Movies About Ponies

(image from the IMDb)

It was one of those happy weeks this past week when our resident cinephile Chuck came by to talk about movies having some content which related to this week's theme - which was ponies.

Don't listen if you haven't already listened!  Good golly!  Go now to either kboo.fm or at selfhelpradio.net & catch up.  You don't have to listen to the whole durn thing - just Chuck's segment - which happens a little past halfway - but then you can take advantage of the following links to see the films he talked about & find out more information about them

Here is the IMDb search of movies tagged with "pony."
Here is his YouTube playlist with movies to watch for free - including some movies he discussed.
Here is the IMDb list of some films available for free elsewhere.
& if you want more Chuck, check out his Letterboxd reviews.

Follow Chuck on Twitter - he'll tell you what he's currently watching - & he'll let you know when next he appears on Self Help Radio!

Books About Ponies

(all images from Goodreads)

This week on the show - our show about ponies - we had a very welcome visit by our favorite librarian, Carole, to talk about books featuring ponies.  Above you can see the covers of the books she talked about, but they were in fact:

My Little Pony/Transformers: Friendship In Disguise by Ian Flynn, James Asmus, Sam Maggs, Tony Fleecs, & Jack Lawrence

Who Named Their Pony Macaroni? Poems About White House Pets by Marilyn Singer & Ryan McAmis

Snow Pony & The Seven Miniature Ponies by Christian Trimmer & Jessie Sima

But you might have missed the show?  Luckily for you, it's at both the Self Help Radio website & the KBOO website.  I believe the interview with Carole is at the end of the first hour.

Everything she recommends is awesome - so check them out!

Self Help Radio 072622: Ponies

(Original image here.)

Looking around the interwebs, I couldn't find an answer to the question, What do kids want more, a dog or a pony?  I can say with confidence that as a kid, I wanted both, & a cat, & a snake, & a turtle too if possible.  That I would not have taken very good care of them is not something my family was prepared to tell me, so they opted not to get me any of those.  Also, we were very poor.  We lived in apartments.  A dog would be hard enough - a pony would have been miserable.  If not impossible.

The best I can have now, & maybe you too, is a radio show about ponies.  Luckily there are lots of songs about ponies & I was able to talk to lots of folks about pony-related subjects (see below).  While I somehow couldn't fit in any songs referencing dog & pony shows, I did have a few cowboy & cowgirl tunes as well as some ponytail songs.  & at least one "one trick pony" song.  But the star of the show was that diminutive creature which seems so much sweeter & cuter than the average horse.  Oh damn it all!  I still want a pony!

Listen to the show now either at the KBOO website or at the Self Help Radio website.  At the SHR website you'll need a username & a password, which are SHR & selfhelp.  Every song I play & what happens during the show is noted below.

Saddle up!

Self Help Radio Ponies Show

"Pony Time" Chubby Checker _Let's Twist Again (The World Of Chubby Checker)_

"Ride Your Pony" Betty Harris _The Lost Queen Of New Orleans Soul_

"I Want A Pony" Krause _No Guts, No Glory_

introduction & definitions

"Little Pony" Lambert, Hendricks, & Ross _Sing A Song Of Basie_

"Pony In The Night" Ed Schrader's Music Beat _Nightclub Daydreaming_

"Pony" Annette Peacock _I'm The One_

"Pony" Tom Waits _Mule Variations_

"Stone Pony Blues" Charley Patton _Complete Recordings 1929-1934_

interview with my friend Jarvis, who has a pony

"Pony Tail" T-Bone Walker _The Complete Imperial Recordings: 1950-1954_

"Pony Tail Girl" Glenn Garrison _Bison Bop: The Bop That Never Stopped - For A Real Rockin' Cat Volume 7_

"Ponytails" Anna Oxygen _All Your Faded Things_

"Ponytail" Pins _Hot Slick_

"White Horse" Laid Back _...Keep Smiling_

our favorite librarian Carole comes by to talk about pony books

"Mysterious Pony" Emperor Penguin _Mysterious Pony_

"Art School Pony" Tennis Pro _Are You There God? It's Me, Tennis Pro_

"Hey Pony" Hédika _Belles! Belles! Belles! 1961-1968_

"I Want A Pony" Candypants _Candypants_

"I Want A Pony" Amanda Applewood _I Love Boys_

interview with new Pony Express founder Mark Vega

"(Blame It) On the Pony Express" Johnny Johnson & The Bandwagon _Soul Survivor_

"Pony Express" Jack Frost _Snow Job_

"A Cowboy's Best Friend Is His Pony" Wilf Carter _Cowboy Songs_

"My Poncho Pony" Patsy Montana _Flowers In The Wildwood (Women In Early Country Music 1923-1939)_

"Pony Blues" Son House _The Original Delta Blues_

our resident cinephile Chuck stops by to talk about movies featuring ponies

"Pony St." Elvis Costello _Brutal Youth_

"Ponyoak" Kleenex Girl Wonder _Graham Smith Is The Coolest Person Alive_

"Pony Song" Salem 66 _Salem 66_

"Red Pony" The Triffids _Treeless Plain_

"New Pony" Bob Dylan _Street-Legal_

interview with Clay Brony, pony ride entrepreneur

"Saddle My Pony" Howlin' Wolf _The Chronological Howlin' Wolf 1952-1953_

"My Rifle, My Pony, & Me" Elle Belga _Little Darla Has A Treat For You V.27: Eternal Spring Edition_

"Dig A Pony" The Beatles _Let It Be_

"Little Pony" BMX Bandits _Serious Drugs: The Creation Anthology_

"Tony The Pony" Morrissey _The HMV/Parlophone Singles 88-95_

conclusion & goodbye

"Pony Club" The Limp _Can't Stop It! Australian Post-Punk 1978-1982_

"Mister, Would You Please Help My Pony?" Ween _Chocolate & Cheese_

"Waltz For Pony" Boy _Mutual Friends_

"Little Abigail & The Beautiful Pony" Shel Silverstein _A Light In The Attic_

"One Trick Ponies" Kurt Vile _Bottle It In_

"Pony Ony O" Mean Lady _Love Now_

Whither Ponies?

(Found on the internet many years ago, can't remember where.)

A few years back, someone asked me if I had ever done a Self Help Radio episode about horses.  "Horses!" I said. "Oh dear no!  Imagine how many songs there must be about horses!" I was thinking about that requests (I can't remember who made the request though) a few weeks ago when I had stumbled onto another theme for which they were too many songs.

It may seem to you that the more general a theme, the easier the task, since you can pick from a wider assortment of tunes. But that is not the case when one is a completist with not a little bit of an obsessive-compulsive streak.  Ultimately the general themes torture me.  I need to whittle them down.

Thus, my mind went, "That was a tough one, too many songs to go through, glad I'm not doing that again for a while, like the time that person requested horses, holy crap that would be a lot of songs, I don't know if I'd ever do a show about horses, imagine, but if I had to, maybe I could do a show about a type of horse, or perhaps donkeys, or mules, or hey! what about ponies?" My mind began to think of songs for such a show.

How that is resolved you can discover tonight on 90.7fm KBOO Portland, online at kboo.fm, from midnight to 3am. A show about ponies from someone who's never spent much time with ponies. The magic of radio!

Preface To Ponies: My Little Pony

(Cute! Image from here.)

Wikipedia tells me, "My Pretty Pony is a pony figurine introduced by Hasbro in 1981 that was created by illustrator Bonnie Zacherle & sculptor Charles Muenchinger. My Pretty Pony is a ten-inch-tall hard plastic figurine that can wiggle its ears, swish its tail, & wink one eye."

In 1981, I was thirteen & if you had asked me before I started writing this, I would have said I was still watching cartoons on Saturday morning television.  But maybe I wasn't - or maybe I just slept in on the weekends, because I don't really remember watching many of the shows from this schedule, also courtesy the Wikipedia:

Wow, I think I would've loved the Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam! But looking at the episode page, I have no memory of it, or Hero High.  I probably would not have been very enamored with Laverne & Shirley In The Army, though. Anyway, I do know that I did watch some Saturday morning television because I have a distinct memory of the first commercial from this Youtube Collection Of My Little Pony Commercials.

Above I noted that the little pony was cute.  It was not an opinion I had nor I would've shared if I had had it when I first saw the My Little Ponies.  Obviously they were marketed toward little girls.  & while at 13 I might have had much more in common with your average little girl than boys my age, I really was more into Star Wars & Star Trek & comic books than My Little Ponys.

Perhaps we'll talk a little bit about them on the show tomorrow.  They have been around for generations & continue to thrive, as far as I can tell.  After the show though, I probably won't think much about them ever again.