Bootcamp Day 12 — The Power

The Power is a talk radio station, and talk radio is very low on my list of things to listen to, so it’s not too surprising that I haven’t found this channel very interesting and won’t be spending much time on it. I expect to have the same reaction to the other talk channels — there will probably be a few which I’ll like even less, in fact.

The ads for weight-reduction products and tax-reduction schemes don’t improve my reaction to this channel, either.

I’m going back to Special X, rejoining Magical Misery Tour, which is already in progress.

A Surprise Geocaching Convention

Today was Book Group day at Shir Hadash (Diane’s the coordinator); we discussed Everything Is Illuminated, a very interesting and worthwhile book. After lunch, we wanted to get some exercise, and Diane was going to go to the Y while Jeff and I were ready to walk to Jamba Juice — and then I noticed that our friend Sam had called and wanted me to call his cellphone.

So I did; he and his family were in Belgatos Park, geocaching, and wanted to know if we were interested in joining them. We were, and caught up with them in the parking lot. They had done two caches and were ready to drive to the other side of the park for a few more, but were willing to wait so we could pick up the caches.

The first one, Tarmac Trail, was only a few hundred feet away and took only a couple of minutes to bag. For the second one, Forest Stump, we had to get across a little creek (we took a route which was muddier than required…I didn’t realize there were two bridges within a three minute walk!) and then climb up a trail and around a few switchbacks. As we neared what we thought was the site, we noticed a few other people with GPSes in hand — two other geocaching groups were out on this beautiful Sunday, too. So we all logged the cache and chatted for a while (and our friends joined us while we were talking). The other groups had been on the other side of Belgatos Park and warned us that there was no parking available, so we had to decide: walk about a mile (plus about 400 feet of vertical gain) and return before it got dark in an hour, or do something else.

We chose to do something else, and picked up the first part of a multi-step cache, The Harry Surprise. By that time, it was getting a little dark, so we decided to call it an afternoon and went home.

There will be a Geocaching Dinner next weekend, and we plan to be there. It should be easy to find.

Day 10 — Kiss this one off, too…

Today’s Bootcamp stop was KISS XM, which is described as:

a maximum music, 100% Pop Hits channel focusing on today’s mega-songs, as well as the biggest songs from the past few years. With Rick Dees in the Morning, KISS XM is a powerhouse of blockbuster songs…one after another.

I gave it a shot for an hour this afternoon; maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if I didn’t have a subwoofer for my speakers. But I do, so there was a constant thump-thump-thump coming from the mega-songs, and that’s not what I want to hear — one hour was plenty.

I may not be able to keep up with Bootcamp next week, since I’ll be travelling and don’t know if I’ll have XM; if not, I’ll catch up later on.

Shabbat Shalom!

Day 9 — Not the way I remember the 90s!

Bootcamp moved along again today — we spent the day in the 90’s. I have to confess that music wasn’t my highest priority during the 90’s; Jeff was born on February 1, 1990, and, as everyone says, having a child will change your life.

We never stopped listening to classical music, but we did play a lot of other music, espcially during the first half of the decade. Raffi was popular for a short time, but Jeff outgrew him quickly (whew). We watched a lot of Sesame Street, which brought along some fun music (I still like “Put Down The Ducky”, in fact). But the favorite in our household was Sharon, Lois, and Bram. We discovered them one day on Nickelodeon — eventually, we had many tapes of the Elephant Show. Like Sesame Street, the show had enough subtle humor for adults to enjoy (though it was aimed squarely at pre-schooler), and the music was enjoyable even if your age was in double digits. We even went to Great America to see them live.

But once Jeff started school, he outgrew Sharon, Lois, and Bram. And there wasn’t a replacement; instead, we went back to listening to classical music.

But while we weren’t looking, the Bay Area had lost one of its two classical stations. KKHI/95.7 was sold to Westinghouse Broadcasting in 1994; Westinghouse immediately changed its format to all-news. But it wasn’t a respectable all-news station like KCBS/740 — instead, it focussed its attention on the hot story of the day, the OJ Trial. All OJ, all the time — just what I didn’t need.

So I started listening to KDFC/102.1. When we first moved to the Bay Area, KDFC was a very sedate station; it played all classical music (as it still does today), but there were no live announcers. Instead, it was all automated; each piece was introduced by a very quiet announcement giving the composer, title, year, and performer. And the commercials were few, far between, and equally quiet — in particular, there was no music on the commercials. So it was a great place for music, but in a boring way.

That changed over the years, especially after KDFC was sold to Bonneville International. Announcers (many of them refugees from KKHI) came on board, the commercial load increased, and the days of screening the commercials so they were in keeping with the music ended.

But it was the only game in town for classical music, so we kept listening.

In the meantime, the popular music of the 90’s kept going without us. Nirvana, Beastie Boys, Vanilla Ice, Ricky Martin, Bon Jovi…I heard of them all without hearing them.

And now that I’ve spent a while listening to 90’s on 9, I can say that I don’t think I missed a lot. I heard a couple of pleasant tunes during the short time I was able to listen this afternoon (about 1pm Pacific), but there was a lot of other music I didn’t like. It also didn’t seem to be a great choice to use as background, especially during a conference call, so I turned it off and resolved to tune in again at home.

Which I did; the mix of music seems to be a little different than it was this afternoon — significantly harder-edged, and I can’t say I’ve heard any songs that I’d want to hear again.

So it’s back to XM Pops for the rest of the evening — Diane and Jeff will be relieved, too.

Day 8 — a pleasant surprise at the Mix

I don’t listen to very much of today’s popular music, at least not intentionally — I do find it being inflicted on me in various shops and from cars waiting at stoplights, and I generally don’t like it. So I didn’t have high hopes for today’s Bootcamp stop, the Mix, XM Channel 22. In fact, I chose to wait until I got to the office to start listening, rather than turning it on while we got ready for work and school, as I’ve done for most Bootcamp days.

But I’ve been pleasantly surprised by what I’ve heard so far. Many of the tunes were familiar, and I’ve enjoyed the music much more than I expected. The music has been mostly upbeat and energizing, but not so much so that I can’t use it as background while I work. And there hasn’t been anything which has really turned me off, unlike yesterday’s visit to the 70’s.

As I type this, I’m listening to OutKast’s “Hey Ya”, which Brad Kava described in his Murky Nooz column today as “sort of the Beach Boys’ ‘Good Vibrations’ of its day”. I’d never heard it before (though I gather it’s very popular :-)), and I wouldn’t compare it to “Good Vibrations”, but I enjoyed discovering it.

Will I come back to the Mix on a regular basis? Probably not often, but it’ll be worth an occasional visit.