Fire Escape (Again)

There has been mention on this blog before of fire escapes.  I am fond of/in love with/borderline obsessed with them.  & I've never been on one!  It's so unfair.  Except for the "needing to flee a fire" part.  I haven't done that either, & I'm glad about that.  I just wanna hang out on one on a hot night.  That's all.

Here's a doubtless unsafe fire escape that I took a picture of on this day in 2017.  The Dallas building was at the time abandoned - its Wikipedia page doesn't note its fate.  I believe on the morning of the very last episode of the KNON program I did, in 2019, I met a friend in Deep Ellum for lunch & took some pictures of it being renovated.  Please don't ask me to try to find those.

Nowadays it's not abandoned, & it's not a bank either - it's a hotel.  The Pittman Hotel.  That web page shows how they managed to save some of its design.  It was finished in 2020, & I haven't been in that part of Dallas in a very long time.  & probably won't any time soon.

But I wonder if they saved the fire escape!

Flowery Films

(image from the IMDb)

On the last show of the KBOO Spring Membership Drive - which ends tomorrow so if you haven't given, give now! - our resident cinephile Chuck stopped by to talk about films featuring flowers - although not with that level of alliteration.  This was the last of the shows organized around the theme of the "Hive Drive" - we did shows about bees, honey, buzzing, stinging, & finally flowers.

You didn't listen?  You fool!  Do so now at kboo.fm or at selfhelpradio.net!  Then check here for important links once you've heard Chuck talk about the films.  & here they are!

Here is the IMDb keyword list Chuck used to find films tagged with "flowers."
Here is his YouTube playlist featuring films he discussed & more!
Here is the IMDb list of some films available for free elsewhere.
Here are his Letterboxd reviews of flowery flower films.

As always, I urge you to follow Chuck on Twitter so you can keep up with what he's watching!  Knowing Chuck, he's already started watching films for the next time he's on the show!

Look at all the flowers we gave you this week!

Self Help Radio 052422: Flowers (Again)

Here it is, the last of the "Hive Drive" KBOO Spring Membership Drive shows - we've previously covered bees & honey & stinging & buzzing - now we return to a theme previously covered by Self Help Radio in 2009.  The "flowers" show aired on WMUL in Huntington, West Virginia, in August of that year, & if you actually heard the show at that time, you would have been the only one.

This show was hopefully heard by maybe two people, & you can see below the songs are grouped (should I say "bunched"?) into specific flower sets - buttercups, sunflowers, lilies, daisies, roses, gardenias, violets - I didn't have time to get to sets featuring songs about daffodils, marigolds, & tulips, & I also had like an hour more of songs just called "flowers" - & in-between I talk to local florists & also try to raise money for KBOO.  That's the purpose of these shows!  If you haven't already helped, please do so now!

You can listen now & anytime at either the KBOO Self Help Radio page or at the show's website at Self Help Radio dot net.  At the show's website, use the username SHR & the password selfhelp to download the show.  Every song that's played, & the stuff that happens in-between, is listed below.

Please enjoy this lovely bouquet of a radio show.

Self Help Radio Flowers Show

"Flowers (Demo)" The Psychedelic Furs _The Psychedelic Furs_

"Flowers" Irma Thomas _After The Rain_

"The Flowers" Nits _Doing The Dishes_

introduction & definitions

"Buttercup (feat. The Neal Hefti Singers)" Neal Hefti & His Orchestra _Pardon My Doo-Wah_

"Build Me Up Buttercup" The Foundations _Build Me Up Buttercup: The Complete Pye Collection_

"Buttercups & Daisys" Strawberry Story _Clamming For It_

"Buttercup" Beezus _Lives Of The Saints_

"Buttercups" Dressy Bessy _Sound Go Round_

interview with florist Russ Campbell

"Sunflowers" The Baroques _Purple Day_

"Sunflower" The Springfields _Singles 1986-1991_

"Sunflower" Le Futur Pompiste _Your Stories & Your Thoughts_

"Sunflower" Mercury Rev _The Light In You_

"Sunflowers" Roy Ayers, Adrian Younge, & Ali Shaheed Muhammad _Jazz Is Dead 2_

interview with florist Jarvis Moynihan

"Lilies" Julie Tippetts _Sunset Glow_

"Lilies" Cranes _Loved_

"Calla Lilies" The Caribbean _Plastic Explosives_

"The Blackest Lily" Corinne Bailey Rae _The Sea_

"Lilies" Bedbug _I'll Count To Heaven In Years Without Seasons_

interview with florist Robby Turner

"Daisies" Doris _Did You Give The World Some Love Today Baby_

"Daisy A Day" Jud Strunk _Super Hits Of The '70s - Have A Nice Day, Vol. 11_

"Daisies" The Real Tuesday Weld _Where Psyche Meets Cupid_

"Daisies" Mean Lady _Love Now_

"Daisies" Pins _Hot Slick_

our resident cinephile Chuck stops by!

"Roses" Milltown Brothers _Scared To Get Happy (A Story Of Indie-Pop 1980-1989)_

"Roses" Blouse _Blouse_

"Roses" Tomorrows Tulips _Eternally Teenage_

"Roses" Le Chat Mort _Roses_

"Roses" Camila Fuchs _Kids Talk Sun_

a discussion of "the language of flowers"

"Blue Gardenia" Dinah Washington _For Those In Love_

"Gardenia (feat. Bonnie Graham)" Rodd Keith _I Died Today_

"Gardenia" Kelley Stoltz _Circular Sounds_

"Gardenia" Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks _Real Emotional Trash_

"Gardenia" Iggy Pop _Post Pop Depression_

conclusion & goodbye

"Violets" Momus _The Poison Boyfriend_

"Sweet Violets" Dinah Shore _The Dinah Shore Collection_

Whither Flowers (Again)?

(A neighbor's buttercups.)

Today is the last Self Help Radio of the 2022 KBOO Spring Membership Drive.  (Help out here plz.)  It was dubbed the "Hive Drive" by KBOO staff & Self Help Radio arranged its themes all through the drive to fit with that conceit.  Therefore, we had shows about bees, about honey, about buzzing, about stings, & now, we go most general, to a show about flowers.  So essential to the hive!

It is a daunting task to do a show about a subject so general as flowers because there are (we counted) seven hundred million kabillion googolplex songs about flowers.  Tonight we'll focus on mostly individual kinds of flowers in each set.  That will help narrow it down somewhat.  Although even that wasn't very easy.  I surely listened to at least four hundred million kabillion songs.  & I probably won't even play one you think I should!

Listen tonight (or tomorrow morning to be more precise) from midnight to 3am on 90.7fm KBOO in Portland & online at kboo.fm.  & don't say I never give you anything - tonight I am giving you flowers!

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.