Alright
I'm in love with modern moonlight
128 when it's dark outside
I'm in love with Massachusetts
I'm in love with the radio on
It helps me from being alone late at night
It helps me from being lonely late at night
I don't feel so bad now in the car
Don't feel so alone, got the radio on
Like the roadrunner
That's right

Roadrunner - Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers




One of the drawbacks of this current gig is the sudden interest in the budget by the client.


Blow $20,000 overnight at Kinko's because you couldn't print your own documents in a timely manner? Apparently that's okay.


Less than two people to a rental car? Absolutely not.


This is not a short term project for this client. At least a year for the implementation for the full time employees. While my contract is extended monthly. Yes, I did make the recommendation that leasing fleet vehicles would be a lot cheaper and limit liability than a dozen-plus people renting cars every week to drive less than 70 miles. Some of the full time employees drove their own cars rather than face carpooling, bumming rides and getting out of MFE's (Manufactured Fun Events).


I have no problem sharing a car with my colleague here. She's usually not going out after dark and I only need the car for the occasional run to Super Bi-Lo and Costco. So we share. Fine.


But the few weeks I did have a rental car, especially when I was in Atlanta, I am going to miss Sirius radio. Particularly channel 22, First Wave.


The radio in my car only existed for Oakland A's games in more than 10 years. In the previous Passat, the Elephants in Oakland Staff Car v2.0 (may v1.0 rest in peace), I had a 10 disc changer installed. The changer played 'regular' formatted CDs and data CDs. I could cram 700 MBs onto each disc and have 40+ hours of music, comedy, books, etc.


The only concert I can recall that I wanted to see in Redding was Devo when I was in the 5th grade. I don't think it was everyone in Redding. But I admit I sheltered myself from music as much as the environment sheltered me. Between my father and the Beach Boys and Mac Davis and my step-father with the Beatles and the Doors (he saw one of their first shows at the Whiskey) I had a polarization that created a vortex of a black hole. Or something.


I haven't been up to date on the 'modern' music scene or what you kids call 'popular' music since Pearl Jam's Vitality. Even then I was severely limited in my scope. I had a clue as to what I needed to explore. But coming from Redding I was sheltered by B94 FM. When Garth Brooks hit, my senior year of high school, the station went country. I found a Chico station 107.1 - the Who, Jimi Hendrix, the Clash, the occasional Velvet Underground and David Bowie (the Glam Rock years - Ziggy Stardust). There was still the trickling in of someone like INXS and I still had a penchant for punk, new wave but never had a chance to hear it on the radio. My friend listened to Metallica, Tesla and later grunge hit. I somehow missed out on the Pixies entirely. My friend Natalie still doesn't know how that happened.


While I could appreciate music, to some extent I had a hard time going along with a lot of it. I never really got Alice in Chains or Soundgarden. Madonna wasn't the Go Gos so I never understood that. I would rather hear songs from Mary Poppins than listen to Bobby Brown or Whitney Houston.


I had stopped watching MTV when Remote Control was in its 2nd season. I lost out on 120 Minutes. I checked in on the 8 videos they showed on YO! MTV Raps before my paper route. Though, I still caught the Young One and Monty Python's Flying Circus when they were on. I knew that Love and Rockets was the Bauhaus minus Peter Murphy but I only knew of Love and Rockets because of the video for 'No New Tale to Tell'. I knew what Monty Python was but I had never been privy to the show until I saw it on MTV. I was much more a fan of Marisol Massey than Kari Wührer.


Remote Control, like MTV, became redundant in its lack of focus. And not in a good way. Massey fit in with the NY/NJ vibe and had a guttural sex appeal - a girl in a dress. Good enough. Wührer was a transplant whose only appeal was that she was a taller girl in a better dress with implants. The banter each game of the pronunciation of her name, "it's Car-ee" rather than "Care-ee". Stuck up. The show had started to show the signs of executives giving 'notes' and changes being made by people who feel a need to tamper and tweak.


By the time I hit Nova I saw that I was completely out of the loop. I hung with the idea that Van Halen would see me through. By the way, who would have known that Eddie Van Halen would turn out to be the bigger asshole than David Lee Roth? I had no idea what the difference was between New Order and New Edition. Just that one used to be Joy Division. Depeche Mode was to be avoided, according to friends, because it was, 'a bunch of British fags'. Still, I knew I liked the Psychedelic Furs and the English Beat. I liked REM and I liked the Ramones. I liked the Clash but thought "Rock the Casbah" was somehow lost in the video and was better without the visuals. I knew at some point I needed to hear the Sex Pistols after seeing the last 45 minutes of 'Sid and Nancy'. I liked Bowie even though I didn't understand "China Girl". I liked the Police until "Every Breath You Take". The first signs of that pompous ass Sting. But buying tapes or records just wasn't something my money went to. The first album I ever asked for was the Police, Zenyatta Mondatta. Of course I bought Kiss, Lick it Up and Quiet Riot, Metal Health all on my own and they proved to be bad decisions. By the end of my freshman year Guns 'n' Roses hit so it really didn't matter, anyway. My money went to BMX racing.


Look, I know I am critical and it's part of a process that I don't completely understand. But I can tell exactly why I don't like something in a rational manner and construct a logical argument to support my view. Saying, "I think it sucks" doesn't really cover it. When I like something it is much harder for me to explain.


Anyway.


Over the last 20 years my taste in music has gone from whatever Greatest Hits albums I could get off of Columbia House - yah, I was too cheap too buy an album for one song - to downloading every version of 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' including cover versions. I still hold out for The Who and the Beatles to join forces for a tour. Paul on bass and background vocals. Ringo on drums. Pete Townsend on guitar with Roger Daltrey on vocals. I'd pay $500 to see that.


What was nice about stumbling on to Sirius was that a large portion of their playlist was already on my iPod. I heard 'Save it to Later' a few moments after it running through my head. I heard Bow Wow Wow, 'Do You Wanna Hold Me?'. I hadn't heard that song since 1984. I heard Nick Kershaw for the first time when it wasn't in the movie 'Pretty in Pink' (rumor has it that Molly Ringwald came up with the name of the movie because she loved the Psychedelic Furs song). The Rave Ups (did you know it was Molly Ringwald's favorite band and that she was from Sacramento?). I heard, in order, 'Girlfriend in a Coma', 'Bring on the Dancing Horses', 'See the Lights', 'Dreaming' and 'Blue Highway'.


Late Sunday driving back from the 3rd and final game of the A's at the Braves 'Heartbreak Beat' came on as I pulled up to the apartment and parked. I listened and thought and thought and smiled and thought. I looked at my cell phone and did the math. I decided against calling. Even though it was only 10'ish on the West Coast. I was not sure what to say. It's hard to tell someone what you're thinking when it all doesn't really matter and you just want to hear the sound of their voice.


There's a connection with music that can be described and there's a connection that can't be explained. I just like it and I know it.