When I went to Israel for the first time, back in 1997, I spent Shabbat at the Dan Panorama hotel in Tel Aviv. I intended to go to services on Friday night, but I didn’t know where to find a Reform shul, so instead, I found myself wandering along the beach and Hayarkon Street (adjacent to the beach). My meandering took me to the Sheraton Tel-Aviv, where a big crowd of twenty-ish folks was spending Shabbat evening at the Tango Club, dancing frenetically to music with a very distinct thumping beat. I listened for a while, then walked on — it wasn’t what I was looking for on my first Shabbat in Israel.

Today’s Bootcamp channel, The System, might well have played some of the same music I heard that night. It certainly had the same energy.

And, much to my surprise, I kept listening to The System all day — it was good music to program to, and even to have on in the background during a couple of phone calls. It’s a good thing I don’t use a touchpad, though, because I kept tapping my hands and feet to the rhythm all day long!

I don’t know if I’d want to listen to this kind of music as a foreground activity, but I might well return here on a day when I can use an infusion of energy.

I didn’t listen to a lot of current music during the 80’s; during that decade, I was mostly listening to classical music, with occasional visits to the local rock stations (WSHE being the only one I can remember from my time in South Florida), where I usually hoped to hear early-70’s progressive rock.

But I guess I did get exposed to some what was on the radio during the 80’s, because much of what I’m hearing on today’s Bootcamp installment is at least vaguely familiar — I even recognized one song well enough to know its title and who did it (Peter Gabriel’s “Games without Frontiers”). On the other hand, although I’d heard of Madonna’s “Papa Don’t Preach” before today, I am sure I’d never actually heard it (and I don’t think I missed much).

I just looked at the 80’s IT list and there are lots of familiar songs through about 1983; after that, they’re few and far between.

I tuned in too late for Bruce Kelly’s show, but I should be around for some of Heidi Selexa’s gig later this afternoon; from what I’ve read on the XM discussion board, it should be fun. (Yep, it was fun; I left the office and my XM radio five minutes before she played my requests — I guess I’ll have to try again another day!)

I’ll be back — the more I listen, the more I like it!