Substitute

I am lying here on the beach being a slacker, and recovering from food that is too rich from my system. Since I can't form a coherent thought, my friend Rock and Roll Mama has been kind enough to write today's guest blog post. It was inspired by my "incident" with my iPod and the car stereo. I love Lindsay, she's funny and witty and smart, and she shares my love of GEORGE! Smart girl!

Driving and music have always been inextricably linked in my mind. When I first got my license, 10 (or maybe 20...cough, cough) years ago, listening to tapes in my Mom's big old Chevy Impala Wagon seemed the epitome of cool. Or, I'd just twirl the dial, waiting for the random universe to choose the perfect song for the moment. 

Somewhere along the way, I got disenchanted with commercial radio. It seemed like no matter where I turned the dial, there was a commercial for a mattress sale or a car blowout event, and just like on the telly, the volumes increase to migraine inducing proportions. As for the songs they were playing in between...it felt like it was the same ten or twenty over and over and over again, and may two of them were any good. 

I saw the birth of my third child as the perfect opportunity to upgrade to satellite radio. BONUS! We needed a minivan, and as long as we were at it...we've had XM for 2.5 years now, and there's many things I love about it. But many things that drive me insane. Just like when you have 500 cable channels and nothing on, I'll sometimes scroll through all of my preset stations and nothing will strike my fancy. Other times, like last weekend, I'll get an amazing surprise that never would have transpired on commercial radio...XM University was playing FULL SETS recorded at Austin City Limits Festival the weekend before, which I had desperately wanted to attend, but it was across the continent. So, I'd resigned myself to following Twitter updates and watching spotty video footage, but to hear the soundboard recordings was so amazing I felt like I was there. 

I'm also a talk radio junkie, and XM delivers that...the Oprah and Friends channel is a favorite of mine (I know BEAR....I'm old, right?) and I love my financial guru, Dave Ramsey, on XM talk. The downside though is that the talk shows are riddled with AT LEAST as much advertising as you get on commercial radio, and I have a harder time with it because I feel like we're paying to eliminate it. 

I also love the Alternative rock stations, like Ethel and Lucy, because sometimes I'll hear songs from my youth by bands like the Breeders and Fugazi, and I can pretend like I'm still just cruising in the Impala, trying to get the smell of Marlboro Reds out before returning it to my mom. Instead of, you know, BEING THE MOM!

Bottom Line: Sometimes, only an iPod will deliver on exactly what you need at that precise moment. Or sometimes, I have to do what I did today: snap the radio off, and listen to the tires on the road. It was bliss.