Self Help Radio 040623: Supermarkets

(original image here)

Self Help Radio's return to Freeform Portland was I think a nice affair. It's nice to be in those studios, the new Freeform Portland studios, in the afternoon. It's nice to have an episode of SHR that's only two hours long, it's just nice. I hope it's a nice program. I have no idea. I don't trust my judgment.

Alas, Freeform Portland doesn't archive its shows like KBOO did, so to listen to this you have to go to the Self Help Radio website. There you'll find the show (along with the others I do). You'll need to have a username (SHR) & a password (selfhelp) to listen. Is it fun to listen to while in a supermarket? Why don't you do that & report back? Everything that happened on the show is below.

Happy shopping!

Self Help Radio Supermarket Show

"Supermarket" Earl Sinks _The Man With 1000 Names_

"Supermarket Full Of Cans" The Eyes Of Blue _The Mod Scene_

"Let's Loot The Supermarket" The Deviants _Disposable_

introduction & definitions - featuring the Definition-O-Tron 3000!

"Supermarket Blues" Eugene McDaniels _Headless Heroes Of The Apocalype_

"Supermarket" Pete Dunaway _Black Rio 2 (Original Samba Soul 1968-1981)_

"A Supermarket In California" Allen Ginsberg _Howls, Raps, & Roars: Recordings From The San Francisco Poetry Renaissance_

"Abominable Snowman In The Market" Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers _Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers_

interview with Jack & Jill Johnson, owners of Jack & Jill's Supermarket

"Lost In The Supermarket" The Clash _London Calling_

"Fairytale In The Supermarket" The Raincoats _The Raincoats_

"Le Supermarché" Les Calamités _À Bride Abattue_

"Supermarkets" George Carlin _On The Road_

"Supermarket Fantasy" Screeching Weasel _Boogadaboogadaboogada!_

interview with five-time Bagboy Of The Year winner Barry Knock

"Supermarket Scene" Icecream Hands _You Can Ride My Bike: The Best Of Icecream Hands_

"Supermarket" Denim _Novelty Rock_

"Electronique Supermarket" Skanfrom _Cashier Escape Route_

"Supermarket Casanova" Hyperbubble _Candy Apple Daydreams_

interview with supermarket consultant Tom Buddy

"Queen Of The Supermarket" Bruce Springsteen _Working On A Dream_

"Supermarkets" Jerry Seinfeld _I'm Telling You For The Last Time_

"Touching Boys (In Supermarkets)" Alice & The Enemies _Alice & The Enemies_

"Supermarket Sushi" The Chickpea Darlings _Bitter Lemon_

our resident cinephile Chuck stops by

"Precarious (Supermarket Song)" Martha _Blisters In The Pit Of My Heart_

"Supermarket" Wet Leg _Wet Leg_

"Matt Neffer, Boy Spotwelder: At The Supermarket" Bob & Ray _Classic Bob & Ray, Volume Three - Selections From A Career: 1946-1976_

"Supermarket Supermodel (feat. Chela)" Seth Bogart _Seth Bogart_

conclusion & goodbye7

"Supermarket" Iggy Pop _Skull Ring_

"Rob The Supermarket" Kid Kapichi _Here's What You Could Have Won_

"Supermarket" Flux Information Sciences _Private/Public_

Whither Supermarkets?

As discussed yesterday, today's show differs from the previous Self Help Radio show about "markets" (see that playlist from 2018 here) in that it's a show not about all markets but only supermarkets. But that's not really the story, is it? The story is that Self Help Radio has returned to Freeform Portland! That's right, we're back on the station where the show first found a home when it came to Portland. I'm sure I've talked about the reasons for that before.

So rather than laborious explaining to you why the show is about supermarkets, & in lieu of doing the show in an actual supermarket, I'll just take this to say that today April 6 I'll be at the new Freeform Portland studios from noon to 2pm Portland time with a somewhat brand-new Self Help Radio (all the interviews today are new! some of the songs I played on the previous markets show!) which you can listen to & it won't be in the middle of the night on 90.3+98.3fm in Portland, & online everywhere at freeformportland.org. I hope you can tune in.

By the way, why didn't I record it in a supermarket? Let's just say a person whose name was not Fred Meyer was very rude to me in the plant milks section & leave it at that.

Preface To Supermarkets: This All Seems Very Familiar

It isn't a supermarket but I'm having déjà vu!

Longtime listeners of Self Help Radio, of which there are none, might have warned me about this week's theme. I forget about my shows very soon after I've done them - it's almost a necessity, since I've been doing this for over twenty years. But I keep a page of themes I've covered over on the SHR website. It's supposed to protect me from repetition.

But as I was listening to songs for this show, I felt like I had done a show about supermarkets before. So I checked the list. No, "supermarkets" was not there. I assumed some of the songs might have fit other themes. But the feeling kept nagging at me. & I decided to look for songs in playlists.

Voila! In 2018, I did a show about markets.

That show was recorded, & it aired in Kentucky, so almost certainly no one listening to Self Help Radio now heard it then. I'm not sure anyone even heard it then! & I haven't gone back to the blog for those shows (except to steal the picture above) so I'm not sure if I thought I couldn't find enough songs for a show only about supermarkets.

But guess what! I have! & I'll also probably play the supermarket songs I played five years ago for the markets show! I have no shame! What! You don't really care! You're just pretending to care!

It'll be fun to kind of revisit a theme as I return the show to Freeform Portland. That was I can also pretend I meant to do it. But I did not.

What Did I Do On April 4, 2017?

You know what? I don't recall. I was living in Fort Worth, Texas, at the time. We had just been living there for a few months. I was still doing Self Help Radio remotely - recorded in Texas, airing in Kentucky - but I was volunteering at KNON, so that might explain this:

It's called "Dallas Skyline Morning." I bet I had gone up to KNON for some reason.

But Gary, you may say, wasn't your mother still alive? Might you have gone to visit her? Perhaps, but I'm not sure I would've turned onto I-75 if I were going to her apartment. I might have continued down I-30. This picture was taken from I-75.

Also, look at this:

This picture was almost certainly taken on the ramp that goes from I-30 (seen to the left) to I-45.

Hey Gary, I hear myself say, don't you have a rudimentary dumb journal that you keep to tell you what you were doing on those days? I do, but where's the fun in that? My memory deserves to be challenged once in a while.

But okay. I checked. I was working as Traffic Director at KNON at the time. This was on my way to work.

Not very exciting, after all. But I do like the picture of downtown Dallas. It looks like the buildings are awkwardly waiting for something to happen.

Corporate Standardized Programming

(hopefully better logo coming soon?)

Tonight on KBOO - midnight to 3am on 90.7fm & kboo.fm - is the premiere of my new radio show, Corporate Standardized Programming. It is "replacing" Self Help Radio in the sense that it is that show's previous timeslot. Self Help Radio will now air on Freeform Portland on Thursdays noon to 2pm.

The show is what some might call "general format" - there's no theme, or there might be a theme for individual sets - the whole three hours won't be devoted to something dumb like chipmunks or crosshatching.

The show is also recorded - I put it together on Saturday - but I will live tweet it. (At the show's Twitter account.) Which is cool because I am giving away tickets tonight! How will I do that? I have a text line for the show which I will monitor.

The show takes its name from a George Carlin bit which I will use to open the show. Like Self Help Radio, which isn't a self-help radio show, this really isn't "corporate standardized programming." I seem to like to title my radio shows what they're not. How strange to realize I have a schtick this late in the game!

Maybe you'll listen. If not, the show will be archived on the KBOO website & on the show's website. As always, my radio stuff is as easy to ignore when it's on the air as when it's on the web.