Self Help Radio 080323: Tongues

(my dog Pauline is sticking her tongue out at you)

This is true: my wife has these cool images of tongues taken with a very powerful microscope. I thought, hey! I'd love to use one of those images for this week's show's page when I put the show up. But you know what? They're really gross. I mean, our tongues are pretty gross anyway. But up close, they look downright diseased. A total horror show.

Which is not what this week's show was! We had tongue twisters & slips of the tongue! We were tongue-tied & we spoke in tongues! We talked to experts & we talked about idioms! The only truly gross thing about the show is yours truly, & I do my best to minimize that. At least you don't have to look at me - I look downright diseased. Am I the close-up of a tongue?

Listen to the show with your ears but with your tongue hanging out at the Self Help Radio web site. Please remember you'll need to use a password - selfhelp - & a username - SHR. But you can download it! Everything that happens on the show is listed below.

As for me, I'm watching my tongue from here on in.

Self Help Radio Tongues Show

"The Tongue Song" The Ethnobabes _Thoughts On Barbecuing_

"Tongues" Tanya Tagaq _Tongues_

"Tongues (Everybody's Got One)" Modey Lemon _Thunder + Lightning_

introduction & definitions featuring a secret recording of an actual anatomist teaching about tongues!

"Lizard-Long-Tongue Boy" Bridget St. John _Ask Me No Questions_

"Sitting Here On A Tongue" The Grodeck Whipperjenny _The Grodeck Whipperjenny_

"Slip Of The Tongue" Nits _Work_

"Bit My Tongue" Earth Dad _Townies_

interview with Chet Martins of the Curb Your Tongue Society

"Sugar On My Tongue" Talking Heads _Popular Favorites 1976-1992: Sand In The Vaseline_

"Mary Long Tongue" Barrington Levy _The Barrington Levy Collection_

"Speaking In Tongues" Felicia Michaels _Lewd Awakenings_

"Mother Tongue" Dead Can Dance _The Serpent's Egg_

interview with Reverend Chris Masters, expert in speaking in tongues

"Tongue Tied" Betty McQuade _Hot Boppin' Girls Vol. II_

"I'm Tongue-Tied" The Magnetic Fields _i_

"Tongue-Tied" The Snow Fairies _Feel You Up_

"Tongue Tied" Bubblegum Lemonade _The Great Leap Backward_

"Tongue Tied" Erase Errata _Other Animals_

interview with Cory McIntyre of the Tip Of The Tongues Clubs

"It's On The Tip Of My Tongue" Doris Day _It's Magic (1947-1950)_

"Tip Of My Tongue" Tommy Quickly _The British Invasion: The History Of British Rock, Vol. 1_

"Right On The Tip Of My Tongue" Brenda & The Tabulations _Can You Dig It? The '70s Soul Experience_

"Tip Of My Tongue" Tall Dwarfs _Weeville_

idioms with tongues

"Lip Sync (To The Tounge Twisters)" Len Barry _The Very Best Of Len Barry: Original Master Recordings_

"Tongue Twisters" The Looking Glass _Tongue Twisters_

"Speaking In Tongues (feat. Terrence McKenna)" Spacetime Continuum _Alien Dreamtime_

"Tongue Of Fire" Gitane Demone _Never Felt So Alive_

conclusion & goodbye

"Spanish Is A Loving Tongue" Marianne Faithfull _Come My Way_

"Sharp Tongue" The Passage _Enflame_

"Tongues Begin To Wag" Orange Juice _Coals To Newcastle_

Whither Tongues?

(Gross! Image from here.)

My wife, who is an anatomist & anthropologist, studies tongues. Did she contribute anything to the show? Not directly - but I did spend a lot of time talking to her about tongues this week.

& yes, there's a Self Help Radio episode about taste - from almost twenty years ago! - but you didn't listen to that & I have no memory doing it. Besides, just because you're doing a radio show about taste doesn't mean you get to be tongue-tied, speak in tongues, try out some tongue twisters, or any of the other things that I meant to write but are on the tip of my tongue.

How many anatomical facial structures have I done shows about? Surprisingly few - no shows about eyes, ears, nose, or mouth. Maybe this week's show demonstrates a commitment to explore more of the face - shows about cheeks, chins, & forehead can't be far behind. (I have done shows about lips & teeth tho.) I mean for Pete's sake why not a show about mustaches already?!? I have no excuse.

Please listen to Freeform Portland today from noon to 2pm for a show about the tongue. It's on 90.3+98.3fm in Portland & online at freeform portland dot org. Lots of music, maybe even some fun. No tongues held or curbed here!

Preface To Tongues: Something Wrong

One of my favorite Peanuts comics, from September 16, 1968. Maybe not as brilliant as the one on February 3, 1962 - but I think about both of them when I think about the tongue.

Dead Facebook Friends

(image from here)

This should not be shocking news: I don't have a lot of friends on Facebook. I don't have a lot of friends in real life. What isn't shocking (apparently) is that some of my Facebook friends are dead.

According to this article (which is called "Death On Facebook Now Common As 'Dead Profiles' Create Vast Virtual Cemetery" & which is over a decade old), "By the end of this year, 3 million Facebook users' pages will have become memorial sites for their owners." How many is it now, I wonder?

It reminds me of old Geocities websites. There was a time when everyone it seemed has some sort of web presence thanks to Geocities. Unsurprisingly, it was sold to Yahoo, who deleted the whole thing in 2009. & even more unsurprisingly, someone stepped up to try to archive as many of those sites as possible.

Is there a parallel between the early web & early silent films, where more than 75% are lost forever? I dunno. I maintained the KVRX website in the mid-90s & very rarely saved my work. Many things I created back then are lost now for good.

Meanwhile, of my less than 400 Facebook friends, I now count that at least ten are no longer with us (one of them is something I never met, who became friends with me because we had friends in common). I once mentioned I had a dream that Facebook would update our status once we died - it's very strange that these pages are still there, for folks to visit, with that eerie final post of theirs like words no one thought would be the last thing they ever wrote.

Should we be preparing our final social media post like our last words?

Maybe because I'm entering that phase of life in which, as my wife has said, "There are fewer marriages & births, & more divorces & death." It does seem like death is more visible & more inevitable. I wonder which of my Facebook friends will go next - & am painfully aware it could be me.

The Sirens Of Film

(Image from the IMDb)

On last week's show - which you can listen to at the Self Help Radio website - we talked about & played songs about sirens - the mythical bird/woman creatures whose song meant doom for unlucky sailors passing by.  Our resident cinephile Chuck stopped by to talk about films in which Greek mythology played a part - because, sadly, while there are plenty of songs about sirens (& about the songs of sirens), sirens aren't as well-represented in films. & we're always happy when he stops by!

Once you've listened to his segment, explore the following links he's provided for further film enjoyment:

Here is his YouTube playlist of films & trailers.

Here is his Letterboxd list. (Chuck says that he put the links to available videos in the notes for the films plus where they are available to stream for free.)

His reviews for the films he watched are here.

Chuck reviews films on his Substack. Subscribe for free!
He may write some review on his Bluesky account.

& he may write about them on Dying Twitter.
Here is the IMDb list of films available to stream for free elsewhere. Please note: there is duplication with of some on the YouTube list but quality is usually better, and their availability may be for limited time: 

Oh, & here is Chuck's IMDb keyword search.

Go listen! Go watch!