Radio, Radio

I was one of those kids that listened to my transistor radio to fall asleep at night. Yeah, I’m old. Yeah, it was the 60’s. Deal with it. I love music. In my late teens/early 20’s I was friends with the overnight deejay at the station I listened to. I wasn’t friends with him because I called the station all night (honest). I was friends with him because our paths intersected on more than a few social levels. I would fall asleep listening to his show. It was eclectic, it was free-form, it was the 70’s/80’s.

I realized sometime in my teens that I would wake up from a sound sleep if a song came on the radio that had some meaning for me. This wasn’t the random teeny-bopper tune, nope, it had to be a song that truly held meaning for me or an artist that I really loved. I thought it was silly and great and a little scary. At one point I was in a relationship with someone who’s music might occasionally end up on the radio and that person would often be away from home on tour. Sure ‘nuff if my overnight deejay pal played one of THOSE songs I would wake up pretty much each and every time.

Well, I’m not young anymore, this ain’t the 80’s anymore and my friend is now on in the middle of the day (because, well, he’s kinda old too). I don’t sleep with the radio on anymore, my significant other wouldn’t be too thrilled with that. We sleep with an air filter/white noise machine which is very nice and never plays anything that tickles my psyche in the night.

This afternoon I was enjoying a rainy afternoon doing grad school homework and relieved to have all of my housework out of the way for the weekend. The significant other was off at work for the day, I had the radio on as I read school work (stay tuned, topic for another post, why are school textbooks and tech manuals the best cure for insomnia?) and off I drifted into a lovely afternoon nap.

And then it happened. I felt myself waking up and that familiar feeling came back. Before I was fully awake I could hear the music. It was the music that woke me up. Not because it was loud or thumping or invasive (except psychically) but because it was a song that my psyche has an attachment to. I love that even now that same part of my brain engages in the same exact way as it did at 14 or 15 or 16.

I wonder if other people do this. What wakes you at night? Not the things that wake you in a cold sweat of fear or terror but the thing that lulls you awake; the think that in wakefulness brings you an incredible feeling of peace and solace. When I wake up because of these specific songs I always wake up happy and with a smile on my face. I’d love to pursue some kind of research on how this works, what part of my brain responds in this way? If I could find that out I’d want more and more and more of it. What a wonderful natural buzz to be lulled through life with the music you love.

Let there be music!

Sit down, SHUT UP!

I recently sat in two long days of endless meetings. I have been in one room for nine hours a day except for a very few bathroom breaks. I am beyond bored. I am beyond stir crazy. I am near tears.

Here’s something that I’ve learned from these two days in living hell; you’re all boring. It doesn’t matter whether someone loves to take center stage or they’re the person always demurring from doing a presentation, once they hit the floor armed with a flash drive packed full of useless powerpoint slides there is just NO shutting them up. Really every person should have to sit and watch themselves on video after they present (me included). They should have to watch themselves over and over again on a large screen TV to get the full impact of their performance.

My personal favorites are the people who preface their talk with how brief they will be and then proceed to ramble on for nearly an hour. My, my how time flies, no? Don’t these people have the internet yet? As you can see if you’re stopping by here, anyone can indulge themselves on the internet. I indulge my need to write and rant. If you want to take center stage and present slide after slide of useless nonsense then feel free to post yourself on YouTube or Facebook. It’s like that old joke, “if a tree falls in the woods does it make any noise?” You’ll just never know will you? Same thing with posting your moment in the glare of the conference room lights, you’ll never know (well maybe you will if you check hits to your post and read any comments) who is watching or listening or caring but at least you can get it out of your system without holding a conference room full of innocent victims hostage.

People who phone into radio shows sprang to mind as my hostage situation dragged on. Those people seem to really believe they’re adding to the lively show banter and they just aren’t. I love when Howard Stern just cuts them off and says, “I’m sorry, they were boring”; most of the time he’s right about that. I’m not necessarily a huge Howard fan but he certainly does have his shining moments and cutting off boring callers is high on that list.

One of my absolute favorite tricks is when the presenter reads each of their powerpoint slides. They’re presenting to a room full of college grads and there they are reading to us. Sweet. Look if you’re gonna read to me at least make it something good that I can’t read for myself. It’s a pretty safe bet that I can read slides projected onto giant screens around the room.

Try something new. Shake up the system. Distribute your powerpoint slides as a reference then speak about your subject naturally. If you KNOW what you’re talking about then you probably don’t need those damn slides anyway. And then for GOD’S SAKE SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!