, the show was about hate.
On February 9, 2007, the show was about crushes.
On February 8, 2008, the show was about jealousy.
On February 14, 2009, the show was about boyfriends, so the next year, on February 8, 2010, the show was about girlfriends.
On February 8, 2011, I played self-described love songs.
On February 13, 2012, the show was downright lovesick.
On February 8, 2013, I had songs that finished the sentence love is...
Four years ago on this date, February 14, 2014, I figured I'd do a show about valentines (including Valentine's Day, of course).
The next year, on February 13, 2015, I had many songs about famous lovers.
On February 9, 2016, the show was about heartbreak, & last year, on February 8, 2017, the show was about sweethearts.

This year, of course, everything's coming up roses.  So if you're not too busy with your own valentine, I have prepared a bouquet of songs about roses tonight on Self Help Radio, which airs from 9-11pm eastern on 93.9 fm WLXU in Lexington & everything online at Lexington Community Radio dot org.

If not, don't worry - the flowers will stick around for  while.

Preface To Valentine's Day 2018 - Roses: Flower Allergy

For most of my life, I never had a Valentine.  That never seemed much of a problem, since I thought, as many people do, that Valentine's Day was a manufactured holiday which caused more misery than happiness.  Read this:

Ten reasons why Valentine's Day is overrated.

Yep, pretty sure I felt that way.  Furthermore, I don't think I've ever bought roses for a Valentine.

The closest I came was in desperate heartbreak, more than two decades ago, when I would write to the woman who broke my heart, letters trying to tell her I was doing well but obviously desperate & lonesome & sad, in which I would put flowers I surreptitiously stole from nearby gardens.  I lived at the time in a nice area of Austin called Hyde Park & as I stumbled to & from work at the University - I chose to walk because I couldn't sit still, my misery was continual, a bus ride was intolerable - & it was during a lovely spring - I would lean over wooden fences to pick flowers & hurry away, all to be put in envelopes, to wither & dry in the trucks of the postal service, to fall out of the envelope as this former lover wearily read another of my useless scribbles to her.

Now that I am married, one might think that Valentine's Day is a chance to have a special night with my beloved, but I chose a woman who is not in the least romantic, who would hate for me to spend money on things like flowers for which she has no use, & who has no problem with me doing a radio show on the night of that holiday.

& you know what?  While I don't tend to look down upon or condemn anyone who celebrates the day with the traditional offerings of chocolate, dinner, & roses, I don't think I was ever made for that life. Though of course in my own dumb way I celebrate it, right?  I do a radio show about the day every year!

Schizophrenia

These last couple of weeks have been hard, & I hope Self Help Radio isn't suffering because of it.

How have they been hard, Gary?

Well, you must know I'm doing two shows, the one this blog is about, & the Tuesday Morning Blend on KNON.

Yes, you say, but you've done two shows at the same time before, right?

Will you let me finish?

Sorry, buddy.

Where was I?

Whining about having two radio shows.

Oh yeah.  It's actually not the having of two shows, it's that one of those shows requires me to beg for money to keep the show & the station on the air.  I haven't done that in over a decade, when I had to do it at KOOP, & I wasn't very good at it then.

This happens tomorrow?  Didn't you have to do it last week?

Yeah, I did, & I guess I did all right.  But...

But what?  Can't you just be glad you did all right?

I could, except...  Look, damaged self-esteem is nothing to be trifled with.

I understand.

It's not my show yet.  It's still someone else's show.

So you're working extra hard?

Oh yeah.  Making them themed & everything.  Trying to make them special.  You know?

You're losing it, buddy.

Damn it, I'm losing it!

Pledge Drive, Amirite?

There's another Tuesday Morning Blend on Tuesday & it's still Pledge Drive.  Here's a perfect pitch from Jake Likes Onions.  I hope that guy makes a donation.