Coming Up Tomorrow On The Dickenbock Report: A Show About Miami

(vintage postcard of Miami, found here)

On July 28, 1896, the city of Miami, Florida, was incorporated. To mark that day, the Dickenbock Report (128 years later) will report on the city of Miami.

Sadly, I was not sent there on assignment. Or gladly? It's probably a little warm there at the moment. Instead, I'll be in the also unusually warm XRAY studios from 12-1pm tomorrow playing songs & talking about Miami. That's on the air in town at 91.1 & 107.1fm & online everywhere (presumably even in Miami) at xray dot fm.

Dick Dickenbock may not show up - he thinks we're trying to get him to retire there!

This Week In Self Help (July 21 + 23 2024)

(found here)

That's an image of Austin's newsweekly the Austin Chronicle from 1988 which I almost certainly picked up at a record store & read at that time but I have no memory of it whatsoever. I kinda want to read (reread?) the article about Austin's "alternative radio" - there was no community or college station in Austin at that time. I don't think their archives go back that far tho.

Meanwhile! I returned to Portland after a week in California to make these radio shows this week:

On the Dickenbock Report on Sunday, I celebrated Belgian artists on National Belgian Day. You can listen to that musical survey either on the XRAY web site or downloading the show from the Self Help Radio website. If you do the latter, please use the username SHR & the password selfhelp to access.

On Self Help Radio on Tuesday, I played more of my favorite music from 1988. You can listen to that show on the KBOO website here, or download the show directly from the Self Help Radio website & please remember SHR + selfhelp to access.

The KBOO show includes this week's episode of Corporate Standardized Programming which featured an hour of my favorite hip hop from 1988 but if you'd prefer to listen to that as a separate file, you can download it directly from the Self Help Radio website. See username/password info above.

& that was the week that was.

Self Help Radio 072324: 1988 (Continued)

(All images from Discogs)

Here it is, another couple of hours of my favorite music from 1988. It may not surprise you I have another hour's worth of songs that I could've played. & maybe I'll play them! But probably not on Self Help Radio.

Of course I haven't started planning for the 1989 show but I do wonder if there is another year of music as important to me as 1988. As I have discussed here & on the show, the year changed a lot of what my life was like. I went from a lonely fellow who pined over girls to one starting a relationship that would last for a time. Though I read a lot, it was the music that informed my life. I would walk through the empty streets of Garland, Texas, in the dead of night in the summer of 1988, listening to music on a Walkman. It may be the way I still see myself thirty-six years later.

Which leads me to say: I should warn you that I reminisce a lot on the show. Maybe in the small chance you do listen you can zip past those parts.

Listen? But how? Either at the KBOO web site or at the Self Help Radio website. Should you choose to listen at the latter, make sure you have the username SHR & the password selfhelp handy. The KBOO file includes an hour of my favorite hip hop from 1988; it's a different show on the SHR website.

Back to the regular goofiness next week.

Self Help Radio 1988 (Continued) Show

"Ghosts Of American Astronauts" The Mekons _So Good It Hurts_

"When Harpo Played His Harp" Jonathan Richman _Modern Lovers 88_

"Turning Of The Tide" Richard Thompson _Amnesia_

"Turkish Song Of The Damned" The Pogues _If I Should Fall From Grace With God_

"Chant Of The Paladin" Dead Can Dance _The Serpent's Egg_

"King Of Soul" The Wolfgang Press _Bird Wood Cage_

"Peek-A-Boo" Siouxsie & The Banshees _Peepshow_

"Why Do You Have To Go Out With Him When You Could Go Out With Me" The Brilliant Corners _Why Do You Have To Go Out With Him When You Could Go Out With Me_

"Shimmer" The Flatmates _Shimmer_

"I'm In Love With A Girl Who Doesn't Know I Exist" Another Sunny Day _I'm In Love With A Girl Who Doesn't Know I Exist_

"Sunshine Thuggery" The Siddeleys _Sunshine Thuggery_

"Looking For Lot 49" The Jazz Butcher _Fishcotheque_

"Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste" Galaxie 500 _Today_

"You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby" Kirsty MacColl _You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby_

"It's Only Life" The Feelies _Only Life_

"You Will Be Loved Again" Mary Margaret O'Hara _Miss America_

"Charlotte Anne" Julian Cope _My Nation Underground_

"Martha's Harbour" All About Eve _All About Eve_

"The Camera Loves Me" Would-Be-Goods _The Camera Loves Me_

"Balloon Man" Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians _Globe Of Frogs_

"Indian Summer" Beat Happening _Jamboree_

"Burst" The Darling Buds _Burst_

"Bitter End" Felt _The Pictorial Jackson Review_

"Surfaround" The Fizzbombs _The Surfin' Winter EP_

"Christine" The House Of Love _The House Of Love_

"She Paints" Biff Bang Pow! _Love Is Forever_

"The Train" The Nits _Hat_

"Return To Yesterday" The Lilac Time _The Lilac Time_

Whither 1988 (Continued)?

Hey! That's an embarrassing picture of me with blonde hair in the summer of 1988! I really am grateful taking pictures was so expensive back then - there would be so many more humiliating selfies of me than I could handle if I were twenty in 2024.

Anyway... 1988 was a very important year for music for me. So much great music was released then that I needed a whole other radio show to continue to play what I loved. (The first installment, which I played six months ago around the time of my birthday, you can listen to here if you want.) I think I found over six hours of songs to play. But I won't continue with this theme after this. I better make it count!

It's tonight. Midnight to 2am. On 90.7fm in Portland & online at kboo dot fm. There's no way that doofus up there knew he'd ever be on the radio!

Preface To 1988 (Continued): Archaeology

The screenshot above is from I guess a promotional film for UT Austin in 1988. This week on Self Help Radio I am revisiting my earlier theme of my favorite music of 1988. Why? Because it was a very important year of music for me. Way too much music I love to fit in one two-hour show.

This video on Youtube tries to capture the UT campus in 1988. Interestingly, the Erwin Center has been demolished. I never saw a concert there - I decided at some point not to see shows in arenas - but I did go there once to add/drop classes. I also spent very little time on Sixth Street when I lived in Austin. Mainly I would walk down that way getting to KOOP, which was for a time on 5th & San Jacinto. But I walked down 6th because that's where the bus let off.

May I speak a little about the Texas Union Theatre? There was a delightful programming of movies there - I must've seen hundreds of films there - especially series - I watched five John Cassavetes movies in a row there - as well as numerous foreign films - it was easy to get to, it was free, & though sometimes someone wasn't there, you could buy cheap popcorn before the film. Truly if you go to UT Austin right now you have no idea how amazing that campus once was. Is there even a Student Union? Is it full of chain restaurants now?

Answer: mostly. They don't seem to show movies there anymore. I guess Cactus Cafe still has shows.

The truth is, I didn't really do a lot in Austin in 1988. At the beginning of the year, I was a little lonesome & made it through my classes even tho I had a couple of needy fucking roommates who sucked all the air out of my life (I did kind of enable them). I spent the summer in Garland being a selfish douche. & fell in love when I returned with someone who would never love me. So my life was pretty circumscribed by school, horrible friends, & girl.

If I could go back again, I'd try to experience a bit more of the city. I probably wouldn't see a show at the Erwin Center, however.