So many times I see the “What are you watching right now” topic come up and I’m not watching anything, I’m listening to something.
So, what are you listening to? Could be anything - music, a radio show, podcast, audiobook?
I’ll start with something most people will find boring - the '40s Radio station on Pandora. The brief wave of big band popularity in the '90s got me interested in swing music, and it’s become what I listen to more than anything else.
Rocket Club. They’re a Minnesota country band who were active for several years but broke up in 2014. Last Friday they released their first new song since the breakup. I was a regular at their shows so I’ve had this new song on repeat most evenings over the last week, learning the words and enjoying their return, even if it’s only for one song.
Between this and the Gizmoplex launching next month, 2022 is off to a pretty good start for me.
There’s a radio station in Atherton, CA - KCEA. They have an online feed, and they call themselves a big band station, but they most often play what I would call hot jazz from the '30s - stuff from right before the bands got really big. You might like it.
Some broadcast from an episode of Casey Kasem’s AT40 on iheartradio that’s some week from fall of 1986. This song is playing at number 6 moving up 3 from 9. RIP both of you.
The bathroom vent fan whisking smoke out of my apartment. I feel a little like a college freshman. Come to think of it, I should probably put rolled-up wet towel under the door and light some incense.
Earlier this morning, we lost our brother’s 16-y.o. Yorkie-ShihTzu after a sudden tragedy. For the last couple of years, my son and I have had Molly in our care because my 76-y.o. brother has mobility issues and she became a fall risk. We were visiting him last evening and she was up in his lap and poor Molly took a tumble off of him, landing on her left hip. We returned immediately to our house to figure out what to do and decided to keep a close eye on her.
She wouldn’t drink or eat and was panting loudly through the night and as much as I tried to get her to drink one thing after another, she simply wasn’t having any of it. So, when our vet opened, we got her in to be seen immediately. The vet felt all around on her little body and hip/leg area and found the leg to be fine to the touch but, unfortunately, she found a large mass in Molly’s abdomen, and suggested X-rays.
To do so, they needed to sedate her and once sedated, took the X-rays and returned to us with the worst news: not only was the mass growing at such a rate that it was pushing her other organs out of position and the fall had ruptured, which emptied into her cavity. The only recourse was to further sedate her so she could be moved to be opened up and operated on; however, because of her age, she probably would only last another 4+ months. So, collectively (talking to my niece, who spoke with her dad and her brother), we decided to run across the Rainbow Bridge to be cured of her sudden fall and ensuing issues.
So, I am listening to Aurora Borealis’ album entitled GOODBYE, a Post-Rock masterpiece from the Belgian studios of Dèhá.
See you over the Rainbow Bridge, Sweet Molly…you will be greatly missed by so many! We’ll all see you there when our times come, too!
To help me unwind after the day, I always put on some ambient/space music at night. I have quite a wide selection of it. I really only sleep well when I don’t get enough sleep so I’m constantly working on a bit of a sleep deficit, but since I’m always stressed out by something, having this kind of music with no words and not much of a melody is a nice way to calm my mind down.
Tonight, I’m listening to space music by Jonn Serrie. The album is called The Planetary Chronicles and the current song is “Mystery Road”.