Banana Books/Banana Movies

On the show this week, we had our favorite librarian Carole stop by to talk about some books featuring bananas, & our resident cinephile Chuck talked about bananas in movies.  Here's what Carole talked about, & here's a picture of one of those:

(image from Good Reads)

She discussed:

Counting To Bananas: A Mostly Rhyming Fruit Book by Carrie Tillotson & Estrela Lourenço 

Second Banana by Blair Thornburgh & Kate Berube

& Chiquita Banana's Recipe Book by United Fruit Company Home Economics Department

Obviously clicking the links gets you to the books' Good Reads pages.  & of course if you'd like to listen to Carole, listen to the show!  You can hear it at the Self Help Radio website, at the KBOO website, & at the XRAY website!  Oh my!

& the movies Chuck talked about?  Here's the poster for one of them:

(image from the IMDb)

Chuck watched films tagged with "banana" on the IMDb.  Here's that list.

He made another list on Letterboxd (be sure to click on read notes). As well he wrote some reviews on Letterboxd.

Here is his YouTube playlist, & here is the IMDb list of films available to stream elsewhere for free.

As above, you can find Chuck this past week's Self Help Radio, & you can hear him at the Self Help Radio website, at the KBOO website, & at the XRAY website!

Go bananas!

Sweet Winston

We said goodbye to this little nugget yesterday. For over fifteen years he's been our concern, our joy, our bother, our love, our sweetest moment of every day. I'll have much more to say about him later because he was an extraordinary hound who lived an extraordinary life. But I am sitting in a dark room right now with the million tiny pieces of my heart scattered about & it's going to take awhile to put enough of it back together before all that.

Self Help Radio 112222: Bananas

Well we certainly hope you'll go bananas for this show! We might have let it slip that there are a bunch of banana songs on today's show.  Maybe that appeals to you?  If not, better split now!

So many songs, a few interviews, some dire news about the banana's fate - it's not the sort of show you'd slice up & put in your cornflakes, but it should sweeten your day.

You can listen to it when you feel it's ripe in two places: at the KBOO website or at the Self Help Radio website.  If you choose the show's website, you'll need a username & a password - they are SHR & selfhelp - & you can download the show!

Everything that happens is below.  Hopefully you don't find it green - we wanted the show to be bright yellow with brown flecks!

Self Help Radio Banana Show
"Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)" Harry Belafonte _The Best Of Harry Belafonte_
"The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana) (Single Version)" The Banana Splits _We're The Banana Splits_
"Banana" Family Fodder _Monkey Banana Kitchen_

introduction & definitions

"Yes! We Have No Bananas" Furman & Nash _Yes! We Have No Bananas_
"I've Got The Yes! We Have No Bananas Blues" Eddie Cantor _The Columbia Years: 1922-1940_
"Banana Oil" Vaughn De Leath _Ukulele Lady_
"Banana In Your Fruit Basket" Bo Carter _Raunchy Business: Hot Nuts & Lollypops_
"Banana Man Blues (I Don't Want That Thing)" Memphis Minnie _Queen Of The Country Blues (All The Published Sides 1929-1937 In Chronological Order)_

interview with a person named Bananas

"Banana Boy" Eden Ahbez _Eden's Island (The Music Of An Enchanted Isle)_
"Bananeira (Banana Tree) (ft. Mr Vegas)" Sergio Mendes _Timeless_
"Banana" Madlib + Joyce Moreno feat. Generation Match _Red Hot + Rio 2_
"Boiled Bananas & Carrots" Peter Sellers Presents Alfred The Grate & His Kings Of Collapso _Dark Side Of The Goon_
"Banana Beat" Quintron _Sucre Du Sauvage_

our favorite librarian Carole stops by!

"The Name Game (7" Version)" Divine _Blackbox - Wax Trax! Records: The First 13 Years_
"Bananas" Billy & Lillie _The Swan Records Story 1957-1962_
"Green Banana" Frank Chickens _We Are Frank Chickens_
"Banana Smoothie" Amanda _Primitive Swagger_
"Faust Banana" The Fall _The Complete Peel Sessions 1978-2004_

our resident cinephile Chuck stops by!

"I've Never Seen A Straight Banana" Billy Jones & Ernest Hare _Wonderful Nonsense: Fun Songs Of The Roaring Twenties_
"I Like Bananas (vocals, George Elrick)" Henry Hall & The BBC Dance Orchestra _Animal Crackers_
"When Banana Skins Are Falling (I'll Come Sliding Back To You)" Tony Randall _Warm & Wavery_
"Wally Ballou: Arrival Of Banana Boat 'Sitting Duck' Part One" Bob & Ray _Classic Bob & Ray, Volume Three - Selections From A Career: 1946-1976_
"Goin' Bananas" Side Effect _Goin' Bananas_

interview with banana fan Frank Gore

"Guru Banana" Kevin Ayers _Sweet Deceiver_
"Bananas To The Beat" Yello _Solid Pleasure_
"Banana Meltdown" Dub Narcotic Sound System & The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion _Sideways Soul: Dub Narcotic Sound System Meets The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion In A Dancehall Style!_
"Banana Peel" Thomas Mudrick _(((Boing)))_
"Bananachek" Brak _Brak Presents The Brak Album Starring Brak_
"The Road Of Love Is Paved With Banana Skins" BMX Bandits _Down At The Hop_

discussion: the fate of the banana

"Banana Fanna" The Jaguars _Absolute Funk Vol. 5_
"Chips-Chicken-Banana Split" Jo-Jo & The Fugitives _Jamaica To Toronto - Soul Funk & Reggae 1967-1974_
"I'm A Chiquita Banana" Patti Clayton _TeeVee Toons: The Commercials_
"Bananafishbones" The Cure _The Top_
"Banana Woman" Bonde Do Rolê _Tropicalbacanal_
"Tie Me Bananas" Me & My Drummer _Love Is A Fridge_

conclusion & goodbye

"Smokin' Banana Peels" The Dead Milkmen _Beelzebubba_
"Banana Republic" The Boomtown Rats _Mondo Bongo_
"Banana Flip" Guru Guru _Tango Fango_
"Bananas" Jah Wobble _The Inspiration Of William Blake_
"Monkey Banana" Fela Kuti & Africa 70 _Before I Jump Like Monkey Give Me Banana_

Whither Bananas?

(image, like it says, from marcjohns.com)

It was time, we all agreed, for another show about fruit.
But we needed one this time of positive repute.
We'd last done beans (though not technically this show*)
& many people don't think they are fruits you know!
Before that, pumpkins - that was on Halloween!
Very few fruits want to be part of that scene.
We had apples & cherries, lemons, strawberries,
Evens melons - though some think them adversaries -
Anyway, what fruit should we cover this time?
Pineapple? Kiwi? Pomegranate? Lime?
We queried our listeners from Texas to Montana
& surprisingly no one mentioned the banana!
They said "nectarine" & "orange" & many said "plum"
We started to suspect they all thought we were dumb.
But what was the source of our particular suspicion?
It was of course the sin of omission.
Bananas to them appeared to be somewhat taboo.
That's when we knew what we were going to do.
Bananas it would be! Before the end of the year!
(Also we found few songs about nectarines, to be clear.)
So as we abandon this versifying style
Please pretend we are telling you this with a smile:

Self Help Radio's show about bananas airs tonight on KBOO from midnight to 3am.  That's Portland time! That's on 90.7fm in town & online at kboo.fm.  Lots of talk & music about bananas.  I hope you'll see the appeal.

* It was on the Dickenbock Report, not Self Help Radio.

Preface To Bananas: The Fruit Series Continues

Did you know? There's been a long, secret series of fruit-based shows on Self Help Radio. They don't seem to be connected - they have appeared so far apart in time & don't seem to relate to one another - but those who have listened closely understand: it's a fruit series.

How has it progressed?  Look here:

Cherries in 2004.
Strawberries in 2005.
Lemons in 2008.
Melons in 2010.
Apples in 2017.
Pumpkins last year (for Halloween).
Beans just this year.

What? Pumpkins & beans? They're not fruit! Or are they?

But Gary, I hear you ask, why bananas? Why now? Why such a gap between melons & apples? When will we hear shows about oranges, pineapples, kiwis?  Will it all end with tomatoes?!?

Wait & see. Or hear. It's a radio show. Wait & hear.