Two Very Different March 26ths

It may seem like a cheat, to use Saturdays on this blog to look back on pictures of this day, specifically ones I've taken, & aimlessly reminisce about them.  It may seem & it may be.  But nonetheless here are two pictures I took on March 26 in the past & they're in two different places, two thousand miles & two years apart.

On this day two year ago (though it feels like it's been a century), a terrible virus was making its presence known & people understandably panicked.  & I for some reason went to Costco, & saw this:

Those were weird times, when shelves were empty like it was North Korea, or a communist country in the 1970s.  I remember when they eventually got toilet paper & they allowed only one per customer, & I waited in line for it.  Just two years ago.  Imagine.

The other picture was taken on this day in 2018 in Fort Worth, Texas, in my backyard.  I would occasionally see a beautiful woodpecker come down & take a bite from my bird feeder.  & on this day I would take perhaps the best picture of him ever:

There is so very much I don't know about birds, but I remember looking this fellow up & confirming with my next-door neighbors.  I seem to remember it being a red-bellied woodpecker.  That links suggests I was right.  I would've loved a yard full of them.

We have yet to set up a bird feeder here in Portland.  I am not sure why that is.

Antipathy For Self Help Radio Day

From Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy no less!

(Sorry - I forgot where I found this - but almost certainly on Tumblr.)

Also can I remind you that Olivia Jaimes' Nancy (which you can read here) is delightful & I think worth your time?  Okay, then I will remind you!  I just did!

Self Help Radio 032222: Too Much

The sign above, in a picture I took many moons ago in Texas, conveys what I think is too much information.  It has the unenviable task of telling you that not only is the "express lane" coming up, but it's coming up pretty soon, & we know that because it's just a half-mile away.  What's more, you have very little time - this is a Texas highway, probably I-30, which has at times five lanes on each side - to get over to the left lane, which is not the standard exit.  But it's all for naught!  Because the time postscript, in warning-sign-orange, tells us it's closed.  Thanks for reading.  You'll find another express lane by & by.

It's almost like a short story except the ending is a disappointment, not an O. Henry-esque twist.  Which may be why I chose the image - except for the whole "too much information" part - because every episode of Self Help Radio is like an overlong short story with a disappointing ending.

Howsoever you choose to perceive the show, it's now at both the KBOO website & at the Self Help Radio website for your listening pleasure.  There were songs & guests galore - perhaps too much of such things - & those are detailed below.

No matter what you think about Self Help Radio, we think you are too much!

Self Help Radio Too Much Show

"Too Much" Jimmy Reed _Just Jimmy Reed_

"Too Much" Rosie Flores _Working Girl's Guitar_

"Too Much" Blondie _Pollinator_

introduction & definitions

"It's All Too Much" The Beatles _Yellow Submarine_

"I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night" The Electric Prunes _Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era_

"Too Much Yang Energy" Charles Schwab _Sonic Damn Nation_

"Too Much Going For You" Holly Golightly _Laugh It All Up!_

"Nothing's Too Much (Nothing's Too Good)" Billy Young _Deep Soul Treasures (Taken From The Vaults...) (Volume 1)_

interview with wrestler Tommy "Too Much" Turner

"Too Much Pressure" The Selecter _Too Much Pressure_

"Too Much Monkey Business" Chuck Berry _The Chess Years_

"She's Too Much For My Mirror" Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band _Trout Mask Replica_

"I Think Too Much" Aziz Ansari _Dangerously Delicious_

"You Talk Too Much" Run-DMC _Greatest Hits_

interview with travel writer Damien Craig

"Too Much To Bear" Doris Duke _I'm A Loser (The Swamp Dogg Sessions... & More)_

"You Had Too Much" Lonnie Johnson & Violet Green _Roots & Blues_

"Too Much Violence" The Clean _Modern Rock_

"Too Much Acid" Pineapples From The Dawn Of Time _Behind The Banana Curtain 1975-2000_

"Too Much Space" Lisa Germano _In The Maybe World_

interview with psychologist Dr. Sunshine Daydream

"Too Much Of Nothing" Bob Dylan & The Band _The Basement Tapes_

"There's Too Much Love" Belle & Sebastian _Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant_

"Too Much" Julie Doiron _Heart & Crime_

"Too Much Time" Nona Hendryx & Gary Lucas _The World Of Captain Beefheart_

"Too Much Of One Thing" The Go-Betweens _Bright Orange Bright Yellow_

interview with life coach Jarvis Condo

"You Drink Too Much" State Street Swingers _The Music Of Prohibition_

"Too Much Weight" Mickey & Sylvia _Love Is Strange_

"You Yakity Yak Too Much" The Flippers _The Best Of Flip Records Volume 3: The Mess Around_

"Too Much 21st Century" Bauhaus _Go Away White_

"Way Too Much" Wavves _V_

"Need Too Much" Lisa Prank _Perfect Love Song_

a rumination of things there are too much of

"Too Much On My Mind" The Kinks _Face To Face_

"Just Too Much To Hope For" Tammi Terrell _The Complete Motown Singles | Vol. 8: 1968_

"Too Much For You" Bobby Angelle _The Soul Of Money Records_

"Too Much" The Feelies _Only Life_

"Too Much" Lucky Soul _Hard Lines_

"Too Much Information" The Police _Ghost In The Machine_

conclusion & goodbye

"Too Much Too Drink" Milky Wimpshake _Lovers Not Fighters_

"Too Much In Love" The King Khan & BBQ Show _What's For Dinner?_

"Too Much Woman" Alison Stevenson _Eat Me_

"Too Much Make Up" A Giant Dog _Pile_

"Too Much Space" Hey Hey My My _Hey Hey My My_

"I Shared Too Much With Her" Gospel Music _How To Get To Heaven From Jacksonville, FL_

"Too Much E" Lloyd Cole & The Negatives _The Negatives_

Whither Too Much?

 

(image from here)

When the world is too much with me, when I feel too little inspiration from things, I often retreat into a phrase or a word as a theme for Self Help Radio.  & that's what's happening on this week's show - everything on the show will somehow feature the small but potent phrase "too much."

Perhaps I also should have featured "too many" but as it stands, there was almost too much music to get through for tonight's show - too many songs if you will.  There will also be interviews, which may be too much even though there's three hours to fill.  If this seems like too much for you, just remember: the show's theme is "too much"!

It's happening tonight on 90.7 fm KBOO, kboo.fm on the computer or phone with computer on it, in the much too much late hours of midnight to 3am.  It just might be too much for you.  & that's the point.

Preface To Too Much: Isn't Three Hours Too Much

(image & article answering that question here)

A long time ago, when I first starting doing Self Help Radio, I was oh so glad & grateful to have an hour-long show on the airwaves at KOOP.  It was very competitive at that time on the station - most shows were thirty minutes or an hour, & the two hour shows had been around for a while.  & frankly, I had come up with the idea of exploring a different theme every week out of a kind of desperation - I needed an angle to get my show approved.  So who knew if I could fill an hour a week with a show about donuts or diapers or whatever?

But when I had the opportunity to do the show for two hours, I took it.  & then when the station decided to change the schedule, I was happy to do ninety minutes.  & I kinda felt at the time that that was the perfect show length for Self Help Radio.  When I started at WRFL in 2010, the timeslot was three hours long - so I divided the time between a freeform show & Self Help Radio, although eventually I did expand it again to two hours, & ended with a two hour show before I left Kentucky.

When I moved SHR to KBOO, I knew I wouldn't be splitting the timeslot - but I did wonder if maybe I should reserve the last hour for something else, like only instrumentals, or perhaps "re-running" a previous show.  Eventually I decided, you know what?  I will do a three-hour show.  They've given me three hours.  Nothing else made any sense.

But to answer my own question: yes, three hours is too much.  When I have five interviews, it is handy, but I wouldn't have so many interviews if the show were only two hours long.  & I hold out hope that either a) the station decides to carve up the late-night hours into smaller timeslots so more shows can happen or b) I get an earlier two-hour timeslot at some point.  Because doing three hour shows - & then doing the Dickenbock Report - yes, that's too much.