Saturday, October 30, 2021

Halloween Shows!

As an FYI, there are quite a few Self Help Radio Halloween shows - basically every Halloween show since 2005, or a total of seventeen (17!) Halloween shows, over at the Self Help Radio website.  It's not linked on the page, but if you click here:


You can get to those shows.  Please remember (as it says on the page) the username (SHR) & the password (selfhelp) to listen.  I make no claims about the quality of the shows - I can barely remember doing most of them - but gosh I had fun making them!  Perhaps there's some joy to be had listening on a Halloween night.

Friday, October 29, 2021

Halloween Pumpkin Movies & Stuff!

(image from here)

On this year's Halloween episode of Self Help Radio, we played songs about & talked about pumpkins.

During that show, there was another installment of Chuck's Happily Unsophisticated Cinema Korner, in which our resident cinephile talked about movies involving pumpkins & Halloween.  Here are helpful links so you can see what we talked about & then see the movies!

Here is Chuck's twitter thread, which leads to his playlists.

He has two playlists on Youtube to check out, one featuring family-friendly films (G to PG), which you can find if you click here; & the other featuring more adult films (PG-13 to NC-17) which Chuck calls "Pumpkins (After Dark)," & which you can find if you click here.

Chuck reviewed several of the films on Letterboxd, click to read what he thought!

Here are his IMDb keyword lists:
The one for pumpkin is here.  The one for jack o'lantern is here.

Chuck also has prepared a list of Halloween + pumpkin films (courtesy of the IMDb) which you can stream for free elsewhere, & that list is here.

Finally, Chuck would like to give a shout out to Game For A Movie Podcast which gave Chuck & this segment a shout-out which they discussed the film Osombie (2012).  If you'd like to watch that film, which does not have any pumpkins in it, darn it, you can here or here.

Thanks Chuck!  Now, Self Help Radio listener, go watch some Halloween pumpkin films & stuff!

Tuesday, October 26, 2021

Self Help Radio 102621: Halloween 2021 - Pumpkins!


What's more central to Halloween than the venerable pumpkin?  Not ghosts not candy not scares not nothing! Whether you carve them or not, you probably have them in front of your house for the autumn season.  Heck, some of my neighbors even grow them, so we have to stumble around them on dog walks!

For its annual Halloween show this year, Self Help Radio decided to shine a light on - rather than through, from holes carved into its flesh - the pumpkin!  & not just pumpkin songs for Halloween but songs about pumpkins in all its glory - including pumpkins in metaphor & "pumpkin" as an endearment.  Not only are there a plethora of pumpkin ditties, but there are interviews galore, ranging from the incredibly informative to the absolutely ridiculous.

You can listen to the show at both the KBOO website & the Self Help Radio website.  At the show's website, you'll need a username (SHR) & a password (selfhelp).  It's three glorious hours long, & the details are below.  Now get to carving!  Halloween is only a few days away!

Self Help Radio Halloween Pumpkin Show
"Punky Punkin (The Happy Pumpkin)" Rosemary Clooney _Memories Of You_
"The Pumpkin Tells" Wade Denning with Kay Lande _Halloween_
"Ding! Dong! Fill My Plastic Pumpkin" Mike Chick _Ding! Dong! Fill My Plastic Pumpkin_

introduction, definition, & origins

"Punkin Center Tennessee" Lonzo & Oscar _Country Music Time_
"Put The Pumpkin On The Table" David & Jad Fair _Halloween Songs_
"Pumpkin Song" Casper Myers _Karma Shot_
"Pumpkin Carving Party" Evil Streaks _Talk To The Dead_
"Hole In The Pumpkin" Ini Kamoze _Shocking Out_

interview with the star of Evil Pumpkin Man Mike Stout

"Jack O'Lantern" Babe Ruth _Babe Ruth_
"Jack O'Lantern" Supreme Dicks _The Unexamined Life_
"Jack-O'-Lantern Man" The Bravery _Stir The Blood_
"Jack O'Lantern Soccer Ball" The Sharksons _Best Halloween Songs Ever_
"Pumpkin" Male Bonding _Nothing Hurts_

interview with the creator/writer of Evil Pumpkin Man Damian Raven

"Magical Pumpkin Seeds" April Mae & The June Bugs _Boogie Boo! 3_
"Pumpkin Seeds" Devendra Banhart _Oh Me Oh My_
"Pumpkin Seeds" Fred Thomas _Night Times_
"Who Pick De Pumpkin" Zap Pow _Who Pick De Pumpkin_
"African Pumpkin" Pinchers _African Pumpkin_

interview with pumpkin farmer Booster Fromholz

"Pumpkinhead" Christmas _In Excelsior Dayglo_
"Pumpkinhead" Dharma Bums _Bliss_
"Pumpkin Head Xscapes" The Fall _Ed's Babe_
"The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead" XTC _Nonsuch_
"The Great Great Pumpkin" Eddy Bell _Rockin' Rollin' Vocal Groups Vol. 6_

our librarian friend Carole stops by with books about pumpkins!

"Little Peter Punkin Eater" Gene Autry _Always Your Pal, Gene Autry_
"Pumpkin Eater" Terry Jacks _Seasons In The Sun_
"Pumpkineater" Butch Hancock _Eats Away The Night_
"Pumpkin Pie" The "5" Royales _Soul & Swagger: The Complete "5" Royales 1951 - 1967_
"Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie" Odds & Ends _A Treasury Of Northern Soul_
"Pumpkin Pie" Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds _Dracula Boots_

another installed of Chuck's Happily Unsophisticated Cinema Korner featuring pumpkin films

"Pumpkin Eyes" Silver Scooter _The Other Palm Springs_
"Pumpkin Time" The World/Inferno Friendship Society _East Coast Super Sound Punk Of Today!_
"Pumpkin" The Starlight Mints _Drowaton_
"Pumpkin In A Tie" Beloved Binge _Blender Theory_
"Pumpkin Creme" White Mystery _Blood & Venom_
"Rotten Pumpkin" Slothrust _Everyone Else_

conclusion & goodbye

"Punkin'" The April Fools _Punkin'_
"Daddy's Little Pumpkin" John Prine _The Missing Years_
"Pumpkin Rose" Helvetia _Nothing In Rambling_
"Pumpkin" Islands _Taste_
"Pumpkin" Mount Eerie _Sauna_

Monday, October 25, 2021

Whither Pumpkins? (Hint: It's Self Help Radio's 2021 Halloween Show!)

(People in Portland love their Halloween!)

Every year, Self Help Radio celebrates Halloween with a show that tries to focus on some aspect of the holiday, rather than a general assortment of Halloween tunes - not that there's anything incorrect about doing that kind of show!  So far, in the nineteen years of doing the show, we've examined ghosts, vampires, monsters, zombies, witches, werewolves, haunted houses, graveyards, nightmares, hell, mummies, clowns, death, black cats, voodoo, Frankenstein & his monster, & last year we thought about horror films which feature the phrase "Attack Of The..." & had songs about horrible things attacking.

Truly I despaired this year finding a unique theme & even asked on the Self Help Radio Facebook page, where I did get some great suggestions that may turn up on future Halloween shows.  But then, like it sometimes does, inspiration sideswiped me & I thought, what symbol is more important to Halloween than the pumpkin?  There's hardly a house on our block without at least one in the front yard.  & those who for religious reasons might find the holiday of Halloween problematic can still enjoy the pumpkin as the official fruit of the harvest.

So tonight on Self Help Radio we will play lots of songs about pumpkins & we'll talk to lots of folks about pumpkins & it's a Halloween show almost a week before Halloween!

From midnight to 3am! On 90.7 fm KBOO in Portland!  & kboo.fm everywhere!  & don't worry, pumpkins aren't scary!

...Or are they?

Sunday, October 24, 2021

Preface To Halloween 2021 - Pumpkins! Featuring Much More Pumpkin Content

Though it appears to have fallen out of favor, Self Help Radio still has a Tumblr account (it's here), & there are lots of Tumblr users who love love love Halloween (like this one) & there's tons of cool Halloween content right now including pumpkin stuff.  Like below!

(Sorry there are no attributions - Tumblr users don't say anything about where the images originated - the horror that is constant reposting.)

Enjoy!