Coming Up Tomorrow On The Dickenbock Report: Barn Day

That picture of the sad remains of a once-proud barn was taken in Kentucky in 2015. I'm sure I saw plenty of awesome barns still in use. Someone those are not as photogenic as the one up there, looking so forlorn. But we shouldn't focus on crumbling barns!

July 14 is Barn Day. On the Dickenbock Report this week we'll talk about barns, hear musical reports about barns, & we might even be broadcasting from a barn! I hope it's not a haunted barn.

That's tomorrow, July 14, noon to 1pm on XRAY - 91.1+107.1fm in town, xray dot fm everywhere.

& yes, my mother, who raised me, often asked me if I were raised in a barn. It seemed like the strangest question coming from her.

This Week In Self Help (July 7 + 9 2024)

Above is a picture of The Magnetic Fields in Portland in 2022 at the Aladdin Theater. They don't have any songs about magnets so I didn't play them on my magnet show but certainly I thought about them a lot - they are one of my favorite bands.

This weeks started though with an episode of The Dickenbock Report on National Macaroni Day. It was very, very fun sorting through songs about macaroni. I liked it lots. You can listen to the show at the XRAY website here or directly from the Self Help Radio website by clicking on this link. You may need the username SHR & the password selfhelp to access.

Then comes Self Help Radio, about magnets this week. You can listen to the show at the KBOO website or you can download it from the Self Help Radio website. Same username/password issues apply.

At the end of the KBOO file is this week's episode of Corporate Standardized Programming, which once again focused on dead folks. You can listen at the end of the KBOO SHR episode or download the show directly right here.

There is no new Self Help Radio next week but that doesn't mean I won't have more radio to share. Like, I subbed a show on XRAY this week! But you'll have to wait a bit to listen if you missed it, sorry.

Self Help Radio 070924: Magnets

What an attractive show this was. Ho ho ho. Seriously, you won't be able to resist. Ha ha ha.

Yikes, magnet puns are affecting me negatively. Just let it be known Self Help Radio this morning was a show about magnets. Songs, interviews, a robot that defines things, the usual. I have really nothing else to add.

Listen when you want at either the KBOO website or at the Self Help Radio website. If you choose the latter, you need a username (SHR) & password (selfhelp). There's a story about the recording of this show which I may well tell soon enough but maybe not. Everything that happened on the show is below. Most everything. Some things are left to discover.

Find your true magnetic north!

Self Help Radio Magnets show

"It's A Magnet" Dorothy Collins _Experiment Songs (From Ballads For The Age Of Science)_

"Magnetism" Sonny James _Young Love: The Complete Recordings 1952-1962_

"The Human Magnet Song" Joanna Sternberg _I've Got Me_

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

"(Your Love Is Like A) Magnet" The Age Of Reason _Ear-Piercing Punk_

"Magnetism" Escombros _Love, Peace, & Poetry - Chilean Psychedelic Music_

"Magnetic Hearts" Vs. _Magnetic Hearts_

"Magnetic Attraction" Y Pants _Y Pants_

"The Electronic Magnetism (That's Heavy Baby)" Solomon Burke _Electronic Magnetism_

interview with Frank Bolton, inventor of the Bolton Method of improving personal magnetism

"The Magnet" Wandering Lucy _Leap Year_

"Fridge Magnet Song" The Lucksmiths _Boondoggle_

"Magnet" Yo La Tengo _Prisoners Of Love (A Smattering Of Scintillating Senescent Songs 1985-2003)_

"Magnets" Digitalism _Idealism_

our resident cinephile Chuck stops by!

"Magnet Face" Wet Dog _Future Love Songs_

"Magnet" Bikini Kill _Pussy Whipped_

"Capture With A Magnet" The Thermals _No Culture Icons_

"Your Life On Magnetic Tape" The Russian Futurists _Let's Get Ready To Crumble_

interview with Dude Magnet author Fay Bowers

"Psycho Magnet" Spearmint _Paris In A Bottle_

"Freak Magnet" Violent Femmes _Freak Magnet_

"Magnetic Woman" Eerie Wanda _Pet Town_

"Silver Arc Curving In The Magnetic Field" His Name Is Alive _Patterns Of Light_

interview with musician Foster Biggs, who makes music with magnets

"The Loneliness Of Magnets" The Handsome Family _Honey Moon_

"Sky Magnet" Frankie Cosmos _Inner World Peace_

"He's A Magnet" Mark Mulcahy _Dear Mark J. Mulcahy, I Love You_

"Magnetism" Lavender Blush _There's Nothing Inside Your Heart_

conclusion & goodbye

"Magnetizing (feat. Del Tha Funkee Homosapien)" Handsome Boy Modeling School _So... How's Your Girl?_

"Magnetic" Freezepop _Imaginary Friends_

"Mr. Magnetism Himself" Bill Nelson _The Two-Fold Aspect Of Everything_

"It's A Magnet (Reprise)" Dorothy Collins _Experiment Songs (From Ballads For The Age Of Science)_

Whither Magnets?

(image by David Shrigley)

Gosh. I have been racking my brain trying to remember when I first thought of magnets. It might have been one of the stranded themes I keep in a sad folder to which I return when I am out of ideas. It might have had a different inciting incident. I can't recall, sorry.

There is this story: this morning I went to a local toy store to get a horseshoe magnet. I was so inspired by the songs & interviews I had been doing that I wanted a magnet of my own & I wanted it to look like the magnets in cartoons. I checked their website & it said they had them in stock. But they did not. I must've looked as dejected as Charlie Brown as I left that local toy store.

Not that I would've taken the magnet with me to the show! I am afraid of doing what the cartoon above threatens. That might be why I currently don't have a magnet.

The Self Help Radio magnets show airs tonight midnight to 2am on 90.7fm in Portland & online everywhere at kboo dot fm. I don't think it'll erase your hard drive.

Preface To Magnets: Mid-Year Tally

(image from here*)

This post isn't about magnets. Self Help Radio this week is about magnets. But this post isn't. I just had nowhere else to mention this - & the time is right!

June 30 was almost the halfway point for the year. In 2024 it was the 182nd day of the year - because this is a leap year - with 184 days of the year. There's no "middle day" in leap years. But since it was the end of the sixth month, with six months left, it feels fine as an arbitrary midpoint.

This year for the first time ever I've kept notes about the radio shows I've done. Usually I try to count them up at the end of the year, but this year I kept & keep track every week. I have three radio shows currently - altho one of them is now tacked at the end of another, so I'm not on the radio three times a week. But sometimes I am! With sub shows & stuff.

What I didn't do - which is weird now that I think about it - is keep track of the number of individual shows. I really should do that. But here is the tally of radio so far in 2024.

As of June 30, poor old Portland has heard me on 94 radio shows on 3 different stations. Two of my shows are theme-based, but sometimes I return to previous themes, so I have explored only 44 original themes this year. Coincidentally 44 of those shows have been live (not always the ones with original themes tho). 50 of them have been recorded. It has been a total of 154 hours of radio (as of June 30). That's almost six & half days of radio. I feel just awful about that.

Here's the grand total:

27 episodes of Self Help Radio

26 episodes of Corporate Standardized Programming

26 episodes of The Dickenbock Report

15 sub shows

Does it add up to 94? I hope so. Self Help Radio moved from Freeform Portland to KBOO in March. I "recreated" two FFP SHRs for KBOO in January & February so I am counting those. I subbed a show on XRAY that was such a disaster that I am not counting it - so don't ask me to.

That's that. A little worrying. I suspect the year-end tally will be terrifying. Anyway. I'll talk magnets tomorrow.

* Steel Powder on Magnet by Aney is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.