Tune in tomorrow from noon to 1pm on XRAY for a special mystery report on The Dickenbock Report.
That's Sunday afternoon on 91.1+107.1fm in Portland & online at xray dot fm.
Saturday, July 19, 2025
Coming Up Tomorrow On The Dickenbock Report: A Special Guest
Tune in tomorrow from noon to 1pm on XRAY for a special mystery report on The Dickenbock Report.
Friday, July 18, 2025
This Week In Self Help: July 11 13 + 15
Another image of the marquee which just so happened to mention this week's Self Help Radio theme. Here's what I did this past week.
Friday the 11th - one week ago! - I subbed a show on KBOO & played lots of songs about Friday, since it was, you know, Friday. KBOO doesn't archive its sub shows but you can listen at the Self Help Radio web page. If you just wanna look at the playlist, here's the Spinitron page.
The Dickenbock Report played lots of songs about Delaware on National Delaware Day. Listen at the XRAY web page, or at the Self Help Radio web page.
Self Help Radio on KBOO had the theme "good enough." Listen at the KBOO web page, or at the Self Help Radio web page.
Finally - Corporate Standardized Programming this week featured an hour's worth of new releases. It's the last hour of the file at the KBOO web page link above, or you can listen to it alone at the Self Help Radio web page.
As always, when listening at the Self Help Radio web page, you might need a username & a password. Use SHR & selfhelp.
& really I do hope this was all good enough.
Friday the 11th - one week ago! - I subbed a show on KBOO & played lots of songs about Friday, since it was, you know, Friday. KBOO doesn't archive its sub shows but you can listen at the Self Help Radio web page. If you just wanna look at the playlist, here's the Spinitron page.
The Dickenbock Report played lots of songs about Delaware on National Delaware Day. Listen at the XRAY web page, or at the Self Help Radio web page.
Self Help Radio on KBOO had the theme "good enough." Listen at the KBOO web page, or at the Self Help Radio web page.
Finally - Corporate Standardized Programming this week featured an hour's worth of new releases. It's the last hour of the file at the KBOO web page link above, or you can listen to it alone at the Self Help Radio web page.
As always, when listening at the Self Help Radio web page, you might need a username & a password. Use SHR & selfhelp.
& really I do hope this was all good enough.
Tuesday, July 15, 2025
Self Help Radio 071525: Good Enough
That's a bar in my hood - I think its official name is the Old Gilbert Road Tavern - there's no indication at that anywhere on the bar, just this sign outside & a sign that says "BAR" - anyway on the marquee that should be for bands playing there, except bands don't play there (as far as I can tell), they put snarky things up - lots of times quotes from The Simpsons - & a couple weeks ago I saw this. I had already planned a show with the theme "good enough" when this magically appeared. I took the picture above yesterday!
It was a lonesome show - just me & lots of music. So there's not much else to say. I did try not to say this phrase over & over: "Self Help Radio is not usually a good radio show, but at least tonight it's good enough." But I wanted to!
Listen to a good enough episode of Self Help Radio at either the KBOO web site or at the Self Help Radio website. The latter may need a username (SHR) & a password (selfhelp). It's mostly music so I can just share with you the playlist below. I hope that's good enough.
Self Help Radio Good Enough Show
Listen to a good enough episode of Self Help Radio at either the KBOO web site or at the Self Help Radio website. The latter may need a username (SHR) & a password (selfhelp). It's mostly music so I can just share with you the playlist below. I hope that's good enough.
Self Help Radio Good Enough Show
"Good Enough" Bobby Guy _Gangster Of Love: The Apt Records Story 1958-1962_
"Good Enough" Bonnie Raitt _Home Plate_
"Good Enough" Mudhoney _Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge_
"Good Enough For Granddad" Squirrel Nut Zippers _The Inevitable_
"Our Love Is Good Enough" A House _The Way We Were: The Best Of A House 04.85-02.97_
"You're Good Enough For Me" Spyder Turner _Golden Classics_
"You're Good Enough For Me" The Versatiles _The Complete Soul City/Bell Singles 1966-1975_
"Good Enough" The Vines _Wicked Nature_
"Good Enough For You" The Bevis Frond _What Did For The Dinosaurs_
"Ain't No Good (But It's Good Enough For Me)" Sister Cookie _In The Blue Corner_
"Almost Was Good Enough" Songs: Ohia _The Magnolia Electric Co._
"Boris Good-Enough" Julian Cope _England Expectorates_
"Not Good Enough" Chain & The Gang _Music's Not For Everyone_
"Ain't My Stuff Good Enough" Martha Reeves & The Vandellas _Spellbound: Motown Lost & Found (1962-1972)_
"Ain't Good Enough For You" The Everymen _Givin' Up On Free Jazz_
"Good Enough" Fred Eaglesmith _Drive-in Movie_
"It's Not Good Enough" Barry Moore _Treaty Stone_
"My Best Was Never Good Enough" Bruce Springsteen _The Ghost Of Tom Joad_
"That'll Be Good Enough For Me" Mitty Collier _Shades Of Mitty Collier: The Chess Singles 1961-1968_
"Never Good Enough" Theoretical Girl _Divided_
"Good Enough For You" The Exbats _Kicks, Hits, & Fits_
"Good Enough" Peter Astor _Spilt Milk_
"Good Enough" Holly Golightly _Laugh It All Up!_
"Good Enough" Rocket 3 _Burn_
"I'm Good Enough" Thee Headcoats _In Tweed We Trust_
"Good Enough" Dodgy _Free Peace Sweet_
"Good Enough, Pt. 1" Noiseshaper _King Size Dub Special_
"It's Good Enough For Daddy" Clarence Reid _Running Water_
"Good Enough" Stone Jack Jones _Ancestor_
"Good Enough" Jim Lindberg _Songs From The Elkhorn Trail_
"Good Enough For Now" Weird Al Yankovic _Polka Party!_
"It Ain't Good Enough" Dow Jones & The Industrials _Hoosier Hysteria_
Monday, July 14, 2025
Whither Good Enough?
(graphic from - & explained - here)
When I first decided - it's been well over a decade now, maybe a decade & a half - to start a blog to explain why exactly I chose the themes I covered for the show - & believe me, some people really want an explanation as to why this is the theme right now - I honestly thought it would be more interesting than it has become. Because - sorry to bore you - but mostly the themes come at me randomly because of music I am listening to. Or so it seems.
Sometimes I pretend it's serendipity, or "the universe talking to me," but really it's kind of lazy. "Oh hey, several songs I've recently listened to mention the phrase good enough! I wonder if there's enough for a radio show!" One reason I think some people prefer The Dickenbock Report is because its themes are because there's a national day for it, or it's some artist's birthday, things like that. It makes sense sort of. It's not arbitrary. A Self Help Radio episode with the theme "good enough" is happening because - I thought it might be a good theme & I found enough songs. That's not exciting or interesting in any way.
How will it turn out? You will need to listen. Tonight! Midnight to 2am. On 90.7fm in Portland & online everywhere at kboo dot fm. Like most of my shows it might not be all that good, but for tonight at least it'll be good enough.
Sometimes I pretend it's serendipity, or "the universe talking to me," but really it's kind of lazy. "Oh hey, several songs I've recently listened to mention the phrase good enough! I wonder if there's enough for a radio show!" One reason I think some people prefer The Dickenbock Report is because its themes are because there's a national day for it, or it's some artist's birthday, things like that. It makes sense sort of. It's not arbitrary. A Self Help Radio episode with the theme "good enough" is happening because - I thought it might be a good theme & I found enough songs. That's not exciting or interesting in any way.
How will it turn out? You will need to listen. Tonight! Midnight to 2am. On 90.7fm in Portland & online everywhere at kboo dot fm. Like most of my shows it might not be all that good, but for tonight at least it'll be good enough.
Sunday, July 13, 2025
Preface To Good Enough: How Good Is Enough
(image from here)
In 1986, in my first year of college, I took an Introduction To Philosophy course. I thought I was supposed to be interested in philosophy, but found it hard to read the texts & - though I didn't want to admit it - realized my mind was mostly bored but otherwise confused by philosophy as it was taught. What I remember most about the class was sitting next to a cute woman with whom I talked about the Smiths - who were my obsession at the time - & who, after I made her a Smiths tape, offered to give me a book she had made - with her boyfriend - which consisted of a bunch of images from pornographic magazines - mainly close-ups of genitals - as a thank you. I'm not sure what sort of reaction she expected from me, but I was a bit horrified. I gave her the book back & said I wasn't interested in it.
How I wish I knew the name of the professor of that class so I could tell him - it was a man, an exhausted but smug man - that I remember nothing about his class except that strange interaction with a lovely punk rock girl. I should also tell you, she & her boyfriend made me a tape of American punk from the mid-1980s & I discovered I didn't enjoy that as much as British punk from the late 1970s.
This is just to say that early on in my life I wearied of questions like "Is this good enough?" or "Am I good enough?" Which is to say, questions one asks in philosophy classes. I know too many people who really, really, really, really want to finish sentences like, "Good is..." or "Enough is..." They would love to dispense wisdom in the same way they see/hear/read it dispensed in books, from religious texts to opinion pieces. As I get older - & I know this makes me absolutely irrelevant in our culture - I refuse to express my opinions as absolutes. I am certainly not a relativist but I find it tiring that everyone not only needs to have an opinion about everything but that they need that opinion to be right. Correct. True.
Here's an example from someone who doesn't talk to me anymore. I posted something on the Facebook by a current comedian. This former friend responded, "That person isn't as funny as he thinks he is."
Imagine the inflated ego of someone who would write that! Not - "I don't think that person is funny" - but reaching out to judge the humor of someone they really don't know.
Must I add that the person whose comedy I posted on Facebook is successful, does stand-up, has a podcast, is well-known, while my former friend is... someone you'll never hear anything from?
You might surmise I titled this post "How good is enough" as a reason to stumble through this clumsy explication of my lack of interest in being someone who speaks "truths." It's not. I titled it before I knew what I would write. I sometimes wish I could be the critic that writes snarky shit as if it were fact. That stuff amuses me greatly, even when - especially when - I disagree with it.
But I confess I feel sad for those folks who think they know the Truth. If you follow them long enough, read what they write, you realize they themselves find their own idea of Truth malleable. Not that they're hypocrites - just that they don't realize their opinions are just opinions. They want them to be facts so they act like they're facts. But they're not facts, so they end up as slightly puffed-up opinions.
Which is probably a disservice. The average opinion is just glad to be heard, it doesn't need to be turned into a Holy Fact.
Oh shit look what I did that. I turned my (obviously dumb) opinion into a fact. Fuck me. I want to tell you this has something to do with this week's show but - nope!
How I wish I knew the name of the professor of that class so I could tell him - it was a man, an exhausted but smug man - that I remember nothing about his class except that strange interaction with a lovely punk rock girl. I should also tell you, she & her boyfriend made me a tape of American punk from the mid-1980s & I discovered I didn't enjoy that as much as British punk from the late 1970s.
This is just to say that early on in my life I wearied of questions like "Is this good enough?" or "Am I good enough?" Which is to say, questions one asks in philosophy classes. I know too many people who really, really, really, really want to finish sentences like, "Good is..." or "Enough is..." They would love to dispense wisdom in the same way they see/hear/read it dispensed in books, from religious texts to opinion pieces. As I get older - & I know this makes me absolutely irrelevant in our culture - I refuse to express my opinions as absolutes. I am certainly not a relativist but I find it tiring that everyone not only needs to have an opinion about everything but that they need that opinion to be right. Correct. True.
Here's an example from someone who doesn't talk to me anymore. I posted something on the Facebook by a current comedian. This former friend responded, "That person isn't as funny as he thinks he is."
Imagine the inflated ego of someone who would write that! Not - "I don't think that person is funny" - but reaching out to judge the humor of someone they really don't know.
Must I add that the person whose comedy I posted on Facebook is successful, does stand-up, has a podcast, is well-known, while my former friend is... someone you'll never hear anything from?
You might surmise I titled this post "How good is enough" as a reason to stumble through this clumsy explication of my lack of interest in being someone who speaks "truths." It's not. I titled it before I knew what I would write. I sometimes wish I could be the critic that writes snarky shit as if it were fact. That stuff amuses me greatly, even when - especially when - I disagree with it.
But I confess I feel sad for those folks who think they know the Truth. If you follow them long enough, read what they write, you realize they themselves find their own idea of Truth malleable. Not that they're hypocrites - just that they don't realize their opinions are just opinions. They want them to be facts so they act like they're facts. But they're not facts, so they end up as slightly puffed-up opinions.
Which is probably a disservice. The average opinion is just glad to be heard, it doesn't need to be turned into a Holy Fact.
Oh shit look what I did that. I turned my (obviously dumb) opinion into a fact. Fuck me. I want to tell you this has something to do with this week's show but - nope!