Rocket Man

I am an avid listener of public radio. Even in Mississippi I suffered through Mississippi Public Broadcasting. The cut-outs in signal, the broadcasting of two shows on top of each other, the repetition of the same shows back to back. Why? Because I love the national programing.

I have my favorites. Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. Whad'ya Know (which KUOW in Seattle doesn't broadcast), Car Talk. And I passionately hate some programming, like anything done by Garrison Keillor (man, they love him up here; KUOW plays that craptastic show at least twice every weekend).

One show I don't listen to as much as one might think is This American Life. I like it. I subscribe to the podcast. But I rarely get around to listening to it. This morning I was a little slow getting out of bed, and I don't have to be anywhere until this afternoon (manicure followed by coffee).

Today's This American Life was a rerun where they looked at the lives of people who place classified ads in the local paper. The one segment that really caught my ear was Act Three: Musicians Classifieds. They went through the ads and put together a band. The band would be together for one day and would record one song. They had people from all over the music genre map and there were a few things that just didn't seem like they could fit. And they had a violinist who was in anger management.

They went into the to record Elton John's Rocket Man. And you know what? It was amazing. It was one of those things where I stopped everything I did to listen. I got goosebumps. Maybe it was the narrative that went with it--how within a few minutes these people clicked and played like they had always been playing together. It worked, and it worked well. I had hoped they had a copy of the song I could purchase, but I don't see it on their site. Because I would have paid the 99 cents to iTunes to get a copy. You can stream it here.

This episode is seven years old now. I really want to know what happened to the people in the band. Did they ever find a band? Did they ever decide to play together again? Was it just a one-time thing where Jupiter was in Mars and the star aligned just right?

I need to know!

Mocean Worker

I heard Mocean Worker on NPR's Sunday Edition this morning and was just completely blown away. Electronic jazz and big band. I'm wondering if this is another case of "Where the hell have I been?" and "Why haven't I heard of him before?"



And in High Fidelity when Rob Gordon lists his top five jobs and number two is producer, Atlantic Records, 1964-1971? That was this guys' dad. Awesome.

Just in case you didn't know...

It is Columbus day all day today.

At least it is according to the announcer on Mississippi Public Radio.

If you thought it was only half of today, you would be wrong.

You know, our public radio sucks. Really. There is no other way around it. If you don't live in Jackson or farther south, you are dead in their eyes. Weather in northern Mississippi? Must be just like it is in Jackson. Or Merdian. Or the coast. Whatever.

And then this weekend? They played classical music -- and I mean that sad-sack, boring classical music -- Saturday morning instead of the Weekend Edition and Whad'ya Know. But what made it even better (worse) was that the canned announcements that were played on top the I-want-to-kill-myself classical music said things like, "Stay tuned for more Whad'ya Know..." Um, no, I won't be doing that. Nor will I be sending you any of my money. Ever.