I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK–SIRIUS RADIO

We bought Sirius Radio for my mother-in-law a couple years ago. One day we found the radio safely unplugged and tucked away in the closet, so we took it home with us. We tune it in from time to time, and in general have found it to be quite enjoyable. I’ve made some very specific observations though:

1) Narrowcasting can REALLY limit your selection. Man, some of those stations you can hear the same artist 3 times in two hours. Not the same song, which is nice, but quite often the same artist. And, you can usually tell which artists were doing the ads for it way back when…hi David Bowie, I’m looking at you.

2) Sometimes the channels try to be so unique, that they’re actually just irritating. The Coffeehouse channel, which is overall pretty good, is constantly playing rare live versions or, worse yet, cover versions of the songs that you actually want to hear.

3) The Canadian channels are quite fun, especially The Iceberg. Its a good way to get exposure to bands that you don’t hear very often down here.

4) As with cable TV, there are hundreds of channels but almost none that I will listen to. There’s 10 program channels you can set, and we filled 9 of them. And yet, despite all the variety, there’s no prog rock channel! I put in a request for one, so we’ll see.

5) DJs on Sirius are just as irritating as on commercial radio. I’m glad they’re there, but why must they all be so vacuous? I mean, the cool alternative channel, which plays great music, actually gives us updates that it calls the “Daily DL.” Come on!

6) Overall, it’s a pretty good idea. But we listen to CDs and NPR (NPR on Sirius is just not the same) more often than not.

[READ: June 8, 2008] Lost at Sea

I received a shipment of comics from Oni Press. I don’t get to see many of their books at the store, so I have to order them online. Anyway, I was somewhat taken aback by how this shipment was filled with books that were so similar in style. I realized that I don’t typically judge a graphic story by the content but more by the art style…which may not be such a bad thing really.

In the case of Lost At Sea, there was something about the deceptively simple style of art that really attracted me to the story. The style looks almost sloppy, but when you look at it carefully you can see that much care and attention went into it. The story focuses on 4 Canadian youths returning home from California on a long car trip. The primary character is Raleigh, a girl who believes she has lost her soul and is, more or less, looking for it. The story stays pretty firmly in Raleigh’s head as we learn why she’s with these three strangers, why cats seem to follow her everywhere she goes, and just who the mysterious Stillman is.

It’s a very personal story, and quite moving. In general I find the Oni slice-of-life books to be outstanding and this is no exception. Plus, the author is Canadian so you get to hear about Grade 8, instead of 8th grade! A great read.