Self Help Radio 010424: Dandelions

The first Self Help Radio of 2024 was a bit flowery. Just one flower, actually. The dandelion.

Oh did you not think there'd be enough dandelion songs for me to play? Or that there weren't enough dandelion-related subjects for me to discuss with guests? Have never heard this show before?

Lots of dandelion tunes now available on the show on the Self Help Radio website. Please use the username SHR & the password selfhelp to access. You get to download it & stuff! Everything that happened on the show is below.

Now make a wish!

Self Help Radio Dandelion Show

"Dandelion" The Rolling Stones _Singles Collection - The London Years_

"Dandelion" The Seedy Seeds _Count The Days_

"Ode To A Dandelion" Friend & Lover _Reach Out Of The Darkness_

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

"Dandelion" Eddi Reader _Love Is The Way_

"Dandelion Seeds" July _July_

"Whispering Dandelions" Ingrid Chavez _May, 19, 1992_

"Dandelion Girl" Damien Youth _Sunfield_

"Dandelion" Kristin Hersh _Clear Pond Road_

interview with nutritionist Ralph Steadman

"Dandelion" Jesse Belvin & The Chargers _So Fine_

"Dandelions/Liminal" Emmy The Great _April_

"Dandelion" Boards Of Canada _Geogaddi_

"Dandelion" Pity Sex _White Hot Moon_

"Dandelions" Daughn Gibson _All Hell_

interview with wishologist Reed Sellers

"Dandelions In My Flowerbed" Tamar Berk _Start At The End_

"Dandelions" Marc Vietor _Thor Hanson: The Triumph Of Seeds_

"Dandelion Seed" The Primitives _Spin-O-Rama_

"Dandelion Seed" Jens Lekman _Life Will See You Now_

interview with influencer Rita Sawyer

"Dandelion" The Greeting Committee _Dandelion_

"Dandelion" Daughter _Stereo Mind Game_

"Dandelions" Ali Siddiq _Damaged Goods_

"Dandelions" Nayiem _Touching Bass Presents: Soon Come_

interview with vintner Rob Slater

"My Old Kentucky Home (Turpentine & Dandelion Wine)" Johnny Cash _John R. Cash_

"Dandelion Wine" Rusalnaia _Rusalnaia_

"Dandelion Wine" Gregory Alan Isakov _This Empty Northern Hemisphere_

"Dandelion Wine" D+ _Dandelion Seeds_

"Dandelion Wine" The Hollies _The Hollies At Abbey Road 1966-1970_

conclusion & goodbye

"Dandelions" Kurt Vile _Speed, Sound, Lonely KV_

"Dandelion" Florist _Florist_

Whither Dandelions?

One thing I know is true: you don't need a reason to do anything if it involved flowers. You don't need a reason to give someone flowers, you don't need a reason to pick a flower for yourself, & you don't need a reason to make a radio show about flowers. Flowers are nice.

Although that time in college when you met the person who hung dead flowers upside down on her wall - that was a bit concerning. You tried to convince yourself it was cool but even though you really wanted to kiss her you had the sense you might be in a haunted house. Or apartment. As the case may be.

For some reason she never had dried dandelions. What was I talking about again?

Oh yeah. I don't have to give you a reason for a radio show about dandelions. They're awesome. They deserve a radio show. & so they shall have one.

Today! Thursday! January 4! From noon to 2pm. On 90.3+98.3fm in Portland & online at Freeform Portland dot org. A show about dandelions with interviews, songs, & the regular nonsense. But it's the first Self Help Radio of the year!

Preface To Dandelions: Wishes

Though I have taken many more pictures of flowers in Portland than anywhere else - people here love their gardens - I snapped that little feller up there was in Lexington, Kentucky.

As a child, I wanted so badly to believe in things like magic, luck, & wishes, that I thought - my mother probably told me - that a single dandelion alone like that had more potency than one plucked from a plentiful field.

One thing that I knew was that you had to scatter all the seeds - like you had to blow out all the candles on the cake to get your birthday wish. You didn't get a second chance. & what a waste when I didn't fill my lungs properly! It was almost a physical pain to think I'd lost a wish.

& the wishes! I worried about the quality of my wishes! Why wish for a specific toy when you might wish for a toy store? Why wish for a puppy when you could wish for all the puppies? Perhaps my greed is why my wishes never came true. Or maybe wishes aren't real.

No, that's nonsensical. I just needed more specifics about how wishes work. & of course I will need more dandelions.

Welcome 2024

It's been a bit damp so far. But I spend a lot of time making radio shows, so I stay dry.

Hope for the best. Know the worst is yet to come.

The Yearly Tally

It's time for me to reveal to anyone who cares (& it's not that many people) how many radio shows I made in 2023. It is something of a complicated number, but here goes:

57 episodes of Self Help Radio

This includes five (5) episodes on XRAY that were essentially repeats on a different station.

After a while I started to feel weird about that. So I stopped doing it.

51 episodes of The Dickenbock Report

38 episodes of Corporate Standardized Programming

Nine (9) sub episodes on XRAY, KBOO, & Freeform Portland.

That number adds up to 155! Which is really a record for me. I don't think I've ever done that many radio shows in one year.

While I might be wrong, I seem to have explored - in all three shows - 76 new themes. More often than now, Corporate Standardized Programming is a freeform show. But both The Dickenbock Report & Self Help Radio are theme-based. & I don't really mind revisiting old themes for the Dickenbock Report. & Self Help Radio has themes - like Indiepop A To Z - which I revisit regularly.

But that's it - 155 radio shows in 2023. If my math is right.

Currently I have three radio shows so I might make this number once again this year. (52 weeks times three.) But who knows?

Right now I'm just going to feel a little exhausted by the count.