Photographs Of Places I've Lived # 0: Ridgewood Dr

(pic from Google maps.)

When I was in Texas two weeks ago, I was given by my sister my actual birth certificate, which told me where my family was living when I was born.  It was in this house in Garland, Texas.  I have no memory of course of living here, but my sister believes I lived here for maybe the first two years of my life.  It might be in this backyard where this picture was taken:

It would have to be, right?

When I was in Garland, I went down the wrong street (one street over) & took a picture of the wrong house.  But the Google Map image above is probably pretty close to how it looks now.  How it looked then I have no idea.  I have no memory!

Last August I started this series with the first place I remember living in, which was an apartment complex called Kingsley Manor.  I wrote then, "I've never figured out exactly how many places that was before we moved into Kingsley Manor."  It turns out that number is most probably two.  This place above, on Ridgewood, & one other, a few blocks north, on a street called Rolando.  My sister doesn't remember the house number or exactly where the house was, so I will probably never be able to add one last house to this series.

& yeah, I'm still living in the place I said I was living at the end of the series.  Hopefully we'll live here a bit longer.  I like it here!

New Intro Time Again Again Again Again Again Again Again Again Again!

It's that time of year - actually it's a month later than I normally would do this - can I still blame the pandemic? - when I make a new intro for the show.  I used to make them at the beginning of either the summer cycle (at KOOP) or the summer semester (at WRFL) which both started in May.  Self Help Radio is currently at a station that doesn't have any seasonal cycle & I would have made it earlier but I am kinda swamped recording my shows instead of doing them live.  But I made one this week!  I hope someone likes it.  Besides me.

Here's the 2021 Self Help Radio Intro!

The show is nearly nineteen years old, & I've made nineteen intros for it now, wow.  Here in fact are the previous eighteen.  In chronological order.  Yikes.

You can listen to the 2002 intro (my first!) here.

You can listen to the 2003 intro here.

You can listen to the 2005 intro here.

You can listen to the 2006 intro here.

You can listen to the 2007 intro here.

You can listen to the 2008 intro here.

You can listen to the 2009 intro here.

You can listen to the 2010 intro here.

You can listen to the 2011 intro here.

You can listen to the 2012 intro here.

You can listen to the 2013 intro here.

You can listen to the 2014 intro here.

You can listen to the 2015 intro here.

You can listen to the 2016 intro here.

You can listen to the 2017 intro here.

You can listen to the 2018 intro here.

You can listen to the 2019 intro here.

You can listen to last year's intro here (or before any of the shows this year).

Let's hope this new one is only for the next twelve months so you don't get too sick of it.  Wait.  You're sick of it already?  Dang.

Self Help Radio 060121: An Important Show

(Original image here.*)

This isn't really an important show. I mean, it might be important to me, & sure my guests are glad they were on it, but important? In the grand scheme of things? Nah. It's just another way for me to organize a group of songs in a pleasant way. I hope you like it.

Lots of things happen - look at the list of songs below & see the stuff in-between.  I had some guests!  Yay!

You can listen now in two places: at the KBOO website & at the Self Help Radio website.  Either is good.  The KBOO website is more important, but I'm good with that.  I just hope you listen.

If only what I were doing were actually important!

Self Help Radio's Important Show

"Important In Your Life" Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers _Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers_

"Mr. Important" Bis _The New Transistor Heroes_

"Nothing Is More Important Than Love" Frank Sinatra, Jr. _Nothing Is More Important Than Love_

introduction & definitions

"How Important Can It Be?" Teresa Brewer _The Best Of Teresa Brewer_ 

"The Importance Of The Rose" The Limeliters _Time To Gather Seeds_

"Organs Of Little Apparent Importance" Richard Dawkins _Charles Darwin's On The Origin Of Species_

"These Important Years" Hüsker Dü _Warehouse: Songs & Stories_

"Three Important Domestic Inventions" The Beakers _Four Steps Toward A Cultural Revolution_

interview with Ainsley Wagoner of Silverware (part I)

"Importance 101" White Hills _Stop Mute Defeat_

"Seems More Important To Me" The Groop _The Best & The Rest 1965-69_

"Have I Learned Anything Important Since I Was Sixteen?" Elizabeth Deutsch Earle _This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies Of Remarkable Men & Women_

"The Unimportant Things" Outrageous Cherry _Seemingly Solid Reality_

"So Important" Sparks _Interior Design_

interview with Ainsley Wagoner of Silverware (part II)

"Important" Silverware _No Plans_

"A Song In Latin About The Importance Of Comfortable Shoes" Short-Haired Domestic _Short-Haired Domestic_

"A Little Lyric Of Great Importance" Harry Belafonte _Belafonte Returns To Carnegie Hall_

"My Body's More Important Than My Mind (Live)" Shirley Bassey _Burn My Candle - The Complete Early Years 1956-58_

"I've Got More Important Things To Do" The Belmonts _Tell Me Why: The Very Best Of The Belmonts_

interview with stand-up comedian Denver Smith

"It's Important To Be Trendy" Momus _The Philosophy Of Momus_

"Un Serpent Sans Importance" Etienne Daho _Eden_

"The Most Important Booking Agent in the World" Shelley Berman _Outside Shelley Berman_

"It's Important" Mecca Normal _Jarred Up_

"The Important Thing Is To Love" +/- _Let's Build A Fire_

interview with sculptor Jack Scofflaw

"Important Words" Gene Vincent _The Road Is Rocky (The Complete Studio Masters 1956-1971)_

"Ce'ne Pas La Importance" Wau y Los Arrrghs!!! _Cantan En Español_

"My Important Heart" Goodnight Loving _Crooked Lake_

"No One's More Important Than the Earth Worm" Stackridge _Extravaganza_

"Importance Of Mistakes" People Like Us _Thermos Explorer_

"It's Important To Me" Deniece Williams _This Is Niecy_

idioms of importance

"Time Is Important To Me" The Viceroys _We Must Unite_

"Unimportant Things" Julie Grant _Come To Me - The Pye Anthology_

"Unimportant" The Northern Pikes _Snow In June_

"Important" The Great Swamps _Indiana_

"Important" Maps & Atlases _Beware & Be Grateful_

"Un Secret Sans Importance (A Secret Of No Importance)" Monade _Socialisme Ou Barbarie (The Bedroom Recordings)_

conclusion & goodbye

"What's Important" Beat Happening _Look Around_

"Not Important" Cloud Nothings _Cloud Nothings_

"Kiss Only The Important Ones" Guided By Voices _Hardcore UFOs: Revelations, Epiphanies, & Fast Food In The Western Hemisphere_

"The Importance Of Being Idle" Oasis _Don't Believe The Truth_

"Big Important Place" Kevin Seconds _Good Luck Buttons_

"Talk About Goose Creek & Other Important Places" Goose Creek Symphony _Goose Creek Symphony_

*"Important" by Joe Shlabotnik is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 

Whither An Important Show?

(image from here.)

This week's Self Help Radio will be an important show.  This will naturally puzzle anyone who's listened to Self Help Radio before, as it has never been anything but unimportant.  By nearly every metric, it's continually avoided any kind of importance.  In fact, it has instead been immaterial, inconsequential, insignificant, irrelevant, negligible, trivial, unnecessary, useless, & generally worthless.

So what has changed?  Is the show pretending to be important for some reason?  No, it's just that I have been enjoying the new album by Silverware & in particular the song "Important."  I thought I'd make an important radio program to showcase that song.  & so I shall - & I'll also talk to Ainsley from Silverware as well.  That's what makes the show important.  You see.

Tonight on 90.7 fm KBOO Portland, online at kboo.fm, from midnight to 3am.  It's honestly of no real importance.  But it's an important show nonetheless.

Preface To An Important Show: Head Full Of Steam

Tomorrow I'll talk about why this week's show will be "important" but today I'll talk about a song that I'm not going to play on the show but it's the first song I think about when I think about songs in which some form of "important" features.  I'm not going to play it because it's not that prominent - it's just a line, really.  & it's kind of out-of-character for the songwriter.  It's this song:

Hm, for some reason I can't embed, so you can hear the song/watch the video here.

It's "Head Full Of Steam" by the Go-Betweens, & the lyrics are by Robert Forster, who sings the song.  The line I'm thinking about is: "Her father works, her mother works in exports, but that's of no importance at all."  It's quite punny & clever & the truth is, I don't think of Robert Forster as a punny clever songwriter.  I would've expected that from Elvis Costello.

It's a song I love very much, however.  I got to see Robert Forster in late 2019 & my heart skipped a beat when he played this.  It made up for him not playing "Baby Stones."