Music Man

Back when I was in college I used to make a lot of audiotapes, taping things from compact discs mainly for the purposes of playing them on driving trips. Back then I made a lot of driving trips, as I would drive from Boston (where my folks lived) to Chicago (where my then-girlfriend lived) to New Orleans (where I was in college at Tulane University). I made a few side-trips, too, such as to Auburn, Alabama where a guy I'd gotten to know on the net lived. One time I drove from New Orleans to Boston by way of Atlanta and Baltimore, visiting more friends. And in grad school I drove between Madison and Boston several times. (I much prefer driving to flying.)

So, I made a lot of tapes to keep my mind occupied on the long drives, although truthfully, only upstate New York and Alabama are sufficiently dull to make the music really necessary. I can deal with cornfields; endless kudzu in all directions is less exciting.

But I haven't made many tapes since grad school; I'm not sure why. Always busy with other things, I guess. Plus my stereo isn't in my bedroom, and thus the same room as my computer and other possessions, anymore. But I decided tonight I'd make a new tape, one with songs that either I think would be good for driving, or ones which have already been "road-tested", so to speak. These songs are:

BoDeans, Willy Porter and Marques Bovre are all Madison or Wisconsin groups. BoDeans has gotten some national exposure, but the other two are still pretty regional. "Cool Water" is the version from Porter's The Trees Have Soul album, as opposed to the more heavily orchestrated version from his Dog Eared Dream disc.

I don't know if this is a good cross-section of my musical tastes, since it by design omits many of my favorite groups who are present on other tapes, such as The Who, Jethro Tull, Men Without Hats, King Crimson, Yes, Nanci Griffith, Sonia Dada, and the like, never mind all my folk music, soundtrack albums, and classical. But it's some pretty good music nonetheless.

While at the con, I'll probably continue to comic book my way into the poorhouse. What is it with me lately? I haven't been this nutty about buying comics since high school.

So, no journal entries until Sunday. But I'm sure you can stand the wait.

Michael Rawdon (Contact)