For four years I was mad involved with college radio, WXCI 91.7 Danbury Connecticut in fact. I grew up stealing my sisters’ cassette tapes and listening to HOT 97 out of New York City. I’ve been listening to HOT 97 on and off for so long, I remember BEFORE they played hip hop and were a dance music station.
That’s hardcore people.
I also remember the first time I heard dancehall reggae. I recorded it off the radio and played it for my father because I couldn’t understand the words… to a nine year old it’s really quite perplexing. Once Dad explained that some of the words were in Jamaican Creole… you can imagine the confusion.
I listen to everything. I find that people say this a lot but don’t really listen to everything at all. The last five songs on my iTunes this morning were…
1. Aaliyah – Rock the Boat
2. Pet Shop Boys – Different Point of View
3. Everything But the Girl – Tempermental
4. Scandal – The Warrior
5. Morrissey – Why don’t you find out for yourself?
Trust me if I kept going who KNOWS what we’d find. I loved radio because music, to me, can affect moods like good writing should. If it’s done right with a decent set, you might make someone’s day.
Today’s Day 3 of detox… I wrote this poem about it just now…
playing make believe at a political conference
i don’t want
anything. one object.
to control
my habitual moods.
phases of false
exchanges for
contentment. satisfaction
trading time for forgotten
incidents.
fake
tranquility. blurry beliefs.
pretending
to fit a triangle in a circle shape.
forced.
selling out truth for
rather. because
why must we
swallow and smoke
to the extent of
ok. agreement. acceptance.
what if
i said it
just
is not
good enough.
(written to MORE by LOVE SPIT LOVE and SCATTERBRAIN by RADIOHEAD)