Preface To Bees Revisited: Why Revisit Bees? Or Any Theme At All?

In the ridiculous set of rules I laid out for myself for Self Help Radio, one of them was, "Don't repeat themes."  I'm sure this was initially a challenge, to myself certainly, but also to other deejays who repeated theme-based shows - especially on holidays.  One deejay in Austin would play the almost exact same show every Thanksgiving.  I said to myself, even if I did do a show for holidays - like Valentine's Day - I would pick a different theme based on the holiday each year but never repeat that theme ever again.

Except - yeah, there are always exceptions - I decided in 2008 I would, around the time of the show's anniversary, revisit an old theme then & there.  & I have - sometimes I almost forget, but I've managed to do that.  (I also have used episodes of Self Help Radio in other radio shows I've done - like with the Dickenbock Report, where for example the last show I did, I played songs from the Self Help Radio episode about kissing, which for some reason I didn't do on Valentine's Day.  Although I mostly used songs from the KNON Tuesday Morning Blend show I did in 2018 around Valentine's Day which used the old Self Help Radio show about kissing as its base.  The point is, I'm not averse to revisiting themes in other contexts - especially when I am doing three different radio shows on three different stations.)  I simply didn't want to re-do shows on Self Help Radio, it was a rule, except during anniversary shows.

Except - & this wasn't an exception I thought about until it happened - what if someone requests a show you've already done but couldn't have heard it?  For example, someone in Portland who likes bees who asked you to explore bees but you already did a show about bees?  It seems like that would be a good reason to do another version of the theme.  & why not?  The people who did the same shows over & over did them in Austin, & whatever reason I decided not to do that - envy, perhaps, or spite - shouldn't apply in another place in the future.  I don't archive all my shows.  They're not always accessible.  (That's mainly because who would want to listen to them?  The last year of shows I've done is always available on my website & nobody ever listens to them.)  & sometimes someone wants to hear a show I've already done.

Except - this is perhaps a rule about re-doing shows that I've never articulated - I'm doing new interviews & I'm going to play songs I didn't play on the previous show.  Because there have been new bee songs in the past four years, either recorded since or discovered by me since.

That's what's happening this week, & why.  I guess I should've saved this for tomorrow.  Oops.