On the Lighter Side

I wish I was one of those folks who could talk about all the cool concerts they went to and where the latest and greatest band is playing.  My brother could probably do that as he was in a band, a very cool band, and currently is in this band and I guess also this band, and he is definitely more hip than I.  But of course living in a town with a limited music scene, I don't go out too much and if I wanted to go, I wouldn't have much of a choice.  So where does that leave me?  Listening to oldies on my cassette player?  Rockin' out to the best of the '80's?  Okay yeah maybe I do that.  Actually, it brings me to Pandora.  And oh how I love Pandora because you know what!?  It makes me a little more hip!  Rather than staring blankly at someone when they mention a cool new band, I can say, "oh yeah, I heard them on Pandora."  Well, I can do that at least two percent of the time rather than zero percent of the time.  For those of you who do not know about Pandora, and I only found out about around six or nine or twenty months ago (sorry bad memory), it is an online radio station where you select a song or artist who you really like, put it in the search, and Pandora creates a radio station based on this music selection.  Most of the time it works really well and for about 200 days straight - no seriously, 200 days in a row - I listened to my Feist radio station and loved it.  This station worked particularly well in my office because it was calming, which is what I need while I'm chained to my desk calculating what century I'll pay off my student loans.  Sigh.  That's a whole different subject.  As of late, I've ventured into new music selections including The Smiths, Morrissey, Jack Johnson, Amy Winehouse, and The Decemberists amongst others.  Hell yeah, I can be all dark and moody listening to Echo and the Bunnymen and Depeche Mode.  Seriously, it's a trip.  And I realize above I talked about "finding new bands" but what I really meant is "rediscovering old favorites."  So let me rock out for a while to The Pixies before I see my first client.