45 Radio

Tonight I’ll be spinning discs at the radio station, 10PM to midnight PST, in the air at 88.1/90.7/91.5 FM or streaming through tubes here. I’m bringing my box o’ 45s and the will to survive.

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The Specials - Doesn’t Make It Alright - The Specials

Low - Hatchet (Optimimi Version)
Make-Up - Born on the Floor
Zu Zu Petals - Shipwrecked
Small Stars - One Verse
Herc. - Riding w/ Death
Old Time Relijun - Dub Narcotic Disco Plate
The Sonics - Have Love, Will Travel
Murder City Devils - Dancin’ Shoes
David Bowie - Let’s Dance

DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince - Girls of the World Ain’t Nuthin But Trouble
At The Drive-In - Rascuache (mix)
Kill the Vultures - Moonshine
Ciccone Youth - Into the Groovy
Pretenders - Brass In Pocket (I’m Special)
Marvin Gaye - Pride and Joy
Elvis Presley - Mess of Blues
Stray Cats - Stray Cat Strut

Sleater-Kinney - Get Up
Thompson Twins - Lies
Scene Creamers - AK-47
Modest Mouse - Fire It Up
Johnny Cash - Five Feet High and Rising
Geraldine Fibbers - The Grand Tour
Elliott Smith - Speed Trials
Edith Frost - Blame You

Rumbleseat - Cursing Concrete
Jason Traeger - Love, Love and Love
Bonnie Tyler - It’s A Heartache
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - Crimson and Clover
Some Velvet Sidewalk - Apple, The Burning World

Baby Driver:

A Story About Myself by Jan Kerouac

A wild and rebellious youth moving from liaison to liaison with the common denominator of heavy drug use. Kerouac travels from her early childhood in Manhattan’s Lower Eastside to the southwest and down into Latin America along the way holding diverse jobs that included waitress, stable hand, prostitute and maid. I liked this book. Kerouac’s descriptions were evocative and visual, and her writing style kept me engaged and was enjoyable to read.

There were a couple of points she passed through this area while visiting her mother and brother who lived near Vichy Springs. It’s always curious to me how others see this area:

“Then by car we traveled up through the surrealistic, twisted oak hills near Ukiah, past the stunted pines of Little River and Mendocino, where the coast looks like a matching jigsaw piece of Japan, to Kittitas, Washington (p. 9).”

“…too bad, because I would have liked to see Ukiah again, little town of pear orchards and yellowbrick thrift store by the Russian (rushin’?) River (p. 202).”

She did a bit of scavenging at the old dump too which brought back some fond treasure-hunting memories of my own.

My critique of the book would be that while the episodes of her life were unique, Kerouac’s writing style was not. Quick and enjoyable, yes, but memorable? Not so much. Yes, she is the only child of the Beat icon Jack Kerouac, and while comparisons are inevitable I don’t believe that played into my scrutiny.

I’m not much of a Jack fan *ducks the tomatoes* It’s too hype to fall into the cult o’ Jack. There’s a lot of money surrounding it, which is disconcerting and a point of contention for some. My reading of On the Road in high school just didn’t bowl me over. Maybe I’ll check it out again someday though.

Hardcover Days, Paperback Nights Radio

A store I drive by in Berkeley has this up on their marquee “Hardcover Days, Paperback Nights”. Seriously genius!

Tonight I’ll be heading over the hill for radio, streaming here; if ya like. And a heads up that I’ll be doing the following Tuesday as well and then back to alternating. Oh yea, 10 PM to midnight PST.

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Phoenix - Second to None - It’s Never Been Like That

Electrelane - Gone Under Sea - The Power Out
The Coup - ShoYoAss - Pick A Bigger Weapon
Flaming Lips - The W.A.N.D. - At War With The Mystics
Penny Lim & the Silvertones - Kung See, Kung See, Let’s Be Happy - Girls In the Garage
Weird War - Grass - S/T
Guided By Voices - Hot Freaks - Bee Thousand
M.I.A. - Come Around f. Timberland - Kala

The Breeders - Cannonball - Last Splash
Half Japanese - Put Some Sugar On It - Greatest Hits
Nina Simone - Chilly Winds Don’t Blow - Compact Jazz
Agent Ribbons - Chelsea, Let’s Go Join the Circus - On Time Travel and Romance
Monster Island - Dream Tiger - Dream Tiger
Karl Blau - My Johnny - Beneath Waves
Calexico - Sanchez - Spoke
Yo La Tengo - The Summer - Fakebook
Pixies - Velouria - Bossanova

Deerhoof - The Galaxist - Friend Opportunity
Justin Potts - Floodgate Seasons - Space Age Specs
Unicorns - I Don’t Want to Die - Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone?
M. Ward - To Go Home - Post-War
Desmond Dekker - Honour Your Mother and Father - You Can Get It If You Really Want
Pillows - Save Me - Two-Step
Mountains & Rainbows - Knock Me Out - 7″
Prince - Uptown - The Hits 1

Amy Winehouse - Back to Black - Back to Black
Richard Hell & The Voidoids - New Pleasure - Blank Generation
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - We Can’t Help You - Real Emotional Trash
Camera Obscura - Country Mile - Let’s Get Out of This Country
Wilco - Should’ve Been In Love - A.M.
Tracker - We Don’t Need to Speak - Amos

Lee Bob Watson - Airstream - To Juliette From Punk Sinatra

“Hold my head, we’ll trampoline..” Mmm, fun fun! I went a little more divergent in the selection tonight, and got to hear a bunch of stuff I hadn’t thought about in awhile.

Got swooped by an owl on the way over, and have I definitely come to a scientific conclusion that deer are not an endangered species.

A Reminder

For when there’s time to read freely again, I’m definitely going to check out Telex from Cuba. Sounds interesting, and I like the tantalizing treats on the website. Beautiful aesthetic.

Music Break

Ya, writing papers, oh the joy. But I was listening to some tunes and it was just so perfect, the breeze through the windows, the sun going down, soccer being played on the nearby field. So to share:

Electrelane - To the East

Dude, birdlic

I <3 YouTube very much.

Radio Pasado

Soft Location - Your Game Is So Rough - Diamonds and Gems

The Sea and Cake - Four Corners - One Bedroom
Broken Social Scene - Our Faces Split the Coast in Half - S/T
Amor Belhom Duo - You’re Open Housing - Acuarela Songs
Big Star - For You - Third/Sister Lovers
Devotchka - Venus in Furs - Curse Your Little Heart
The Breeders - Istanbul - Mountain Battles

Sonic Youth - Jams Run Free - Rather Ripped
Aretha Franklin - Pullin’ - Spirit in the Dark
Yo La Tengo - Mr. Tough - I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass
Paul Westerberg - Dirty Diesel - Come Feel Me Tremble
His Name Is Alive - Karins Blues - Someday My Blues Will Cover the Earth
His Name Is Alive - Someday My Blues Will Cover the Earth - Someday My Blues Will Cover the Earth
fIREHOSE - Walking the Cow - Flyin’ the Flannel

The Shaky Hands - Whales Sing - S/T
Ramones - Rockaway Beach - Rocket to Russia
Saturday Sounds Good To Me - Meet Me By the Water - All Your Summer Songs
Islands - Jogging Gorgeous Summer - Return to the Sea
Feist - Sealion - The Reminder
Calexico - Attack El Robot! Attack! - Feast of Wire
Brightblack Morning Light - Everybody Daylight - S/T

Alela Diane - Dry Grass and Shadows - Grass Roots Record Co. Family Album
Kings & Queens - What’s in Mind - Grass Roots Record Co. Family Album
PJ Harvey - Is That All There Is? - Dance Hall at Louse Point
Them featuring Van Morrison - It’s All Over Now Baby Blue
The Mamas and Papas - I’ve Got a Feelin
Smog - Ex-Con - Red Apple Falls
She & Him - Why Do You Let Me Stay Here? - Volume 1
The Magnetic Fields - With Whom to Dance? - Get Lost

Sorry about the lost warning on this one, just wrestling with time lately. I’ll post some tunes with it in a couple days. Thanks!

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Seems a lot of the songs aren’t on Mixwit, so I decided to pull a few videos instead, yay!

She & Him - Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?

Alela Diane - Dry Grass and Shadows (thx Scott )

The Shaky Hands - Whales Sing

Whoooo!

Busy busy days. And that’s okay long as I have such upbeat dance music to go with ‘em, courtesy of an awesome classmate.

Ultimo Veinte Seis

The BEST PARADE EVER!!! Check out my Flickr set for the rest of the photos! It was the most fun I’ve had at a parade since, well, I have no idea when, too quick though even with some of em going around twice. There were tons of kids in and watching the parade which made it fun, lotsa candy throwing, lotsa neat homegrown and made ideas and creations - I can’t even tell you what was my favorite!! Maybe the arte center world peace float, that was beautiful, then there was the just married cars, the triumph of getting a stubborn goat to get, a book fairy, a strange root beer song (”roooooooooot beeeeeeeeeeer”), and gosh, I can’t even remember what else.

My friend and I had a beer and a most delicioso polish dog before heading over to Big River to go on my second ever kayaking adventure. And the fog burned off to reveal blue sky! With it I got a bit of a burn, but nothing too bad; I actually think most of it’s from my drive back home as its all on the driver side arm/shoulder. Anyway, we navigated the maze of sloughs, took some time to lay back and watch the fast-moving clouds on an island, and then drove back home listening and singing some She & Him.

It’s exactly the kind of day I needed. The drive home had that gorgeous afternoon light that makes it all feel like a movie. On the seat next to me was a bouquet of sweet peas my friend had picked me and there is nothing so sweet in fragrance. Stopped and got some apple chips, dropped my very old disposable camera off for developing, picked up the unexpected birthday package (thank you Scott!) from work and headed to the casa for what seems like the first time I’ve sat still here for days. A few sweet notes coming through the computer, and these last few hours of the day sitting here I am feeling quite thankful for all of the amazing people out there.

To Write

All the signs were there…fallible fashion sense, poor ergonomics, antiquated technology…someone stop me!

I love all the influences in this photo. There’s a better one somewhere, but it’s somewhere. Actually, I guess that was current technology, but I was thinking about in comparison to our early-adopter usage of Mac computers at the same time. And then there’s the Bag Lady connection

I do rather like to write on the floor; it’s great to spread your papers out on! This is the precursor to me and the laptop, cranking out the school work like, well, a machine!! Sorry, the wordage is escaping me, my brain is being zapped. Forbotten. I just posted to the class discussion board with the subject line “Dr. Feel Good” - some things just cannot be resisted!

And I betcha can’t resist listening to a bit of Amplified Mixtape tonight either right?! Streamed here, right here, 10pm to midnight PST.

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Lee Bob Watson - Aficionado - Aficionado

The Flaming Lips - Going On - At War With the Mystics
She & Him - This Is Not A Test - Volume One
Saint Etienne - This Is Radio Etienne & Only Love Can Break Your Heart - Foxbase Alpha
The Sea & Cake - Sound and Vision - One Bedroom

Karl Blau - Dragon Song - Beneath Waves
The Shins - Sealegs - Wincing the Night Away
The Smiths - Cemetary Gates - Rank
Devotchka - The Oblivion - Una Volta
Earlimart - The World
Mariee Sioux - Two Tongues at One Time - Family Album: Grass Roots Record Co.
Smog - A Guiding Light - Supper
Yo La Tengo - I Feel Like Going Home - I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass

Alex Chilton - Oogum Boogum - Set
Pavement - Best Friends Arm - Wowee Zowee
Sean Na Na - Rimshot Na Na - Dance ‘Til Your Baby Is A Man
The Mountain Goats - Up The Wolves - The Sunset Tree
Tap Tap - 100,000 Thoughts - Lanzafame
Pixies - Hey - Doolittle
Songs: Ohia - Love & Work - Axxess & Ace

The Magnetic Fields - I Wish I Had an Evil Twin - i
Oddjobs - The Distance Song - Absorbing Playtime
Psalm One - On and On - Bio:Chemistry II: Esters and Essays
Feist - Inside & Out - Let It Die
Soft Location - The Whistling Song - Diamonds and Gems
Jeff Buckley - Everybody Here Wants You - Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk

This Mortal Coil - Siren Song - S/T

When it flows, it flows. I love nights like this. Lack of sleep can put me in the zone for a short period or render me a stuttering idiot. Tonight I could carry a conversation, relay some information, work and add to the sketch of a set list and have it feel smooooooth. Even a request that worked!

The air quality was immensely better in the studio valley; I could see the stars! Got a lot of calls, all very nice and interesting. The young Bambis were out en force. One was already dead in the middle of my lane, unavoidable, and sent a shiver up my spine when I heard contact with the underside of my vehicle. Lots of bats out, quite a few cats, and what definitely looked like a midget ninja walking the side of the road. Still unsure on the last one.

Ash Tuesday

Air quality in Ukiah is shit. Looks like a grey winter day, but that’s just the smoke and ash. The hills, they’re out there in the grey. I’m relieved to hear helicopters overhead occasionally, but it’s only occasionally and not very reassuring considering where some of the fires are reported. Poor information dispersement in the beginning (which is improving but a centralized place for all of this information would be ideal) and severely limited resources that leads to the majority of fires unstaffed…that’s wild to me to. The original 90 fires in the county is now up to 131.

Seems like there was no framework in place to deal with emergency situations. Unprecedented number of lightening strikes I understand, but planning takes into account worse-case scenarios especially when it comes to situations such as this. Mechanisms to get information to people, coordination between resources to get priority areas addressed. We live in rural country, and fire happens.

Thank goodness for the fire fighters that are on hand to help. It just seems like a pittance compared to the need. Containment levels are so low right now. News has time line in weeks and I just hope that everyone remains safe in all this.