That to Which We Are Listening

Shiri is listening to: THE RADIO.  No, I haven’t taken leave of my senses.  The Beeb and Bruno don’t do it for me.  When I say radio, I mean real radio.  Public radio.  That plays music.  Good music.  Except from Saturday mornings from 0600-0700 (weird, lame, not Folk Alley folk show) and Sunday 0000-0500 trance/house blah blah blah.  Not that the blah blah blah doesn’t have merit.  It does.  Not for me, but for someone.  I would imagine.

The station in question, kids, of WYEP, 91.3 Pittsburgh.   I am frequently made fun of at work for partaking in the public radio, especially when people come in at 0700 and find me listening to bluegrass but I’ve made a few converts.  The station always seems to know what I need, especially the long haul night shifts, and gives me milestones to make something cruel and inhuman a little less punishing.  Once I hear the first World Cafe replay I see the light at the end of the insanity and, during the week, when Cindy and Joey come on it’s almost time to go home.  The station has a lot of everything I love: classic, blues, soul, newer alt-rock, the occasional grungy pleasure, etc etc etc.  They do a Beatles feature every day at 1400.  Thistle and Shamrock at 0700 on Sundays.  The new wave stuff people of a certain age (and my a certain I mean my age and by my age I mean getting up there a little) still love to dance horribly to.  It’s dangerous for me too listen two many hours in a row because I will inevitably hear something I have to purchase RIGHT THIS SECOND.  Their free summer concerts are spectacular, as are the year round ones one has to buy tickets for.  They have a third thursday music happy hour at the station every month.  They convince really fantastic acts to play a pajama drive christmas concert every year.  Shall I go on?  No, I didn’t think it was necessary.  You’re already clicking.

Jon and I are sustaining members, which means we give a little bit each month in perpetuity, which is totally worth it because YEP streams and we’ve listened to it everywhere we’ve been — even Maui during our honeymoon.  You can listen to it anywhere as well.  And you should.

Enjoy!

Luke’s Playlist: I listen to a bunch of podcasts, but there are four that I have on a daily rotation. I usually listen to them while I eat and when I am setting up to write.

1. NPR Hourly newscast (http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=500005): Latest news from NPR. Just the headlines, usually start with this one.
2. APM Writer’s Almanac (http://feeds.americanpublicmedia.org/writersalmanac): Interesting things about books and writers that happened on today’s date. Birthdays, publications, major events. Always something new and a poem as well (I will admit I skip the poem many days).
3. KEXP Song of the Day (http://feeds.kexp.org/kexp/songoftheday): KCMU, I mean KEXP (the EMP museum bought the UW radio station and re-branded it), give you a dose of what is big on college radio. Usually interesting, but it has about a 25-33% failure rate (e.g. a song so awful I have to skip it).
4. Avant-Avant (http://avant-avant.net/feed/): They describe themselves as “curated post-genre platform for discovering new music and ideas”. I would call them the most interesting music podcast I listen to. As likely to have a great electronic track as a great noise or post-punk. Never expected, never the same. Highly recommended.