a musing

a cross-post form the lammie-blog

The weather in st petersburg florida is hot....as.....fuck. Who in their right mind would live in such a god-forsaken locale? me, apparently.

The radio. It seems that because it's really fucking hot in florida all of the cool college radio people go to school in other states and as a consequence the radio sucks. Sure, we've got WMNF, the third leg of the Pacifica/WBAI radical radio triad busting out Democracy Now and Alan Watts buddhism lectures in the mid-morning but I'm stuck with R&B as told by old white dudes all afternoon - who the fuck wants to hear Rufus Thomas over and over again? not me. The weekend on WMNF is no better - polka party on saturday? The Sunday Schmita (sp?) klezmer show? fuck. I like klezmer and polka but not every weekend. I also know there's a reason why these shows are on air and I'm all for it, it's just that I have nowhere else to go. One of the few bright spot on WMNF, music wise, is Friday nights from 7-9 when Steve "the hitman" Williams and some guy named, strangely, the Original Get-Down Plunder, kick out the old school soul jams.

Unfortuntely, if WMNF is sucking I can't tweak the dial, always below 92-93-ish, to 90.7 (grunge and bile, we got style, paul verkuil) WCWM in the 'burg, 90.5 WUOG to rock out to the latest coolest hipper than shit tunes in Athens GA, or even 88.1 WMBR@ M.I.T. in Cambridge where (although they're a little more mature than typical college radio - they don't bring their drunk friends into the sound booth or their friends are nice and quiet) the playlist was brand new each and every day. I shit you not, the radio really sucks so bad here, in terms of hearing *new* things, that I find myself relying on internet radio - KEXP in Seattle (a little corporate but better than nothing) WFMU - East Orange NJ for the real deal college FM without the college and WFUV (Fordham - for my "adult" album rock jones). I also find myself digging around the ether-stacks on my own. Which brings me to my point.

We all miss shit. I missed Phish (whatever), Pavement (taken care of), and REM (still haven't figured out what everyone creamed in their pants for over them), among others. I've spent the better part of my lunch time and post-lunch time digging around and figuring out what I've been missing. So far Dinosaur Jr (smack in the middle of a Pixies-magnitude reunion) is promising, Nuetral Milk Hotel is fucking rocking and M. Ward is coming around the bend and picking up speed. Rock on.