Whither Affection? (It's A Valentine's Day Show!)

(image by Seebangnow from here)

Oh gosh I guess I answered the question above. Why is this week's show about affection? Because it's a Valentine's Day show & it has to be about something.

Previous Valentine's Day show topics include Boyfriends, Crushes, Dating, Falling In Love, Famous Lovers, Flirting, Girlfriends, Hate, The Heart, Heartbreak, Jealousy, Love, Love Is..., Love Songs, Lovesick, Make You Mine, Roses, Sweethearts, True Love, & Valentines. Like with my Halloween show, I have a new theme for each Valentine's Day. This year it will be affection.

The world does seem to lack affection these days. Chances are I thought of this theme some time last while listening to Jonathan Richman, whose song "Affection" I'll play tonight. It does seem like a particularly Valentine's Day theme.

That's right, tonight! From midnight to 2am! On 90.7fm & kboo dot fm. & you still have time to plan stuff for Valentine's Day!

Preface To Affection: How Important Is Affection?

(it says copyright Matt Groening dude)

How the hell should I know? I thought I'd look at the answers from the people who answer questions like this at Quora.

Cupid's Queen sez:

Affection is important in a relationship because it helps to create a strong bond between two people. It is a way to show love, care, and respect for one another. Affection can also help to reduce stress, build trust, and strengthen communication. It is an important part of any healthy relationship.

Ahana Ghosh sez:

You can say it is the backbone of a relationship without love or affection a relationship can't work out. Love or affection is something that a girl or a boy wants from his/her lover. That's the only thing that give them the power to fight against each and every evil eyes.

Lyne Bergeron sez:

If u love someone , u have a relationship. If u don't there is NO relationship. Love makes a relationship. That is what keeps us in a couple. Bcz we love each other for a tons of reasons . We trust that person, we share everything , we support each other, we compromise, we are a team . Love grows with time and the amount of time we spend together. We communicate good and understand each other. Etc etc this love and u have a relationship . That's it.

Finally, Melissa Kaye sez:

Love is important for relationships for various reasons, in the theory of evolution love was an aid for reproduction, which of course prepetuated the species. In more modern terms love makes living with another person easier, makes communication better, gives you more empathy for your partner, and it makes sex better and hopefully helps a person feel safe and secure while feeling vulnerable.

Love is a powerful emotion and necessary for not just romantic relationships. It's also important for friendship and family bonds.

To be fair, I don't really understand how Quora works so some of these might have been answers to other questions. But I do know people who really, really love to answer questions like these. They like to be an authority. & I confess I like using other people's thoughts on this blog. Every once in a while I get a weird unsolicited email from someone offering to write articles "for my website." Which doesn't feature articles. But maybe I can get them to answer questions like this for my blog. If I remember the next time I get one of those letters.

Do I think affection is important? Sure. But I think that's why I have pets.

Coming Up Tomorrow On The Dickenbock Report: National Pizza Day

It's actually surprising that there's a National Pizza Day because quite frankly every day is Pizza Day in my world. However, The Dickenbock Report will report on pizzas on their official national day & what the hell we'll throw in some musical reports about pizza as well.

Happening Sunday noon to 1pm on 91.1+107.1fm in Portland & online everywhere at xray dot fm.

Sending pizza to the XRAY studios while the show is airing is strongly encouraged.

This Week In Self Help (January 31 & February 2, 3, + 4)

(image from the Wikipedia)

Whew that was a busy week. I am still writing apology letters! Can I mention at the outset that if you listen to a show on the Self Help Radio website, you might have to - at least once - enter the username SHR & the password selfhelp to access the file? So I don't have to mention it again? Cool. Thank you.

Friday January 31st I subbed the Songcircle on KBOO. Played lots of new releases.
Listen at the KBOO website. Or! Listen at the Self Help Radio website.

Sunday February 2 on the Dickenbock Report I played lots of songs about sneezing because it was The Record Of A Sneeze Day for reals.
Listen at the XRAY website. Or! Listen at the Self Help Radio website.

Monday February 3 on KBOO I subbed a show & played lots of electronica from 2005.
KBOO doesn't archive some subbed shows but you can listen at the Self Help Radio website.

The playlist is here.

Tuesday February 4 on KBOO there was an episode of Self Help Radio with the theme Nickels.
Listen at the KBOO website. Or! Listen at the Self Help Radio website.

Finally! After Self Help Radio, there was an episode of Corporate Standardized Programming in which I played music by artists we lost in October & November of last year.

It's on the KBOO file with Self Help Radio above. Or! Listen to the show alone at the Self Help Radio website.

That's that. It was too much I know. But that is that.

Self Help Radio 020425: Nickels

Just to let you know: there were very few nickels harmed in the making of this radio show. Just the one above, marred by the Self Help Radio logo. The show has the utmost respect for nickels. Nothing like the scorn the world has for pennies.

At this point, I have nothing else to say about nickels. Two hours of music & talk did it. You can listen & find out. The show is currently at the KBOO website. It's also at the Self Help Radio website. Remember you need to use SHR as a username & selfhelp as a password to access that latter file. Anyway, everything that happened on the show (more or less) is noted below.

Nickel nickel nickel!

Self Help Radio Nickel Show

"Nickel Wine" Dave Bartholomew _Gettin' Funky: The Birth Of New Orleans R & B_

"Once Upon A Nickel (with Ray Bolger)" Ethel Merman _The World Is Your Balloon_

"(Put Another Nickel In) Music! Music! Music!" Teresa Brewer _The Best Of Teresa Brewer_

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

"Nickel Song" Melanie _The Good Book_

"A Nickel For The Fiddler" Guy Clark _Old No. 1_

"Buffalo Nickel" Shovels & Rope _Little Seeds_

"The Seven-Cent Nickel" Groucho Marx _Horse Feathers/Animal Crackers_

"A Nickel & A Nail" O.V. Wright _A Nickel & A Nail & Ace Of Spades_

interview with animator Xenia Fillmore

"Nickel's Worth Of Liver Blues: No. 2" Edith North Johnson _Charley Patton: Complete Recordings 1929-1934_

"No Woman No Nickel" Bumble Bee Slim _1931-1937_

"Jimmy Had A Nickel (vocal, Dick Robertson)" Clarence Williams & His Orchestra _1933-1934_

"'Taint That Good (Like A Nickel Made Of Wood)" Fats Waller _The Cream Of Fats Waller II_

"Drop A Nickel In The Slot" Three Bits Of Rhythm _Even More Mellow Cats 'N' Kittens (Hot R&B & Cool Blues 1945-1951)_ 

"Nickel Plated Baby" Amos Milburn _The Complete Aladdin Recordings Of Amos Milburn_

interview with activist Tyler Polk

"Nickels & Dimes" Scott Fagan _South Atlantic Blues_

"Nickel-Dime Mind" The People's Victory Orchestra & Chorus _Victory Gardens_

"(I Love) Nickels & Dimes" Robbie Fulks _Country Love Songs_

"Nickels & Dimes" The Wedding Present _Search For Paradise: Singles 2004-2005_

"Nickels & Dimes" Dougie Poole _The Rainbow Wheel Of Death_

interview with musician James Pierce

"I Wish I Had A Nickel" Red Foley _Old Shep (The Red Foley Recordings 1933-1950)_

"A Nickel Piece Of Candy" Jim Reeves _The Jim Reeves Way_

"Give Me Another Roll Of Nickels" Rod Creagh _Give Me Another Roll Of Nickels_

"If I Had A Nose Full Of Nickels" Lou Carter _Louie's Love Songs_

"On The Nickel" Tom Waits _Heartattack & Vine_

conclusion & goodbye

"Nickel Bags" Digable Planets _Reachin' (A New Refutation Of Time & Space)_

"Tape A Nickel To The Tonearm" The Ben Vaughn Quintet _Pièce De Résistance_

"Nickel Romeo" Bangles _Doll Revolution_

"Wooden Nickels" Eels _Daisies Of The Galaxy_

"Nickel Bag Of Blue" Blue Sandelwood Soap _Loring Park Love-Ins_

Whither Nickels?

(image from here)

Hm, a radio show about nickels. I'm certain there's been a Self Help Radio episode about pennies. & I've done a radio show about dollars. No quarters? No dimes? I suppose then it's fair to have a show about nickels.

The truth is, I have no idea why I am doing a show about nickels. Money shows are usually saved for pledge drives. But maybe nickels are too small a number? Thought to be too trifling? When you're asking for the big bucks? In any event, I think tonight's show is about nickels.

You heard me! Midnight to 2am on 90.7fm here in Portland, kboo dot fm everywhere.

Preface To Nickel: Nickel Factz

(image from the Wikipedia)

Fuck yeah the Nickel Institute tells us:

Nickel is a metallic element with a silvery-white, shiny appearance. It is the fifth-most common element on earth & occurs extensively in the earth's crust & core. Nickel, along with iron, is also a common element in meteorites. Nickel occurs naturally in soil & water. It is also an essential nutrient for plants. 

It continues:

While the concentration of nickel in the earth's crust is 80 parts per million, the earth's core consists mainly of a nickel-iron alloy.
Then it adds in all caps:

NICKEL IS THE FIFTH-MOST COMMON ELEMENT ON EARTH

Holy shit. Okay, I'll do a radio show about it all right?

Damn.

Coming Up Tomorrow On The Dickenbock Report: The Record Of A Sneeze Day

(an early Winsor McCay comic strip - found here)

February 2 is The Record Of A Sneeze day. It has something to do with the first time a sneeze was filmed. We haven't finished our research yet. We haven't really started, really. Ironically, while we were looking into sneezes, we got a cold. It's been pretty sneezy around here.

Please tune in to XRAY tomorrow, Sunday, February 2, from 12-1pm for reporting on sneezes. That's on 91.1+107.1fm in town, & online at xray dot fm. We prefer "gesundheit" to "bless you" thanx.

This Week In Self Help (January 26 + 28)

("Evolution Of A Tornado" from the Wikipedia)

Now, I did sub a show today but I will count that towards next week. This week I just did my regular programs. Nothing extra. They were:

The Dickenbock Report. A report on World Leprosy Day. Really. It's on the XRAY website. It's on the Self Help Radio website.

Self Help Radio. A show about tornados. It's on the KBOO website. It's on the Self Help Radio website.

Corporate Standardized Programming. An hour of new electronica & jazz. It's part of the KBOO show linked above or a stand-alone program on the Self Help Radio website.

Oh! I forgot to mention! If you can't access the files on the Self Help Radio website - if it asks you for a username & password - the username is SHR & the password is selfhelp.

& that was the week where I did shows about leprosy & tornados.

A Tornado In The Movies

(image from the IMDb)

This past week, Self Help Radio had a show about tornados. Our resident cinephile Chuck stopped by to talk about films featuring tornados, like the one above. You can listen to the show at the KBOO website or at the Self Help Radio website & once you've done that, please check out the helpful links Chuck has shared:

YouTube playlists of films & trailers

(Chuck notes: Some of the animated shorts that were available are not on the list because they are designated as YouTube for Kids. Their links can be found on the Letterboxd list & are denoted with YTK.)

Letterboxd list

(Chuck says: I put the links to available videos in the notes for the films plus where they are available to stream for free.)

Letterboxd reviews

IMDb 'keyword' search list

Chuck's Bluesky Account

Chuck tells us his did not make his usual IMDb list of films available to stream for free elsewhere. But, he says, check the drop down list above under 'Service' for the various free & pay streaming services. (You need to set up your favorite services first.)

Be safe out there!

Self Help Radio 012825: Tornados

One would think a show about tornados would be scary. But this one is not. One might think a show about tornados could be educational. Maybe this one is. There sure were lots of songs about tornados. Some learning might have sneaked by.

Listen to this show if you'd like at either the KBOO website or at the Self Help Radio website. If you choose the latter, remember you might need the username SHR & the password selfhelp. Everything that happened on the show - well, okay, most of what happened on the show - is listed below.

Unlike with a tornado, it is perfectly safe to listen to this show under a bridge.

Self Help Radio Tornados Show

"T.O.R.N.A.D.O." The Go! Team _Rolling Blackouts_

"My Tornado" The Raveonettes _Whip It On_

"Tornado Love" Blacktop _Up All Night_

introduction & definitions

"Dancing With The Tornado" The Veils _Time Stays, We Go_

"This Tornado Loves You" Neko Case _Middle Cyclone_

"Tornado" Dale Hawkins _The Chess Story 1957-1964_

"That Mean Old Twister (Backwater Blues)" Lightnin' Hopkins _The Acoustic Years 1959-1960_

"Tornadoes" Seana Carmody _Struts & Shocks_

interview with storm chaser Martin Andrews

"Tornado Time In Texas" Guy Clark _Workbench Songs_

"Tornadoes" Drive-By Truckers _It's Great To Be Alive!_

"Texas Tornado" Buck Owens _The Warner Brothers Recordings_

"Tornadoland" Regina Spektor _Remember Us To Life_

"Tornado" Sharon Van Etten _Because I Was In Love_

interview with meteorologist Terrence Harrison

"Tornado Alley" Graham Parker _Your Country_

"Tornado Alley" Carrie Newcomer _The Age Of Possibility_

"Fearing A Tornado" The Jags _No Tie Like A Present_

"Tornado" Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments _Career Interruption Code_

"Tornado" Faire Osciller _Drifting_

our resident cinephile Chuck stops by!

"Black Tornado" Dan Bern _New American Language_

"Tornado Head" Sean Rowe _The Darkness Dressed In Colored Lights_

"Tornado '87" The Rural Alberta Advantage _Departing_

"Gov. Bill Williams Tornado Preserve" The Firesign Theatre _Boom Dot Bust_

"Baby Tornado" Melys _Kamikaze_

conclusion & goodbye

"The Human Tornado (45 Version)" Rudy Ray Moore _The Human Tornado (Original Soundtrack)_

"Twister" James Keelaghan _House Of Cards_

"Tornado Longing For Freedom" The Music Tapes _Music Tapes For Clouds & Tornadoes_

Whither Tornados?

(Gertrude Abercrombie, "Owl & Tornado" {1956} from here)

One might imagine that growing up in Tornado Alley as I did, that might have been the inspiration for the show. Or perhaps the recent remake or sequel to the 1990s film Twister could have been a catalyst - but I never saw it. Maybe that recurring dream I have about The Wizard Of Oz? Nope.

The truth is, I have no idea what inspired me to make a show about tornados. We don't have a lot of tornados in Oregon. Wait. Is there a Newhart episode about a tornado? There is! It's the one where Tom Poston's character wants to fix the bell tower but he's afraid of wind. Bob Newhart's character shows him The Wizard Of Oz. Holy shit I think because we were watching Newhart late last year & earlier this year that episode may have inspired me to do a show about tornados. Altho I apparently have never done a show about wind.

Howsoever it began, it turns into a radio show at last tonight from midnight to 2am on 90.7fm here in Portland & online everywhere at kboo dot fm.

It was indirectly about The Wizard Of Oz then. Maybe.

Preface To Tornados: Living In A Place With Very Few Tornados

("Tornado crossing Interstate 30 in Garland, Texas illuminated by a power flash" from here)

Where I grew up, in Garland, Texas, tornados were a pretty common threat. This website says that historically, Garland averages three tornados a year, altho I'm sure there are more these days thanks to climate change. I can attest that they felt like a very real threat in my childhood & adolescence.

In school, in elementary school, in the 1970s - I guess I was in first through fifth grade from 1974 to 1979 - we didn't have atomic bomb drills but we did have tornado drills. We'd sit in the hallways. I seem to remember leaning against lockers so perhaps there were similar drills in middle school. & when I moved back to Texas, to Fort Worth, in 2016, there were regular reports of tornados to the west.

But there's not a personal tornado encounter I can share. Except. A vague memory. It would've been before I even started school. On a road like Northwest Highway, which now is very developed, but which, in the early 1970s was not, nor were there lots of business lining its every mile. I seem to recall me & some members of my family - mother? brothers? sisters? - pulling over to the side of the road because of the threat of a tornado, getting out of the car, & going down into some kind of ditch, maybe even getting underneath something. That's all - a fragment of a recollection of something scary. I didn't see a funnel cloud. I didn't experience the horrors of being trapped in the path of a tornado.

Which isn't to say I don't find tornados terrifying. Or that I'm not grateful to be living in a place where tornados are rare. Not counting the one tornado that showed up about two months after we moved here...

Coming Up Tomorrow On The Dickenbock Report: World Leprosy Day

(image from here)

Oh, so we're really going to do this? A radio show about leprosy? Holy smokes. Okay.

Tomorrow, January 26, is World Leprosy Day. It may sound unbelievable but what the hell the Dickenbock Report will report on leprosy, including musical reports because... I mean, that's what we do. Are there even musical reports about leprosy?

So yeah. Sunday. Noon to 1pm. On 91.1+107.1fm in town, xray dot fm everywhere. It's just. Really?

This Week In Self Help (January 19 21 + 23)

(from the city's Facebook page)

This week was set to be pretty quiet but I ended up doing an extra show because I can't help myself & no one is trying to stop me, the fools.

The Dickenbock Report reported on National Popcorn Day. That show is here on the XRAY website. You can also listen here on the Self Help Radio website (where you might need the username SHR & password selfhelp). Warning: that show has five versions of the song "Popcorn."

Self Help Radio was a show about talent (not, alas, Talent, Oregon). That show is here on the KBOO website. You can also listen here on the Self Help Radio website (where you might need the username SHR & password selfhelp).

The last hour of that show on the KBOO website is my program Corporate Standardized Programming which consisted of lots of new releases. If you'd like to listen to that show on its own, you can do that here on the Self Help Radio website (where you might need the username SHR & password selfhelp).

Finally, I played much more of my favorite music on KBOO on Thursday morning. KBOO doesn't archive its sub shows, but you can see the playlist here & listen to the show here on the Self Help Radio website.

Gosh I wish I coulda driven down to Talent, Oregon, to get a picture of the sign myself. Sadly, it's 320 miles away. But I have driven past it!

Self Help Radio 012125: Talent

(Original image here*)

Self Help Radio this week was a show about talent. Not a talent show! Though there were lots of songs about talent shows. For the record I've never been in a talent show. Nor have I performed at an open mic. But that's neither here nor there. The talent involved in this show is not its host. But you knew that.

The show can be listened to either at the KBOO website or at the Self Help Radio website. If you choose the latter, please use the username SHR & password selfhelp to access. All the stuff that happened on the show is below.

You talented listener you.

Self Help Radio Talent Show

"A Little Brains, A Little Talent" Gwen Verdon _Damn Yankees (An Original Cast Recording)_

"Talent For Lovin'" Yellow Hair _Somewhere_

"The Downtown Talent Scout" Frank Zappa _You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 5_

introduction & definitions

"Talent Is An Asset" Sparks _Kimono My House_

"New Talent Needed All The Time" R. Stevie Moore _Swing & A Miss/R. Stevie Moore '77_

"Talent Night At The Nashville Inn" Commander Cody _Flying Dreams_

"Your Wasted Is A Talent Here" The Capstan Shafts _Revelation Skirts_

"The Talent Contest" The Legendary Pink Dots _The Golden Age_

interview with George Adams, who claims he's talentless

"Tale Of A Talentless Boy" Oliver Marson _Why Did I Choose This?_

"Talent" Pixies _Head Carrier_

"International Bulletproof Talent" Bauhaus _Go Away White_

"Talent" Heavenly Beat _Talent_

"Tyranny Of The Talentless" David Holmes & Raven Violet _Blind On A Galloping Horse_

interview with Teaching Talent author Tom James

"Talent Show" The Replacements _Don't Tell A Soul_

"Talent To Follow" Vic Godard _The End Of The Surrey People_

"She's Got Talent" Martin Newell _Martin Newell's Jumble Sale_

"Molly's Got A Talent" Sasha Bell _Love Is Alright_

"You Have Ugly Talents, Martha" Jessamine _Jessamine_

interview with talent show planner Quincy Monroe

"Impatient Talent Show" Jonathan Fire*Eater _Wolf Songs For Lambs_

"Talent" Echobelly _Insomniac_

"Tickets For The Talent Search" Smattering _Fig. 428 Racket To Stardom_

"Talent Is A Crime" The No-Talents _Talent Is A Crime_

"Aliens With Extraordinary Talent" Tuomo & Markus _Game Changing_ 

conclusion & goodbye

"Drum Solo" Various Artists _The Talent Show_

"Have A Talent" Inna Vision _Music On My Mind_

"Talento En Television" The University Of Texas Afro-Caribbean Ensemble _KVRX Local Live 3rd Edition, Revised: Educational Programming_

* This image, which has been changed by adding the Self Help Radio logo, is "The Talent In Neon" by Maryalena Salman. The original is here. It is used under the Attribution-Sharealike 2.0 Generic license.

Whither Talent?

(image from here)

The image above is from an article entitled "So Why Not Have A Talent Show?" It amused me that if the theme for Self Help Radio were talent, it would in fact be a "talent show." But goofy idears for naming my shows is not why I pick a theme. I picked this theme because of this CD:

(image from Discogs)

It's a recording of an actual talent show at a nursing home featuring the residents & what sounds like their grandchildren, recorded in I think 1979. I bought it many years ago & happened to listen to it again late last year. It made me want to play songs about talent. I will play some of the interstitial dialogue from the CD above during tonight's show - not the actual performances except maybe one - but I do wish I had recorded my senior year talent show. I was up in a room running the spotlights. I was one of the untalented ones.

Talent on display tho tonight! From midnight to 2am on 90.7fm in Portland & online at kboo dot fm. No talent required - you know, like at most talent shows.

Preface To Talent: The Talentless Mr. Me

(holy shit I've seen this film! image from IMDb)

In thinking about a show about talent, I have been wondering if anyone has ever called me talented. Not whether I have talents - I don't think I do - but have I been called talented at anything?

Probably not. Talent is a word that seems to be reserved for a particular skill, like at sports or with me. "He's a talented quarterback." "He's a talented guitarist." I'm neither - not am I particularly talented at anything, really. My wife might say, "He's an adequate cook," which means I follow recipes faithfully. I don't sing or play music or sports.

The thing I guess I do is deejay, but even then, I'm not what most people think of as a deejay, which is a person who spins records (or whatever) at a club. The word "deejay" - or D.J. - means "disc jockey" & certainly many club deejays do that as well as many radio deejays. But club deejays - especially those who play a continuous mix of music - actually need some skill to beat match. A radio deejay like myself - & yes, some club deejays have radio shows too - but a radio deejay like myself just plays one song after the other. In general, I just play stuff I like, so it's not too hard for me to pick a song that follows a song I like. I don't think any talent is involved & indeed I train people to do it all the time.

This week's show then is a show about talent from someone who has never been called talented. Not to say I am not talented in something - who am I to say? - just that no one's ever said I was talented in anything.

PS the only thing I remember about the movie above is that thing CinemaSins is always referring to: "How's the peeping, Tommy?"

Coming Up Tomorrow On The Dickenbock Report: National Popcorn Day

(image from here)

January 19 is National Popcorn Day. We'll talk about & play musical reports about popcorn & what the hell even special popcorn commentary. What we won't be doing is eating popcorn because no food or drink allowed in the deejay booth! Those rules even apply to Dick Dickenbock!

Sunday noon to 1pm on 91.1+107.1fm in Portland, xray dot fm everywhere. Note: we ran out of toothpicks early last year so please bring your own.

This Week In Self Help (January 10 12 13 14 + 16)

The picture above has nothing to do with me on the radio this week. It just happened to be number 1,989 in a series of photos from my digital camera & it kept me from posting yet another picture of myself in 1989. Anyway, here's the nonsense I got up to on the radio this week. It was a lot. I'm sorry about that.

On Friday night - last Friday, the 10th - I subbed a show on KBOO in which I played lots of new releases. Sadly, it's not archived on the KBOO website, but you can listen to it on the Self Help Radio website. (username: SHR, password: selfhelp)

On Sunday, there was an episode of The Dickenbock Report on XRAY for National Pharmacist Day. You can listen to it on the XRAY website, or on the Self Help Radio website. (username: SHR, password: selfhelp)

Early Monday morning I played the rest of the songs I collected for my Superman show last week on KBOO. (Initially the show was to be two hours long, but when I found out it was two & a half hours long, I added some of the songs I played on the XRAY show.) Of course KBOO doesn't archive sub shows, so if you want to listen to lots more Superman songs, you have to do it on the Self Help Radio website.

Self Help Radio featured lots of my favorite music from 1989. You can listen to it on the KBOO website or on the Self Help Radio website. (username: SHR, password: selfhelp)

The last hour of the KBOO show was an episode of Corporate Standardized Programming featuring lots of artists who died in October of this year. If you'd like to listen to that all by its lonesome, which is how we experience death anyway, you can do on the Self Help Radio website. (username: SHR, password: selfhelp)

Finally! Oh dear god finally! I played lots of two-tone/second wave ska on KBOO on Thursday afternoon. It's not archived on the KBOO web site, alas, but you can listen to it on the Self Help Radio website.

You have my word I won't waste so much of your time on the radio like this next week.

Obscure Films Of 1989

(image from the IMDb)

This week's show featured some of my favorite music of 1989. In-between some of the songs, our resident cinephile Chuck highlighted a few movies from 1989 he enjoyed which he felt were overlooked or needlessly obscure. Hey! Go listen to the show now if you haven't. His bits appear in-between the songs.

Once you've done that, have a look at these helpful links:

YouTube playlists of films & trailers

Full Movies

Trailers Pt. 1

Trailers Pt. 2

Letterboxd list

(Chuck says: I put the links to available videos in the notes for the films plus where they are available to stream for free.)

Letterboxd reviews

IMDb search list

Chuck adds: I posted* about some of the films on Bluesky.

(*It's just the same links that are here for now, but go ahead and give me a follow. I usually follow back.)

Get to it! There are lots of films made in 1989!

Self Help Radio 011425: 1989

(all album/single covers from Discogs)

Here's a selection of music I enjoyed from 1989. As discussed too many times on this blog, I don't really think in terms of "best of." Ultimately what let me to pick these over the dozens of other releases I liked from this year is that I listened to these a lot. Like, I can recite the words to all the songs I played on this show. Just get me drunk first & dare me to do so.

You can listen to this show whenever. It's at the KBOO website. It's at the Self Help Radio website. For the latter, use the username SHR & password selfhelp. Please. The songs I played are below. Sorry you have to wallow in my past for a while. Feel free to share with me your favorite releases of 1989!

Self Help Radio 1989 Show

"I Wanna Be Adored" The Stone Roses _The Stone Roses_

"Most Of The Time" Bob Dylan _Oh Mercy_

"Debaser" The Pixies _Doolittle_

"Interesting Drug" Morrissey _Interesting Drug_

"Brassneck" The Wedding Present _Bizarro_

"Radio Ass Kiss" The Wonder Stuff _Hup_

"Devil's Roof" Throwing Muses _Hunkpapa_

"Amazing" Tin Machine _Tin Machine_

"God's Comic" Elvis Costello _Spike_

"House" The Psychedelic Furs _Book Of Days_

"Empire Of The Senseless" The Mekons _Rock & Roll_

"Falling" Julee Cruise _Floating Into The Night_

"Secrets" The Primitives _Pure_

"She Knows" The Hummingbirds _LoveBuzz_

"Bitter" Lush _Scar_

"Monsterpussy" The Vaselines _Dum-Dum_

"Got Apprehension" Close Lobsters _Headache Rhetoric_

"Blues From A Gun" The Jesus & Mary Chain _Automatic_

"You Keep It All In" The Beautiful South _Welcome To The Beautiful South_

"The End Of A Perfect Day" Kirsty MacColl _Kite_

"Love & Anger" Kate Bush _The Sensual World_

"I Can't Make Love To You Anymore" Felt _Me & A Monkey On The Moon_

"Shaftesbury Avenue" Momus _Don't Stop The Night_

Whither 1989?

(Me in 1989)

Every year around the time of my birthday - which happens six days from when the show airs - I play a lot of my favorite music from the year of my birthday, which was 1968. I do this each year & have made my way to 1989, when I was 21. There was a lot of music I loved from that year so it's been very, very hard for me to pick. I'm not even sure if all the stuff I chose for tonight will be my favorite. But I have two hours to share music I loved from back then - almost all of which I was actually listening to at the time - & those two hours are from midnight to 2am on 90.7fm in town - that's KBOO - online at kboo dot fm.

That's gotten out of the way so you don't have to read me rambling on a little bit more about me in 1989. You can skip all this.

Yesterday I mentioned that I feel like in 1989 my relationship with music changed. Up until that point, it would not be an exaggeration to say that music was the most important thing in my life. It was certainly a part of the many creative things I absorbed, including literature & comics, but it was the most immediate & certainly the thread that connected lots of my relationships. My friend Russell, for example, was never quite as interested in comics or sci-fi as I was, but we could always talk about music.

Once I was in a relationship - even if the one I was in for most of 1989 was one-sided & something of a sham - it seemed to me I was somehow involved in a creative process myself. I was never a musician, & though I wanted to perhaps one day be a writer, I knew deep inside that I didn't have the talent or skills. I think I also knew that I was too lazy to work hard enough to develop whatever artistic capabilities I might have been able to nurture. Certainly suddenly finding myself in a relationship gave me a sense of being involved in creation - in a way, playing pretend.

In this way I didn't rely on music as much. I still wanted to listen to it, & I still wanted to share it, & I still felt it was something I needed in my life. Just - not as much.

Two things happened to also affect how I interacted with music. One was obvious - I was with another person most of the time, so when I listened to music, I wasn't alone. Up until that point my relationship with music was entirely personal. Now I deferred to her when it came to listening to things. At least once in our relationship I took her to a concert I really want to see, & she hated the musician. She said, "Why would you take me to this?" & basically made me leave. In 1989, one of my favorite musicians, Elvis Costello, released a new record. I remember being very excited about buying it & bringing it home. But she didn't like Elvis Costello & didn't want me to listen to the record around her.

Being alone that summer was probably very good for me to catch up on records I wasn't allowed to listen to on my own! But the second thing that happened was that a couple of releases I was really looking forward to were deeply disappointing to me. These were from bands I greatly admired. I don't want to call them out now but if you look at "best of 1989" lists & you cross-check it with what I play tonight, you will noticed some glaring exceptions. Eventually I listened to & came to appreciate some of the songs on the records but I never truly came to love them as I had loved their previous releases. So too I listened to some releases just out of loyalty more than enjoyment. I have never been able to entirely reject an artist even after long periods of disappointment.

When I thought about my life in 1989, I didn't think I'd find much music I liked back then. When I took the time to look over releases of the year, I found something like 150 records & singles. & that's just in the rock/indie rock/postpunk/indiepop categories. I haven't yet looked into hip hop or electronica or jazz. It means that tonight's show will just be a snapshot - 25 or so songs out of a possible 150. I have decided though not to revisit 1989 later in this year. I will do it during sub shows when I have the chance.

Anyway. I have to go now & decide how I will put this show together. I hope we share some of the same loves of the year!

Preface To 1989: Young & Maybe Even A Little Pretty

(me in 1989)

It has become something of a tradition for me to talk on the blog about the year I am exploring for my birthday show. Around the time of my birthday, I play music from a particular year in my life - the first Self Help Radio around the time of birthday, in 2003, I played my favorite music from 1968, the year of my birth. This year I've made it up to 1989.

In 1989, I turned 21 years old. Imagine that. I was in my third year of college into my fourth. There is a part of me that thinks I may have taken the spring semester off - I took off two semesters of college so didn't graduate in 1990 as I was supposed to, but instead in 1991. But I don't think I had discovered that I could take time off yet. After all, you couldn't do that in high school!

The year was dominated by first real relationship, which, it turned out, wasn't much of a relationship at all. The signs were all there - when we returned from holiday break, in January, I really wanted to see her but she wasn't too excited to see me. I was pretty persistent tho, & at some point in the spring I guess we were a couple. I should stress that she never really loved me, & it was only something like codependence that kept us together until she could find a way out. In most every possible way I existed to support her & she - well, she deigned to allow me to be in her presence.

She came from a very conservative family who was not white. At some point in the spring, she introduced me to them, & they told her later that she was not allowed to date me. So she lied to her family & continued to date me. It should have been a red flag that she could deceived her parents so easily - she after all thought the world of them. But I was very much in love. & I would do anything for her. Perhaps defying her family made the relationship more exciting. What happened that spring is that we spent a lot of time together & the codependent bonds were tightened.

When summer came along, she went home to her family & I stayed in Austin. I had been working at a department called The Language Lab at UT but not enough to pay for me to stay in my little efficiency. I wrote about that place here. Instead of going home to the Dallas area for the summer, which had been a disaster the previous year, I got a job that summer working nights at 7-11. It was a weird summer to say the least but I spent most of it sleeping during the day & working at nights. I didn't have a whole lot of friends & didn't see many people. & because I was not supposed to be dating her, I couldn't call my "girlfriend" at her home.

We devised a stupid solution. She would call me collect. It's very hard to explain to folks today who pay for a cell phone plan how the phone company could gouge you back then. A collect call was very expensive. A collect call from another city was very expensive. & she & I would talk hours. I was not allowed to call her back - her parents would hear the phone ring. & I did want to talk to her. Though I imagine those phone calls, if I had a recording of any of them, had very little content that I would find interesting today.

One day in August I was wakened by a phone call - remember, I worked nights so I slept from around noon to eight pm every day - & it was a person from the phone company who kindly told me that my next phone bill - they wanted me to be prepared - would be around $1500 dollars. (A web site told me that's equivalent to nearly four grand today.) I remember being cool about it - I had been asleep - & saying thank you & hanging up. Then it hit me & I called the person back.

To put things into perspective, my efficiency cost me $165 a month. It was going to be nearly impossible to pay that off any time soon. So they put me on a payment plan & I lost my phone. I remember having to get the last collect call from the "girlfriend" & explain it to her. One might say I was lucky that summer was ending & school would start soon.

That summer (I think) I had gotten a twenty-hour-a-week job at the Language Lab, soon to be called Liberal Arts Media Center. In 1993 I think I got a full-time job there & worked there until I left Austin in 2009 - so basically twenty years. But until the end of the year I kept my job at 7-11 & so my days were very much like this: Wake around 9pm. Shower & drive (my "girlfriend"'s car - in the summer I bussed) to 7-11. Work from 11pm until 7am. Come home, eat, go to school. All of my classes for the fall of 1989 were scheduled between 8am & noon. Meet the "girlfriend" at noon for lunch. Work until 5pm. Go home & go to sleep. Repeat the next day.

As a person about to turn 57, I can't believe I did that for months. To give you a sense of some of the difficulty I had to endure, one day the "girlfriend" got mad at me for not being around. "We never do anything anymore," she told me. I tried to explain the reason I had this nightmare schedule was because of the phone calls during the summer. She had gotten an apartment very close to mine & I had basically moved in - & I used her phone number though I could never answer the phone - but kept my efficiency probably until the end of the year. But the fact that she contributed nothing to the financial bind I was in - & I would never have asked her to - but she never even offered - & still expected me to keep her entertained while working two jobs & going to school - it's a snapshot of how little what I was in was a committed loving relationship.

There were many great adventures at 7-11. Maybe one day I'll recount some of them. I was robbed at knifepoint. I had beer stolen from me just once - though folks tried again & again. I interacted with some funny characters - cops who came to grab all the day-old donuts when the donut guy came, a super tall chick named Monet to whom I gave hot dogs when she was drunk, a homeless man who distracted me with a puppy while he opened & drank several bottles of Nyquil with astonishing speed. I had worked nights at a 7-11 in Garland two years earlier, & I basically grew up in a convenience store, so it was a gig I liked. I drank way too much soda though (for the caffeine) which was very bad for my teeth. & I was too young to be so exhausted all the time.

My job at the Language Lab/Liberal Arts Media Center was a pleasant change, it was salaried & I got insurance & all that. I worked in a room with a real character who was in charge of duplicating language tapes which I sold at my office's dutch door. I decorated the door with stuff I clipped out of magazines & newspapers. I don't know if anyone told me I could do it, I just did. & no one told me to stop. & also one day I may write about the people with whom I worked. I wanted them to like me. I liked being a student who interacted with students. But boy that fall I was falling asleep at my desk like all the time.

Wait a minute though. Isn't this a blog about a radio show? It is. & tomorrow I will talk about how my relationship with music changed in 1989. But I appreciate having a chance to write a little bit about a year in which I was very young & maybe even a little pretty.

Coming Up Tomorrow On The Dickenbock Report: National Pharmacist Day

(image by Mohamed Hassan from PxHere)

January 12 is National Pharmacist Day. If you're unlucky enough to have a pharmacist in your family, like I do, you know how insufferable they are. You really don't want them to know they have a national day! All the bragging after that, ugh.

But we'll be discussing pharmacists & playing musical reports about pharmacists tomorrow on the Dickenbock Report on XRAY FM. Gosh, maybe just don't tell them. You've got enough to deal with.

Noon to 1pm Sunday on 91.1+107.1fm in Portland, xray dot fm everywhere. All that knowledge & they still get mad if you ask them a question about your health. Sheesh.

This Week In Self Help January 3 5 + 7

Do you know why I picked that picture for this post? Me neither! I took it in 2017. So. There's that.

A week ago - January 3 - I was on KBOO playing lots of music from Africa (mostly). Sadly, since it was a sub show, it was not archived on the KBOO website. You can listen to it - even download it - on the Self Help Radio website, though - as long as you remember the username SHR & the password selfhelp.

Over on the Dickenbock Report, I celebrate George Reeves' birthday by playing lots of songs about Superman. You can listen to that show on the XRAY website & also on the Self Help Radio website - where, you'll recall, you need to remember the username SHR & the password selfhelp.

The first Self Help Radio of 2025 was a peculiar show. It really was. You can listen to that show on the KBOO website or on the Self Help Radio website - please remember the username SHR & the password selfhelp!

The KBOO show above contains this week's episode of Corporate Standardized Programming which was my attempt to play lots of new releases from October to December 2024 I hadn't got to yet. If you'd like to listen to that show by itself, you can do that on the Self Help Radio website. Blah blah username SHR password selfhelp.

Maybe I thought that picture up there was peculiar? I dunno.

Self Help Radio 010725: A Peculiar Show

(original image from Gooble Maps)

Let it be known I'm not terribly happy with my terrible Photoshop job above. It's just that I don't have the time to do any better. There is a town in Missouri called Peculiar & the sign was from Google Maps & I think I like the idea - next 2 hours instead of next 2 exits - but I wish I had the time - not to mention the skill - to do a better job. Sorry about that.

Apologies all around! It's 2025! Perhaps we'll have less energy to get anything done as the year wears on! Whee! Radio will be so fun!

Anyway. The show. You can listen at the KBOO website. You can listen at the Self Help Radio website. You need the username SHR & password selfhelp at the latter. Everything that happened on the show is mentioned below. Yeah, it's all pretty peculiar.

So it goes.

A Peculiar Self Help Radio Show

"Peculiar" Chewy Marble _Chewy Marble_

"Peculiar" Twerps _Twerps_

"Peculiar" The Slackers _Peculiar_

introduction & definitions - featuring the Definition-O-Tron 3000

"Life Is So Peculiar (with Louis Armstrong)" Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five _Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five_

"A Most Peculiar Man" Simon & Garfunkel _Sounds Of Silence_

"Ain't That Peculiar" Bettye Swann _Don't You Ever Get Tired Of Hurting Me?_

"How Lucky You Are (aka Miss Peculiar) (Demo)" David Bowie _Divine Symmetry_

"It's Not Peculiar" Hüsker Dü _Warehouse: Songs & Stories_

interview with Ron Wilson, winner of the Most Peculiar Person In Portland 2024 contest

"Peculiar Guy" Lee Hazlewood _Trouble Is A Lonesome Town_

"Most Peculiar Girl" Larry & Lynda _Most Peculiar Girl_

"Peculiar Girl" The Feelings _Darla 100_

"Friends Peculiar" April March _In Cinerama_

"Peculiar, Missouri" Willi Carlisle _Peculiar, Missouri_

interview with Carter James, runner-up for the Most Peculiar Person In Portland 2024 contest

"Funny Peculiar (feat. Cathy Davey)" The Divine Comedy _Foreverland_

"Funny Peculiar" The Hollow Men _Twisted_

"A Peculiar Noise Called 'Train Director'" The Olivia Tremor Control _Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume 1_ 

"My Own Peculiar Way" Timi Yuro _Today_

"Something Peculiar" Julianna Raye _Something Peculiar_

the etymology of peculiar

"Peculiar Situation" The Hollies _For Certain Because..._

"Peculiar Hole In The Sky" The Valentines _The Sound Of The Valentines_

"Two Peculiar People" Weather _Piccadilly Sunshine Volumes 1-10 (A Compendium Of Rare Pop Curios From The British Psychedelic Era)_

"I Never Thought It Peculiar" The Monkees _Changes_

"A Peculiar Hallelujah" Papercuts _You Can Have What You Want_

"Old Peculiar" Vomit Launch _Dogeared_

conclusion & goodbye

"Peculiar Man" The Gaylads _Understanding_

"Peculiar Number" The Abyssinians _Forward_

"(I Know My Baby Loves Me) In Her Own Peculiar Way" Leon McAuliffe _Take It Away Leon: 1946 Big Band Sides, 1947-48 Live & Majestic Recordings_

Whither A Peculiar Show?

(This seems mean. Image from here.)

From nearly the very beginning of Self Help Radio I have not been entirely content having shows about things. I liked also to have shows about words & phrases. This is one of them.

Why peculiar? Is that a word used to describe me at one time? Perhaps - but certainly not from many of the people growing up. Too many syllables. They were content with "weird."

Nothing peculiar led me to make a show with the theme being the word peculiar. I'm pretty sure it's because of a song I'll play tonight that I discovered & really loved. It made me go down a rabbit hole of songs featuring the word peculiar. That's usually how these themes come about. I wish I had a better story!

Tonight! Midnight to 2am on 90.7fm & kboo dot fm! The first Self Help Radio of 2025! Peculiar but in a way not peculiar!

Preface To Peculiar: Is This Show Peculiar?

The image above is the Peanuts strip from January 9, 1963. It was scanned by me from the Fantagraphics collection. I chose it because, well, it uses the word peculiar. & the word peculiar is the theme of this week's show.

Which is the first show of 2025. It's not an auspicious sign of the creativity of the program this year.

But the question is asked - is this show peculiar? Or - hold on - is it trying to be peculiar? After all, there are plenty of people who like to say "I'm so weird!" but they're not really weird. Maybe Self Help Radio really wants to be peculiar but really isn't. It may be painfully normal. Or just bland.

What do I think? I think I've been doing this show so long I have no idea what I'm doing. So I let it be the show is wants to be. Or what it is in spite of what it wants to be. Anyway. The comic above is awesome. That's the only reason to look at this.

Coming Up Tomorrow On The Dickenbock Report: George Reeves' Birthday

(image from the Wikipedia)

George Reeves - the most famous actor to play Superman until the movie in 1978 - was born on January 5, 1914 - over 110 years ago! With the new Superman movie coming this summer - as well as the new documentary about Christopher Reeve on Netflix - it seemed a good time to talk about the beloved superhero & play musical reports about the comic sensation.

Tomorrow, Sunday, January 5, on 91.1+107.1fm in Portland, online everywhere - maybe even Smallville, Kansas - at xray dot fm.

This Week In Self Help December 29 + 31

(from Poorly Drawn Lines, of course)

Boy, 2024 ended poorly. One of the worst endings of any year since 2016-2019. & to make matters worse my voice was the last voice on KBOO in 2024. I'm sure that means the station is cursed now or something. To add insult to injury, I did other shows at the end of the year too.

The Dickenbock Report celebrated the cello on International Cello Day. Not with pieces written for the cello, but with songs about the cello. Still wanna listen? Really? You can do so at the XRAY website or at the Self Help Radio website. Remember: username SHR + password selfhelp.

Self Help Radio continued the neverending Indiepop A To Z series. Episode 76. Still near the beginning of the letter S. You can listen to that show at the KBOO website or at the Self Help Radio website. Remember: username SHR + password selfhelp.

Speaking of not finishing something, I spent the month on the show Corporate Standardized Programming paying tribute to artists we lost in 2024. I made it to the middle of October. That show is appended to the Self Help Radio recording on the KBOO website, but if you'd like to hear it as a self-contained show, you can do that at the Self Help Radio website. Remember: username SHR + password selfhelp.

Finally - I played music I like to dance two on the last two hours of 2024 on KBOO. The file is currently on the KBOO website - the link is right here - but since it's not the regularly scheduled show, I suspect the programmers will delete that soon enough. But if you'd like to have a New Year's Eve dance party any time of the year, you can of course listen at the Self Help Radio website. & remember: username SHR + password selfhelp.

That's how 2024 ended! I don't imagine 2025 will be any better & in fact I think it will be much, much worse but let's keep having fun on the radio, okay?

End-Of-The-Year Accounting

(original image here)

This is a boring & self-serving blog entry so feel free to stop reading right here. I actually took the time this year to keep track of all the radio I did. I'm not 100% sure it's completely accurate but it's as close as I can get. Off by a show here or an hour there probably. This is the grand total of radio I did in 2024:

193 radio shows. 98 of them live in the studio, 95 of them recorded, for a total of 295.5 hours.
(That's like 12 days of radio!)

Currently I have three shows - which I had at the beginning of the year, too, though on different stations & at least one in a different format. I ended the year with two shows in a three-hour block so perhaps they should be counted as the same show. I am not doing that tho!

This year there were:

53 episodes of Self Help Radio

52 episodes of The Dickenbock Report

51 episodes of Corporate Standardized Programming

Two episodes of Self Help Radio were repeated - the show started 2024 on Freeform Portland & is now on KBOO, but twice this year I repeated a Freeform Portland episode on KBOO. As well, one of the episodes (the one on Election Day) wasn't really an episode of Self Help Radio - it was just me playing music because I was a little too worried about the election - & it turns out my fears were justified!

One episode of The Dickenbock Report was subbed by my friend Mark. I didn't count it toward my hours on the radio but I did count it as one of my radio shows, since he gave me the recorded airbreaks & the song list & I put the show together.

Both Self Help Radio & the Dickenbock Report are theme-based but I have (in case you didn't know) repeated old SHR themes for the Dickenbock Report. Having said that, I did explore on both shows 71 unique themes this year (including four shows that were tributes to a particular artist). In addition, for both Self Help Radio & the Dickenbock Report I did two shows each about a particular year (1988+1924 respectively). For Self Help Radio, I had four episodes of Howard Gently in honor of my dear friend Russell, three Indiepop A To Z episodes, an anniversary episode where I repeat a theme (for this year, 1971), the annual birthday episode for my wife, & my end-of-the-year favorites episode.

Below I'll list all the unique themes but there's one more stat that brings the number up to 193 - shows I subbed! I subbed 37 shows this year. Mostly on KBOO, but I did a couple of XRAY & I made a fundraiser show for Freeform Portland.

Okay. The last thing. The original themes I explored this year. I alphabetized them & I indicated which ones were for the Dickenbock Report by marking them with an asterisk (*). Here you go:

The Alphabet, Arrested, Badgers*, Barns*, Belgium*, Brooms
Can't Wait, Catastrophe, Cellos*, Chaos, Chefs*, Cocktails*, Corvettes*

Dandelions, Death Valley, Delirium, Drain, Eagles, Eiffel Tower*

Falling In Love (Valentine's Day show of the year), Fudge*, Guts

Helicopters, Hiking*, Hitchhiking, Hobos, Irish Things*

Kaleidoscopes, Kazoos*, Kiss & Make Up*

Lemonade*, Libraries*, Lucy*, Loneliness

Macaroni*, Magnets, Mangos, Miami*, Newspapers*, 1924*, 1988

One More, Oysters, Pandas, Paradise, Parasites, Providence, Purpose

Quiet*, Rotten, SOS*, Sandwiches*, Scarecrows (Halloween show of the year)

Shotgun, Small Town, Skirts*, Spirals, Squirrels*, A Steady Show, Suitcases

Sunglasses, Superheroes*, Sweaters*, Telescopes, Tired, Typewriters*

& Unicorns

The artists I paid tribute to this year were Ennio Morricone, Cole Porter, & Paul Simon (on their birthdays) & John Lennon (on the anniversary of his death).

You can listen if you want to any or all these shows over at the Self Help Radio website you know.

Is that it? I think so. It's the most radio I think I've ever done in a year & while it almost certainly wasn't all that good I had a good time doing it. Eventually someone will realize how ridiculous it is that I am allowed to do it & put a stop to it but until then... I'll keep having fun.