So about those posts...

Hey guys. I'm really sorry for not getting those posts up in any kind of timely manner. I've had half-written posts sitting around for about a week, but I didn't have as much time to go on the internet and post them as I thought I would while I was in Turkey, so...you're getting them like tonight. And if I fall asleep (which might happen because I'm jetlagged) then you'll get them tomorrow morning.

I've failed you! I'll be better about that.

6 O'Clock Shadow #1 - 12/16/11

Right Click/Ctrl-Click to Download 6 'O Clock Shadow #1 Here

Hey future CBNers.

Have you ever heard of the "6 O'Clock Shadow" on WCBN? The idea is that for one hour, a friendly DJ (like yours truly), does an hour of freeform and waits for a few guests to come knocking on the station's shady, metal door so that prospective DJs might try picking some music out and get a feel for how it's done. You call. I let you in. You come pick out ANYTHING YOU WANT. I play it. It also gives you a chance to talk to the DJ and ask them ANYTHING YOU WANT.

Today I also had a guest, who is my mother. Who picked out a few of the songs, like Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross. She took a lot of pictures too. Unfortunately for her, I was really busy pretty much the entire hour, and was running around constantly because I ended up playing a bunch of short songs. BUT I think the set came out really well because of it!

[Artist: Song - Album]

1. Marvin Gaye: Dream Of A Lifetime - Dream Of A Lifetime
2. Dan Deacon: The House I Was Isn't My Girlfriends Porsche - Silly Hat vs. Egale Hat
3. Sounds of the Tropical Rain Forest in America
4. Black Joe Lewis: I'm Gonna Leave You - Scandalous
5. Randy Grief: Sneezing and Howling - Alice in Wonderland pt. 3
6. Ella Fitzgerald: Cottontail - Duke Ellington Songbook
7. Heartbeat of Africa: African Bird Sounds - Heartbeat of Africa
8. Angela Hewitt: English Suite No. 1 in A major BWV806 - Bach: the English Suites
9. Metro: A pénz - Well Hung
10. Fred Houn and the Afro-Asian Music Ensemble - We Refuse to Be Used and Abused
11. Tuvan singers: It Began With An Echo - Heart of Tuva
12. Eugene Mirman: Hello My Name Is Trevor - God is a 12-year-old Boy With Asperger's
13. KMFDM: I Can't Reject This Empty Hole - The Juke-Joint Jezebel: The Giorgio Moroder Mixes
14. Cee Lo Green: I Want You - YouTube
15. Diana Ross: Doobedood'ndoobe, Doobedood'ndoobe, Doobedood'ndoo - Everything Is Everything
16. Wordsound I-Powa: Dungeon of Dub - Axiom Dub - Mysteries of Creation
17. Anna Oxygen: Scientist - All Your Faded Things
18. Otis Rush: You Don't Have To Go - Lost in the Blues 

I Want You:

1.  Transition from Houn to Tuvan singers: As I was layering these tracks, I literally could not distinguish the two aurally. I had to simply watch for the first track to end to know which sounds had stopped. These are the moments for why I'm a DJ.
2.  Marvin Gaye: Thank my mom for this actually. I asked her if she wanted to her anything in particular and she said Marvin Gaye. 

I Don't Want You:

1. Doobedoobedoobedoobedobedoo...: I am not joking when I say this is the longest title to a song that I have ever seen or entered into the playlist, and I hope that I never see anything longer. This was horrible to type in. Maybe I could have stuck with one "Doobedood'ndoobe," but I'm dedicated to you, listeners. 
2. There's not enough to hate about this. Deal with it.

I hope you like it! And if you want to DJ, shoot me an e-mail. I'd be glad to point you in the right direction. 

Subshow #10 - 12/17/11

Right Click/Ctrl-Click to Download Subshow #10 Here

Hey lovers.

I know it took a really long time, and that Christmas has past, and for failing you in that regard, I am truly sorry. The thing is, is that I've been in Istanbul for the past week, and didn't have internet as consistently as I thought I might. But please feel no guilt when you listen to the Christmas songs included on the playlist, because it's my fault, not yours, and you deserve more Christmas music than the year allows.

This episode of "Robot Pasta" turned out to be pretty fun, because I also had a guest with me who is training to become a DJaaaaaay! Cool, right? His name's Cameron, and he chose out a lot of the material you see before you. I won't tell you what, so you'll just have to listen.

Also, you will notice a handful of dub-step artists on the playlist, so for those that asked for it, you're welcome. Now that I know that there's a need for dub-step, I'll keep searching it out in the library. 


[Artist: Song - Album]

1. Elvin Jones Quintet: Santa Claus Is Coming To Town - Holiday Jazz Improvisations
2. Bjork: Bükolla - Björk Gudmundsdóttr
3. Jackson 5: Whatever You Got, I Want - Get It Together
4. Trayer: Aernsatz - Afterlife An Abandoned Theme Park
5. The Ventures: Frosty the Snowman - Christmas Album
6. Osborne: In Gear - Afrika EP
7. Jean Metcalfe and Ann Todd: Little Red Riding Hood - Little Red Riding Hood
8. Osborne: Graphite - Afrika EP
9. The Glitch Mob: How To Be Eaten By A Woman - Drink The Sea
10. Bootsy Collins feat. Samuel L. Jackson: After These Messages - The Funk Capitol of the World
11. The Irish Rovers: Cold Winter Shadows - All Hung Up
12. George Winston: Walking in the Air - Forest
13. Hungarian State Opera Orchestra: Cantus in memory of Benjamin Britten for strings and bell - Arvo Pärt: Fratres
14. Zomby: Natalia's Song - Dedication
15. My Brightest Diamond: There's A Rat - All Things Will Unwind
16. The Evolution Control Committee: I Want A Cookie - Plagiarythm Nation
17. The Dynatones: Soul Twist - Chopped & Channeled
18. Akira Jimbo: Carnival De Rio Grande - Palette
19. Allied Radio: Code Course - International Morse
20. Radiosonde: Equinox - Radiosonde
21. Youth Lagoon: Daydream - The Year of Hibernation
22. Weather Report: Plaza Real - Live and Unreleased
23. Steven Rucker/Thomas Chase: Dexter's Laboratory Opening Theme - The Hip-Hop Experiment
24. will.i.am: Secrets - Dexter's Laboratory: The Hip-Hop Experiment
25. The Evolution Control Committee: The Shakes - All Rights Reserved
26. Burial: Ghost Hardware - UNTRUE.HOBCD002
27. Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: The Volga Vouty (Russian Dance) - The Nutcracker Suite
28. Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: Chinoiserie (Chinese Dance) - The Nutcracker Suite
29. Cristian Vogel: La Isla Piscola For the Traveling Fish Lover Version - La Isla Piscola
30. The Roger Wagner Chorale: Vivaldi: Magnificat - Magnificat
31. Star Wars Gang: R2-D2 We Wish You A Merry Christmas - Star Wars Christmas

--. --- --- -..

1.  Morse code: This was definitely the highlight for me. I was practically doing backflips when I saw that we had a morse code sound effect LP, and started playing it immediately. I actually had a listener call in and ask if there was something wrong with our system, or whether it was intentional.
2. Duke's Nutcracker Suite: Mmm this was absolutely delicious for my ears. I'm sad that it has to go back into the reaches of the Christmas collection, otherwise I would play it all the time.
3. Dexter's Lab: Do you remember this show?! Because Cameron and I did. I even remember this will.i.am song. And the music video. I miss Cartoon Network. I miss having cable...anyway. This is genius and I was literally screaming in the studio while it was playing.

-... .- -..

1. Osborne meets Little Red: I'm really unsure about this. I had a very uncomfortable feeling the whole time this was playing. How did it make you feel?
2. F*** up: Yup, I think I played an FCC. And by "I think," i mean that I definitely played an FCC. I tried to correct it as quickly as I could after I heard it, but that's hard sometimes. 

I usually try to have three things for each category, good and bad, but I thought this was a pretty good show besides those few things I mentioned. C'est la vie. Keep listening folks! Give me comments if you can!

Radiozilla #1 - 12/11/11

Right Click/Ctrl-Click to Download Radiozilla #1 Here

I recently got drafted into the Radiozilla rotation list, guys. Radiozilla is WCBN's all Japanese music show. Does that seem oddly specific? Maybe it is, but I really don't care, because I could play this stuff all day.

There's not much else to say except that I had a fantastic time searching through the WCBN library for the Japanese stuff. There was a list of Japanese musicians that I was e-mailed beforehand so that I wasn't so overwhelmed (which is really a life-saver), but throughout my search I also found a lot of other names that weren't on the list, so I'm really excited to do another Radiozilla show!

[Artist: Song - Album]

1. Gontiti: Coconut Basket - Sunday Market
2. Takako Minekawa: Fantastic Cat - Roomic Cube
3. Polysics: E.L.T.C.C.T. - Absolute Polysics
4. Nobukazu: White Sheep and Small Light - Hoshi No Koe
5. Sadao Watanabe: Echo - A Night With Strings
6. Yoko Kanno: Pu Qua O - Macross Plus OST II
7. Junko Sumi: (track #1) - Junko Sings Japanese Nursery Rhymes
8. Thee Michelle Gun Elephant: God Jazz Time - Rodeo Tandem Beat Specter
9. Hiromi: Keytalk - Brain
10. Chocolat: Blue Mint Blue - Japan Not For Sale vol. 2
11. Tokyo Kid Brothers: (track #3) - Golden Bat
12. Polysics: New Wave Jacket - Japan For Sale vol. 2
13. Yoko Solo: don't fall asleep i'm warning you don't fall asleep - The Beeps
14. Akiko Yano: Angler's Summer - Love Life
15. unknown: (track #8) - Tenchi Muyo Christmas

Fantastic Cats:

1. Polysics: I love all things by Polysics. They were one of the first Japanese bands I ever listened to. 
2. Yoko Kanno: Always a pleasure, m'dear. I'm so obsessed with you.
3. Tenchi Muyo Christmas: I used to watch Tenchi Muyo alllll the time when I was a kid. It was one of my first animes actually, and I would sometimes watch it with friends who had taped it off of Cartoon Network so I wouldn't miss it. Haha! 

Not so fantastic cats:

1. Nothing: This was perfect. Practically. Also, it was just too short to mess up. 

Freestailo #16 - 12/11/11

Right Click/Ctrl-Click to Download Freestailo #16 Here

This was a long night for me guys, because guess who has exams this week. This guy. Truthfully, as I was DJing, I was also trying to glue tiny print-outs of photographs for my history of photography flash cards after an hour of sleep beforehand.

On the show I read the Edgar Allan Poe poem "The Bells" to go with the various bell-themed songs I played. I suggest you take another look at the poetry if you like it.

I really have very little to say about this show, except that I'm happy that I got to play some Christmas music, and I really hope that you like it.

[Artist: Song - Album]

1. Taraf de Haïdouks: The Return of the Magic Horses - Band of Gypsies
2. Quintron: Stray Cat Strut - The Frog Tape
3. Apollo: Space Cannibals - Apollo
4. Hungry March Band: Asphalt Tango - On the Water Front
5. Johnny Copeland: Cut Off My Right Arm - Live In Australia
6. Masloboevs: Ivan's matka - Russian Folksongs In The Key of Sadness
7. Barbra Streisand: O Little Town Of Bethelehem - A Christmas Album
8. Kanda Bongo Man: Zing-Zong - Zing-Zong
9. Yokota Susumu: Live Echo - The Boy And The Tree
10. The Slew: Southeast Soliloquy - 100%
11. Ferrante and Teicher: Santa Claus is Coming to Town - Best of Christmas vol. 2
12. Paddy Blackin and Michaél Ó Domhnaill - Celtic Christmas III
13. Clare Fischer: Pensativa - Hub Art
14. The Orb: Requiem pour un c... - I <3 Serge
15. American Boychoir: Carol of the Bells - In The Park: Christmas
16. The Muppets: Ringing of the Bells - YouTube
17. United States Airforce Singing Sergeants: Carol of the Bells - Caroling
18. Children of St. Judge: St. Jude Carol of the Bells - YouTube
19. La Petite Bande de Montreal: Noel Ukrainien - En la Fete de Noel - O Holy Night
20. Benedictine Monks of the Abbey of Saint-Maurice & Saint-Maur, Clervaux
21. Umich University Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Choir, University Choir, Orpheus Singers: The Bells, Op. 35 (Rachmaninoff) - University of Michigan School of Music
22. Amon Tobin: Bedtime Stories - Isam
23. Tubuai Choir - Te Pererau No Te Maitai - Polenesian Odyssey
24. The Mexicali Brass: Winter Wonderland - Jingle Bells
25. Boozoo Chavis: Suzy-Q - Zydeco Homebrew
26. Quadron: Samba De Varão - Red Hot + Rio 2
27. Currer Bells: Two Winters - Currer Bells
28. Michael Robinson: Rainbow Thunder (Vasanta) - Rainbow Thunder
29. Nat King Cole: O Tannenbaum - The Christmas Song
30. Nighthawks: Hound Dog - Nighthawks Live at the Psyche Delly
31. Soul Town: Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Soul Town Christmas
32. The Dust Brothers: Space Monkeys - Fight Club Soundtrack
33. Yosefa: Taj Mahal - The Desert Speaks

Santa Claus is coming to town...:

1. Bells: I think that the entire "bells" section of my show was very interesting, and I think that it took an interesting direction, and one that I didn't expect. I like the story that I told by doing this. Thanks for my friend Sophie for inspiring this!
2. Cassette Town: I used a cassette guys! My first cassette use ever! And it sounded REALLY GOOD. Cassette's are higher quality than I thought. 
3. Mexicali Brass: Dayum, this is good stuff. I can't wait to play more. 

You better watch out...:

1. Bells: I love and hate what I did with the "bells" section of my show, to be honest. I love Carol of the Bells, and I'm glad I had a story to share with you, but my choice to play Rachmaninoff's "The Bells" without any layering whatsoever is dubious though. What do you think?
2. Not enough layering: I don't know what was wrong, but I was not feeling the layering tonight. I'm so sorry. I hope you will still listen to my show.

Gib mir feedback!

Subshow #9 - 12/3/11

Right Click/Ctrl-Click to Download Subshow #9 Here

Did you know that pretty much every show I pick something from the hip-hop section? I try really hard to have an immense amount of eclecticism in my sets, and I think that it usually pays off. That said, there are certain sections that I still don't have a good feel for because I only pick one or two things from the section. Hip-hop/rap is one of them. That's why when I saw that Chill Will was going to be gone for his show, I snagged it. 

WCBN has a surprising amount of hip-hop, and guys: it's really good. Tons of vinyls with a lot of great sampling opportunities for freeform. I had no idea. And I don't think I really knew how hip-hop albums worked either. With rock/soul/folk/whatever you get lots of tracks on one side, and lots of tracks on another. All different. But with hip-hop the vinyl is one track, and there are like 4 different versions of that track on one side, and 4 different versions of a different track on the other. This is how you get radio versions, album versions, instrumental versions, etc. All perfect for my freeform-beating heart. 

I talked to a friend Kim from home (who's also a fan of my freeform show), and he gave me some great suggestions, some of which I played: Brother Ali, Flying Lotus, Atmosphere, Sage Francis, and Eyedea+Abilities. I'm really happy with his suggestions, and the request I got of the Triforce of Js: Jurassic 5, J Dilla, Jedi Mind Tricks. I'm learning so much, guys!

Let's do this thing, shall we? 

[Artist: Song - Album]

1. Helis: Popular Thug (Radio Mix) - Popular Thug
2. Akrobatik: Remind My Soul (clean) - Remind My Soul
3. Talib Kweli: Joy feat. Mos Def - Quality
4. Lupe Fiasco: I Gotcha (radio edit) - I Gotcha
5. De La Sol: U Can Do (Life) - ///Aoi
6. Aesop Rock: The Greatest Pac-Man Victory in History - Bazooka Tooth
7. Kid Koala: slew test 2/mosquito vs. water buffalo/slew test 3 - Your Mom's Favorite DJ
8. Brother Ali: Star Quality - Shadows On The Sun
9. G&D: War Drums - The Message
10. Flatlinerz: Satanic Verses (radio edit) - Satanic Verses
11. Danger Mouse: Take Care of Business - Take Care of Business
12. Flying Lotus: Golden Diva - Los Angeles
13. Saul Williams: Coded Language - Amethyst Rock Star
14. Jurassic 5: W.O.E. Is Me (World of Entertainment) - W.O.E. Is Me
15. J Dilla: (track #26) - Dilla Doughnuts
16. Jedi Mind Tricks: Heavy Metal Kings feat. Ill Bill - Servants in Heaven, Kings in Hell
17. Dream Warriors: Voyage Through The Multiverse - And Now The Legacy Begins
18. Gusto: Materialistic Girl (dub) - Materialistic Girl
19. Dove Shack: Summertime In The LBC (LP Version) - Summertime In The LBC
20. 44 Max: Pussh + Shove (Max Mix) - Pussh + Shove
21. Toshi Kubota: (All Star Street Funk Mix) - Funk It Up
22. The Black Keys with Mos Def: On The Vista - Blackroc
23. Atmosphere: Panic Attack - The Fun EP
24. Black Czer: Who Got The Glock (album version) - Who Got The Glock/Stick Up
25. Cannibal Ox: Pidgeon - The Cold Vein
26. Psyche Origami: Wherever You Are - The Standard
27. Wiley: Boom Boom Da Na - 100% Publishing
28. Sage Francis: Broken Wings - Personal Journals
29. Madvillain: Accordian - Madvillain
30. Cypress Hill: Make A Move - Temples of Doom
31. Mathambo: Mshini Wam - Mshini Wam
32. Raashan Ahmad: Heavenbound - The Push
33. Eyedea + Abilities: Paradise - E&A
34. Dark Sun Riders: Zoneweilders Groove - Seeds of Evolution
35. Material (Extrakd/Eddie Def): Who Wake the Rooster? - Intonarumori
36. Hami: Keep On Usin' Me (I Must Like It) - The Funky Descendant
37. Cee Lo Green: Brighter Lights, Bigger City - The Lady Killer
38. Deltron 3030: Turbulence remix by Mark Bell (Depeche Mode) - Positive Contact
39. Ladae!: Ghetto Flava - Party 2 Nite

U Can Do:

1. Triple J Request: These three were great artists to put together, and I'm happy with the songs that I picked. I can't wait to play more of their stuff on my freeform show. 
2. Cannibal Ox: I had no idea what this was, but I really like it. This and a few other albums really pushed my perceptions of hip-hop into something that I can understand. It's really like any other genre with lots of sub-genres attached to it, and Cannibal Ox kind of sounds like a nerdier, grittier hip-hop. Like the metal of rock. 
3. Cee Lo Green: This was a request by a friend, and I was kind of astounded at how good it was. It was perfect for the near end of my set, so thanks!

U Can't Do:

1. Umm...: Not that it was "the perfect show" or anything, but I really can't think of much I disliked about it. I don't know enough about hip-hop to really think I've done anything wrong. 
2. Oh I know!: I really didn't do anything risky on this show. Like, at all. I pretty much played from track to track, and that was it. I'm glad that I did, because I just don't know how I would have layered all hip-hop music, and I have a better sense of the library now, but that's something I would like to be better at in the future. 

Feedback, guys. I want it.

Freestailo #15 - 11/27/11

Right Click/Ctrl-Click to Download Freestailo #15 Here

Mallow being told he's not really a frog.

First let me say how pleased I am with how parts of this show came out. I'm seriously, seriously really happy with it, and it's the first show where I've felt that I had a good grasp of the playlist when I went back and looked at it. The arc that I felt within the 3 hours felt tangible, rather than a little chaotic like it usually is.

After listening to the entire show, I'm especially happy with two sets of sound: my video game rant, and my whale sounds set. A lot of you probably know that I LOVE video game music, and if I could have an entire weekly hour of just video game music I totally would...this isn't a bad idea...you may be hearing more video game music in the near future. But ANYWAY, I love talking about retro video games, and it really made my night to listen to/talk about/play for you Super Mario RPG stuff. I think that the music worked really well, and after listening to it I'm sure that you'll enjoy it as well.

"Samson and Delilah" by Peter Paul Rubens

The Titanic set for me was absolutely wonderful, and I really enjoyed listening back on it properly. My original idea came from grabbing the "Titanic Music As Heard On The Fateful Voyage" CD and reading the back. Immediately I thought of the "Whale Sounds" vinyl to use for layering, and to play a clip from the actual movie. With all of these ideas. As I went to find the whale sounds I found the Bernie Krause vinyl, which I think added a strange but good variety to the set. Even listening to it I couldn't tell what was from the Krause, and what was from the whale sounds, which I think is pretty cool. They both came out of the "Sound Effects" section, so I guess I should have expected that. Then I saw that "Mon Coeur" was on the Titanic CD, and knew that I had to play that, immediately followed by a recording of the vocal version from the actual opera. This song is one of my favorite songs of all time, across all genres. This almost always makes me want to just sob. Also, did you know that Muse has a version of this?!

Oh, and because it's my blog and I do what I want, I'm going to tell you a little bit about Samson et Dalila by Saint-Saëns. The story goes that Samson, a hero of the Israelites, is threatening the livelihood of the Philistines. The High Priest asks Dalila to seduce Samson and find his weakness, and she agrees. In the opera, she does this purely for revenge against him, and for her loyalty to her gods. In the original story, she does it purely for money. I can't tell what is more tragic. Anyway, she seduces him and brings him into her bedroom. She asks him what his weakness is 3 times, and each time he lies to her. On the 4th time though, he tells her that his power lies in his hair, and that if it is cut then he is helpless. This is when she sings "Mon coeur S'Ouvre Ta Voix," and very shortly after, as he sleeps with his head in her lap, she calls the Philistine soldiers that have been hiding to come and bind him and cut his hair. The opera ends with Samson crying out in pray to God, and toppling over the pillars of the temple in his despair, crushing himself and the Philistines in the process.

Here's a video of the lovely Shirley Verrett singing the famous aria:

Here are the lyrics/translation to "Mon Coeur 'S'Ouvre A Ta Voix" which I stole from Wikipedia:

Original French	English translation
Mon cœur s'ouvre à ta voix, comme s'ouvrent les fleurs aux baisers de l'aurore! Mais, ô mon bienaimé, pour mieux sécher mes pleurs, que ta voix parle encore! Dis-moi qu'à Dalila tu reviens pour jamais. Redis à ma tendresse les serments d'autrefois, ces serments que j'aimais! |: Ah! réponds à ma tendresse! Verse-moi, verse-moi l'ivresse! :| Dalila! Dalila! Je t'aime! Ainsi qu'on voit des blés les épis onduler sous la brise légère, ainsi frémit mon coeur, prêt à se consoler, à ta voix qui m'est chère! La flèche est moins rapide à porter le trépas, que ne l'est ton amante à voler dans tes bras! |: Ah! réponds à ma tendresse! Verse-moi, verse-moi l'ivresse! :| Dalila! Dalila! Je t'aime!	My heart opens to your voice Like the flowers open To the kisses of the dawn! But, oh my beloved, To better dry my tears, Let your voice speak again! Tell me that you are returning To Delilah forever! Repeat to my tenderness The promises of old times, Those promises that I loved! |: Ah! respond to my tenderness! Fill me with ecstasy! :| Dalila! Dalila! I love you! Like one sees the blades Of wheat that wave In the light wind, So trembles my heart, Ready to be consoled, By your voice that is so dear to me! The arrow is less rapid In bringing death, Than is your lover To fly into your arms! |: Ah! respond to my tenderness! Fill me with ecstasy! :| Dalila! Dalila! I love you!

Now I really want to watch this opera. Who wants to watch it with me? No? You want the playlist? OK.

[Artist: Song - Album]

1. The Temptations: Cloud Nine - Great Songs and Performances That Inspired the Motown 25th Anniversary T.V. Special
2. Jon Gillock and Kathleen Bride: Charles Tournemire: Improvisation on the "Te Deum" for Organ - Organ and Harp
3. Skeleton Key: Watch The Fat Man Swing - Fantastic Spikes Through Balloon
4. DJ Vadim: Bath in Bleach ft. Monte Smith - The Soundcatcher
5. Nancy Lesh: Raga Multani: Dhrupad in Chautal - Nancy Lesh, cello
6. Foster the People: Waster - Torches
7. Skylab: Seashell - Skylab #1
8. Urbie Green: On Green Dolphin Street - The Lyrical Language of Urbie Green
9. Nu-Spirit Helsinki: Afro-Cuban Sunshine - Mundial Muzique
10. Tom Brosseau: Chandler - Posthumous Success
11. Bjork: Frosti - Vespertine
12. Chet Baker: 'Round Midnight (vocal version) - 'Round Midnight
13. Damu the Fudgemunk: To RBI - Spare Time
14. Sarolta Zalatnay: Egyser (with Skorpio) - Sarolta Zalatnay
15. Schneider: Peanut - Skoda Mluvit
16. REM: Hollow Man - Accelerate
17. Richard Crandell: Diagonal - Wayfaring Strangers (Guitar Soli)
18. Sacred Harp Singers At Liberty Church: I'm Going Home - Cold Mountain Soundtrack
19. Lesser vs. Venetian Snares: Mensa Disco Queers - Return Of The Fight Club
20. M.I.A.: Bamboo Banga - Kala
21. Black Heat: Chicken Heads - Declassified Grooves
22. Nintendo: My Paradise & Monstro Town - Super Mario RPG OST
23. Nintendo: Still, Road Is Full Of Dangers - Super Mario RPG OST
24. Nintendo: Super Pipe House - Super Mario RPG OST
25. Nintendo: Happy Parade, Delightful Parade - Super Mario RPG OST
26. Nintendo: Sad Song - Super Mario RPG OST
27. BrandonFX: Waltz of Pain (Sad Song) - Newgrounds Audio Portal
28. Whales: various whale sounds - Deep Voices
29. Ian Whitcomb: The Convergence of the Twain - Titanic Music As Heard On The Fateful Voyage
30. Bernie Krause: Fish Wrap - Jungle Shoes
31. Ian Whitcomb: Mon Coeur S'Ouvre A Ta Voix - Titanic Music As Heard On The Fateful Voyage
32. Olga Borodina: Mon Coeur S'Ouvre A Ta Voix - Saint-Saëns: Samson Et Dalila
33. Leonardo DiCaprio & Kate Winslet: Jack Dies - Titantic
34. Leo Kottke: Watermelon - Leo Kottke
35. Com Truise: VHS Sex - Galactic Melt
36. Aras Ensemble: Sevk-Efzâ: Nûmân Aga - Works by Turkish Composers
37. Wild Beasts: We Still Got The Taste Dancing On Our Tongues - Two Dancers
38. Komeda: Elvira Madigan - Kokomemedada
39. Kononono No. 1: Wumbanzanga - Assume Crash Position
40. Solvent: Instructograph - Apples and Synthesizers
41. Les Rosemary's Babies: Les Marins, Les Rats Et La Baleine (Fable) - Lutte de Classe
42. Tea: Vibration - Dreams
43. Black Fiction: I spread the disease - Ghost Ride

Good things:

1. Super Mario RPG set: It seriously makes me so happy to play video game music for you, and I really like the selections that I picked, and how they kind of morphed into what I was talking about. 
2. Titanic set: I'm so excited for you to hear this so just go download the file. 
3. Cold Mountain Soundtrack: I was pleasantly surprised with this. Did you know Jack White composed/recorded about half of this album? Wow. 

Bad things:

1. Huge pause after Titanic: The whale sounds record was actually still playing, but it didn't really sound like it was because the overtones were sooooo low, and the Titanic video cut out earlier than I thought it would. Bu then again, maybe that's cool. Maybe you liked it. I don't know. 
2. Elvira cutting out: UGH. I HATE doing this. I was swearing like a sailor in the station when this happened. Sorry about that. 
3. Absolutely slaughtering the pronunciation of "Mon Coeur S'ouvre A Ta Voix": One of my friends in particular is going to really make fun of me for that and I think you know who you are, asshole. I have been mentally kicking myself since then, and it's recorded for all to hear. I am ashamed.

As always, I encourage you to leave me comments/suggestions/requests, and to keep listening to the show. I love the feedback I've been getting, and I can't wait to hear what you think of this show in particular. 

Subshow #8 - 11/23/11

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This week is Thanksgiving (duh), so I decided to take a slot to ease the pain of the good soldiers that stay during Thanksgiving to run marathons of radio. Not that my two hour slot makes a difference, but as Arwulf says to me when he sees me, "What you're doing makes a difference." So there ya go.

Today I did something pretty different: I talked. A lot. I've been getting a lot of feedback from friends and family that they would like to hear me talk more, besides just reading events information and back announcing. This is an idea that I've been toying with especially since coming back from Radiovision, after hearing so many amazing storytellers (Ira Glass, Joe Frank, etc.) talk about their work. I feel really lucky to have the freedom to experiment with that at WCBN, so I hope that you enjoy it. I mostly stuck to explaining what I chose to play, and how it relates to my life, so let me know if that's something I should keep doing.

I also recently talked to a good friend, and one of my favorite listeners while I was home for Thanksgiving, and he gave me some really good suggestions for conscious hip-hop artists to listen to, so expect to hear some more of that over the next few weeks.

[Artist: Song - Album]

1. Noirkestra: Ectoplasmic Tadpoles (Frog's Neck Bridge) - Psi-Fi-Hi
2. Himuro: Mild Fantasy Violence - Mild Fantasy Violence
3. Jean Morel and Royal Opera House Orchestra: Swan Lake - Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake
4. Gotan Project: Gotan Project meets Chet Baker Round Midnight - Inspiración-Espiración
5. Masloboevas: Lasses - Russian Folksongs in the Key of Sadness
6. St. Tropez: Morning Music - Morning Music
7. Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade - Scheherazade
8. Kohwi: Reeling The Warmth - Hidden Trees
9. Andrew Bird: First Song - Weather Systems
10. J Dilla: E=MC2 feat. Common - The Shining
11. Kitty Craft: One Fortune Smile - Beats an Breaks from the Flower Patch
12. Electric Sandwich: Material Darkness - Electric Sandwich
13. Anand Badamikar (tabla): Vilambit - Tintal
14. Slap: Auto-repeat (version 2) - unmodified
15. Either/Orchestra: Amlak abét abét - Ethiopiques 20
16. Michael Perkins: Prelude + Esteban - MR 666
17. Bootsy: Roto-Rooter - Keepin' Dah Funk Alive 2 - 1995
18. Happy: Like Quicksand - kiss.bang.

Good Turkeys

1. Swan Lake: Like I mention in the show, I had a watch a clip of this for my ballet class, and I'm really happy I got to listen to more of it for the show. I also think that the track went oddly well as far as length for how long my story was. Haha.
2. Andrew Bird: Mmmm this was a gooood track. It kind of reminded me of the "Fatal" track from Escaflowne that I played last week. And both of them remind me of that creepy whistling track from Kill Bill...maybe I'll play that next week.
3. Gotan Project: This track especially was super interesting to me, and kind of reveals the kind of influences that Gotan Project has, if they're making Chet Baker tracks, you know?

Bad Turkeys

1. Electric Sandwich train wreck: *headdesk* I really didn't mean to stop that track right in the middle. I hit eject on the wrong CD player, and I couldn't think of what else to do. Womp womp.
2. Ummmmm: I can't think of anything else. Maybe this is where you come in and tell me what I did? I honestly think my show as too short to mess up too much.

FEEDBACK GUYS! FEEDBACK! 

Freestailo #14 - 11/20/11

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Hedwig clearly wants you to listen to WCBN.

Hello Earthlings.

I've been thinking a lot about the decisions that affect taking requests as a DJ. Hopefully you know this, but at WCBN, we take requests all the time. Every time I get a request, my gut feeling is, "I have to make this happen no matter what." First I run around the station frantically trying to find a hard copy of it (CD/Vinyl), but if I can't find it, I then have four options, in this order:

1. My Personal Library
2. Umich Streaming Audio via the Music Library Website
3. Grooveshark
4. Google (I am so, so sorry)

If I can't find it after that, it simply doesn't exist. Here's my moral dilemma though: should I even be considering any of these options (or the last 3 options)? The ultimate goal of the radio station is to give listeners high quality music over the airwaves. Am I betraying them if I play a YouTube clip, even if it was a listener that requested this song? A major problem I come to is this: if a listener requests something, they REALLY want to hear it. They wouldn't tell me to play a song that they didn't absolutely love. I want to give them what they want, and I want to share it with them. When I've had to tell someone that I can't play a request, it's like I told them their dog died. And if I can't please my one listener at 4:30 in the morning, then who am I trying to please?

Tell me what you think about this: would you rather have only high quality recordings, or have requests but at the cost of using a low quality recording? Does it matter to you? Can you tell the difference?

[Artist: Song - Album]

1. Victims Family: New World Hors D'Oeuvre - The Germ
2. M.I.A.: Galang - Arular
3. Anne Hills: Cloudships - Bittersweet Street
4. Ladytron: Destroy Everything You Touch - Witching Hour
5. Bob and Danny Weller: Cranning Call - Tree of Thorns
6. The Dells: Oh, What A Night - The Best of Chess Vocal Groups
7. Yoko Kanno: Go Ri A Te - Macross Plus OST II
8. Coco Montoya: Do What You Want To Do - The Essential Coco Montoya
9. Astor Piazzolla: Tanguedia - Luna
10. Kanda Bongo Man: Liza - Soukous in Central Park
11. Black Taj: L.A. Shift - Beyonder
12. Soupy Sales: Somebody Else Knockin' At My Door - Still Soupy After All These Years
13. Labelle: Sunday's News - Moon Shadow
14. Genoa Keawe: Pupu A'o Niihau - Legends of Falsetto
15. Skinless: Deathwork - From Sacrifice to Survival
16. Maxwell St. Klezmer Band: Hopkele - You Should Be So Lucky!
17. Uriah Heep: Devil's Daughter - Return to Fantasy
18. Eroc: Feuerwolken - Eroc3
19. Carlo Curley Concert Curios: Camille Saint-Saens: Fantasie in E-flat Major - The Allen Digital Computer Organ
20. Evgeny Masloboev and Anastasia Masloboeva: Kvanshnya - Russian Folksongs in the Key of Rhythm
21. Fred Wesley: Herbal Turkey Breast - Amalgamation
22. Bon Iver: Perth - Sparks and Glowsticks
23. Recorded by Alain Weber: Hilal Gesture (in Harmont alBabur) - Music of the Nile Valley
24. (unknown): Steam and Diesel Locomotives - Railroad Sounds
25. Luke Temple: The Owl Song - snowbeast
26. Air: Il Secondo Giorno (Instrumental) - Marie Antoinette Soundtrack
27. Erich Kunzel and Cincinnati Pops Orchestra: Hedwig's Theme from Harry Potter - Epics
28. Quetzalcoatl: La Gallina (Mexico) - Quetzalcoatl
29. The Antlers: Bear - Hospice
30. Värttinä: Vihma - Vihma
31. Randy Grief: Octopus Robot - War of the World, an Emergency Broadcast
32. Louis Prima: Route 66 - YouTube
33. Brave Combo: J'ai Faim, Toujours - Kiss of Fire
34. Jurassic 5: Brown Girl - Feedback
35. Franz Ferdinand: I'm Your Villain - Remixes
36. Embryo: Dreaming Girls - Steig aus
37. Brad Adkins: Imitating Walking + Lying for a Living - Big Red
38. Curve: Zoo - Pubic Fruit
39. Supersprite: Ghost at the Fireworks Factory - Color Mixing
40. Bootsy: The Pinocchio Theory - Ahh...The Name's Bootsy, Baby!

I'm Your Hero

1. Trains!: Like I said on air, I love trains. I love riding them, I love the sound of them, I love the view, the people, the bumpy feeling of the tracks. I think the tracks I layered with the train sound effects were perfect, ESPECIALLY "Hedwig's Theme" from Harry Potter. It's like we're going to Hogwarts!
2. Luke Temple: This was a really nice surprise, because I literally grabbed this CD because the album name was "snowbeast" which reminds me of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for some reason. Also...more owls.
3. Hafiz and Rumi: Thanks to my good friend Katie, you got a beautiful Hafiz poem for your ears to process. This reminded me of Rumi's poetry, which is also lush and beautiful. Layered with the Nile Valley music, I think it came off well.

I'm Your Villain

1. Ladytron Interruption: Right on the inside of the cover there was a sign that said, "Track 2 stops in middle! Bad rip!" But silly me decided to play track 2 anyway. So of course it stopped.
2. Vielle Pause: I feel like I was not on top of the transitions today. Nothing in particular stood out to me, but I felt like it happened a few too many times for my comfort. I swear I will get better at that.
3. Too much rock?: I realized after I came back from the rock section that half my pile of music for the show was rock. I hope I was still able to balance it out, but it still felt a little weird. What do you think?

Tune in next time, and keep giving me feedback! I really appreciate it!

Freestailo #13 - 11/13/11

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Guys. I just realized that my 13th Freestailo happened on the 11/13. THIRTEENS! AND 11 and 13 are both prime numbers. How cool is that?!

See?! 11 and 13!

This show was pretty fun, mostly because I felt like there was a little less pressure to have a great show because I subbed Kirsten's show on the Thursday before. I did a lot less layering, and I played mostly straight tracks, but I thought a lot about how I wanted to order things. I picked a pretty big stack of CDs, and used almost all of it, while gradually adding LPs and more CDs throughout the night for variety. It was a good challenge for myself to keep the level of variety (and aesthetic) that I usually have for my show in that way. Verstehst du mich? Das its nicht so klar.

I often will read poetry on my show, but instead of taking up large chunks of time to read and maybe explain the poetry, I decided to just read it. How did you feel about that? Did you like that more than me talking about it more? I would really like to know. Also, here's a list of the poetry I read:

• "Sonnet: To Eva" by Sylvia Plath
• "Sonnet V: If I should learn" by Edna St. Vincent Millay
• "Sonnet #5" by William Shakespeare

Auch, ich habe eine Frage für meine Deutsche Leute: wer ist dein Lieblingsdichter, oder dein Lieblingsgedicht? Ich möchte etwas gute Gedichte lesen kommende Woche.

[Artist: Song - Album]

1. Divine Styler: Grey Matter (Cosmos Mix) - Grey Mater
2. Hiromi: Music for 3-Piece Orchestra: Déjà vu - Spiral
3. Yamantaka: Reverse Crystal // Murder of a Spider - Sonic Titan
4. Dan Deacon: my own face is F word - Meetle Mice
5. Bio Ritmo: La hamaca - Bio Ritmo
6. Bootsy: Fat Cat - Ultra Wave
7. Sarasota: Tethered - Things Alive
8. Hill of Beans: Satan, Lend Me A Dollar - Hill of Beans
9. Boris Grebenshikov: Gertruda - Russian Songwriter
10. Field recorder August Schmidhofer: Revoro - Madagascar: Music in Tromba and Bilo Trance Rituals
11. Yoko Kanno: Fatal - Vision of Escaflowne OST 3
12. Celestial Navigations: Janitor III: The Vacation - Chapter V
13. xeno & oaklander: Blue Flower - Vigils
14. Groove and the Gang: Soul Conga - Mr. Boogaloo
15. All Out Water: Two Thousand Years - Condemned to Suffer
16. Deepspace5: Wingspan - Unique, Just LIke Everyone Else
17. Chirgilchin: Kara Drya (Black Crane) - The Wolf & The Kid
18. The Rembrandts: I'll Be There For You - Friend's Theme
19. Vector: Dreams and Realization - Synthonic
20. Sarasota: I Fled To The Midwest - I'm Not My Bad Habits
21. Sarasate: Habanera (Heifetz) - Sarasate
22. Al Mayadine Quartet: 1st Movement - Jadal (Oud Duo)
23. Sierra's Leone's Refugee All Stars: Soda Soap - Living Like A Refugee
24. Kraftwerk: Spacelab - The Man Machine
25. Urbie Green: Manteca - The Fox
26. Mashkoor Ali Khan: Raga Lalit: Vilambit bandish in jhumra tal - Mashkoor Ali Khan
27. The Christal Methodists: Backwards Masking/Dick Smarmey - New World Order
28. Zara: Anadolu - Avuntu
29. Luis Bonfá: Manhã de Carnaval - Solo in Rio 1959
30. IAM: Bouger La Tête - L'ecole du Micro D'argent
31. Prince Charles and the City Beat Band: Jungle Stomp (Extended Version) - Cash (Cash Money)
32. Menthols: Fire Fire Fire - Michigan Works
33. Mia Boyle: I Am A Diver - I Am A Diver
34. Paul Stookey: Get Together - One Night Stand
35. Lester Bowie's New York Organ Ensemble: Funky T - Funky T. Cool T.

Good T.

1. Transition of moods: The transition between Deepspace5 and Chirgilchin was oddly appropriate, since Deepspace5 had a small amount of Tuvan throat singing in the background. That was not planned, except for the face that I linked their covers for a visual transition for myself. The same thing happened with Hill of Beans to Boris Grebenshikov, and from that to the Madagascar recording.
2. I found the Urbie Green album!: I tried to find it for the show on Thursday but failed, because all I could remember was that it had the word "Fox" in the title, which gives me nothing essentially. If we had an online database maybe it would have been easier, but I think I really liked having to hunt for it. It's like winning an eBay auction. 
3. Escaflowne OSTs: Soooo apparently we have like 4 Vision of Escaflowne soundtracks in the soundtrack section. This means 4 CDs of mostly Yoko Kanno. I think I literally screamed when I found it. Also, the particular Yoko Kanno track I played was, like, ecstasy. It also reminded me of Kill Bill. Hahaha. 

Bad T.

1. Messing up Kim's requests: Yeah so my friend Kim requested Sarasate near the middle of the first hour, and I ended up playing Sarasota because I thought that's what he meant. Turns out, he really did mean Sarasate. Good rule to live by: just go with what your requester says and don't question, otherwise you'll look like an ass. 
2. Big pause in first hour: For some reason I couldn't get the promo to play right away, so there was a big pause. C'est la vie. 
3. Transition from Yoko Kanno to Celestial Navigations: I love these two tracks. I just don't love them together. The Yoko Kanno track was so beautiful, and I don't know what I was thinking picking a track like "Janitor III" to go after. It sounds fine, and I'm sure people will like it, but I wanted something more...subtle. Oddly enough though, the track reminds me of the 3 old guys in Cowboy Bebop, whose soundtrack was incidentally done by Yoko Kanno. So maybe this was actually perfect. >_<

Make sure to leave comments! Feedback, please?

Subshow #7 - 11/10/11

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OMG I'M DJING AGAIN! I can feel like a real person again!

I'm so happy to be back at the station DJing. I really enjoyed Radiovision, and I'm glad that I took last week off to recuperate, and I really do love being on the Board of Directors and getting involved with the station happenings, but there's really nothing like DJing guys. The rush of adrenaline. The absolutely feeling of spontaneity and chance. It's like a game or a puzzle, but like a puzzle you can share with others and say, "Did I solve it? What do you think?"

Something I really liked about this show was that it came right after Arwulf's show. Arwulf has been a big inspiration since I started DJing, so it was nice to visit his show again, and to feed off of the amazing energy that he gives when he plays music. I think that it really helped my show immensely, and I'm so grateful to share the same station as him. I also was affected by having only 2 hours, rather than 3, to play around with. It was a nice balance, because it helped me focus my set, and not fool around too much about what I wanted to do. Condensing a lot of ideas into a short amount of time is something that Arwulf is really amazing at, and also for that reason I was grateful for following him.

But anywho, here's the list:

[Artist: Song - Album]

1. Bootsy: Shejam (Almost Bootsy Show) - Bootsy's Rubber Band
2. Dracula's Music-Cabinet: Eine Handvoll Nitro (A Handful of Nitro) - The Vampires of Dartmoore
3. Americans in France: Sylvia! - Crawling
4. Frank Foster and Frank Wess: La Jolie - 2 Franks Please
5. Mysterious Voices of Bulgaria: Holm - Balkan
6. Fusioon: Tucata Y Fuga - Absolute Belter
7. Yokota: Follow the Sonic Leader - The Frankfurt-Tokyo Connection
8. Jozef van Wissem: Various Selections - A Rose By Any Other Name
9. Sloan: Underwhelmed - Smeared
10. Wagner Pá: Plexo Solar - el imparable transeúnte
11. Professor and Maryann: Cadillac (I'm Still In Love With You) - Lead Us Not Into Penn Station
12. The Supremes: Stop! In the Name of Love - More Hits By The Supremes
13. W.A. Mozart: Tuba miram - Mozart: Requiem, K. 626
14. Koo Nimo: Abena - Tete Wobi Ka
15. Kris Ellestad: Run Me Down - No Man Is Land
16. Tom Waits: Ice Cream Man - Closing Time
17. Chöying Drolma & Steve Tibbetts: Song of Realization - Selma
18. underworld: mmm skyscraper i love you - dubbasswithmyheart
19. Weird Al: UHF - WCBN Movie Night
20. Tomorrowland: People Mover - Peoplemover/Subtractive Synthesis
21. Reinhard Flatischler: Olua - Layers of Time
22. The GC5: Sparkling Streets - Never Bet the Devil Your Head
23. Thomas Fersen: Les malheurs du lion - Thom4s Fersen
24. Thelonious Monk: Evidence - In Action

Party Animals: 

1. Beginning with Bootsy: I don't think I will ever be sick of Bootsy. I love Bootsy. He loves me. I should remember that ANY Bootsy track is a good starter. 
2. Tuba Canon: One of my better ideas for sure was to play 3 different recordings of "Tuba miram" from the Mozart Requiem, but at slightly different times. I think this come out quite well, and there were quite a few harmonically ambiguous moments where I wasn't sure about where we were. I think I will try that again sometime. 
3. Kris Ellestad: This is a new CD that Pascal put in the station recently, and he let me rip it before he even put it in the station. I'm really in love with Kris Ellestad's music. 

Party Fouls:

1. Extra Supremes: I didn't mean to play that couple of seconds of The Supremes for a transition. Choose the wrong turntable to press the cue button!
2. Continuous multi-track CD for filler: I used the lute CD as background for the events information, but there were some weird pauses because I decided to set the CD player to continuous. I didn't think about that happening since with records it goes pretty quickly. And usually I use a long track anyway. I will use long tracks in the future and not numerous short tracks. I should also loop tracks more often. 
3. Same track for multiple track times: I think the playlist had me playing "Sylvia!" for quite a long time. I kept thinking I was messing up which cue I was using, but really I just kept moving up the track unnecessarily. Whoops! Sorry if you were depending on the playlist to know what you were hearing! 

Tune in  from 3-6am this weekend for my regular show! I can't wait to do some real damage to your brainwaves! 

Radiovision Day 3 - This...is...RADIOVISION!!!

The official Radiovision conference went underway this day. This day was the official symposium of panels, workshops, and presentations, which were all held in one room in the Metropolitan Pavilion in Brooklyn, NYC. I learned a lot from every single event, and just as much while talking to other students, professionals, fans, etc. during the breaks. Here's how it went down:

-----------------

LE SCHEDULE

9:30 - Registration
After running out of the house, we ended up waiting for the metro longer than we thought, and I was practically sprinting in my heeled ankle boots to the door because I thought we would be late. Turns out, as it usually does with any new event, IT was the one running late. We settled down, met David and Pascal at our seats, and I chatted with a couple of boys from Brooklyn that were big fans of Marc Maron. They listen to his show every time its on, and one by does some sort of comedy news show for his high school's station. It was amazing to see people of all ages representing the entire spectrum at the conference, and to see kids that are as motivated about protecting radio as we are. I also realized that all in all, there weren't that many people at the conference. It was a relatively small audience, which I felt very proud to be a part of.

9:50 - Welcoming Remarks - Benjamen Walker and Ken Freedman

10:00 - Origin Stories - Ira Glass, Marc Maron, and Tom Scharpling. Moderator: Therese Mahler
After the very brief opening remarks, came what I had been waiting for since I signed up for this conference: to see Ira Glass. I've been a big fan of 'This American Life' ever since I first started listening to radio podcasts at my library job while I was shelving microfiche and magazines. That, Radiolab, and Liz Berg's podcast (of WFMU) were pretty much all I listened to for my 8-hour work days during the summer. It really made me want to do what they were doing, and when my friend Lady K at WCBN suggested I DJ, I went full force.

Anyway, the topic of this panel was to point out the different routes that any individual can take to get into radio. Ira Glass went the traditional public radio route, Marc Maron was a host on Comedy Central who then got into doing podcasts in his garage, and Tom Scharpling started with freeform music and came back to WFMU for a freeform talk-show radio setting. After getting introductions out of the way, the conversation got much deeper into the psyche of a professional radio personality/artist. Each of them talked about their insecurities in putting themselves out there, whether its with their ideas, their personalities, or whatever. Each of them had the fear that they would mess something up, but all handled it in different ways. Ira Glass didn't really like the idea of being on live radio, because he's used to editing stories over long periods to make sure that everything's perfect, whereas Marc Maron doesn't edit anything, and Tom Scharpling's right-out live on the radio. I thought this brought a nice spectrum of possibilities for all personality types by having these three people represent on this panel.

A small but important point for a DJ to think about is the topic of listening to your own show. All three of them have some sort of aversion to watching their show, unless they take a long time (a year for Ira) to listen to it. All of them had the same opinion that you should just let your show "exist" and not try to become too involved with it. This is interesting to me, because I try to make it a point to listen to my show after I've performed, so that I can critique myself while my feelings and inner thoughts are still relevant and present. This could also be the difference between being an amateur student radio DJ and a professional, so who knows.

They also talked about how radio will exist in the future, which is one a new side of Ira Glass came out that I have never seen. We shall call this Mad Ira. When Therese asked the question about keeping radio alive, Mad Ira practically started pounding on the table and basically said that the question is totally irrelevant, and is over-asked. The fact of the matter is that radio has existed for so long, and still continues to exist, so there isn't much question that it CAN exist. And if someday it ceases to exist, it doesn't matter, because that means that something else came along to replace it. Something that we probably can't even conceive of yet. Something that will be amazing. This was definitely top 5 moments of the conference for me, and what Mad Ira said while metaphorically ripping his shirt and pouncing on the table will stick with me for a long time. "Who cares if radio survives? Something else will happen." He also said that there has never been a better time to do creative work in radio than right now. That we can really do anything.

11:00 - Vicki Bennett
Vicki's presentation was all about audio/visual collages that she had made. They were essentially short films, but they had a heavy emphasis on the music and sounds associated with the films, as well as the idea of integrating media together to create new ways of thinking, and new ways for our audience to consume ideas. The most important thing I got from this is that by thinking about combing media in difference, you are essentially redesigning a deeper essence of media. Her project is called 'People Like Us' and has a heavy emphasis on horror movies.

11:15 - Break 1
The most important thing about this break was that I MET IRA GLASS. In the flesh. Shook his hand, told him my name, and got a legal ID for WCBN (which actually isn't legal yet and I need to edit it). He even asked me, since I was the first person to come up to him, "So, what is this conference for?" Hahaha! He was so down to Earth. I then also grabbed Tom Scharpling to get a legal ID, which is actually legal. Super cool guy, and all the other WCBN DJs are excited to start using the legal iD.

This first break was also interesting, because after everyone was dismissed for 15 minutes, WCBN dispersed for bathroom/networking, so I went up to a man sitting in about the 5th row of my section of the room and introduced myself and asked him what he did, if he did radio, etc. Turns out folks, that he worked for Ira Glass on 'This American Life' for 2 years. LIterally, he said, "Yeah, Ira's was my boss." After I collected myself I asked him what kind of stuff he did, but he seemed more interested in asking about my life. We talked about classical music a bit, roles I would want to do, and he shared some ideas he had for radio shows that he had, and I told him a bit about the kind of stuff I try to do.  It felt great to have that kind of connection with someone so early in the conference, and I think it really helped me open up to more people throughout.

11:30 - Virtual Communities - Gabriella Coleman, Kenyatta Cheese, and Bre Pettis. Moderator: Tim Hwang
This was a very multi-faceted panel, and one of the ones I was most excited about. It consisted of Gabriella Coleman (professor at NYU), Kenyatta Cheese (KnowYourMeme), and Bre Pettis (Thingiverse), with moderator Tim Hwang (ROFLcon). Soooo, we got the big guns here, basically.
The biggest and most important thing that I got out of this panel was the the internet is our new God. All of these people have utilized the internet to empower their users to come together as a community, and all in different ways. Gabriella started Anonymous as a sort of hacking community, which then became a sort of political movement. Kenyatta basically organized all internet memes into one arena. Bre found an effective way to link his users together, and ultimately found that with very little push on his own part, they will form together to create other websites with the ideas he gives them. Internet makes community bigger, and will make radio bigger. This is imperative.

Another important idea is that a lot of these people emphasized making a physical place for their community possible, like with Anonymous or ROFLcon even. And they created a real relationship with the community so that when there was a "call to action," the community would respond right away. This "call to action" idea is something that radio could truly benefit from, especially in the digital medium. It makes a community yours, and allows your community feel like they own you as well. It was also made clear that radio is similar to a focused/specific internet community, such as Thingiverse or KnowYourMeme. Our listeners/users may not be widely spread, but they are dedicated, and we need to be able to appreciate them for what they are.

Meme culture was also a big topic, and oddly applicable to radio. The meme has become a sort of new language for the internet, in the way that you can now use images/gifs/videos/whatever to communicate with other users without ever saying a word. A great example of this is the Rage Face, which I actually have an iPhone app for, and often I will communicate only by pictures with friends that know the Rage Face meme well. Translating this to radio could be a very interesting concept, and I'm excited to see where the radio community could take it. This idea is what the panelists deemed as "micro-impact." Another important topic they talked about was the Protect IP Act, which is something I didn't know about before this, but is vital to the survival of the internet, and everything that we know is true and free about the internet. I would suggest that you sign this petition to oppose it, if you like your internet the way it is.

Something I briefly mentioned before but was a big point by the end was that all digital communities that have a wide audience and wide success have some sort of non-digital component, and that's what makes them effective. For example, Reddit has gift exchanges, Anonymous has meet-ups, etc. Communities aren't separate anymore. The need to conjoin mediums is more important than ever for getting people involved with your cause/radio.

12:30 - DJ/rupture
When DJ/rupture went up to give his presentation, I really was not sure what to expect, but I was so surprised, and there really wasn't anything else like it on the program for the day. He talked about how he spent a lot of time in Morocco researching their traditional music, but also their popular music. He said that in Morocco, it is very common--and has been common for the past 10 years or so--to autotune their music. This has a very cool effect, and you might be able to imagine it if you've ever listened to Middle-Eastern or classical Indian music. The tonal structure for these styles is not like Western classical music, but utilizes notes in between the Western notes, like on a piano.

He also talked about the language of the Moroccans does not conform to the Roman alphabet, and thus isn't represented in software like he thinks it deserves to be, and is created a software which he is developing a digital form of the written language for. It was a beautiful contrast to the other presentations, and put everything else following it in a sort of global or universal context. This project is called 'Beyond Digital' and I highly suggest you check it out.

12:45 - Lunch
Lunchtime was funny because the music director of WPRB (Princeton) was chatting with us and suggested we talk to his kids. Because I felt like I was on a bit of a roll with this networking thing, I took the initiative and asked them if they wanted to have lunch together.

While talking to them, I was really surprised, but mostly pleased to find that they were really different from us. On a basic level, our group personalities contrasted completely. WCBN is kind of the weird, quirky kid with strange hobbies of student radio, and WPRB seems to be the cool kid station. We both have really great things going for both of us, and it was cool to hear what kind of stuff they did. They have a freeform style going too, but each DJ feels super comfortable digging into one thing or another sometimes. They also like to do co-hosted shows a lot, which seems to take a lot of pressure out off of individual DJs, and allows for less trouble when someone can't come to their slot, which has occasionally been a problem at WCBN.

1:45 - Andy Baio
I didn't recognize him by face or name, but there were quite a few people that give Andy Baio a nice applause before he even got to the stage, so I expected something great from this panel, and I wasn't disappointed. Andy Baio is the man behind the Star Wars kid, and for putting The Grey Album on the web. He spread Kind of Bloop, and has done a lot of research in Super Cuts, and creator of Waxy.org. Aside from taking the idea of using super cuts for my freeform show, he made an interesting point about how free access to editing and unlimited access to torrents and video made super cuts such a possible thing, and how when people are really engaged with something that they like, they will find ways to obsess about it. He also is the master of making viral videos/files, which is a useful skill to have for doing radio and promoting your station/show.

2:00 - How to Pay For It - Yancey Strickler, Christina Xu, Jeff Tammes. Moderator: Rebecca Gates

This was quite a controversial topic a lot of the people at the conference. A lot of people had mixed feelings about it on multiple levels, one of the most prominent being some of the ideas that Jeff Tammes was putting out about cooperating with brand names to get studio time for artists. On one level this is great because it gives artists the chance to get free studio time and get their name out there, but it also is still controlled by a brand name, and also isn't a very helpful idea for funding radio stations or radio projects in general. Even Yancey Strickler (from Kickstarter) and Christina Xu (from Awesome Foundation, yes that's their name) had fundraising ideas that were more geared towards smaller groups, or for one-instance projects, rather than long-running radio stations that need a consistent amount of funding. Perhaps what they were saying was useful to other people at the conference, but I didn't take much away from it in conjunction with WCBN, but rather for future personal use if I may need it. Despite that though, Christina Xu in particular was very eloquent, and a lot of things that she said resonated with everyone at the conference.
The only ideas that I really got to help WCBN were these:

• Make relationships with people with deep pockets
• Make relationships on a local level
• ANYONE can launch a project if they want
• Technology empowerment
• Be capable of convincing people of your cause
• Find friends to help
• Be able to articulate your ideas to rally people
• Be true to what you do and who your fans are
• Important to have mentors and peers to bounce ideas and frustrations off of
• Find out where there is a void, and how you can fill it

3:00 - Break 2
This break was relatively short, but I decided to walk over to a woman sitting by herself looking very nice in a blue suit. I asked her if she was with a radio station, or if not what she did. Turns out that she works for Google, and that she had just come in during the Andy Baio presentation. She said that was was especially excited about the Brooke Gladstone presentation, and that she was here to research Google's use of radio for advertisements.
She also was interested in knowing my opinion about internet radio like Pandora, or alternative radio like Sirius or XM. Although this may be blasphemous as a DJ, I admitted that I used to listen to Pandora a lot, and retrospectively I remember now that I used to listen to XM quite a lot, because my dad bought me an XM radio for the house because I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Although I'm a bigger proponent of local radio, I definitely see the use for Pandora, Last.fm, Grooveshark, what-have-you, and still use each of them intermittently when I'm looking for music in a specific way, whether by artist, genre, or specific style like with Pandora. It's all a matter of what you want at the time, and the internet has so many possibilities. Unfortunately, most people use ONLY Pandora, or ONLY Last.fm for their music radio needs, which definitely needs to be remedied.

Anyway, it was great talking to her, because it put radio in the context of the internet in general, which is a truly universal concept. In a way this set up perfectly for the next couple of panels, which were specifically about using the internet to expand the concept of radio.

3:15 - Kenneth Goldsmith (aka Kenny G)
Kenneth Goldsmith had quite a bit to say in a short amount of time, and a few controversial statements that WCBN DJs continued to think about into the week. One of the main things that really shook everyone was that music has to be shared and digitized. He doesn't care about objects at all like he used to, and wants to make the music have its own existence and live in the internet. He is more interested in the hunt rather than the prey, and believes that moving information is more interesting than the actual thing now. As a performer, this really tore me down a bit, because it means that pushing and moving files is better than listening to an actual file of a performance, but the interesting conclusion that I came to is that the moving of files really is important, because that means that someone WILL listen to it at some point, just maybe not as immediately as you want or expect. Perhaps only a few people would listen to a file immediately if I posted on my blog, but if the file gets moved across the globe, then someone in Algeria can listen to it. HOW COOL IS THAT?! I wouldn't be able to know how to push my own file there, but the internet finds its ways, and it's beautiful.

He also mentioned that radio is a beautiful filter for music, because now that he is in the business of uploading obscure files to the internet (ala Ubu), he has too many files and cannot listen to them all. He wouldn't even know where to start. But radio is great because someone else is structuring what you listen to, so that you can really just enjoy the experience, rather than going through files that you might not even like.

3:30 - The Future - Ken Freedman, Jake Shapiro, Kara Oehler, and Glenn Otis Brown. Moderator: Benjamen Walker

This was absolutely the most involved panel out of the entire conference, and I think the culmination of all of the ideas that had been building up throughout the day, which was really great planning on Benjamen Walker's part. This panel was composed of Ken Freedman (general manager of WFMU), Kara Oehler (Zeega), Jake Shapiro (PRX), and Glenn Brown (Twitter). There is a long list of things that were valuable about this panel, so I'm just going to dive right in.

Ken Freedman mostly talked about how he engages his audience when he DJs. He has a database of pictures which he updates pretty much every day, and adds tags to each picture. So then when he is updating his live playlist, he also attaches a picture, and very often a .gif that is in the rhythm of the song. He also has a live chat that is open for  his 3-hour set, so that his listeners can engage each other as well. I recently participated in one, and it was a lot of fun, and I can easily see how this would build up a community/fanbase very quickly. He also talked about his non-listening listeners which can participate this way.

Glen Brown had a lot of interesting things to say, and especially with the psychology/philosophy behind Twitter. He said that People will always gather around something, and that people always want to share spectacle. It's like when you hear something on the radio and call a friend to tell them to turn it on. Except now we're using the internet to tell people to turn on their radios. He also said to offer 3 things on your show: spontaneity, organization, and artfulness. These will attract your audience, and will make it easy for your audience to stay engaged. An important idea is also that no one invites someone to tweet something: they do it on their own accord. You have to have something worth sharing to make it worth it.

Kara Oehler is behind the Zeega project (which was one of the workshops on the Hack Day that we didn't get to attend), and she had a really interesting perspective on the topic, because she is a documentary filmmaker. She created a project called "Making Main St." which reached out to all kinds of different people and invited them to create their own documentary experience through photos and video. Zeega is similar in that it's an open source way to create documentaries, and in a very freeform sort of way. For example, she showed us a little sticker that you put on the outside of a building, and when you call a certain number, you can hear a loop of a recording of the inside of the building. SO COOL! That's called the Fermata Project.

Jake Shapiro was from PRX (Public Radio Exchange), and he told us about the concept behind PRX, and that it was established with the notion of how you would make radio now in the present, with all available facilities. It's a combination of national and local level radio, and connects them very fluidly by sharing content. He also mentioned their mobile app, and showd us a video of how it worked, and how a lot of radio stations are starting to make mobile apps to engage their listeners. The interesting thing is that you can't just make an app with a link to your website anymore, or with just your live stream. You have to have some sort of valuable content to share. A good example of this was KCRW's mobile app.

Benjamin Walker, who organized Radiovision, had a lot to say about the podcast revolution and how it gives a lot of chance for people to hear radio, but what the internet lacks is LIVE radio. WFMU is a good split between live and on-demand audio. He also talked about Soundcloud and how it gives users a chance to comment at specific moments, which is so helpful, and how to use the listening community to preserve that.

An idea that was thrown around that I like was the metaphor of a DJ being a party host. Everything you need to be a good host is what you need to be a DJ, because it's like you're hosting a listening party. There was also the question of what do you want to get from people to help you tell a story? Must it be surprising? And a lot of times as a DJ you are not in control of what your listeners think and feel, and you have to be OK with that. Another big question was how local radio fit into the picture. It was concluded that local radio allows for a more specific fit so that listeners can hear their stories being reflected through their station. The future involves storytellers. It can be a distinctive connection, and ties the physical community to the virtual community to have a local station involving and trying to relate to its listeners. And also, being commmitted to local listeners isn't lost to listeners outside of your local arena. An example that was made was when WFMU did an easter egg hunt around New Jersey. Despite it being a very locally driven event, a lot of international listeners were excited about it as well, thus proof that keeping local doesn't really alienate audiences.

4:30 - Break 3
Honestly, I think that I went to the bathroom for the first time all day during this break, and thus nothing interesting happened and I talked to no one. Sorry if that was TMI. No I'm not.

4:45 - Brooke Gladstone
For this presentation, Brooke Gladstone, a co-host and managing editor for 'On The Media', came to talk about her comic that she wrote called 'The Influencing Machine'. She talked about how respect for the media is in decline and how the media is criticized when they aren't covering something enough. She said it has to do with how the media is a mirror of what we care about (or tries to be), and so if the media isn't reflecting that well, the people will get upset. Another thing she mentioned is that sometimes the people that we know the least will be the people to throw you things you didn't expect, and that cartoons are like radio in the way that they make an intimate connection, which is something we desperately need. One thought that really caught me is that "pictures are sticky" and even if radio is successful, it helps to have associated content with it.

5:00 - Keynote: The Best Party Jón Gnarr and Heiða Helgadóttir. Moderator: Bronwyn Carlton
The keynote speech was definitely one of the best moments of the entire conference, and a beautiful way to cap off the discussions of the day. Jón Gnarr is the current mayor of Reykjavík, Iceland, and was elected after forming a satirical and anarchical party known as "The Best Party." Oh, and also, he's a former comedian and actor. His philosophy and religion, he says, is based off of humour, comedy, and nonsense. He tries to keep things as simple as possible, and reacts to other politicians radically different than they do to him. If someone says that he is stupid, inadequate, a joke, whatever, he simply says, "I'm sorry you feel that way, I do not feel the same about you." And his only campaign promise was this: "We will break all of our campaign promises."

Jón sees comedy as a sign of intelligence, and makes pure decisions because he has nothing to lose. He really doesn't care if he gets elected again, but wants to at least make a difference while he's in office. He also believes that everyone has a sense of fairness. He prides himself in knowing that no one has quit working for him once they started. He loves his country, and wants to work hard for it. He doesn't understand why you can't just elect good people into office, and why there are so many corrupt politicians in the world still. He thinks it may be a matter of people just not caring, and not participating. Jon makes a difference in this by participating with his community. He even led the gay pride parade in drag this year! A major thing he said is this: he is OK with failing, because that only means that someone will do better later. IF ONLY everyone could understand this. And he also believes that politicians now don't know how to deal with love or humour, and so he usees that to his advantage.

Something that Brooke Gladstone said to him was that she believes that his philosophy of nonsense is actually a very pure form of idealism, but that you can't overanalyze, otherwise it becomes tainted, just like a joke that is analyzed. After listening to him speak, I had an overwhelming love for this man, and overwhelming optimism for the world after speaking to him.

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Post-Conference:

After the conference we all went to the record fair, where I proceeded to be completely overwhelmed by the actual amount of records. I ended up buying three $1 CDs, two of which were pretty good, and I got to talk with Brooke Gladstone in person for a second. I also bought a WFMU t-shirt. And then we went to dinner and said hey to DJ/rupture, who just happened to pick the same post-conference snack as us.

Regrets:

Although I got to do a lot of stuff at the concert, I still have a few regrets, some of which I couldn't really control. For one, I wish I just had more time to talk to people and get a sense of the people there. Although I talked to the Princeton crew, the Yale kids, and a few professionals, as well as the panelists, I would have loved to chat with some more of the WFMU folk, since we really do the same thing, but on a smaller, student level. One of my favorite DJs that I mentioned before, Liz Berg, was apparently there, but I didn't get to meet her.

So there you go folks. It took me long enough to cover, but I loved every minute of it, and I really think that WCBN is going to benefit from the ideas that came out of this. I also hope that you as a listener will be able to take something away from this, because I think that a lot of the ideas that were spread in this conference are highly applicable to all walks of life.