Preface To Flowers: Again?

(Spring is lovely in Portland.)

In the late summer of 2009, the wife & I (& our three dogs & two cats) had moved to Huntington, West Virginia, where I had found a home for Self Help Radio on the college station there, WMUL.  On August 4, around 6pm (I don't know why that time), I did a show with the theme "flowers."  In my typical fashion, I didn't just randomly pick songs about flowers; each song had to either be called "Flowers" or the name of a kind of flower (ie, "Violets").  You can see the playlist here.

This blog existed back then, I wonder what I wrote in it?

For the entry called "Preface To Flowers" - yes, I've been doing that for years now - I said, after the colon: Really? Flowers? When Did You Become Like Every Other Lame "Theme" Radio Show Out There?

& I wrote,

Wow, the title of this blog post is really hostile. It's making me defensive.
Can I answer tomorrow? I'm catching up on "Weeds" & "Nurse Jackie."
Weird. I think whoever titles these blog posts is really disappointed in me.

God, I wasted a lot of time watching "Weeds" & "Nurse Jackie."

What did I write for the "Whither Flowers?" post?  I wrote:

I know, I know, I know. Most everyone who does some sort of radio show where they get to select the music (as opposed to those who have their music chosen for them by corporate computers who manipulate focus-group tests to favor artists they've poured pots of gold into) does some sort of theme show at least every once in a while. What separates Self Help Radio from the rest (I like to think) is that the show doesn't repeat itself with regularity, it doesn't usually tailor the theme to temporal situations (though there are exceptions), & it goes out of its way to avoid themes of a broad nature (like, I don't know, "love" or "cars") which anyone with an iPod & a couple of friends could do at a moment's notice. This is not to denigrate those sorts of shows, it's just not the way I want to do Self Help Radio. I want to explore themes that require a little bit of time, thought, crate-digging, finagling, desperation, tears.

So, um, why "flowers"? Isn't that one of the easy ones?

Ha ha! You misunderstand my love of arbitrary limitations! For this week on Self Help Radio, not only will the show not be a simply free-for-all about "flowers," but the songs I play will - must - have to simply be either songs called "flowers" or songs about a type of flower pluralized. So there'll be songs called "Roses" or "Daffodils" or "Violets." Them's the rules. There may be a very beautiful song called "Tiptoe Through The Tulips" but unless it's called "The Tulips," it can't be on this week's Self Help Radio.

You see? Saddling myself with preconditions that no one but me cares about - that's the Self Help Radio way.

By the way, my apologies to the nice bakery who wrote hoping I was doing a show about flour. One day, friends. One day.

But why revisit the theme?  I'll tell you tomorrow.