Coming Up Tomorrow On The Dickenbock Report: National Ride The Wind Day

Actually, that's not a good photo for this blog entry, which is about National Ride The Wind Day, which is about human-powered flight, not birds, who fly with ease. We're stuck with the photo? All right.

August 23 is National Ride The Wind Day. "Ride the wind" is a kind of euphemism for "flight." So the Dickenbock Report will report on flight - including some kinds of flight that veer a little outside the definition for the day. But not as far as birds!

The show airs Sunday from 11am to 1pm on XRAY - 91.1+107.1fm in Portland, xray dot fm everywhere. We'll see you in the air & on the air.

This Week In Self Help August 16 18 + 20

Once again, not a picture of the bayou, but of the lake at Reed College, which is called Reed Lake. My computer thinks it's a bayou when I search for a bayou but it's not a bayou. Not at all.

Anyway this is the nonsense I got up to this week (not counting today, which I'll talk about next week).

Sunday August 16. The Dickenbock Report on XRAY. National Roller Coaster Day. Have a listen.

Tuesday August 18. Self Help Radio on KBOO. A show with the theme "bayou." Have a listen here. Or have a listen here.

Tuesday August 18. Corporate Standardized Programming on KBOO. Lotsa new releases. Have a listen here (after Self Help Radio). Or have a listen here.

Thursday August 20. Welcome To Your Good Day on XRAY. I sub a show trying to raise money for XRAY's move by playing lots of songs about moving. Have a listen.

One day I'll go to the bayou & take lots of pictures! But way too late for my bayou show.

Self Help Radio 081826: The Bayou

Once again, not a picture from a bayou. I don't think I've ever been to a bayou. But I have pictures that my computer thinks are of a bio, & who am I to convince it otherwise? AI is so dumb.

Anyway, hopefully there's some good knowledge mixed with the regular silliness of the average Self Help Radio episode. Being to Portland, where there aren't many insects or snakes or I'll bet any alligators, I am kinda glad not to be in the bayou. But I'm sure it has its charms & maybe that shows through in this episode.

Which you can listen to at the KBOO web page or at the Self Help Radio web page. Most everything that happens is below. Hopefully the mosquitos won't be too much of a bother. But keep an eye for the cottonmouths!

Self Help Radio The Bayou Show

"Mound Bayou" Pete Brown & His Band _Helen Humes 1927-1945_

"Song Of The Bayou" Wynonie Harris _Lovin' Machine_

"Love Song Of The Bayou" Little Jimmy Dickens _Four Classic Albums Plus Singles 1954-1962_

introduction & definitions

"Jambalaya (On The Bayou)" Hank Williams _The Complete Hank Williams_

"Blue Bayou" Roy Orbison _The Very Best Of Roy Orbison_

"Bayou Talk" Jimmy 'C' Newman _The Cajun Country Music Of A Louisiana Man_

"Voice Of The Bayou" Anita Carter _Appalachian Angel - Her Recordings 1950-1972 & 1996_

"Billy Bayou" Roger Miller _Words & Music By Roger Miller_

interview with travel agents Walter & Wendy Talbot

"Born On The Bayou" Betty Davis _The Columbia Years 1968-1969_

"Bayou Song" Tina Turner _Tina Turns The Country On_

"Fire On The Bayou" The Meters _Fire On The Bayou_

"Crossing The Bayou" J. B. Kling Jr. _Laugh Cajun Laugh_

"Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya" Dr. John _Gris-Gris_

our resident cinephile Chuck stops by!

"Bayou Pom Pom" Angelas Le Jeunne _The Best Of Cajun & Zydeco_

"On The Bayou Song" Robert Klein _New Teeth_

"Black Bayou" Al Rapone _Zydeco To Go_

"Voodoo On The Bayou" Tab Benoit _Nice & Warm_

"Bayou Girl" Buckwheat Zydeco _Five Card Stud_

interview with memoirist Stuart Wright

"Bayou" Chad Everett _All Strung Out_

"King Of The Bayou" Joe Strummer _Earthquake Weather_

"Are You The Bayour?" William Shatner, National Symphony Orchestra _So Fragile, So Blue_

"Bayou Tortous" James McMurtry _Just Us Kids_

"Fever On The Bayou" Rodney Crowell _Tarpaper Sky_

conclusion & goodbye

"They Put A Body In The Bayou" The Orwells _Terrible Human Beings_

"Bye Bye Bayou" Alan Vega _Alan Vega_

Whither The Bayou?

Just to be clear, that is not a picture of the bayou. The search on my computer thought it might be an image of the bayou because I guess it's water & trees & birds. But the picture was taken in Fort Worth, Texas, & it's of a small, privately-owned body of water called Bal Lake. We lived across the street from that small, privately-owned body of water for around three years. I probably sneaked between some neighbor's houses to take the picture.

Sitting here, my head stuck in memories of the last three years I lived in Texas, I can't remember what inspired a radio show about "the bayou." I suspect it might have been a few months ago when I re-read a few issues of the Alan Moore run on Swamp Thing. I had seen something about the comic & had also been drinking late at night & perused a few issues. Some description of the bayou must have stuck with me because I jotted down the idea. Which will be explored tonight.

Just to add - I assumed "the bayou" would mainly have been in Louisiana but there do appear to be bayous in Texas so perhaps I was closer to one than I realized while I was there.

Self Help Radio's show about the bayou airs tonight on KBOO. Midnight to 2am. 90.7fm in town, kboo dot fm everywhere. Oh dear & there might be insects & snakes.

Preface To The Bayou: Crows

There are lots of crows in Portland. All over the place. I sometimes share crumbled dog treats with them. My wife doesn't like this. She thinks the few crumbled treats I give them will somehow cause the crow population to increase to untenable levels which will cause I guess a great crow die-off. I think that's unlikely but she does have a PhD, so I try to pay attention.

One of our neighborhood friends also feeds the crows & some of them (or maybe just one of them) will ride on her head while she walks her dog. I am not that committed to the crows. Sometimes they swoop very close to me to remind me to crumble a dog treat so they can fight over it & increase their population to untenable levels. I don't enjoy the swooping. I don't encourage it. If I thought it would help to tell them I won't crumble a dog treat for them if they swoop close to me, as a kind of threat I guess, I would do it, but of course they don't understand English.

They are pretty smart, though. They recognize me for the treat crumbler I am. & they will take the harder pieces to puddles to dip them in so they can soften them. Heck, my dogs aren't that smart!

Recently a radio acquaintance told me he had visited Texas & hated the grackles there. It occurred to me that I hadn't thought about grackles for a very long time though I encountered them daily when I worked at the University Of Texas. In my mind, they weren't all that different from crows & I thought they might be related. But nope! They're not. I will admit that I have been shat up by both grackles & crows, & the experience was unpleasant no matter the bird.

You may be asking what this has to do with a radio show about the bayou. Well, uh. I guess there are crows in the bayou? Or at least grackles?