Underground

I DON’T KNOW JACK ABOUT MUSIC…OR DO I?

One of the nice things about traveling for business is that I sometimes find some great music stations on the radio. It’s rare, but when I find one, I get pretty jazzed. Well, my friends (as John McCain is so fond of saying), this week, I have found one, though it has a little twist, as you’ll see. First of all there is a Denver Station that calls itself Jack FM, and I gotta admit, they play one hell of a variety of songs. Not every song is great, or even a song I like. But unlike most stations, I can listen to 3 or 4 songs I really enjoy for everyone I don’t. Normal stations are lucky to have the reverse ratio.

Now for the controversy. I guess that Jack FM is a new type of format, or so says Wikipedia (who we all know is NEVER wrong!). The playlist creation is centralized, and market research driven. Their catalog of songs are, I guess, twice as large as other stations, and they are no where near as specific to one genre of music. Honestly, I find none of those things disturbing, and in fact, it’s a nice change. The stations (and there are several across the US, Canada, and now even in the UK), have no local programming. No DJ. No local voice to add that local touch. I guess that upsets people. To be honest, though, there are very few DJ’s I honestly care to listen to. The last one passed away a few years back (I hope your jamming your ass off up there, John Peel!). It’s all about the music…the other stuff is just fluff.

That brings me to today’s list. All the songs on the list are from a 2 hour period. Of course, I choose the ones I liked the most, and left off the clunkers like Neil Diamond and Kool and the Gang (apologies to those that like those two artists…I have nothing again em. Hell, I even dig the hell out of Neil once in a while.). But the stuff listed here is pretty typical of the range of styles, both in genre and in decades, that they play around the clock. Like I said, it works for me, and makes that drive to and from work a little more bearable. Enjoy!

MUSIC FROM THOSE CHEESY 80′S MOVIES

There’s nothing I like better than all those old cheesy movies from the 80’s. I’m pretty sure you know, and have seen, all of them, just like me. Pretty In Pink, 16 Candles, Fast Times, Valley Girl, Breakfast Club, St. Elmo’s Fire, etc. etc. The list is endless. No, I’m not ashamed to say I went to see them…I mean, mostly, because my girlfriend/wife at the time wanted to see them…yeah, that’s gotta be it! Anyway, no matter how bad those movies were, you could always count on one thing, a great soundtrack. And by great, I mean, they invented, and perfected the modern movie soundtrack. Since the 80’s (with some exception of some of the Cameron Crowe movies in the 90’s), movie sound tracks have tried to be that cool, with very few successes. It was just the greatest 10 year span ever to be in my late teens / early 20’s. I love watching those movies now because it really does remind me that at one time, I could flit about the halls at high school, being an outsider, scorning the “in” crowd, and generally not giving a shit about anything. Maybe the reason I still listen to the music I do is because for 4 minutes at a time, I can still be like that.

The real reason I used to watch those movies, to be honest, is that, among my other crushes in the 80’s, Molly Ringwold just rocked my world. I thought she played some of the coolest characters back then, and it’s a shame her career died when she pissed of John Hughes. I don’t know where she is now, or what she’s doing, but for me, she’s just one of the coolest chicks from one of greatest times of my life. Here’s to you, Molly! Enjoy!

SOME SATURDAY JAMS FOR YOU ALL!

Welcome to the weekend. I’m getting ready to head back to Boulder, CO, tomorrow, so this is a brief little post. Still some great tunes, just a small little update.

I went out and played some more gold yesterday. Since I first went a few weeks ago, I’ve been two other times, nine holes each, and been to the driving range a few other times. So yesterday I played 18, and shaved 25 strokes off my game. It was a beautiful day, and even through I started roughly, I finished pretty strong. I joined up with two other guys. One was a former Marine, and the other was an older guy who retired from the Navy. Lets just say that both of them we a hell of a lot better than I was. But they were pretty patient, and gave me some great tips, and that may have been the reason I finished so strongly.

Enjoy the Saturday, and enjoy the music!

A MUSICAL TRIBUTE TO MR. SOCKS

I mentioned a few days ago that a stray cat had come to live on our back deck. We informally named him Mr. Socks. That him there in the picture. The rains of the past few days, along with the coming of fall, and eventually winter, spurred us on to take him to the vet this morning, to get him checked up, immunized and try to get him ready for winter.

My wife took him into the vets office this morning. An hour later, I got a call from her, and on the other end, I heard only sobbing. The vet had done a feline HIV test on the little guy, and the test came back positive. Further more, the vet said he was already pretty sick, and could not survive a winter. Unfortunately, it was time to make a very rough decision. Mr. Socks has been living on the back deck for two months now, and we honestly have grown extremly fond of the little guy. But this morning, we made the decision to put him at rest. It was hard, and it sucks, and it’s left a little bit of a hole in our home, but we just could not stand to watch the poor guy suffer, and gradually pass away. So it’s with more than a little sadness that today, we said goodbye to our little friend, Mr. Socks.

SONGS ABOUT CARS FOR A THOUSAND, PLEASE…

You can tell I’m going a little stir crazy. After three days of non-stop rain, this is the best title I can come up with. For some reason, I was sitting here playing some xBox, watching football, and generally trying to not be bored out of my skull, when somehow, the thought came into my head to try to come up with 10 songs that mention cars in their title. You know what? It wasn’t even close to being as hard as I thought it would be! Plus, I think I actually put a great list together to boot!

There’s something for everyone here…some old stuff from the 70’s (Adam and the Ants), to newer stuff (Arcade Fire), and everything in between. There goodies from the 80 and 90’s. If you can’t find a song you like in this list…then you must not like songs about cars. What the hell ever that means! Like I said, it’s been raining here for 3 straight days, and will be for another 3 it looks like.

Enjoy the car tunes!

A MOST DECIDEDLY MELLOW MONDAY

Not really mellow today for any other reason than the past month has been crazy beyond what I could imagine. I’ve traveled far too much, gotten run down enough that my asthma has flown completely out of control and left me gasping for air most of the time. I had emotional up’s and even worse downs, and today, have to take my wife in for a “procedure”. She had a biopsy that was inconclusive, and “procedure” is a neat little medical term that really means we have to cut a little deeper, dig a little deeper, look a little harder. Non of that calms my nerves. of course. But I need a little mellow in my life right now…and I figure today is as good a time as any to start.

The trip I took this past week was very nice…as a father, especially a father that is watching the years go by way to fast, it was good to have both my baby girls in the same place at the same time. No matter how much time I have with them, it’s never going to be enough. While that makes me in a way sad, it’s also nice to see them both starting new, exciting and big chapters. My oldest start law school next week, and my youngest is now officially in junior high school, and will be a teenager next month. Both are turning into the fine women I had hoped they would be the first time I looked down in the crib at them.

So, there your go…my reasons for being mellow are numerous and varied. Some external and out of my control, some internal, made all the more vivid by introspective thought. Today’s list kind of reflects how I’m feeling. Enjoy!

MUSIC TO EASE YOUR CASE OF THE MONDAYS!

I flipped on Office Space this past weekend (thus the title of the post). I’ve seen the movie so many times I can nearly recite the lines. I don’t know anyone in my business (yes, I’m in IT, and believe it or not, I’ve seen companies that had TPS reports) who doesn’t feel the same way about the movie. So many things about the movie are real. The apartment I lived in in the Chicago suburbs (pre-marriage) looked exactly like the apartments that Peter lived in. I used to have a lovely cubicle just like his too. The cubicle is the single worst horror ever perpetrated on the human race. Nothing says soul-less worker drone like sticking people in little boxes. Now days, I work from home, and of course, I actually miss going to the office. Go figure.

So, today is the first day of my vacation, so I definitely do NOT have a case of the Mondays. I’ll be heading back to my roots, back to NE Ohio tomorrow. I’ve got my posts all lined up, so pretty much, I’m all set to go. Enjoy the tunes!

MUSIC WITH ATTITUDE, DAY 2

Happy Saturday! Officially my first day of vacation. Nine days with no work, and I honestly have no clue what I’m going to do with myself. That’s the terrible irony of being a type A person…when your working, you think of vacation, but then on vacation, all you think about is work.

Today’s playlist is a little less on the attitude scale, but still just as terrific. I’ve moved a little from the 70’s and early 80’s to more of a late 80’s early 90’s playlist today, and I think it’s almost as good. The Cure, Kraftwerk, Echo and Bowie…definitely some of my favs end up here today. So, here’s hoping the the weekend finds you happy, healthy, and listening to some great tunes. Enjoy!

MUSIC WITH ATTITUDE, DAY 1

This past Monday, I mentioned that I was back, and with more attitude. Well, today I finally come through on the promise, and throw out a little music with some attitude to it. Hey, I got pressure out the ass, and I need some way to get my ass back to sanity. This is the best way, outside of a firing range, to burn off all that stress. Music tames that wild beast and all that you know.

Anyway, I am finally taking some time off next week, and going to visit my family in Ohio, and showing my daughter around my home town. Yes, I will post. I kind of missed doing this non-sense during my 2 week absence. I’m going to kick around Kent, maybe go have lunch at what was once one of the great music clubs of the US mid-west, JB’s Downunder. I hear it’s now a sandwich shop. Not all progress is good, thats for damn sure. Enjoy the tunes!

THE EDGE OF THE 80′S, DAY 3

Final day of my look at the 3 CD set, the edge of the 80’s. I think I’ve found a place where I can order it, so hopefully, I’ll be getting it in soon, and have it dialed up on the old CD player. Enjoy!

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