Self Help Radio 042023: Planet

(Original image by Ella Frances Sanders from here*.)

Apologies for posting this a day late. Since I have a show on Saturday mornings on XRAY (today's show was in honor of Record Store Day if you wanna listen to it) it gets kinda intense & I focus on that instead of posting this week's Self Help Radio. So I guess I'll post these on Saturdays from now on?

This week's show had the theme planet & we had fabulous guests & lots of tunes & all the usual nonsense. I had a lot of fun putting the show together. Almost as much fun as I would traveling to another planet! Oh boy! Will that happen in my lifetime? Nope. Certainly not.

So. Listen to the show yeah? It's at the Self Help Radio website. Remember to use the username SHR & pass the password selfhelp to access it. Everything that happened on the show is below. A show that should've aired on another planet. But was only on this dumb one.

Self Help Radio Planet Show

"Planet Minuet" Tom Glazer & Dottie Evans _Space Songs (From Ballads For The Age Of Science)_

"Story Of The Planets" Sally Starr _Sally Starr's Adventure To The Moon_

"Interplant Janet" Lynn Ahrens _Schoolhouse Rock: Science Rock_

introduction & definitions

"Planet Queen" T. Rex _Electric Warrior_

"Another Girl, Another Planet" The Only Ones _The Only Ones_

"Planet Claire" The B-52's _The B-52's_

"Escape From The Planet Earth" The Continental IV _Dream World_

interview with Dr. Charles Planet, who doesn't think Earth is a planet

"A Visit To A Sad Planet" Leonard Nimoy _Presents Mr. Spock's Music From Outer Space_

"Planet Earth" Devo _Freedom Of Choice_

"Lonely Planet Boy" The Pastels _Comin' Through_

"Planet Rock" Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force _Street Jams: Electric Funk Part 1_

interview with Lemuel, a visitor from another planet

"Planet Of Fools" David Thomas & Two Pale Boys _Erewhon_

"Planet Of Women" Sonny & The Sunsets _Tomorrow Is Alright_

"Red Planet" Alvvays _Alvvays_

"Planets Ain't Aligned (feat. The Freestyle Fellowship)" Nobody _No Categories 2: A Ubiquity Compilation_

interview with Preston Truitt, discoverer of Planet X

"Blues For Planet X" My Favorite _Tender Is The Nightshift: Part 1_

"Planet X" Red Ribbon _Planet X_

"First Day On A Brand New Planet" Urusei Yatsura _We Are Urusei Yatsura_

"Happy People, Scary Planet" Kawaii _If It Shines, We Have It_

our resident cinephile Chuck stops by/conclusion & goodbye

"Planet E" Tiga _No Fantasy Required_

"Fear Of A Blind Planet" Wax Tailor _The Shadow Of Their Suns_

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

"Shoot The Planet" MomusMcClymont _Two_

* Yeah, it's fucking arrogant to stick my dumb logo on such a wonderful drawing but fuck I love it so much & it fit the theme so well I hope I can be forgiven.

Whither Planet?

(These planets are too close together!! Image from here.)

As mention yesterday, Self Help Radio has already explored the themes Mars & Venus. It is not inconceivable that the show may one day explore Mercury or Jupiter or Saturn or even Uranus. (Sorry, it's one of those jokes that's just always there, one can't help oneself.) But what about the term "planet" in general? We live on a planet. Aliens visit us from other planets. We'd all like to one day travel to another planet. Starfleet is the exploration & defense arm of the United Federation Of Planets. I want to do a show about planets but not be confined to our solar system or even literal planets! Why can't we hear songs about metaphorical planets? Did John Donne say something about no one being a planet? Or something sort of like that?

This afternoon, from noon to 2pm Portland time, on Freeform Portland - which you can listen to in town at both 90.3+98.3fm & online everywhere at freeform portland dot org - we will explore the term planet while listening to songs about planets of all kinds plus talking to people somehow related to one planet or another. & then the next astronomy-related show can be about Pluto or Neptune. Or maybe moon, sun, or star. Like space, the possibilities are endless! Or at least there's just a lot of possibilities. Like there's a lot of space. A lot of themes about space.

Okay. I'm done now.

Preface To Planet: Three Questions

(image from here)

Question one: Haven't there already been shows about planets on Self Help Radio before?

Answer one: Yes! There's been a show about Mars. & about Venus. But that's it!

Question two: What's the farthest planet to be discovered at this point?

Answer two: According to this article, the melodiously named OGLE-2014-BLG-0124L might be the furthest away. It's 13,000 light years away. It's a gas giant but really who isn't.

Question three: Does Gary have a favorite planet?

Answer three: Ooo, I've never thought about that. I kinda like the Changeling planet in the Star Trek universe with the Great Link, but since I'm not a Changeling, I'd be kinda out of place there. I wish I could wander around all the planets in our solar system, actually. Like Dr. Manhattan on Mars in Watchmen. But maybe I don't have a favorite planet.

Meet Pete

On Sunday we brought this beauty home to our little home. His name is Pete & he's almost eleven weeks old. We've had him for a little over forty-eight hours & we took him to our vet today, where this picture was taken. He's sweet & a bit bitey & the rest of the household doesn't quite know what to make of him. He's very bonded to my wife which is as it should be. He's too adorable for words. I'll probably post too many pictures of him over on the show's Tumblr page if you wanna keep an eye for him there. Or just ask! We've already taken hundreds.

Other Places, Other Spaces

Wow! Look at these incredibly boring logos!

Just a small bit of information about where to find the radio shows I do. This is a question no-one has every asked me. I'm just pretending someone gives a shit.

Every radio show I do is archived for a time at the Self Help Radio website. As a rule, I prioritize Self Help Radio - it's my baby - so the most recent show is at the top of the page. But in-between there'll be episodes of my other shows, so what if you can't wait a week to listen? Luckily they're archived at the web pages of the stations on which they air.

The Dickenbock Report can be found at its page at XRAY dot fm. Although for some reason this past week's show isn't there. Oh well. I'll put it up later this week on the Self Help Radio page.

Corporate Standardized Programming doesn't have a page on KBOO's website yet, but the first two episodes (& tonight's as well) are on the old Self Help Radio page there. There'll be a page for that show at some point but things move slowly at KBOO - the staff are incredibly overworked.

See? A small bit of information. Very small. Mostly unhelpful. Utterly unimportant.