from Heaven to Hello City

Day 624, Session 115:
When/Where: Wednesday March 5th - "Liveblogging" through some afternoon chores
First song: Heaven (Live) by The Swimmers
Last full song: Hello City (Live) by Barenaked Ladies
Progress: 1857-1867 of 5831
Total Songs Heard: 1480

Back after a few days of recovering from my totally whack-a-do Saturday night. I'm efforting to live blog my way through today's tunes... so until the Last Full Song section above is filled in, feel free to check back to see what I can write with less than the space of a song to think about it.

2:16 - Heaven (Live) by The Swimmers - "Heaven is the town we grew up, all our friends around..." A great little tune from The Swimmers who coincidentally are from the town where I grew up, Philadelphia. I think a lot of people would be disappointed if heaven ended up being the town where they grew up. Not me. I like where I grew up, and liked that period of my life. I wouldn't mind trying it again with some of the wisdom I've gained since leaving. The Swimmers first full length cd came out yesterday. I'll be taking a listen at some point.

2:20 - Heaven Alive by Oceansize - The last of the short run of heaven related songs. Unfortunately it's at the bottom of the list which would go like this: 1. Heaven by The Swimmers 2. Heaven by Warrant (still a surprisingly good song) 3. Heaven by Better Than Ezra 4. Heaven Alive.

2:26 - Heavy Metal Drummer (Live) by Wilco - Chicago's Wilco recently completed a 5 night "residence" at the Riviera Theater here in town. The cool thing about being in Chicago is that Wilco will come here and play 5 nights in a row. The not cool thing is that everyone in Chicago LOVES Wilco, which makes it practically impossible to get tickets, even if they're here for 5 straight nights. Luckily, Heather over at Fuel Friends had it covered with a link to a live recording of night 5. I suggest you get over there soon and check it out before it disappears.

2:33 - Heavy Metal Drummer by Wilco - The album version, also awesome.

2:37 - Heist by Ben Folds - From the soundtrack to the movie "Over The Hedge" which was a passable film on its own merits that was pushed into the enjoyable realm for me due the fact that Ben Folds was heavily featured on the soundtrack. It's currently in rotation on HBO and the animation looks pretty sweet in HD. Don't go out of your way to watch it or anything, but if it happens to be on and you can't get to the remote you shouldn't have to poke your eyes out.

2:40 - Helicopters by Barenaked Ladies - Back in my radio days we were invited to a special preview of the Dayton Air Show (which is a really big deal around Dayton.) My two morning show co-hosts and I were each given a ride in one of three stunt helicopters that would be flying during the show. Just being in a helicopter was quite an experience. Then they started doing their formation flying. Weaving in and out of the other two copters was quite an exhilarating experience. I watched the scariest stunt from the safety of my copter, one of the other guys went way up in the air then killed the engine and free fell. During the fall the engine restarted and the copter started hovering safely again after falling about 90% of the way to the ground. It probably would have taken me 20 minutes to locate my stomach after a trick like that. I'm pretty sure the pilots did it 10 times that day.

2:45 - Hell by Squirrel Nut Zippers - I took too long typing that helicopter story and now don't have time to say anything about this song. Except to say that for such opposite concepts, the words Heaven and Hell are pretty close to each other alphabetically.

2:49 - Hell Is Chrome by Wilco - Figures... right after writing about how much everyone in Chicago loves Wilco, I immediately come to another Wilco song. Actually, to be honest, I didn't love this cd (A Ghost Is Born) nearly as much as I loved Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I've owned A Ghost Is Born since it first came out and this is probably only the 3rd or 4th time I've heard this song.

2:54 - Hello by Oasis - I very much enjoyed Oasis when What's The Story Morning Glory came out. I realize they were criticized for sounding too much like The Beatles, but... well... what's so bad about that? The Beatles were awesome, but the only thing time they're getting back together is for a heavenly reunion tour once Paul dies. Of course, unlike The Beatles, Oasis has done very little for me outside of one cd.

2:58 - Hello City by Barenaked Ladies - Track one of Barenaked Ladies first cd Gordon. I was hooked immediately. Apparently Hello City refers to Halifax, Nova Scotia. My favorite line: "Hello City, you've found an enemy in me." I don't think I have any enemy cities. I mean sure, I hate all the sports teams from New York, but now that my sister lives there I can't exactly hate the city.

3:01 - Hello City (Live) by Barenaked Ladies - Same song live from the Rock Spectacle cd.

Ok, got to wrap it up here for now as I've got another project I need to start working on.

from Flight to Flowers in December

Day 481, Session 96:
When/Where: Tuesday October 16th - Driving home from dropping a friend off at class.
First song: Flight vs. Invisibility by John Hodgman
Last full song: Flowers in December (live KCRW 1996) by Mazzy Star
Progress: 1381-1384 of 5413
Total Songs Heard: 1127

Perhaps you first met John Hodgman through his work on The Daily Show, or maybe you know him as the PC guy in Apple's commercials. I first got to know John Hodgman through his work on This American Life, specifically his Flight vs. Invisibility story in the "Superpowers" episode. The entire premise of the story is this... if you can be granted either the power of flight, or the power of invisibility (only one, no other super powers are offered,) which do you choose?

The story gives plenty of interesting ideas for ways to use each power, but it seems to center on one basic idea. Flight is more of a power for good, while invisibility is more a power for evil. Ok, maybe not evil. But there are definitely more nefarious uses that immediately spring to mind for invisibility.

And so obviously I choose invisibility. At least I did at first. The more I thought about it though, the more I realized that I would not be able to overcome the temptation that invisibility would have to offer. I would try to use my power to steal things and to sneak into movies and concerts and sporting events and other places that I don't really belong. And if I had the power of invisibility in high school? Man, you would have had to tie me down to keep me from trying to see live naked ladies. (Now, of course, I'm married and have no need whatsoever to even acknowledge the existence of other women.)

But if you have the power of flight... mostly good comes out to of that right? I mean, maybe I'd finally stop being late for things because of traffic or public transit. With an established flying speed of 1000 mph, it would take just about 30 minutes to go visit my new nephew (who I may now refer to as the 'newphew.') It would take less time than that to go visit the parents. I could fly to California or Vegas or London in an evening. What in this world is more valuable than possessions? Time.

Time > Stuff (even boobs)

So in the eternal battle of flight vs. invisibility, I'll take flying. You?
That's a hint, the comments are open.

Flight vs. Invisibility - John Hodgman

Updated 12/17/07: I've noticed update a fair number of people coming to this page in search of the above file, but it's only recently that I was informed that the link wasn't working. Try it again, I think I fixed it. Thanks for visiting...

from Drum Trip to Dust Mites

Day 217, Session 77:
When/Where: Thursday January 25th - On a late train home.
First song: Drum Trip by Rusted Root
Last full song: Dust Mites by Heywood Banks
Progress: 1041-1050 of 4801
Total Songs Heard: 899

"I will now sell four copies of "The Three EPs" by The Beta Band." - Rob Gordon, High Fidelity

Dry The Rain by The Beta Band came up in this set. It's the only song by The Beta Band I've heard. I did not buy "The Three EPs" even though I should have. High Fidelity is one of my favorite movies of the last 10 years. In the spirit of the movie, here are my Top 5 reasons that High Fidelity is so great.

5. I loved the book by Nick Hornby. Usually, I get very nervous when books I like are turned into movies. In this case, it worked out very well.
4. It inspired my other (now dead) internet project - BOX5 lists. Over the course of 47 lists my friends and I voted for the top 5 in a variety of topics, ranging from Top 5 Original 13 Colonies (Pennsylvania) to Top 5 Presidents Not Named Washington or Lincoln (William Howard Taft (because he was fat.)) Even though boxleft.com is gone now, I still have almost every list archived. At some point I'll start posting them again.
3. It was filmed in Chicago, where I currently live. Now every time I watch High Fidelity on DVD I can point out all the places I've been.
2. I hosted the Dayton premier of the movie. It was one of the first times in my radio career that I was out from behind the mic and out in front of a crowd. I was surprised by the nice reception I received and more surprised by the fact that some people were actually excited to meet me.
1. It's about guys and relationships and music. Those things kind of resonate with me.

Seriously, name me a better movie about music. I wonder how Rob and Laura are doing these days.

Monday December 18th - During the day

Day 179, Session 63:
Location: Sitting at my desk. 8th floor. Cube C43A (that's right, I don't even get a full cube.)
First song: Day Tripper by The Beatles
Last full song: Dead Man's Hill by Indigo Girls
Progress: 839-847 of 4617
Total Songs Heard: 739

Dead by They Might Be Giants may just be one of my all time favorite songs. In high school we used to drive around singing this at the top of our lungs. I proudly knew all of the harmony part. We were nerds.

As much as I love They Might Be Giants, I still hold a little bit of a grudge towards them. My senior year in high school I hosted a radio show every Friday right after school. Part of the bit of the show is that every week I would call up the TMBG Dial-A-Song hotline live on the air. It was a bit because every week I would call the Brooklyn based phone number, and every week it would be busy. Then suddenly, one Friday the phone started ringing. I was excited because for the first time in 3 months, we were actually going to get to play a song on the air. I was then even more excited when instead of a song, a voice came on the line and said "If you're in New York, hang on the line for a special message." Sure, I wasn't from New York, but broadcasting a special message was even better than a song.

The excitement reached it's peak when, after a second or two, a voice came on a live voice came on the line and said, "Hey, this is John -- (I forget which John it was) from They Might Be Giants. Who's this?" Holy crap! I called up for a song and got one of the guys from the band live on the air! I explained to John that I was calling from WHHS and I unfortunately was not from New York, but that he was in fact being heard live on the air on both sides of Mill Rd. in Havertown, PA.

John seemed non-plussed. He said he didn't really have time to talk right then because he was giving away tickets to a show in New York that night, but that he'd be happy to call me back in about an hour to do an interview. I said that sounded great and we gave him the station's phone number. I spent the next hour hyping the interview and telling everyone around the station to tell everyone they knew. This was going to be the station's biggest moment since... well... possibly ever (at least as far as those of us around that studio that day were concerned.)

Of course he didn't call back.

In retrospect, that makes perfect sense. They had a show that night and he probably ran out of time. But at the time I remember being exceedingly disappointed in the way things turned out. I hung around the station for an extra 2 hours in case he called back. No such luck.

Years later when I was a radio "professional" Owen Wilson pulled the same thing. At that point it seemed par for the course.

Tuesday November 28th - Morning

Day 159, Session 56:
Location: On the train heading into the loop.
First song: Conjunction Junction by Better Than Ezra
Last full song: Country Love Song by Stephen Lynch
Progress: 744-757 of 4546
Total Songs Heard: 660

Contender by Royale Crown Review was the first song I ever turned into a music bed during my radio days. It involved mixing and looping. It took me hours to do, but once it was done, for about 10 minutes I felt cool. This would not be the last time that Royale Crown Review tried to make me feel cool.

I'm a big fan of Vegas (the city, not the NBC show.) Not being financially set up to be a high roller however, my trips tend to stick to the sports book and the $5/10 tables. I rarely do anything cool while I'm there. I mean, sure, I've seen Sigfried and Roy (about a week before the mauling) and Blue Man in Vegas, but those are touristy things. The only cool non-gambling thing I can think of in Vegas was when we went to the Hard Rock to see Royale Crown Review.

The "cool" part of it was the show, instead of being in a club, was by the pool. Apparently at the time the Hard Rock pool was one of the places to be seen in Vegas. We definitely didn't fit in. For one thing, none of us had fake boobs or tattoos. For another, even though we were by the pool, none of us felt comfortable hanging out in just our bathing suit. It took me about halfway through the set before I warmed up to the idea of removing my shoes while standing in the sand. (Yes, the pool has a fake beach.)

All in all we enjoyed the show. The band was good and we theoretically were "being seen." Honestly though, we were more excited that the concert also featured a buffet than we were to be hanging with the high rollers.

Friday October 27th

Day 127, Session 49:
Location: Training away from work before hitting reheasal
First song: Christmas of Love by Little Isidore & The Inquisitors
Last full song: Circles by Soul Coughing
Progress: 646-659 of 4482
Total Songs Heard: 574

Made it through all the Christmas songs today, or at least all the ones that start with the word Christmas. Turns out there were 16 of them. That works out fine for writing this now, but was a bit strange in late October when these first came around. The Christmas Eve shopping trip with my sister once again worked to perfection. In fact, this year we improved on the trip by finding the back exit from the shopping center. Waiting in traffic to escape the Best Buy/Barnes and Noble parking lot? Totally for suckers.

I can't quite understand why Christmastime (Oh Yeah) doesn't get play on any of those 24-hour-a-day-from-Thanksgiving-through-Christmas stations. It's family friendly, it's got nice Christmas style harmonies, Barenaked Ladies will play on any radio station that isn't hard rock or R&B (and how many of those stations play Christmas music anyway?) but I've never heard it. I imagine it's almost impossible to break a new Christmas song on to one of those stations. I'm pretty sure they've been playing the same loop of music since the mid-80s (right after Do They Know It's Christmas? came out.) Just one more super annoying thing about the state of corporate radio.

The only thing that does change from year-to-year on those stations is those horrible "Special Christmas Wish" promos that they play. You know the one. The radio station (through the generous support of listeners like you) has bought Christmas presents for the poor family that is undergoing some hard times this holiday season. You know, Ma was laid off from the whoopie cushion plant and Pa is still in prison and Grandma has the scurvy and Junior has that terrible speech impediment that leads to all the other kids calling him "Stinky" (kids can be so non-sensical when they're cruel.) "Well," the soft-voiced DJ says, "we know how hard this Christmas is for you, so we've bought Tickle Me Elmos and Nicorette gum for everyone. All it will cost you is your dignity cause we'll be playing this promo every 22 minutes for the next 32 days." And then Ma blubbers into the phone, but not before remembering to drop the station catch phrase in there.

Meanwhile, I throw up in my car, but at least I wasn't waiting in traffic.

Merry Christmas everybody!

Friday October 20th - During the workday one track special

Day 120, Session 44:
Location: Sitting at my desk in the loop in Chicago
First song: Capitol City Comedy, Austin TX 2001-11-25 by Mitch Hedberg
Last full song: Same thing
Progress: 579 of 4500
Total Songs Heard: 497

An unreleased comedy show from Mitch Hedberg. It was unreleased for a good reason. It sounds a lot like the guy recording the show was holding his equipment in his lap (heh.) Every time the guy holding the recorder finds something particularly funny, you can only hear him laughing.

I met Mitch Hedberg during my radio days. A lot of the comedians who came into the studio would not be "in character" until we went on the air. Mitch, it seemed, was in character all the time. Unfortunately his character was a drug using slacker type. He was very nice and extremely funny (I laughed so hard I actually teared up,) but definitely a little strange. He wore his oversized tinted sunglasses the entire time he was in studio. The following week we had another comedian in studio and talked to him about how hilarious Mitch was. The comedian agreed but said it was a shame about Mitch's drug issues. At the time I remember being a little surprised cause I figured it was just an act. It was a little eye opening for me to find out that some folks in the entertainment industry actually lived up to the hard partying image that is often portrayed. I was unfortunately not surprised a few years later when it turned out Mitch died of a drug overdose. His unnecessary death doesn't change the fact that he was one funny motherfucker.

"I was at a restaurant and I ordered a chicken sandwich, but I don't think the waitress understood me because she said 'How would you like your eggs?' So I tried to answer her anyhow. I said, 'Incubated and then raised and then beheaded and then plucked and then cut up and then put onto a grill and then put onto a bun. Shit. It's gonna take a while. I don't have time... scrambled.'"

Friday October 13th - Afternoon

Day 113, Session 39:
Location: On the train to work, except for the first song, which I apparently played as soon as I got out of bed.
First song: Brothers Unaware by Live
Last full song: Building a Mystery by Sarah McLachlan
Progress: 511-520 of 4422
Total Songs Heard: 449

I was the program director of my college radio station senior year. I was absolutely terrible at the job. I had no desire to be a boss. I'm a performer, not a director. In my time as PD I only had to fire one DJ (although I probably should have disciplined a few more, like I said, I wasn't very good.) I had to fire the guy because he played a song that it specifically said on the cd case not to play because it contained bad language. He played it even after I called him and told him exactly why he couldn't. And then he repeated the reason that I told him he couldn't play it. The song? Building a Mystery by Sarah McLachlan. The reason? She says "fuck" in the middle of the song. What he said on the air? "I've been told I can't play this song because it says fuck in the middle of it, but I've never heard that, so I'm going to play it anyway." And then he played the song.

Believe it or not, I still felt kind of bad about canning the guy. At least I did, until he came in and had the audacity to think it was unfair that I was doing it. Then I laughed after he left the office.

The following summer The Wife and I went to her grandmother's birthday party. Her family had gotten her grandmother a cd player and The Wife had bought a few cds to get her grandmother's collection started. The cd at the top of the pile? "Surfacing" by Sarah McLachlan, the first track of which is Building a Fucking Mystery. The wife was moderately horrified when I told her what she was handing over to her grandmother. To my knowledge my wife has not been fired as a granddaughter.

Monday September 25th - Evening (right before napping)

Day 95, Session 28:
Location: For the first few minutes of the ride home, before falling asleep.
First song: Billie Jean Medley by Moxy Fruvous
Last full song: Biminy by Hello Dave
Progress: 398-401 of 4316
Total Songs Heard: 352

Once again sacked out on the train on the way home. I only remember 4 tunes before the sweet sweet rocking of the train put me to sleep. From all the times I fall asleep on the train (you know, 2 so far) you may think that I have some sort of crazy sleep disorder. That's not the case at all. It's just that I desperately cling to the hours of the day when I'm not working. For me, work time is any time that I'm not free to do what I want. So yes, technically my work day runs from around 9:15a until around 5:45p. But in my mind, my work day begins the first time the alarm goes off in the morning and I'm fighting the battle of snooze (around 7:15a) until the moment I step off the train on the way home (usually around 6:20p.) The entire 11 hours and 5 minutes in between there is all devoted to getting myself ready to go to work, being at work, or getting home from work. 11 HOURS!!! Almost half my day. Leaving only 13 hours left for play. In order to maximize those hours I tend to stay up later than I should and get less sleep at night than I should. Even 6.5 hours of sleep a night (a good night for me,) cuts my play time in half. If sleeping for 20 minutes on the train (which is still technically part of the "work" part of the day and where all there is to do is read and sit and listen to music) gives me 20 more minutes play time from 1:00-1:20 AM at home (where I can be on the internet, play playstation, watch a movie and drink a beer... all at the same time!) then train sleeping is where it's at.

Seriously, think about that for a second:
24 hours in a day = 11 hours in "work" mode + 6.5 hours to sleep + 6.5 hours to play

And my work life isn't that bad. I could skim some time from the work hours by transferring some more to the sleep time in the morning. Plus I only have to work an 8.5 hour day and my job is tolerable. What about the people who hate their jobs or have a 3 hour commute or work 10 hour days?

No wonder so many people are unhappy most of the time. The people who are really happy are the ones that really enjoy their jobs and have a very short commute and don't need sleep.

In conclusion, lack of play time is fucking us all up! Play more! (Reading this counts as play unless you're at work.)

3 of the 4 songs I did hear today were Dayton related:
Billie Jean Medley is from a Moxy Fruvous concert at Canal St. in Dayton. A great night all around and one that I'm very lucky to have a recording of.

Biminy by Hello Dave was their most popular song when they would play at UD. Oddly enough they're a Chicago based band and I've seen them once or twice since I moved here, but it's never been quite as great as it was seeing them in college.

Billy & the Mystery Box is a song by Heywood Banks. Heywood is a touring comedic singer and a really nice guy. I met him several times during my Dayton radio days. I feel a little bad about having this song though. Apparently when I was cleaning out my desk at Z93 after getting fired, one of Heywood's cds ended up in my box of possessions. I always meant to take it back, but after the whole firing thing, I really didn't want to show my face around there again. Which was really too bad. Except for the peckerhead boss who fired me, I really liked almost everyone else who worked there, but after that morning I only spoke to one of them again (and I haven't heard from him in years.) My time at Z was the happiest I've ever been working, probably because being an on-air radio personality was a lot like playing all the time. I loved my job and my commute was short.

I still needed sleep though, so I guess it wasn't perfect.