Self Help Radio 112624: Magda's Birthday Show 2024

Hey look I got Magda to pose for a birthday picture. She told me it was fine as long as I "manipulated it." She's one of those irritatingly beautiful women who never think they look good in photographs. So I made her into a clown. That'll show her!

Damn, she still looks beautiful.

Lots of birthday tunes including many I found that were released this year. I hope it's enjoyable especially if you have a birthday any time. This show is for you! Listen at the KBOO website or at the Self Help Radio website & everything that happens is listed below.

& if you can, support KBOO during our end-of-the-year drive!

Magda's Birthday Show 2024

"Happy Birthday Polka" The Sons Of The Pioneers _Wagons West_

"Mama's Birthday" Red Sovine _Greatest Grand Ole Opry_

"Honky Tonk Birthday" Reverend Horton Heat, Dale Watson, & Jason D. Williams _The Stars Align_

introduction & FAQ

"Happy Birthday" Me First & The Gimme Gimmes _¡Blow It…At Madison's Quinceañera!_

"Birthday" Wavers _Wavers_

"My Mum's Birthday" Blush Always _An Ode To ?_

"(A Bit Of A) Birthday" Heavy Lungs _Live At The BBC_

"Birthday Girl" Sun Kil Moon _Birthday Girl_

interview with birthday song songwriter Kevin Bishop

"23rd Birthday" The Softies _The Bed I Made_

"Birthday" Sinai Vessel _I Sing_

"The Emperor, The Dealer, & The Birthday Boy" Pete Astor _Tall Stories & New Religions_

"Birthday" Castlebeat _Stereo_

"Birthday" Sleave _How To Get Over_

interview with scientist birthday party organizer Clyde King

"Happy Birthday" The Heck _Happy Birthday_

"Happy Birthday, Baby!" Micah Schnabel _The Clown Watches The Clock_

"Birthday Party" Metro Verlaine _Pop Sauvage_ 

"Happy Birthday" Kula Shaker _Natural Magick_

"Happy Birthday Songs" James Ellis _The Party Might Be Over_

interview with birthday gift rater Archie Lerner

"I Want My Birthday Back" Jee Jee Band _Glass Fish_

"I'm Having A Party" Jonathan Coulton _Smoking Monkey_

"Birthday Song" Moes Anthill _A Birthday Cage_

"Birthday Slice" Bodega _Build Yourself Up_

"Birthday Song" Kendra Morris _I Am What I'm Waiting For_

conclusion & goodbye

"Happy Birthday" The Washington Independent Players & Orchestra _A Trip To Washington, D.C. & Other Musical Stories_

"Happy Birthday Wanda June" Strange Boutique _Charm_

"Birthday Boy" Versus You _Birthday Boy_

"Birthday" Late Bloomer _Another One Again_

Whither Magda's Birthday Show 2024?

(image found here)

Every year around the time of her birthday, my wife gets a radio show featuring - not songs she likes, not songs she's picked out, not songs that make me think of her - but a show featuring songs about birthdays. I have made her a birthday show for twenty of the twenty-two years the show has been in existence. Please don't ask me what I was thinking in 2003 & 2005.

The thing is, I could play the Beatles song & the Altered Images song & the Sugarcubes song & all the birthday songs you're familiar with every year. But I don't. I don't repeat songs - or should I say, I don't repeat recordings - I have played covers of the Beatles song & the Altered Images song & the Sugarcubes song previously. What this means is I have to find mostly new birthday songs each year.

But that's fine! People write lots of birthday songs. But there's a problem! I don't like most of them. The coolest thing about having a radio show on a community radio station is that I get to play music I like. So I have to spend some time every year sifting through lots of birthday songs to find the ones I like.

How did that turn out? You can listen to find out tonight from midnight to 2am on 90.7fm here in Portland or online everywhere at kboo dot fm. Yes there'll be guests. Yes there'll be cake. But only for me. The cake is for me tonight.

Preface To Magda's Birthday Show 2024: Fourteen Years Ago

That youngster was my girlfriend on her birthday in 2007. I don't have a memory of that night but I'm in the pictures so I must've been there. In a little over a year, she would get her PhD & get married to me. & then in less than two years, we'd leave Austin, where we met, where we married, where we began our life together.

She had a birthday show that year, too. The day before on KOOP. The playlist is here. It's funny, I remember the phone calls I got on that show more vividly than her birthday party. My memory is screwy.

But perhaps that means this birthday show will be just as memorable... on the radio.