" can somebody please explain to me what a 'dancery' is? "

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so i found out that i can connect to 98.1 KISS FM over the net; it's the soul/r&b station in the oakland/sf/sanjose area.

when it finally came through the net, into my air-conditioned office in bangkok, i couldn't believe that smoky robinson was singing to me.

"baby let's cruise......away from heeeeeeeeerrreeeee..." and so forth

so good. and then i listened to the modern version of "family affair" aka the dancery/crunked up in this...song.

what the hell is a dancery, and where do i get crunked all up in one?

somebody tell me that one.

in any case, hearing these tunes only reaffirms my longing to be listening to good music. not that thai music is all that bad, but how long can one survive on love ballads, pop rock, and sugary sweet mellow guitar-picking honey boy-band copying melody harmonies?

my guess is around two months.

you'll start to genuinely enjoy the songs and the artists for singing them to you, then you eventually don't mind the ballads or the horribly horribly mundane repetitious pop-oriented arrangements. your guard will be down, so watch out.

then you start to really love them.

so...when and if you travel, it is very important that you have a stash of really good music; music that just "does it" for you. call it a tether on sanity, call it an anchor to reality, your reality.

being here really helps me realize what i require in my day-to-day, and music is now nearing the top of the list of "things bay misses the most."

it's residing there quietly, somewhere in between my dank basement darkroom and playing darts at the 'tross.

bay's assigned homework:

tonight, go pick out your favorite record, put it on, and just listen to it quietly with your eyes closed.

you don't have to listen to the whole thing; just take enough time to remember why you love it so much, and how much it would mean to you if you never had that song again.

then shut it off, call someone you love, and tell them you're going to make a mix tape for them, filled with cool songs.

i want your setlists on my desk by 9:30am tomorrow morning.

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