Self Help Radio 111224: Shotgun

(Original image here*)

Bang goes the shotgun show. A mostly silly affair with only occasional references to violence. I say this utterly unaware if a shotgun can shoot blanks but - the show shot mostly blanks.

So rarely do guns enter into my life that I have no images of shotguns on my computer. Luckily there are cool ones online like the one above - weird to see how a shotgun actually works! That image is more informative than my entire show.

Which you can listen to now & whenever should you choose. Where? I can think of two places:
the KBOO web page + the Self Help Radio web page. Should you choose the latter, please use the username SHR & the password selfhelp to access. But you can download the show! Everything that happens on the show is listed below.

Be safe with this show!

Self Help Radio Shotgun Show

"(You'll Be Just) Another Notch On Father's Shotgun (Effen You Don't Marry Me)" Dorothy Shay _Another Notch On Father's Shotgun_

"Shotgun Blues" Lightnin' Hopkins _The Very Best Of Lightnin' Hopkins_

"Shotgun Boogie" Tennessee Ernie Ford _The Tennessee Ernie Ford Collection_

introduction & definitions

"Go Get The Shotgun Grandpa" Ann Castle _Rock-A-Billy Dynamite_

"Shotgun Wedding" Dub Dickerson _Boppin' In The Dark_

"Shotgun Talking Blues" The Highwaymen _Homecoming_

"Shotgun" Jr. Walker & The All Stars _The Complete Motown Singles, Vol. 5: 1965_

"The Shotgun & The Duck" Jackie Lee _The Duck_

interview with Ferris Humboldt, who renovates & repairs shotgun houses

"Act Like A Shotgun" G.C. Cameron _Love Songs & Other Tragedies_

"Shotguns" Tee-Set _The Golden Years Of Dutch Pop Music (A&B Sides)_

"Shotgun" Big Black _Racer-X_

"Shotgun Dream" Attrition _Recollection 84-89_

interview with Frank Harold, gun safety expert for Portland schools

"Shotgun" Colourbox _Colourbox_

"Hemingway Shotgun" Geek _The Machines 1990-1993_

"Shotgun Wedding" Gore Gore Girls _Up All Night_

"Shotgun Dedication" Beulah _Handsome Western States_

interview with my friend Floyd

"Shotgun Blues" Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan _Sunday At Devil Dirt_

"Shotgun" Ida _Will You Find Me_

"Shotgun Betty" Sarah Shook & The Devil _Seven_

"Shotgun" Atmosphere _To All My Friends, Blood Makes The Blade Holy: The Atmosphere EPs_

interview with gun club member Felicity Hope

"Shotgun Funeral" Party Of One _Shotgun Funeral_

"Shotgun" The Jane Shermans _The Jane Shermans_

"Shotgun Vision" Islands _Ski Mask_

"Shotgun" Soccer Mommy _Sometimes, Forever_

conclusion & goodbye

"Shotgun" Kristin Hersh _Wyatt At The Coyote Palace_

*the image is by Andrew Davidhazy & is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

Whither Shotgun?

(image from the comic Regarding The Matter Of Oswald's Body
by Christopher Cantwell & Luca Casalanguida)

This is something maybe important to know - I plan my show's in advance. I find a theme (or a theme is presented to me), I start gathering material for the theme, & when I feel like I can make a radio show, I assign a date to it. The date like the theme is arbitrary. It's usually only around holidays that I am scheduling a theme for a time of year, for a date on a calendar.

It's the same in my "real life." I scheduled a dental appointment for 8am the day after the election. Granted, I made the appointment six months earlier, but most people might have thought, hm, maybe not the first Wednesday after the first Tuesday in November when the world might be falling apart. Not me!

So please don't read into this week's theme, which is kinda dumb: shotgun. It's the result of a kind of negotiation with someone who really, really wanted me to do a show about guns. As I explained yesterday, I am loathe to make radio shows about very general themes. Finally I asked this person what their favorite kind of gun was, & the response was, "I don't like any kind of gun at all!!" So I asked what kind of gun did this person like least. & the answer was shotguns. & I said, is it okay if I do a show about shotguns, to which the person said, "If you can find enough songs about shotguns!"

There were plenty of songs about shotguns. But mainly I hope you don't think the theme has anything to do with recent events, because it doesn't. It was set into motion before I was even thinking about what a terrible time the first week of November would be.

Which brings me to: tonight from midnight to 2am Self Help Radio has a show with the theme "Shotgun." You can listen in Portland at 90.7fm & online at kboo dot fm. If you're listening in someone else's car, make sure you call shotgun! It will annoy them.

Preface To Shotgun: A Ramble

(Did I ever think I was going to link on this blog to an article about shotguns? Nope.)

One of the things that I try to avoid with my dumb show is (you've probably heard me talking about this before) overly general themes. I would not want to do a show with the theme cars, or drinks, or weather. I have nothing against those kinds of themes or shows but they weigh me down. How many songs about cars must I listen to to decide what to play on a two hour show?

It's true I did that early in this show's life but also back then I tended to put the show together the night before I did it. That would be hard to do nowadays. What happens now is I gather songs over a longer period of time & I come up with themes weeks before I explore them. I have some themes I came up with years ago that I still don't feel I'm ready to make a show with. None of those shows have themes like stars. Or the moon.

One of those themes that people have suggested to me before is guns. Wow that would be like nine hundred songs to listen to. I'm not sure I'd know where to start. & can I say something else? One of the reasons I like to find challenging themes is because it takes me out of my comfort zone - makes me find & listen to songs that I otherwise wouldn't necessarily play if I only had a few hours to put a show together.

If "shotgun" feels like a compromise because recently someone asked me to do a show about guns - well, you've anticipated tomorrow's blog post.