Self Help Radio 020824: Valentine's Day 2024 - Falling In Love

(original image here)

Almost a week early, here's this year's Self Help Radio Valentine's Day show - this year about falling in love. I seem to have a different idea of what "falling in love" means than many people - I always find I can love people easier than fall in love with them. I suspect I've only been in love maybe five or six times in my life. & usually those times are the same feelings I associate with falling in love in songs.

There is one possibly unromantic comment I make about falling in love in the show. I hope I can be forgiven for it. If you don't hear it, though, I am certainly not going to point you to it!

Listen to the show now or save it for Valentine's Day at the Self Help Radio web page. Use username SHR & password selfhelp to listen. Download the show! Put it on your phone or whatever! Everything that happens is mentioned below.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Self Help Radio Valentine's Day 2024 Show

"Absolutely Cuckoo" The Magnetic Fields _69 Love Songs_

"I'm Fallin' In Love" Ella Fitzgerald _Jukebox Ella: The Complete Verve Singles Volume 1_

"Guess I'm Falling In Love (live)" The Velvet Underground _Peel Slowly & See_

introduction & definitions

"Why Don't They Let Us Fall In Love" Veronica _Back To Mono (1958-1969)_

"Let's Do It (Let's Fall In Love)" Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston _Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston_

"Why Do Fools Fall in Love" Joni Mitchell _Shadows & Light_

"Falling In Love With Myself Again" Sparks _Kimono My House_

"Falling In Love (With Myself)" Ivy Green _Ivy Green_

interview with Kim Rayburn, who falls in love with everybody

"All I Wanna Do Is Fall In Love" Robyn Hitchcock _Black Snake Diamond Röle_

"Don't Fall In Love (Every Single Time)" The Delmonas _Delmonas 5!_

"Falling In Love Again" Klaus Nomi _Simple Man_

"Can't Help Falling In Love" Lick The Tins _Some Kind Of Wonderful_

"Somewhere Someone's Falling In Love" John Prine _Aimless Love_

our resident cinephile Chuck stops by!

"Falling In Love" Monomyth _Happy Pop Family_

"I Fall In Love (All Over Again)" The Forum _The River Is Wide_

"I Feel Like Falling In Love Again" The Fantastic Four _The Complete Motown Singles | Vol. 9: 1969_

"Falling" Julee Cruise _Floating Into The Night_

interview with Karl Rogers, who's only been in love once

"Falling In Love" The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy _Distressed Gentlefolk_

"I Wanna Fall In Love" BMX Bandits _Theme Park_

"The Falling In Love Part Is The Best Part Anyways" The Casino Ashtrays _Just Like Me EP_

"We Were Programmed To Fall In Love" Confusions _Grounds_

interview with Kris Rand, who has never been in love

"Fall In Love With Me" The House Of Love _Burn Down The World: The Fontana Years 1989-1993_

"Ever Fallen In Love" Nouvelle Vague _Bande À Part_

"Feels Like Falling In Love" The Arrogants _Nobody's Cool_

"Fallin' In Love" Lush _Black Spring EP_

conclusion & goodbye

"Let's Fall In Love" William Onyeabor _Who Is William Onyeabor?_

"I Just Want Someone To Fall In Love With" The Lovely Eggs _Wildlife_

Whither Falling In Love (Valentine's Day 2024)?

(image from here)

Every year there's a Valentine's Day show on Self Help Radio. Topics like jealousy or famous lovers or hearts or flirting or boyfriends or girlfriends have been discussed & explored in the past. This year it's falling in love.

You're like, hasn't the show been on for like two decades? & you're just getting to falling in love?!?

Yeah, but do you know how many songs about falling in love there are? It was a daunting proposition!

Hear how it turned out today (a week early but the closest show I have to Valentine's Day!) from noon to 2pm on 90.3+98.3fm in town & online at Freeform Portland dot org. Songs, interviews, things that may lead you to the conclusion that falling in love rocks.

Preface To Valentine's Day 2024 - Falling In Love: Falling In Love, The Comic

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Wow, according to the DC Database, Falling In Love was a romance comic that ran from 1955 to 1973. It looks like issue one - which had four stories, "Dream Love," "Unhappy Birthday," "How Did I Lose You," & "Flight To Heartbreak" - was published by the Arleigh Publishing Group, which was a division of National Periodical Publications aka DC Comics. Issue 10 had the logo "National Romance Group" in the upper left hand corner. Issue 50 - the May 1962 issue - finally had the DC logo, which it kept till the end.

How do I know this? Do I secretly collect romance comics? I don't. I don't think I have read a single one all the way through. But you can at the Read Comics Online website! (That link goes directly to all 143 issues of Falling In Love.)

But sometimes I wish I did know more about these kinds of comics. At one point they were quite profitable - there were dozens on the newsstand every month. Since they didn't print credits I don't know who wrote or drew them - although of course smarter, sharper people than myself can & have guessed. They seem to have gone out of style in the early 1970s. & really never came back.

From a comic about falling in love to a radio show about falling in love - & almost a week from Valentine's Day!

A Couple Of Books About Telescopes

(images from Goodreads)

If you didn't listen to last week's episode of Self Help Radio, go here & do that now! It was a show about telescopes & almost halfway through we were visited by our favorite librarian Carole, who talked about two books about telescopes:

Always Looking Up: Nancy Grace Roman, Astronomer by Laura Gehl, Louise Pigott, & Alex Oxton

&

Looking Up: An Illustrated Guide To Telescopes by Jacob Kramer & Stephanie Scholz

Click to find out more - or listen to Carole talk about them on the show. (I think the second choice is the best choice.)

The 1968 Project, Part VII

(image from Rate Your Music)

Here's a weird thing I'm doing. I'm listening to a lot of records released in 1968. I am listening to them in the order they are rated on the website Rate Your Music. (The order keeps changing because new people keep rating the records.) Then I am playing the longest song on that record on the radio. & then saying whether I liked it or not. I'm not much of a critic & I'm not interested in trying to convince people to like what I like. If you like it, you like it. Anyway, I call it The 1968 Project & I'm doing the 7th (seventh) installment tonight on my KBOO show, Corporate Standardized Programming. It's on from midnight to 3am on 90.7fm in town & online at kboo dot fm.

You might be interested in previous installments. If so, you can find them here:
The 1968 Project, Part I | The 1968 Project, Part II | The 1968 Project, Part III

The 1968 Project, Part IV | The 1968 Project, Part V | The 1968 Project, Part VI

The newest version will be uploaded to both the KBOO page probably tomorrow & the Self Help Radio page on Friday. It's been fun to do - & surprisingly I've only really, really disliked a few of the records!

Now it's time to listen to more records so I can do this again soon.