SOUNDTRACK: WRFF 104.5 FM & WRXP 101.9 FM.
The CD player in my car died. I have been listening to the radio these last few days. At first I was a little 
excited at the thought of listening to these stations that I so recently discovered. But let me say, when working outside in the yard, you don’t mind what the stations are playing as much as you do when confined in a car.
Everyone hates commercials. True. But I never really noticed how all stations play commercials at the exact same time. So you can’t even switch back and forth between the two stations without someone yelling at you to buy something.
But the real problem comes with the music. Now, these are stations that I like and the bulk of the music they play is very good. However, after being stuck in the car for more than three hour with these two, I’m ready to strangle them. WRFF based in Philadelphia seems to have copped its set list from the venerable Boston radio station WFNX circa 1995. I loved the Toadies back then and was thrilled to hear them again. But I don’t need to hear them every other day, now. And, WRFF loves the Police, almost obsessively. Now, I like the Police quite a lot, but for RFF, The Police seem to be their go-to band. Hey, we’ve got a slot to fill, let’s throw on “Message in a Bottle.” Again. I like the Police, but come on! And, of course, there’s Airborne Toxic Event. I think every time I turn on that station I hear “Some Time Around Midnight.”
And WRXP is just a little too fixated on the classic rock. When I first started listening I was pretty excited at the mix of classic rock and alternative stuff. But at this point, I’ve grown tired of the classic rock, especially since it seems to be all second-tier classic rock. You know, I don’t really need to hear “Money for Nothing” anymore.
And so, I am left scanning the dials. And, I am ashamed to say that it took me a few days to search to the left of the dial, where I know good music normally resides. In my defense, where I used to live didn’t have much access to those stations. But now that I live within shouting distance of Rutgers, there is much to be joyous about.
[READ: May 5, 2009] The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip
I had read this short book about six months ago, but decided to read it again before posting on it. The second time through was a much more satisfying read for some reason.
This story is about a small town called Frip. Frip is on the edge of a cliff above the sea. Lurking in the sea are a multitude of gappers. Gappers are small orange urchin-like creatures. Gappers love goats. Not to eat or to do anything evil to, they just love them. Goats make them happy. Conveniently for the gappers, the three families who live closest to the edge of the cliff all keep goats. Unfortunately for the families and the goats, hundreds of gappers climb on the goats and shriek with delight whenever they cling. This is rather disconcerting for the goats, who stop eating and stop producing milk.
The three families are: our heroine Capable and her dad, her neighbor Mrs Romo and her two boys (who spend their non-gapper moments practicing singing), and Mr & Mrs P and their two girls (who practice looking pretty for boys). The children are employed to go out to the goats eight times a day, scrape the gappers off the goats and throw them back into the sea.
One day, the gappers realize they can go to just one house, instead of all three. So, they choose Capable’s house (which is closest). Now her neighbors have no gappers, but Capable is overwhelmed by them. Capable asks for help but the neighbors tell her that the gappers are her problem now. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: ——-
The CD player in my car died.
I also have 2 CDs in the player, and they won’t play or eject! The one disc is no biggie, Sabotage by Black Sabbath, easily replaceable and for cheap too. The other one, however, is The Tragically Hip’s Live from the Vault Vol. 4 which came free with their new album, 
We Are the Same. I don’t think it’s available anywhere (not even on their website yet). When I go in for my 60,000 mile tune up next month, I’m going to hope they can rescue it.
SOUNDTRACK: AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT-“Sometime Around Midnight” (2009).
I’ve been hearing this song on the radio a lot lately (WRFF especially seems to play it a lot). But they never said who it was! I liked it, but I was sure it sounded like an old song. Ack, but what was it? I kept coming up with a band called Dear Mr. President. And then I heard the truth. It was the Airborne Toxic Event.
SOUNDTRACK: BILLY IDOL
Billy Idol plagues my existence. Ever since he popped up on the scene (my first exposure was “White Wedding”) I thought he was kind of goofy. He has some kind of claim to cred and fame from being in Generation X, and yet I have never heard a song by Generation X and I never hear them mentioned anywhere except as being the band that spawned Billy Idol.
SOUNDTRACK: WRFF 104.5 FM.
I stumbled upon this station by accident one day. I was working outside, trying to tune in a radio station, and, although I was near a classic rock station from New York, I heard a very cool alternative song. So, I tuned in this staticky station and later learned that I was listening to 104.5, WRFF out of Philadelphia.
I feel like I never really knew this song until I heard Cartman getting cattle-prodded for not knowing the words. I listened to that version all the time (but I can’t tell if I like that version or the one on Mr. Hankey’s Christmas Classics better [“Fall on your knees, and hear the angels… something” “VOICES!”]), and what it did was give me a real appreciation for what a cool song this is. The chord changes are very satisfying without being really obvious. And, it’s not an easy song to sing. But I have liked every 
version I’ve heard: from Cartman to Avril Lavigne (whose first two verses on Maybe This Christmas, Too are the most vibrato-free singing I have ever heard. I’m quite certain she’s flat all the way through, and yet her voice is so unaffected it’s totally disconcerting. Tell me what you think…it’s available 
Boy I can’t stand this song. I know it’s supposed to be cute and racy and risque or whatever, but I simply can’t stand how crassly materialistic it is. And I’m not one who thinks Christmas is all about, like, Jesus’ birth or being good or anything. I know it’s all about the presents; however, this song is just….so…wrong. And if the Eartha Kitt version (the one you hear most of the time) 
weren’t bad enough, the Madonna version (on A Very Special Christmas) is just abysmal. She sounds like a sexually deranged Betty Boop (which I suppose is not unusual for her circa this release, but still). Stop trying to seduce Santa! Make it go away!
SOUNDTRACK: WEEZER-Weezer (Red Album) (2008).
I Just Read About That... 