hey miss dee-jay!
wednesday, january 9, 2002
so, here's the thing: i don't listen to the radio. i mean, i really, really don't. occasionaly i second-hand listen to NPR, or simply whatever else is played in cars that i am a passenger in. and my roommate turns on the radio every morning as we get up. i'm okay with it, because it's some weird, funny talkshow with crazy people calling in.. but really.. radio.. it's just not my thing.
but i think i'm gonna be a student radio DJ this semester. isn't it just.. wild? well, that is, it looks like i will host a weekly 2-hour show on the campus access radio network, audionet, which is my school's internet radio broadcasting station.
it just.. HAPPENED. i mean, i've lost count of how many times me and friends have griped over and over again that: "why don't they ever play THIS on the radio?" .. which is precisely why i will, albeit in a small scale. i'm very excited, and very nervous. and, y'know, always half-a-second away from chickening out. but i won't.
see, it's like this. i know truitt. he comes by the campus echo office all the time. truitt is fun. and i always used to make him listen to whatever crap song i'd be in love with for the moment. sometimes, i would try and persuade him to force his dj's to play the songs on air, and he said he would, but i always forgot to give the songs to him so it never happened, but i kept yapping for it.
and then, last semester, truitt did a very, very foolish thing. i yapped for the nth time about some song that he "needed to force someone to play" and, i presume to shut me up, he said: "you know what? why don't YOU play it yourself?"
oooh. i never thought of that. so.. i guess i will! it's a very strange concept for me. i get really nervous just thinking about it. it's not playing the songs that spooks me as much as "having" to talk inbetween. of course, this apprehension seems to make no sense to people i know, because they are all pretty familiar with "will not shut up" jennie. but. hrm. i don't know. heh.
i just want to play my songs. i really don't care if there will be anybody listening: the pure fun in assembling songs and sowing together setlists is just.. great. poor truitt has already had to listen to me squeal "i can't wait i'm so excited wee!!" every single time i see him.. i think he's a week away from telling me that somehow there are no longer open slots just to make me shut up. hee.
if howard stern is the king of all media, i'm the mini-mini-mini-cameo of all media. i've been on the radio before --once i was interviewed right after a dentist appointment, and then last summer when i was live on radio squealing about hakan hellstrom before his concert.
i've been on american tv (if the shows ever aired) because i was in the audience for two talk shows episodes of the maury povich show (i saw myself on cam at least 3 times).
my picture is in a boring reference text book about libraries in sweden. i've been in local newspapers a handful times growing up--two specific stories on me when i was in my late teens (nothing in particular, but the internet was "new" so i got to be the token geek), and i was interviewed by the philadelphia inquirer (but not used in the story).
i know, they're just geeky little things. but they amuse me. of course, i look at media very differently now after 4 years of taking classes on all sorts of aspects of our media culture. it was more fun being in a real tv studio for me than the idea of being seen on camera. i got to see how the people and equiptment worked! way cool. working at this tiny, tiny newspaper have sort of de-mystified that too. and next i'm conquering radio in my little behind the scenes kind of way. crazy.
my show will be called "50 foot queenie", tentatively. i'm sure i should have come up with a snazzier name, but i have an affinity for that title. i love the pj harvey song, and of course, i have fond memories of my pj website with that title. "somabish" was a contender, but it would just sound too weird. so. "50 foot queenie" it is, i think.
i'm going to play whatever the hell i feel like. i'm going to try and follow a theme at least every other time (i have two hours! weekly! to fill.), but we'll see. whatever makes sense to me.
since this is a predominently african-american campus, a lot of the music is hip-hop, rap, and what-not. i expect my show to stick out like a sore thumb. but that's part of the fun. i don't think it would be too much to suspect that there will be a lot of tori amos, depeche mode, nine inch nails, pj harvey, maria mckee, bjork, kate bush, nick cave.. i'm predictable that way. song suggestions would be very welcome.. i'll download and see if they click with me or not. :)
oh, i know, it's really not a big deal. but i'm excited. and anything that can have me excited is, y'know, GOOD, i think, so.. wee! 50 foot queenie! 50 foot queenie! (theme song! theme song!) so.. yey. let's see if i chicken out or not before i ever make it on the air to start even.
angela called me last night -- not that this is unusual -- to tell me she bought my plant a pot. see, angela temporarily has custody over my plant (as i've been moving about a lot the past few weeks), and it's been in desperate need of being re-potted. poor thing is suffocating in its little plastic container.
so, she bought a new pot. awww. i have to say, we have a funny friendship. she sounded a bit like i did when i told her that i had sort of, accidentally, re-arranged her canned food cabinet one night while house sitting. this "eek, i really hope you don't mind, but i.." tone. i figure we're now even in the sudden, domestic friendly gesture department. and i bet my plant is thrilled.
"50 FOOT QUEENIE! 50 FOOT QUEENIE! WOOO!" .. cin cin. �� 5:04 p.m.
