Coming Up Tomorrow On The Dickenbock Report: Marjorie Tallchief's Birthday

(image from here)

On October 19, 1926, Marjorie Tallchief was born. This extraordinary person was the first Native American to be named première danseuse étoile in the Paris Opera Ballet. The staff of the Report - including of course the head honcho Dick Dickenbock - are huge fans, so it was decided to report about her in particular, & ballet in general, tomorrow on The Dickenbock Report.

That's noon to 1pm pn 91.1+107.1fn in Portland, & online everywhere at xray dot fm.

It will be the second of two shows during XRAY's Fall Fund Drive, so we remind you, to help support the station that airs The Dickenbock Report, click here. If you'd like to donate to support the Dickenbock Report, click here. The money goes to XRAY, it's just to show Dick Dickenbock you care.

This Week In Self Help: October 12 + 14

Lotsa different curtain choices in this apartment building! Here is what I did on the radio this week.

The Dickenbock Report (October 12): Farmers Day. Listen at XRAY | Listen at Self Help Radio.
Self Help Radio (October 14): A show about curtains. Listen at KBOO | Listen at Self Help Radio.
Corporate Standardized Programming (Ocrtober 14): Music from artists we lost in March & April of this year. Listen at KBOO (after Self Help Radio) | Listen at Self Help Radio.

Two reminders:
1, you can support The Dickenbock Report during XRAY's Fall Fundraiser by donating here.
2, you might need the username SHR & the password selfhelp to access shows on the Self Help Radio website.

That's it! Curtains closed.

Self Help Radio 101425: Curtains

The curtains were up on the show this morning, but now they are down. Or were they open & are now closed? I feel like I'd be a terrible stage manager. I wouldn't know whether the curtains were supposed to be raised or lowered or whether the actors were to emerge from them.

My wife by the way is mad at me because I didn't tell this curtain story last night. In the summer of 1980 I adopted a little white kitten whom I named Beatrice. Beatrice was a wild child & one of the things she loved to do was run up the cheap curtains in my duplex. I mainly left them open because it was the one big window I had. Years later when I was to leave the duplex, we thought about closing the curtains in the hopes it might disguise any areas we couldn't entirely clean so we'd get the deposit back. We closed the curtains - & little pinpricks of light shone through the entire width of them. Beatrice's claws had left uncountable holes. We laughed - & left the curtains open.

There are better curtain stories on the show. Which you can listen to at either the KBOO web page or the Self Help Radio web page. If you choose the latter, remember - username SHR + password selfhelp. The stuff that happened on the show is listed below.

& now - the curtain falls.

Self Help Radio Curtains Show

"Behind Curtains" The Five Stairsteps _The Five Stairsteps_

"Water Curtain" Peter Ivers' Band with Yolande Bavan _Knight Of The Blue Communion_

"Curtain" Marden Hill _Amen (Last Sunshine Deserts Of Él Records)_

introduction & definitions

"Keeping The Curtains Closed" The Jazz Butcher _Fishcotheque_

"The Curtain Long" Bernthøler _Merry Lines In The Sky_

"Audrey's Curtains" The Days _The Sound Of Leamington Spa Volume 4_

"Curtains" Skating For Cover _Rituals_

"Internet Curtains" Denim _Novelty Rock_

interview with curtain inspectors Drew & Priscilla Carter

"When The Curtain Calls For You" Jonathan Fire*Eater _Wolf Songs For Lambs_

"Curtains" Exene Cervenka _Running Sacred_

"Hidden Curtain" Marbles _Pyramid Landing & Other Favorites_

"Curtains 1 & 2" Throwing Muses _Purgatory/Paradise_

"Through The Curtain" The Steinbecks _Kick To Kick With The Steinbecks_

interview with National Curtain Museum docent Cory Dwyer

"Like A Curtain Falling" The Strange Death Of Liberal England _Drown Your Heart Again_

"This Curtain Call" Kitty Kat Fan Club _Dreamy Little You_

"Curtains!?" Timber Timbre _Hot Dreams_

"Velvet Curtain" Anna Tivel _The Question_

"The Final Mrs. Curtain" Elvis Costello & The Imposters _Look Now_

interview with Neighborhood Association President Max Cowell

"Cowboy Curtains" Tobin Sprout _The Universe & Me_

"Curtains" Linda Smith & Nancy Andrews _A Passing Cloud_

"Blank Curtain" Cola _Deep In View_

"Black Curtains In The Bag" Billy Nomates _Cacti_

"Curtain" Horse Jumper Of Love _Disaster Trick_

conclusion & goodbye

"Torn Curtain" Television _Marquee Moon_

"The Curtain" Mary Ocher _Power & Exclusion From Power_

"The Curtain" Deer Tick _Negativity_

Whither Curtains?

Summer lingers in Portland, it's one of the things I love about the city & the season. This town is known for gloomy days, cold & rain, but we have bright summers that have long daylight hours that sadly don't last. I spent a lot of this past summer on a bike, riding places, sometimes with my wife, sometimes alone, going to get food, going to see shows, going to parks with the dogs. I haven't yet managed to ride my bikes to my radio shows - Self Help Radio is on at night & my wife thinks it might be unsafe (because of not being able to see hazards, not because of crime or anything) & The Dickenbock Report airs on a station too far away - I am an old feller & I am woefully out of shape.

There's a meditative quality to bike riding I am told but I am a terrible meditator so I tend to take in all the things I am cycling by & one day probably in June as the day was ending I decided to take a tally of the front windows of the homes I was riding past - did they have curtains or blinds? were they open or not? In my neighborhood I was saddened to see that blinds outnumbered curtains - & a little shocked that lots of people let you look into their homes as night falls!

With curtains appearing to be the unpopular choice, I thought I'd do my best to support them by making a radio show about them. & I'll do that tonight.

Self Help Radio is on from midnight to 2am on 90.7fm in Portland & kboo dot fm everywhere. KBOO doesn't have curtains so sadly I can't give you a glimpse behind the curtains of the show. It's just all there for everyone to see. Or at least hear.

Preface To Curtains: Art Collected

Here is some art I've found online. It's called "Beaded Curtain" & it's by Hurvin Anderson. You can find out more about him on his Wikipedia page. I almost certainly found this image on a Tumblr blog. Even though the kids abandoned Tumblr years ago, I still have a Tumblr page so I still wander around there, wondering what folks are posting. I wish I kept track of where I might find stuff but wow that would be a lot of work.

Alas Gurple Image Search mostly finds the image here.

Okay, time to go back to listening to songs about curtains. There are a surprisingly large number of them!