vanmega: “there was a time during the winter of 2003/2004 where I logged a lot of hours with WOXY. Back in my night owl phase I used hangout alone in my basement while working on my laptop, listening to WOXY. Yeah, It sounds a bit bleak but it was, in fact, joyful as hell for me. It was exciting, I remember being exposed to what felt like an endless stream of new bands and new sounds (you have to remember this was before "indie rock" as common the ipods which everyone now listens to the stuff on). Time has since passed, and a lot of these bands are now staples on The OC. But that's ok.”

I logged similar hours listening to WOXY after an article about the station in SPIN Magazine. After a hiatus from listening to online radio, I heard about KEXP through Joey deVilla, and have been listening ever since. I'm surprised that VanMega's editor hasn't mentioned KEXP recently, because it's the logical place for now-former WOXY listeners to go. A note for those who are used to WOXY's continuous indie format, though: KEXP's daytime schedule is heavy on the type of WOXY favourites, but in the evenings KEXP broadcasts specialty shows, my favourite evenings being Wednesdays and Thursdays, with DJ Riz. (I'm tempted to resurrect my "DJ Riz Drinking Game" list, since he has a lot of catch-phrases, like "Riz here" and "in the background soon to be in the foreground".) Right now, I'm listening "Swinging Doors", that features country music. Good, tear-in-your-beer country, not the stuff you hear on commercial radio.

So worry not, fellow-former listeners of Cincinnati's breath of fresh air, since KEXP is not only "member-supported"—I'm a card-carrying member, two years running, though really the station gets most of its funding through a large grant from the Experience Music Project—but plays great music with no commercials, save a few 'supported-by' announcements here and there.

The website, with a weblog (which updates too frequently for me to keep up with, so I just look at the pictures of in-studio performances), podcasts featuring local i.e. Seattle bands and more 'out-there' music, and live playlists. The one thing it doesn't have, at least not yet, is the ability to have a song that plays on KEXP, when I'm listening, appear on my Last.fm playlist. That would be pretty cool, though I'd probably want a way to let people looking at my playlist to know where I heard the song.

In the last two days I renewed my membership to KEXP (I went with the t-shirt instead of the iPod condom) and sent a small donation to Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. (In January they ran the gamut of tests on me, including a urine test, my first, to see why I wasn't able to eat for 3 days during my first trip there.) Today my registration for TextMate finally came through PayPal's ridiculous payment gauntlet, though I'm to blame thinking that I could pay through there with my credit card. I tried renewing my subscription to The Atlantic Monthly using the card they sent me, but I seem to have misplaced "the envelope provided". Today I set a date for a new patient exam at the local dentist. I'm very afraid of it.

I'm trying this new thing where some posts go to the front page and some don't, instead of everything. This being one of hopefully a few more changes towards (some) quality control for this weblog.

My outbox consists currently of the floor next to my desk, on which sits a real physical inbox. There's something deeply satisfying with having an inbox with paper bills to pay then discard (shred!) and some to pay by cheque and send by letter mail. You put the envelope in the red box on the corner of the street, magic happens, bills get paid.