Play Something Good...

I should have been a DJ. A light night, “smoke’em if ya got ‘em”, spinnin’ what you want to hear on the long drive home, continuous block of music, DJ. Of course, what you want to hear would be whatever it was that I wanted to listen to at the moment. However, I would follow the philosophy of the rules of a good mix tape – as laid out by Rob in High Fidelity – unlike the DJ’s of radio I hear. They have no flow on the radio anymore. For instance, you don’t follow the Paisley/Krauss ‘Whiskey Lullaby’ with ‘Man, I Feel Like a Woman’ by Shania Twain, or spin Collin’s ‘In the Air Tonight’ followed up by Jay Z. As Rob said, there are a lot of rules. I don’t know how many times I hear a good song on the radio, sometimes even two in a row if I’m lucky, and then they go and ruin a good vibe by playing a bad song that doesn’t fit the flow. There are all kinds of songs, and songs that can be used as transition songs between sets, but you have to know what you’re doing. Seems most DJ’s on the radio don’t. Elsewhere, I’m enjoying my Amazon goodie box…but not the shrinkwrap and ‘security’ sticker mayhem associated with CD’s and DVD’s. What, are the companies afraid we might actually open the product after we buy it?! One barcode security sticker is too much, let alone the usual paranoid 3 sided deals some of them have. By the time I’m done opening the stuff, I’ve got another whole bag of garbage to throw out. Forget emissions tests on vehicles, ban shrink wrap and security tags to save the environment. But I digress. I like the new Dixie Chicks CD, Alan Jackson’s new one will probably grow on me, the Miami Vice TV show CD’s are actually pretty good, and I still haven’t gotten into the Bob Seger or Evanescence new ones yet. The Absolute Batman: Hush hardcover was a surprise – a heavy oversized book in a slipcase to boot. I liked Jeph Loeb’s take on Batman in the fantastic Long Halloween, and Jim Lee’s art is always good, so I’m enjoying it so far. Then there are the Fables comics trade paperbacks I picked up as well. A very unique and creative storytelling spin on the rhymes and fables we all grew up with. So yes, Christmas came early this year…