Bldg

The picture above, which I called "Bldg," was taken five years ago today.  My feeling is that it's been cropped for artistic effect - but I don't believe I have the original anymore.  It's most probably one building among the many that line I-75 - or "Central Expressway" - in Dallas.  August 14, 2016, was a Sunday, & there's a possibility that I was in town to visit my mother.

That being said, it might also be a building in Fort Worth.  I don't really know.  But my brain is telling me Dallas.  My brain could be & often is wrong.

We had just moved back to the Metroplex that month, & I was a little stunned by all the buildings.  The tallest building in Lexington is I believe thirty floors tall; the tallest in Dallas is over twice that.  & of course there are so many more tall buildings in Dallas.  Lexington has but a handful.

Also, the Texas sky, especially full of clouds, is quite lovely.  I have so many pictures of the Texas sky!  & here's one of them.

Nobody Cares, But

(I found this image here. But read blow how I found it.)

The thing I want to mention, I want to mention not out of self-pity or any sense of disappointment.  & I don't mean to shit on any radio station, which is why I won't mention any radio station.  But, every week, I endeavor to cobble together two (2) radio programs & one of them, this week, did not air.  To be fair, about 1/6th of it aired, before something happened at the station (I was told "the modem was down") & it was off the air & in fact most of the next show was off the air too.  & it's very safe to say, nobody cared.

Again, this is not self-pity.  I sometimes imagine what it would be like to have a popular, well-liked, much-listened-to radio show.  I would imagine that, should that show somehow go off the air, there would be people who would complain.  For example, in Lexington, Kentucky, for a time I did a morning show after which Democracy Now would air.  I was in charge of making sure it started on time.  Sometimes there was an error in getting the newest episode.  We got a lot of angry calls about that.

My show yesterday morning?  No one even noticed it was off the air.  At the very least, no one notified me, & no one mentioned it on Discord, the app that Freeform uses to interface with its listeners.

The show, which I had prepared for World Elephant Day, was also a show for the Freeform Summer Fundraiser.  The nature of Freeform - an all-volunteer, low power fm station - means it took hours to mobilize volunteers to get the station back on the air.  I feel most badly about that - I hoped my blathering might get more donations to Freeform.  Alas.  What I did mostly didn't air.

Oh no!  I didn't mean to mention the radio station!  Sorry.

Yes, I'll put in on the Self Help Radio website next week.  No one listens to it there, though. Of the last ten Dickenbock Reports I've placed there, a total of zero have been listened to.

Therefore I feel safe to say no one will listen to that show.  It won't help the Freeform Fundraiser at all.

But me?  I couldn't give less of a fuck.  Listen or don't listen, I don't care.  I make radio shows whether or not anyone listens.  I do it out of joy.  Nobody cares?  Dude.  Welcome to my life!

Self Help Radio 081021: Waterfalls

(Original image here.*)

This week's Self Help Radio was about waterfalls.  There are lots of waterfalls in this part of Oregon.  How many have I visited?  You mean counting today?  None.  Look, it got hot!  Yesterday I was going to go to one just twelve miles south of me, but there was this heat advisory & I felt like napping, & well, I didn't go.  But I will!

The show's one achievement - using "achievement" in the broadest possible sense - is that I played twenty songs just called "Waterfall."  I wish I could've filled the entire show with songs just called "Waterfall."  I bet there are three hours of songs called "Waterfall."  I might have listened to that many.  But!  I didn't like a lot of them.  & one of the cool things about programming your own show is that you don't have to play songs you don't like!

Also there were no guests on this show - though there were lots of interruptions!

Listen now at the Self Help Radio website (where you will need a username & password, which are SHR & selfhelp) & at the KBOO website (where you won't need such things).  All the songs I played & all the things that happened during airbreaks are detailed below.

Gosh! Waterfalls are pretty!

Self Help Radio Waterfalls Show

"Waterfall" The Smoke _...It's Smoke Time_

"Waterfall" Jimmy Cliff _Jimmy Cliff In Brazil_

"Waterfall" Aguaturbia _Volumen 2_

introduction/conversation with the show's producer

"Waterfall" Jane _Here We Are_

"Waterfall" Carly Simon _Playing Possum_

"Waterfall" Merrell Fankhauser _The Maui Album_

"Waterfall" The Stone Roses _The Stone Roses_

"Waterfall" Engine No. 9 _Peppermint Stick Parade_

definitions with the Definition-O-Tron 3000

"Waterfall" Riverside _One_

"Waterfall" Hassan Hakmoun _The Gift_

"Waterfall" Ilene Adar _First Sound_

"Waterfall" First Nation _First Nation_

"Waterfall" James _Hey Ma_

Archibald Von Poesy interrupts!

"Waterfall" Quintron _Too Thirsty 4 Love_

"Waterfall" Yonlu _A Society In Which No Tear Is Shed Is Inconceivably Mediocre_

"Waterfall" The Fresh & Onlys _Play It Strange_

"Waterfall" Acid House Kings _Music Sounds Better With You_

"Waterfall" Fred Thomas _Kuma_

new report Rick Wright interrupts!

"Waterfall" Josephine Foster _Blood Rushing_

"Waterfall" Fear Of Men _Loom_

"Waterfalls" Chris Carpenter _A Heavy Dose Of Lyte Psych_

"Waterfalls" Paul McCartney _McCartney II_

"Waterfalls" Why? _Elephant Eyelash_

Ned Dry interrupts! plus a performance with Captain McCheese

"Waterfalls" Me'Shell Ndegeocello _Ventriloquism_

"Living In A Waterfall" Howe Gelb _Hisser_

"Rose Waterfalls" Jennifer Castle _Angels Of Death_

"Sunshine's A Waterfall" Chip Taylor _New Songs Of Freedom_

"Over The Waterfall" Michelle Shocked _Arkansas Traveller_

"Silver Waterfalls" Siouxsie & The Banshees _Superstition_

a few fun facts about Niagara Falls

"Niagra Fall Blues" Kid Cole _The Rough Guide To Unsung Heroes Of Country Blues, Vol. 2_

"Niagra Falls" Jimmy Thackery & John Mooney _Sideways In Paradise_

"Niagara" The Wedding Present _Dalliance_

"Two Weeks With A Good Man In Niagara Falls" The Hummingbirds _Va Va Voom_

"Niagara" Ohbijou _Metal Meets_

"Niagara Falls" Harlem Shakes _Technicolor Health_

conclusion & goodbue

"By A Waterfall" Dick Powell _The Man From 42nd Street_

"An Old Water Mill By A Waterfall" Milton Brown & The Musical Brownies _The Complete Recordings 1932-1937_

"(When The Moonlight Fell) On The Waterfall" Martha Tilton _The Liltin' Miss Tilton_ 

"Down By The Waterfalls" Warner Mack _The Early Years: Southern Rockabilly 1957-1962_

* "Oregon Waterfalls" by Evan-Lovely is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Whither Waterfalls?

(Willamette Falls, from Wikipedia.)

Wow, Willamette Falls, pictured above, are just twelve miles south from where I live?!?  Why haven't I gone to see them yet?  What better things have I had to do?

Though I'm probably not what one might call a connoisseur of waterfalls, which I chalk up to living most of my life in Texas, which is not known for its plentiful waterways, I am certainly one who appreciates them.  & as I thought about them, & mulled over them, & especially as I found myself stumbling onto more & more songs about waterfalls, I thought, "That would be a good theme for Self Help Radio."  Especially while we still have water!

So that's what's happening tonight, on Self Help Radio, on 90.7 fm KBOO Portland.  Online at kboo dot fm.  It'll be from midnight to 3am.  I'm sure there'll be lots of tunes & maybe even guests?  & no one has to go over any falls in a barrel.

Preface To Waterfalls: Oh Wow All The Waterfalls Near Portland!

(image from here)

Before I left Fort Worth, my next-door neighbor Jim revealed to me that he absolutely loves waterfalls, & that he has in fact visited the Pacific Northwest just to see waterfalls.  I must have filed that knowledge away because, well, Self Help Radio this week is about waterfalls, & I was looking around the web wide web & discovered this article, which tells of "6 Incredible Waterfalls To Visit Near Portland."

The article goes from "incredible" to "the best" because the Internets can't make a like without asserting opinion as fact, but it's pretty stunning to discover that all six of these are within thirty-five miles of where I live.  In fact, they're all pretty near one another, although I'm sure you have to hike to find them.  I'm sitting here all like, "What the hell have I been doing during this neverending pandemic anyway?"  & I reply, "Dumb radio shows."

Will the waterfall show be dumb?  Oh sure.  But it'll also be purty!