Urban Ruins

One of the strangest things that happens when a business fails is that they're not somehow required to clean up or otherwise alter the remnants of their existence in a place.  Take this picture - which I snapped five years ago today in Fort Worth, Texas.  There was once a Pancho's restaurant here.  They were long gone - but their fading sign was still there for the world to see.

But do you know what happened?  We left Fort Worth in May of 2019, but according to Gorgle Maps, by December 2018 - barely six months before we left - some enterprising entrepreneur rebranded that sign:

Yep, the former Pancho's sign became a pharmacy sign.

Which may or not may prove my point?  Did I have a point?  I can't remember.

Oh yeah I was going to tell a Pancho's story but I will save it for some other time.

Rain

It rained all day today. You might be saying, "So what? It's Portland, man!"

Yes, it rains here, but it's not often a constant rain.  We have walked the dogs in-between patches of rain.

Today, after about noon, it started raining.  & it hasn't stopped.

Someone in Austin posted a weather chart of this week.  The highs are all over 100 degrees.

There was a news report a couple weeks ago - local news - it asked, "When will Portland break 80 degrees?"

It won't happen for a while.  Certainly not with all this rain.

Self Help Radio 060722: Knees

How I wish I could say something interesting or pithy about knees!  The only thing I can think is, one day my knees will fail me.  I know several people whose age I am quickly approaching who had to have some form of knee surgery - including (shudder) knee replacement.  A show about knees caused me to contemplate the fate of my knees.

Instead though I should have enjoyed the celebration of the knee!  It knocks when we're afraid!  It goes weak when we're in love!  When we are trying things out, we first go in up to the knee!  & when we want something, whether from a love or a god, we go down on our knees as a sign of our humility.

But.  Once I slipped on the ice & landed on my knees.  I was utterly astonished I didn't ruin my kneecaps then & there.  Probably I just started their ruin.  I will be in a doctor's office one day & they're going to say to me, "Did you break your patella in around 2015?"  Okay, I'll stop fixating on that.

Please enjoy a show about knees with only a small amount of discussion of knee injuries.  You can listen now & any time at either the Self Help Radio KBOO page or at the Self Help Radio website.  If you choose the latter, remember the username SHR & the password selfhelp.  You'll need that information.  Everything that happens on the show is below.

Take care of your knees!!!!

Self Help Radio 220607: Knees

"Knee" Ken Nordine _Wink: Ken Nordine Does Robert Shure_

"Skinny Knee Bone" Freakwater _Scheherazade_

"Kneebone" Joe Armstrong & Group _Southern Journey 1: Georgia Sea Islands, Volume I_

introduction, featuring the Anatomy-O-Tron 3000!

"On Bended Knees" Barbara Lewis _The Complete Atlantic Singles_

"Down On My Knees" Willie James _Lost Deep Soul Treasures Volume 2_

"She Gets Down On Her Knees" Yoko Ono _Season Of Glass_

"Knee Deep In Love" Q _Dancin' Man_

"An Owl With Knees" The Books _Lost & Safe_

interview with athlete Jarvis Montcrieff

"Knee Deep In Clover" Peggy Scott & Jo Jo Benson _Lover's Heaven_

"On Your Knees Cowboy!" The Hepburns _The Last Thing I Saw Before I Said Goodbye_

"Dancer With Bruised Knees" Kate & Anna McGarrigle _Dancer With Bruised Knees_

"Knee Jerk Reaction" The Green Circles _Antipodean Screams_

"Knees" Injury Reserve _By The Time I Get To Phoenix_

interview with orthopedic surgeon Dr. Timothy Patterson

"Highway Knees" T. Rex _Tanx_

"Making Love To A Vampire With A Monkey On My Knee" Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band _Doc At The Radar Station_

"Knee Deep In The Blues" The International Submarine Band _Safe At Home_

"Knee Deep" Kelly Slusher _Invited To Dinner_

"Scarred Knees" Esther Phillips _From A Whisper To A Scream_

interview with author Dr. Todd Saget

"Weak In The Knees" Shades Of Blue _Diggin' Up Down Under!_

"Knees Up Mother Brown (Knees Down Mother Brown)" Scaffold _Thank U Very Much_

"Down On Your Knees" The Popguns _Eugenie_

"The Bee's Knees" Bitesize _Sophomore Slump_

"Hand To The Knee/Tshimbala Mulumbayi" Congotronics International _Where's The One?_

idioms with knees

"Down On Bending Knees" Johnny Copeland _Down & Out (The Sad Soul Of The Black South)_

"Down On My Knees" Eddie "Blues Man" Kirkland _It's The Blues Man!_

"Get Up Off Of Our Knees" The Housemartins _London 0 Hull 4_

"Knee Trembler" The Close Lobsters _Headache Rhetoric_

"Knee Deep At The NPL" Camera Obscura _Underachievers Please Try Harder_

a discussion of the song "Oh Susannah"

"O Susanna" Andrew Calhoun _Grapevine_

"Oh Susannah" Neil Young & Crazy Horse _Americana_

"Banjo On My Knee" Mike Settle _The Mike Settle Shindig_

"With My Banjo On My Knee Blues" Louisiana Lou _Flowers In The Wildwood (Women In Early Country Music 1923-1939)_

"Oh Susannah" Hazel Holler _Hazel Holler_

conclusion & goodbye

"Weak At The Knees" Steve Arrington's Hall Of Fame _I_

"Fall On Your Knees" Larkin Grim _Parplar_

"Down On Your Knees" The Wake _Tidal Wave Of Hype_

"Let Loose Of My Knee" The Nivens _From A Northumbrian Mining Village Comes The Sound Of Summer_

"Get Off Your Knees" The Waltones _You've Gotta Hand It To 'Em: The Very Best Of The Waltones_

Whither Knees?

(image from the Wikipedia)

Why a radio show about knees?  Would you believe it's because I did a radio show about socks?  But it's true!

Back in November, over a thousand years ago, Self Help Radio explored socks.  You can still listen to that show if you want to!  One type of sock - we had a couple of songs about it - was the "knee sock."  It occurred to me that I hadn't done a show about a body part in a while, & that I wondered if there were lots of songs about knees.  That's how that idea started.

Now it's time for that idea to become a real live radio show to disappoint everyone!  It'll happen tonight on KBOO - which is  on the air in Portland at 90.7fm & online everywhere at kboo.fm - from midnight to 3am.  All sorts of knee songs plus the usual ridiculousness.

Although no songs about knee socks.  They belong in the socks show!

Preface To Knees: The Knee Of A Lost Love

It may shock most people to know this, but I was young once, but then as now I didn't really enjoy taking pictures of me.  It was brutal enough to look at myself every time I had to in a mirror.  But thinking about knees, I seemed to remember a picture of me which was taken as I was holding the knee of my girlfriend at the time.

& so I found it.  It's up there.  I am all of 24 years old & my hair & beard were long.  We had decided to take pictures that day because I was going to shave my beard off.  There are probably pictures of that somewhere.  Imagine all the time you have when you're young!  I hardly even seem to have the time to take a leisurely shower!

When I thought about this picture, I honestly thought the knee was more prominent.  I thought it might take up enough of the picture that my face would be obscured.  Alas!

Also, sorry.