Home Sweet Portland Home

This picture was taken by me on this day three years ago.  I thought for a minute it might be the day we arrived in Portland, but nope! It's when our stuff arrived.  Winston & Yoko had been missing their beds.

This information I discovered because I keep something like a journal which is really just a list of things I did that day to help me jog my memory.  It's kinda futile because I remember less & less but at least I know we didn't arrive in Portland on May 14.  We arrived the night of the 10th.

This was the house we rented when we first got here.  It was way too big for us & much to expensive & we had to lie about having cats but they didn't mind the dogs.  It let us explore our neighborhood & the house in which we live is about three or four blocks away from the rental.  I always wonder where we might be living if we found a different place to rent once we arrived in Portland.

Hey! I wrote about that place some time ago on the blog!  So maybe go read that?

New Shed

That's the new shed being built.  In late October.  Seven months ago.

The new shed has been completed for a while now.  It's even being used.  Mainly for storage.

Mostly the shed was assembled by my wife. Although she had help. The base of the shed was built by a professional.

For my part, I carried the long piece of wood & helped put them in place.  Exactly my skill set.

It still has that "new shed" smell.

Part of me wanted the she to be like a "tiny house" for guests to stay in. Except we don't have guests.

& it would be frankly very expensive & maybe even very difficult to for example add electricity & plumbing to it.

We used to have a swingset in our backyard but we never really used it.  But now we have a shed.

Hm.  I should probably go take a picture of the current shed.  No, it's too late.  Oh well.

Self Help Radio 051022: Buzz (Again)

(I found the original "image" on Tumblr so long ago I'm not sure where.)

It says "Buzz (Again)" because it's the second "buzz" show I've done - the first being in February 2013 at WRFL in Lexington, Kentucky.  But rest assured, this is all-new!  Well, not all new.  I repeat a few of the songs from the 2013 show.  Oh, & I also play a couple of recordings of me on the original show back in 2013.  Oh dear maybe I shouldn't say "original" show.  Anyway, all the guests are new, there are many more songs on this show, & it was for a good cause!

Because this "buzz" show is in honor of the KBOO Spring Membership Drive, which is a "Hive Drive."  I've previously done shows about bees & honey, & now it's time for buzz.  More bee-related themes coming up!

Listen to the show now at the KBOO website or at the Self Help Radio website. You'll need a username/password (it's SHR/selfhelp) to listen at the Self Help Radio site.  But you can download it!  All the stuff that happens is below.

KBOO is all the buzz so donate to help us out!

Self Help Radio Buzz Show

"Buzz" Pylon _Chomp_

"Buzz" Throwing Muses _Limbo_

"Buzz" MomusMcClymont _MomusMcClymont_

introduction & definitions

"I'm A King Bee" Slim Harpo _The Best Of Slim Harpo_

"Be My Little Baby Bumble Bee" Julie London _Swing Me An Old Song_

"Why Does A Bee Buzz?" Marais & Miranda _More Nature Songs_

"Bee" Bari Koral Family Rock Band _The Apple Tree & The Honey Bee_

"Queen Bee" Sylvia _Lay It On Me_

interview with barber Caspar Hamilton

"Mr. Buzz" The Flying Dutchmen _Contrasts_

"What's Buzzin', Cousin?" Cab Calloway & His Orchestra _1942-1947_

"Buzz Me" Ella May Morse _The Very Best Of Ella Mae Morse_

"Lucky Buzz" Richard Buckner _Since_

"Buzz Buzz Buzz" Eddie Noack _Psycho: The K-Ark & Allstar Recordings, 1962-1969_

interview with bassist Buzz Baker

"Buzzz Going Round" The Flatbackers _Sharon Signs To Cherry Red_

"Buzzcity Talking" XTC _Go 2_

"Eardrum Buzz" Wire _It's Beginning To & Back Again_

"Buzz Buzz Buzz" The Primitives _Lovely_

"Buzzin' Fly" Tim Buckley _Happy Sad_

interview with otolaryngologist Dr. Oswald Jarvis

"Buzzin'" Kathy Zee _Restless Doll_

"The Buzz" John Wesley Harding & The English UK _Making Love To Bob Dylan_

"Buzz" Maddie Medley _Coming Of Age, Pt. 1_

"Buzzin'" Asian Dub Foundation _Rafi's Revenge_

"Buzzin'" Panjabi MC _The Album_

demonstrations of buzzingNed Dry talks buzzwords

"Busy As A Bee (I'm Buzz, Buzz, Buzzin') (vocals, Helen Forrest)" Benny Goodman _The Real... Benny Goodman_

"Buzzin' Bee" L. Curnutt & The Ramblers _Rocky Hoodlums Go Maximum_

"Buzzing Bee" Keith Hudson _From One Extreme To Another_

"Get A Buzz" The Pretty Things _Get A Buzz: The Best Of The Fontana Years_

"The Orderlies (Winecoop Reacts Too Quickly To Buzzer)" Bob & Ray _The Best Of Bob & Ray, Vol. 1: Excerpts From The Bob & Ray Public Radio Show_

"Bloodbuzz Ohio" The National _High Violet_

buzzy idioms

"Buzz" Lord High Fixers _Flaming Burn Out! An Estrus Benefit Comp_

"Buzz" Cockeyed Ghost _Neverest_

"Buzz" Lemuria _Get Better_

"Love Buzz" Shocking Blue _At Home_

"Saddle Up A Buzz Buzz" The Cramps _Stay Sick!_

"Robot Buzz" Memmaker _How To Enlist In A Robot Uprising_

conclusion & goodbye

"Buzz Buzz Buzz" Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers _Back In Your Life_

"Buzz Buzz Buzz" The Treniers _A Proper Introduction To The Treniers: Go! Go! Go!_

"Buzz Buzz A-Diddle-It" Freddie Cannon _His Latest & Greatest_

"I Gotta Buzz" The Buzz _RGM Rarities Vol. 2 (The Beat Groups Era)_

Whither Buzz?

(No, not that Buzz! Image from here.)

Tonight's show has the theme "buzz."  It's a theme the show has explored before, but I decided to return to it because we're in the middle of the KBOO Spring Membership Drive, or the "Hive Drive," & having already done shows about bees & honey, I thought we should have a show about "buzz" - the sound people like to say bees make.  Yes, there will be more bee songs!  But also songs about different kinds of buzz.

If you want to help out - to become a member or renew your membership or just make a donation - you can do so here!  There's also a cool "Hive Drive" shirt you can purchase here!

The show will air tonight from midnight to 3am on 90.7 fm in Portland & online everywhere at kboo.fm.  Surely the city is buzzing about it?  No?  Ah well.

Preface To Buzz: Didn't You Already Do A Buzz Show?

(I made this image for this blog over nine years ago; I don't remember where the original image came from.)

Hasn't there already been a Self Help Radio show with the theme "buzz"?  Yes, there has!  It aired on February 22, 2013, on WRFL in Lexington, Kentucky.  Here's what I wrote in the blog in the "preface to" post (it was entitled, "Preface To Buzz: Buzz Off!"):

Here's the thing.  If you look up the definition of "buzz off," not only is it "chiefly Brit." but it means "to go away; to leave; to depart."

But if you go to an online thesaurus & look for synonyms (is there a special figure of speech for phrases that are synonyms?) for "buzz off," you get these: "bugger off, scram, fuck off, get."

It seems like the phrase is not as innocent as one might think.

Let's go to the Urban Dictionary!

Oh that wasn't very nice.  It just says it means, "Go away."

It doesn't seem to be very polite to say "buzz off."  But is there a polite way to say it?

& here's what it said on the "Whither Buzz?" post I wrote the next day:

I didn't hear the buzz but I did get a buzz cut with a buzz saw.

That buzzing noise from some far-off buzzer is telling you Self Help Radio's show about all kindsa buzz is happening TODAY on 88.1 fm WRFL.  That's from four to six Lexingtime.  You can listen to it in the city or, if you're not in the city, but you are in your computer, you can listen to it on the WRFL web page.

The buzzing in your head may never stop, since I will put the show later on the Self Help Radio web site.

I'm just going to be going buzzzzzzzzzzzz-zzz-zzzz-zzzz-zzzzzzz-zzz-zz-zz-zzzzz-zzzzzzz all damn day long.

If these posts seem unusually pithy, it's because at the time I was acting as Music Director for WRFL & didn't have a lot of time to write nonsense in the blog.  But I did make the show, which I recently listened to, & will share some of it on the show this week.

But - why am I revisiting the theme buzz?  I'll talk about that tomorrow!