Call Sign

I was so in love with this playlist from October. Still am. It's chock full of songs with fab female voices and a handful of tracks with Chad Smith on drums. I was seriously obsessed with watching YouTube vids of him drumming throughout Autumn of last year. It was a nice diversion from the hellhole shitstorm that is reality.  

Break My Heart - Dua Lipa

Come and Get It - Austin Giorgio

Youngblood - 5 Second of Summer

Bite My Tongue - Cassandra Coleman

Native New Yorker - Odyssey

Evil Shuffle - Ozzy Osbourne

Cry - Benson Boone

She Calls Me Back - Noah Kahan

Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nothing Ta Fuck Wit - Wu-Tang Clan

Baby I'm Yours - Barbara Lewis

I Know There's Something Going On - Frida

Father Figure - Taylor Swift 

Frenzy - Iggy Pop

Zombie - Yungblud

vampire - Olivia Rodrigo

Devil or Angel - The Clovers

Stab My Back - Le Butcherettes

She Dances - Diego Garcia

Run the Bath - Birthday Girl

Arlington Queen - Stellastarr*

Music for Spies - Snõõper

The Melting Moon - VHS or Beta

People Watching - Sam Fender

New Girls - Vum

Pull Me Under - Dream Theater

The Natural - Marnie Stern

The Dark Gift - Meanstreak

The Scratch - 7 Year Bitch

Mystery Title - Robert Plant

Time Bomb - Rancid

How It Ends - DeVotchKa

October 2025 Playlist

(Fave track: Cry by Benson Boone. It would end and I would hit the back button and turn the volume up even higher. Also, special thanks to Bishop for introducing me to Native New Yorker - such a fun tune!!)

The Ole Tomorrow Show

Today I queued up some episodes of Tom Snyder's Tomorrow show to listen to at work. I love Snyder as an interviewer. He had such an eclectic mix of guests and always treated each of them with the same amount of respect and genuine interest. It's like being a fly on the wall, eavesdropping on one fabulous conversation after another. I do so miss interviewers of the past like Snyder and Dick Cavett. There was no pretense with them, they asked real and unique questions of their guests and then sat back and let them speak. It made the work day fly by!

I started off with Ricky Schroeder, who cute as can be, shared his Starburst candy with Tom. 

After Ricky, Iggy Pop came on to perform and then chat with Tom, who seemed sincerely interested in everything Iggy said without sounding like an old fuddy-duddy who was above listening to such loud caterwauling. And Iggy was so polite. I do love me a fella with good manners.

I'd seen the interview with Wendy O. Williams, but knew I had to see it once more. Just another great interaction between two totally opposite personalities.






Patti Smith was wonderfully shy and her usual soft spoken self. So unpretentious and sweet that she's impossible not to like.




Then I watched the 1975 John Lennon interview. Tom covered Lennon's years with The Beatles and what the fellas are up to now, John and Yoko's Bed-In for Peace and their current issues with the U.S. and possible deportation. All in all, a wonderful batch of interviews by a helluva host.

Who'd have thought...

...that it was possible for Iggy Pop to become more endearing?

"I'm not ashamed to dress 'like a woman' because I don't think it's shameful to be a woman."

(I seriously adore this cat. This is why punk boys are the best - they do their thing fearlessly and make life that much more beautiful.)

Makin' Me Happy

-Watching old episodes of The Graham Norton Show - the ep with Ewan McGregor and Chris O'Dowd is excellent. Love those fellas.
-Waking up on weekend mornings at 7:30 and being able to lay in bed til 11 doing absolutely nothing. Pure bliss.
-Daydreaming with my niece. Nicole and I have been fantasising about her moving into one of the apartments near me so we can see eachother every day. The joy that would bring to our lives is monumental. I so want it to come true!
-Listening to my nephew Jackson as he learns how to say new words. Words like Lala (my name), cookie, turtle, and poopy. Mum is not thrilled that we are teaching him words that she deems as inappropriate. Oh, and he's learned how to wiggle his toes and make fish faces. That kid is so stinkin' cute I wanna die.
-Singing horribly and dancing to Patti Smith's Land. I fuckin' love that track.
-Romeo and Juliet cookies. I'm addicted and sadly there is no twelve step program to sober me up.
-De President. My Matthias Schoenaerts obsession continues. I saw this movie months ago without subtitles and was crying from laughing. Finally ordered a region 2 copy and laughed just as hard now that I actually know what everyone's saying. How does Schoenaerts spend the entire film cross eyed??? Sheer genius. He and Frank Lammers - another fantastic actor - were hysterical as the goofball Bulgarians. I do so respect actors that can be so remarkably versatile in their craft. To play roles so opposite one another, like Dennis in Dennis van Rita, Filip in Loft, Jacky in Bullhead, then Ali in Rust and Bone, and Nathan in Death of a Shadow. I sometimes forget that it's the same man playing all these different people. Reminds me of Ewan McGregor who was flawless as a junkie, an English nobleman, a sweet and shy telephone repairman, a Jedi, and a rock star.

(hi-larious photo kidnapped from filmfestival.nl)

-Listening to the Stooges - can anything be wrong with a day that's consumed by Iggy Pop's voice? I say nay nay.
-Going through all the crap in my closet and getting a huge pile of stuff to donate!
-I really wanna get a Pepper White lil' Mini but feel like I will never be a real grown up with money in a savings account who can afford to pay her bills and buy pizza and drive a super cute car. Yesterday I sat down with David, my older brother; that man can figure out anything. He's one of those people that it just would never occur to him that he could ever fail and so he attempts everything and always succeeds. Yeah, I am so not like that. I'm convinced I'll fail at everything and basically remain stagnant rather than try. It's my worst character trait. Anyway, we sat down and discussed all of my finances and Dave has convinced me that I can totally make it happen and the thing is, I completely believe him. Mini Cooper, you are about to be mine!

Plastic Fantastic

Went to Bryn Mawr to hang out with my older brother today and hit up Gold Million Records, formerly known as Plastic Fantastic, which I think is a much better name. Anyway...I snagged a few vinyl albums and kinda fell in love with the place. Mostly with the incredible snapshots of famous musicians that had been there in the store's heyday. Ya know, people like Blondie and Iggy Pop.

Punk Playlist

The Gits - It All Dies Anyway
The Ramones - Judy Is A Punk
Iggy Pop & the Stooges - Gimme Danger
Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen in Love
The Clash - Clampdown
Rancid - Time Bomb
Sex Pistols - Don't Gimme No Lip Child
Dead Kennedys - Forward to Death
The Cramps - The Way I Walk
Iggy Pop & the Stooges - Dirt
Patti Smith - Land
X - Los Angeles
Bikini Kill - Rebel Girl
Rancid - Olympia, WA
The Gits - Another Shot of Whiskey
Death - Keep On Knocking
The Clash - Death or Glory
Sex Pistols - I'm Not Your Stepping Stone
Gang of Four - Natural's Not In It
New York Dolls - Chatterbox
Siouxsie & the Banshees - Hong Kong Garden
Buzzcocks - Love You More
Plasmatics - It's My Life
Iggy Pop & the Stooges - Search and Destroy
The Cramps - I Can't Hardly Stand It
Bikini Kill - Strawberry Julius
The Circle Jerks - Love Kills
Death - You're a Prisoner
Boomtown Rats - I Don't Like Mondays
Sex Pistols - Pretty Vacant
Patti Smith - Rock N Roll Nigger
The Misfits - Devil's Whorehouse
The Clash - This Is Radio Clash 
X - Johny Hit and Run Paulene
The Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop

The Dark Forest, Take Four - Crazy or Sane????

The Three Suns - Song of India
Nat King Cole - Night Lights
Split Enz - Dirty Creatures
Iggy Pop - The Tell Tale Heart
Joan Osborne - Crazy Baby
Pearl Jam - Crazy Mary
The Soundtrack of Our Lives - Bigtime
Ace of Base - Living in Oblivion
Suzanne Vega - In Liverpool
Leela James - A Change Is Gonna Come
Van Morrison - Cleaning Windows
The Monkees - Zor & Zam
Dolly Parton - Down from Dover
Remy Zaken and Katherine Helmond - I've Written a Letter to Daddy/Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
Louis Jordan - Saturday Night Fish Fry

~August 9, 2005

4

The Height of Cool

In late 1976, the year I was born, Pax went with some friends to CBGB's to see Television. Pax was never a big fan of large social situations, so at one point during the show he decided to duck out to the alley and smoke a joint. Just after flame touched paper, a man came walking toward Pax. "Hey, hey man, can I get some of that, hey man, can I?" Pax was more than happy to share a toke or two with the legendary Iggy Pop. Soon some of Iggy's friends came over and hollered, "Jim, c'mon, Jim, we gotta go." Iggy Pop put his arm around Pax and said, "Hey, man, this here, this here's my new friend, what's your name?" "It's Pax." "cool, cool... Pax, my new friend Pax!"
And so there, in a New York alley way, Pax smoked a joint with the true Godfather of Punk. That, dear reader, is the most bad-ass, crazy rock 'n' roll thing I have ever heard.

A Dark Forest December

(photo kidnapped from flickriver)

This is without a doubt my favourite holiday album, mostly because it never mentions Christmas. Growing up Irish Catholic, the entire month of December was dedicated to nothing but Christmas music. Then I went into retail. Enough said, right?

The ninth broadcast from The Dark Forest began with, appropriately enough, Snowfall by Ahmad Jamal. Up until then, I had never heard Jamal's music, but now I absolutely love it. This piece in particular is so dreamy and peaceful.

Other tracks that were apropos to the season were Rosemary Clooney singing Snow, Kate Bush's December Will Be Magic Again, Winter in the Hamptons by Josh Rouse, and Jane Monheit's version of Moonlight in Vermont.

The patron saint of The Dark Forest, Ms. Mildred Bailey, makes another stunning appearance and brings us Me and the Blues and I never tire of hearing her incredible vocals. Other songs that made absolutely no sense in this mix was The Gypsy by Emmett Miller & His Georgia Crackers, originally recorded on September 1, 1936 on the Blue Bird label (you're not surprised.) Then there was Halley's Waitress by Fountains of Wayne, sponsored by the Medport Diner (if you're ever there, try those twisty fries, they'll change your life.)

The best song played on the 15th of December, 2005 was Randy Newman's gorgeous and haunting Bad News from Home. I never was all that crazy about Randy Newman's voice until I started listening to The Dark Forest and now I wonder what the hell was I thinking because he's fantastic.

More odd songs were Iggy Pop (♥) singing about Success and Eddie Floyd telling us about his Big Bird and finally Rickster Rick brought it all to a close with Ozzy Osbourne's remake of the classic Moody Blues song Go Now. The perfect end to yet another perfect broadcast.