your heart swells and rains blood

Me & JD (not to be confused with the book “John Denver and Me”).  Every couple of months I’ll go on John Denver kick, thats right, John Denver mofos.  I don’t know why and I don’t even think I could explain it… its just good music.  I’ve mentioned this to a few folks before and their response is usually… “John Denver?”  Is there any other?  Here is my essential JD playlist:

Take Me Home, Country Roads
Rocky Mountain High
Goodbye Again
Thank God I’m a Country Boy
Paradise
Leaving on a Jet Plane
Rhymes and Reasons
Poems, Prayers and Promises
Sunshine On My Shoulders
Back Home Again

Its so good once it hits your ears (and it warms the soul).  And for the record, that John Denver is not full of shit!  Dig it, like a garden.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Denver

What I meant to say is, “I gave blood, money.”  For some unknown reason I recently decided that I have more money than I know what to do with.  So I bought a guitar, an amp, some lottery tickets, some pull tabs, donated $20 to my two favourite radio stations and paid a for a midget in a bikini to do back-flips on a trampoline.  Thats right, I donated money.  $20 to the Current (mn public radio) and $20 KEXP Seattle (radio station for the u of wa). 

I’ve been keeping tabs on these two independent radio stations for the past couple of months and I’ve got to say KEXP has definetly taken the pole position.  Their attitude towards music and business just tends to appeal to me more than how the Current operates (independent but business minded and structured) or Radio K (independent but not structured enough… if you’ve heard their DJs you would know what I mean – not all of them are bad, just 9/10ths of them).  Its as if a bunch of college & newly post college kids (aka fresh meat in the business world) got together and made a radio station that was actually functional and appealling.  They were also a lot better about thanking me (and others) for their donations and added me to their newsletter (I got an email from them with a link to this during their membership drive (good stuff) > Death Fridge!).

But ultimately, and I don’t think I’m the only one who thinks this, the Current seems like they push songs at times.  I’m not sure if this is the music director’s doing, external pressures or by pure coincidence but it gets annoying when you start to hear the same songs over and over again.  Despite that little tidbit the Current and their DJ’s do a fairly decent job at playing what they want and sticking to their own agenda… kexp just does it better… and Radio K does this as well, its just poorly executed (see Dead Air and Lack of Enthusiasm, Apathy or Nihilism)- despite that Radio K is still my 2nd choice in the Twin Cities behind the Current.  But check these guys out if you can and donate if you can.

www.kexp.org
www.thecurrent.org
www.radiok.org

Hold on
To your memories
You can open your eyes now
And watch them flutter in the wind

Open up the window
And let them in
Open up the window
And let them in

Its hard to recall the details
When they tick away with the time
But I can’t forget the you looked
When I peered up to your eyes

When you opened the window
And let me in
Now open up your window
And let me in

I can read you like a book
With the jokes you hide between the lines
But despite your pigtails and honest looks
You’re so transparent when you lie

But lets let it go like a little drop
And let it fade
Soon enough it’ll disappear
Just like the ghost you dreamt the night before