Self Help Radio 102023: Psychics

(Original photo by Tom Magliery, available here)

Oh hey look a show about psychics that really has only a handful of songs about psychics but instead has songs with titles like "Psychic [Thing]" & someone texted I should've played "If You Could Read My Mind" by Gordon Lightfoot & I responded "What if I want to do a show about reading minds?" & they responded "Isn't it this show?" & this is why Self Help Radio is mostly dumb.

But I did have someone talking about psychics in movies & I talked to two psychics & to someone who hunts psychics so let's just say on average there was maybe 50% content about psychics so it wasn't quite so bad although I really probably should've looked for songs about mind-reading & prognostication I don't know why I didn't maybe I'm just lazy.

Anyhoosle the show is available now at the Self Help Radio website. Remember you'll need a username & password to access the files - I'd try SHR & selfhelp. Everything that happened on the show is below. But you already knew that. Didn't you?

Self Help Radio Psychics Show

"I Am The Psychic" Art Brut _Brilliant! Tragic!_

"Psychic" Christine Lavin _Please Don't Make Me Too Happy_

introduction & definitions

"Psykick Dancehall" The Fall _Dragnet_

"Psychic" The Goon Sax _Mirror II_

"Too Much Yang Energy" Nib The Psychic Fiend _Sonic Damn Nation_

"Psychic Hotline" Gwen McCrae _Psychic Hot Line_

our resident cinephile Chuck stops by!

"Psychic Trauma" Sad13 _No Cover: Carpark's 21st Anniversary Covers Comp_

"Psychic" Sam Baker _Pretty World_

"Chant With Me!" Nib The Psychic Fiend _Sonic Damn Nation_

"Psychic Future" Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds _La Araña Es La Vida_

interview with psychic sidekick Brett Kirkland

"Psychic Beginner" Johnny Marr _The Messenger_

"Psychic Friends" Papercuts _Life Among The Savages_

"Psychic Friends" Space Ghost _Yeah, Whatever..._

"Psykick Espionage" Joanna Gruesome _Peanut Butter_

"Psychic Love" Prissy Clerks _Bruise Or Be Bruised_

interview with psychic hunter Barrett Kohl

"Psychic Visions" Electric Six _Heartbeats & Brainwaves_

"You're No Psychic!" Nib The Psychic Field _Sonic Damn Nation_

"Call A Psychic" Orion _After Dark 4_

"Psychic Rainbow" Anna Oxygen _This Is An Exercise_

interview with psychic & author Bobby Kaufman

"Psychic" Probe _User Friendly_

"Is This For Real?" Nib The Psychic Fiend _Sonic Damn Nation_

"Psychic Attack" The Radiation Flowers _The Radiation Flowers_

"Psykick Damage" School Damage _A To X_

"Psychic Dance Routine" Scowl _Psychic Dance Routine_

conclusion & goodbye

"Psychic Self Defense" Brief Candles _They Live We Sleep_

"Psychic Whore" East River Pipe _Goodbye California_

"Psychic Tapes" Mutators _Secret Life_

Whither Psychics?

(Charles Xavier in the Pstandard Psychic Pstance, from here.)

You know what we need right now? We need a psychic to tell me why the heck Self Help Radio this week is a show about psychics. Maybe a psychic placed the idea in my mind. If so, they're probably waiting to take credit once they've heard the show. & maybe they'll be disappointed.

Because the show will actually be less about psychics & more about psychic things. & not necessarily psychic gifts - for example I had enough songs about ESP to make me think, hm, maybe one day I can do an ESP show, so I shouldn't play them now. I do that a lot. I prefer the specific to the general. Even though I will probably never do an ESP show.

But it does not take a mind-reader to know that Self Help Radio will be about psychic things today on Freeform Portland. Indeed, the time is predictable - because it's regularly scheduled - noon to 2pm. In Portland you can tune in - with your radio, then I guess your mind - at 90.3+98.3fm & everywhere you can listen online at Freeform Portland dot org.

Hmm, though the future is cloudy, I predict no one will tune in. (I mean, you know, because no one ever does.)

Preface To Psychics: Fads & Fallacies

(image from the book's Goodreads page)

When I was a kid I was hungry for magic. I read comics books & sci-fi, I watched movies like Godzilla & Planet Of The Apes, I was enamored by anything Star Trek & anything Star Wars. Mainly I just wanted there to be something, anything supernatural in the world. I did dumb things to try to achieve it. You might want to read my story about trying to astral project. Time & again, I failed to find the magic & mystery I so desperately wanted. Sometimes I was told I didn't believe enough. Sometimes I was told I doubted too much. Most of the time it seemed like someone was lying to me about the magic they claimed to have, or to have seen.

Psychics were probably the least of this - reading a mind wasn't nearly as fun as using the Force to lift an X-Wing Fighter out of a swamp - but boy I would've loved telekinesis or remote viewing. I did love Professor X & Marvel Girl of the X-Men. It never occurred to me that some people took these claims seriously in a scientific context. & that's where Martin Gardner comes in.

As happened so very often, my dear friend Russell lent me my first Martin Gardner book. It was the one above. Although the title may seem a bit pejorative, the book itself examined the claims people made about supernatural events & reported testing about them. Gardner's column in The Skeptical Inquirer would perhaps do this more thoroughly - in one column, Gardner was so even-handed I thought he actually believe in ESP! - but this book switched my disappointment into a keener understand of our world.

& it is a world of magic & mystery - just not the kind I was hoping for. I'm all right with that. Though man it would've been fun to astral project.

The October 17th I Was On A Ferris Wheel

On October 17, 2017, my wife & I went to the State Fair Of Texas. It was almost certainly the first time she was there. It was the first time I had been there probably since a field trip in elementary school. So - the first time in forty years? There were absolutely a larger number of deep-fried things there now than four decades previous - but alas there were not vegan-friendly, so I couldn't try any of them.

We did ride the Ferris Wheel though. Should I capitalize Ferris Wheel? Does the Texas State Fair Ferris Wheel have a name? Yes, it's the Texas Star Ferris Wheel. Here is a picture I took on it:

Here is another picture:

The wife & I shared the Texas Star Ferris Wheel with a couple a bit older than us who had no interest in engaging with us at all. Which was fine because I discovered something about myself on that Ferris Wheel, & it was this: I am actually quite afraid of heights.

It was a weird thing to discover because I had previous enjoyed Ferris Wheels as well as roller coasters & those "rides" that lift you up & then drop you. But something was different about this experience, & I know what it was - they stop the Ferris Wheel to let new people on, so for a moment (or moments) (sometimes long moments) you're just sitting up there, very high up, in a quite precarious position. I remember becoming overly focused on how easily I could fall from there. & it took all the strength I had to not freak out.

My wife didn't notice anything unusual about me, so I was I guess successful. I didn't tell her about how I almost lost it until a while later. But one thing I did know is that was the last time I would ever be on a Ferris Wheel again. Six years ago on this day.

Beggin' For Help

(image from here)

Much like a celestial event, pledge drives/membership drives/fund drives/fundraisers - they're called by different things at each station - have lined up in such a way that at the three stations where I deejay, the next few weeks will have me pitching (as they call begging on the radio) for two of them at a time in the same week for a couple of weeks.

So I thought why don't I just consolidate here on the web page. It's pretty obvious I'm not very good at this, right?

KBOO's is called the "Fresh Off The Vine Fall Drive" & it lasts until the 28th. I've been begging every Tuesday morning - sorry, pitching - for the last few weeks. How effective I've been I dunno.  But if you'd like to help, this is the proper web location to visit.

XRAY's drive - simply the Fall Drive -started today I think. It ends on the 27th. They are a little more savvy than KBOO - they have made a special page for the Dickenbock Report - if you would like to donate for that show. Otherwise, to help the station out in general, the web place to be is here.

Freeform Portland's Fundraiser starts October 23 (so in a week) & lasts until November 10th. We haven't started pushing anything yet, but you can of course donate & also become a Friend Of Freeform where you always can.

I love all the stations at which I deejay & volunteer & am sad I'm not a very good fundraiser. I hope the volunteering I do contributes in a way that perhaps offsets my inability to raise money. But at the very least I want you to know that all these stations deserve any financial support you can give. They are Good Places To Be & Good Places To Listen To. You should be Glad They Exist. I sure am.