Posts Tagged ‘radio’
Caught Up
For a day or two now, we are caught up with mowing all that is growing at the peak rate typical for June. Yesterday was a perfect day for cutting grass with the lawn tractor. It was dry with a nice breeze and the grass wasn’t overgrown. I was able to mow at high speed, there were no piles of clippings, and the finish looks top notch. I will enjoy it for the rarity it was because I regularly find myself facing one or multiple versions of cutting complications.
Cyndie raked the clippings in the labyrinth after giving them a day to dry out and it is looking its best, as well. Did I mention that, after a good night’s sleep, Cyndie was feeling back to her healthy old self?
I tried wearing my earbuds under the earmuff hearing protection I wear while mowing because I am caught up in a Kris Kristofferson song from 1976 that I just heard for the first time. I’m contemplating trying to memorize it so I can create my own version to play and sing.
“There ain’t nothing sweeter than naked emotions
So you show me yours hon and I’ll show you mine”
I heard Shannon McNally’s version first and then searched for the song origins and found both Kristofferson’s and Willie Nelson’s two versions. It amazes me that I haven’t come across this song sooner in the 46-years since it was written.
All credit goes to MPR’s “Radio Heartland” on the HD2 subchannel of KNOW’s 91.1 MHz. I rarely pursue music beyond my personal library collection anymore, so exposure to new music is mostly limited to what I hear on the radio when traveling in my car. My tastes have begun to age out of MPR’s “The Current” at 89.3 MHz FM so more and more I find myself migrating to the primarily acoustic, singer-songwriter, folk, and Americana offerings on “Heartland.”
“And I wish that I was the answer to all of your questions
Lord knows I know you wish you were the answer to mine”
I am enjoying that this song has finally caught up with me after all these years.
.
.
Mary Returns
Looch is back! Honestly, I didn’t realize how much pleasure I had been missing out on during her absence from the airwaves, until I experienced an hour of her first day back and everything, …everything! around me seemed to have a glow of happiness around it.
Mary Lucia is an afternoon host on my preferred public radio station, 89.3 The Current. Cyndie and I are founding members of the station, and have maintained a sustaining membership every year since the start. Public radio broadcasts, devoid of the noise of commercial advertising, with an eclectic mix of contemporary music, is a dream come true for me.
It was an added bonus that I ended up truly appreciating almost all of the KCMP on-air voices that moderate the playlists. Mary has always been my favorite, for reasons both obvious, and mysterious. Certainly the sound of her delivery, the way her splendid personality radiates with a mixture of warmth and brilliance upon every uttered genuine thought that she shares, is captivating to me. But there is something more, and I can’t quite put my head around what it is.
On Monday, while I was smiling with joy over how much pleasure I was getting out of having the radio on again in the background while I puttered away on my laptop, I mentioned to Cyndie that I was even getting a kick out of the song that was playing at the time.
It was something that didn’t appeal to me, at all. I recognized that I was liking a song that I normally wouldn’t like, and it was because I knew Mary had selected it for her first day back. She was having fun. You could hear it. I could feel it.
I was having fun, because she was having fun.
If Bill DeVille had played that same song, I would have hated it. Probably even if he was having fun in doing so.
Somehow, that it was Mary’s doing, made it appealing to me. It’s not entirely logical, but I understand why she might have that effect on me.
I have been a rather sad radio fan for quite some time now. Within a very short time frame, 3 of my favorite radio voices vanished from the airwaves: Steve Seel, Mark Wheat, and Mary. Mark made it back first, and much later, Steve did too, though he didn’t reclaim his old role in the morning slot.
The station has had other personality changes occur, as well, beyond just those three, and the lineup of who I was hearing seemed juggled to the point I felt like every person was filling a temporary role, whether they were, or not. I began to lose interest. My iPod on shuffle replaced the radio in my car. I stopped turning on the radio at home.
I felt no incentive to listen. The thrill was gone. For some reason, I couldn’t even appreciate hearing Wheat back in his normal slot. His glory was diminished, but not by anything of his own doing. It was simply by the absence of the others that evenings with Mark just weren’t the same.
My, how quickly that has changed, and I have Mary to thank. I couldn’t wait to get my radio on yesterday for the drive home. It didn’t even matter what music she chose.
I liked whatever she spun, even if I didn’t.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Relative Something 