Apologies for the long delay. I promised myself this would be the week I figured out the podcasting thing, and that has inevitably taken longer than expected.

But here it all is.

Playlist.

Here’s the Jammin’ the Blues video. I highly recommend watching this.

This week was the first week in the temporary studio. I like it in there, it’s like a diorama of the actual wcbn station. There’s something under-seigey about it. It feels (incredibly) even more like being in a basement. Or a kid’s mock-up of a pirate radio station. Plus if any other radio denizens show up to do radio-related stuff you are all hanging out together, since it’s only the one room. On the other hand, I found it harder to focus on listening to the music, because I was thinking more about the equipment and levels and such. Also, not having acess to the music library is a clear and present bummer.

And levels still got screwed up–got a call from Toledo that the mic was way too low. And there seems to be heavy distortion in the right channel for the first 40-odd minutes, and then it just mysteriously heals itself.

The day I was born I made my first mistake
and by that path
have I sought wisdom ever since — The Mahabharata

I’m noticing that as I do more and more shows, that I’m shifting away from music I really like to listen to, and towards “interesting” music that I figure people might be “interested” in. I suspect this is a common college-radio thing. For one, it’s safer to play interesting music. There is lots of really neat, unexpected material out there, and we can mostly all agree that it is neat and unexpected. On the other hand, picking a really good song is a) more subjective, so I don’t know if it will work for other people and b) kind of personal. What if I play something that I love and really moves me, but upon hearing it on the studio monitors I realize it’s kind of superficial and derivative? That would be embarrassing. So playing the amatuer musicologist seems less risky.

Not that I’m heavily influenced by these fears. I can just feel the joint forces of ease and safety gradually trending me away from playing my favourites. And then of course, there’s the fact that you can’t play 40 favourites a week for 30 odd weeks without, you know, running out of favourites. And there’s nothing wrong with playing interesting music. In fact, I think that’s a great aspect of college radio. But I will continue to try and play stuff that I just balls out love, because I think that’s the best aspect of college radio. I hope someone out there also likes them, but even if they don’t, frankly it’s fun pumping stuff I have affection for out over the gajillion watt broadcast tower.

• hugonaut21feb2008.mp3