Blog Posts by Robert of the Radish

There are a lot of creepy songs around that are a good fit for Halloween. I've built at least 20 Halloween-themed playlists over the years, so it's getting increasingly difficult to come up with new lists. But Halloween demands music! My personal favorite for Halloween is eerie ambient music, which I like to play to create an unsettling mood around the house.

But when it comes to popular music, the radio tends to play the same old stuff (is anyone really looking forward to hearing The Monster Mash again?).
Back in 2007, I created a Hip-Hop Halloween playlist that included 18 tracks. This year, I decided to make it even more cohesive by slicing the list down further.

To do this, I've selected only ten Halloween-themed, hip-hop tracks that I consider "old skool". You know, from back in the day when we though misspelling "school" was cool. Or, in other words, songs from the 1980s and early 1990s. The end result will bring you back in time, and if you have a nostalgic Halloween party planned, it's the perfect backdrop.

What would you add to your old skool, hip-hop Halloween playlist?

Blue is a popular color in music. It may even be music's most popular color.

One of the most important genres in popular music  is called the blues, because of its melancholy themes, and bluegrass comes from a common meadow-grass in Kentucky that blooms with blue flowers.

Blue is synonymous with sad. If you're faithful, you may be called "true blue". A "blue chip" stock is stock in a company considered consistent and stable. If you're "blue collar", it means that you're working class, but if you're a "blue blood" it means you come from privilege. A "blue ribbon" denotes something as being best in class. Blue can indicate vast distance, like the deep blue sea or the sky. Blue is also consistently voted the top "favorite color" in Europe and the US.

Indeed, the color blue gives songwriters a lot to work with, and you can find thousands of songs that use it to make a point.

But for this playlist I did not include "blue" songs, but "deep blue" songs.

What would you add?

When I can't decide what to listen to I usually put on some Steely Dan. They're a band that I never tire of, and their music works for me in almost any situation or mood. As I was listening to their compilation Show Biz Kids: The Steely Dan Story 1972 - 1980, up came the track "The Fez". It was a classic playlist moment, a spark that drives me to think of other songs with the same theme.

Well, I couldn't think of another fez song to save my life, and that pissed me off.  So I decided to find some.

In addition, I was not familiar with the history of the fez. So after doing some reading I discovered that the fez is of Ottoman origins, and it came into its own when Andalusian Arabs from the city of Fes, Morocco embraced it fully during the 17th century. The hat became an exotic symbol in the west, and it still turns heads today. Don't believe me? Put one on, walk around town and then come back and let me know how many comments you received.

Anyway, there were actually more songs with the word "Fez" in the title than I thought there would be, and the resulting playlist is actually much better than you would expect.

So if you own a fez, put it on and press play!

It's not easy being an undecided voter.

The talking heads of cable news label us as "out of touch", say that we need to "wake up", or accuse us of being apathetic and lazy. And while I'm quite certain that people like this do exist, not all undecided voters fall into these categories.

In fact, many of we "undecideds" have not made up our mind because we're starved for facts in a nation where it's hard work to uncover them . We want to cast an informed vote. And contrary to what the media would have you believe, an informed vote is not forged in the bowels of Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, or by reading the Drudge Report or The New York Times.  It's accomplished by reading opposing policies, searching out real data, and discovering respected experts on a point by point basis. Unbiased news sources do not exist, so news should only be a starting point on a journey to a well-formed opinion.

To a responsible voter, an argument that President Obama desires to turn the United States into a socialist nation should sound like fingernails on a blackboard, annoying to the point of creating an actual physical response.

Likewise, you should be equally disgusted by an accusation that Mitt Romney doesn't care about the poor, the sick, or the old.

The truth is, both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are great men. Both of them have achieved more in their lives than most of us could ever dream to accomplish. In addition, both of them are loving fathers and husbands, and both are great role models for our children. There should be no doubt in anyone's mind that they both want what is best for America, they just have different ideas on how to get there.

The problem for the undecided voter is the lack of an objective, productive discussion on policy.  We should invest time into digging out the details, and then use logic to help us make the best predictions on the outcome of policy. Instead, we rely on emotional hysteria and hateful claptrap in daily, mega-doses.

To put it in Star Trek speak, we desperately need more Spock and less Bones.

Unfortunately, our free press is no help. Elections are won with soundbites, and the media gorges on them like a starving animal, then regurgitates them.  How can we make the right choices when our decisions are driven by blind allegiance, and a media who cares more about eliciting an emotional response than asking questions that get to the root of the policy being discussed?

Let's look at one of the important issues facing our country as an example.
Namely, "How will taxes impact our out of control deficits?"

One side says we need a balanced deficit reduction approach. This means cuts in spending and higher taxes for the wealthiest among us, i.e., a bigger slice of the pie.
The other side says we need lower taxes to grow the economy, thus bringing more money into the treasury, i.e., a bigger pie.

This is a clear difference, but as an undecided voter I want to know which one has the best chance of success. But unfortunately, arguments like this usually devolve into hateful rhetoric  -- "Obama wants to punish small business owners!", "Romney is a fat cat looking out for his friends!"

What saddens me is that we allow such weak, emotional arguments to control our discourse about subjects that are so important they can set the path of our civilization.

Why are we not digging into the issues without demonizing each other? Why are we given soundbites instead of details?
Why don't we see economists and historians debating the issue of taxes on our televisions instead of people like Bill Maher and Anne Coulter?

I long for a day when our free press steps up to the plate and starts digging into the details. It will be a new era for the world when we value strong logical arguments and past performance over who has the loudest mouth.

So yes, I am still an undecided voter. But it's not because I'm "lazy", or "out of touch". That award goes to our press.
Without trustworthy sources, we are left to search the archives and analyze the data on our own.

And we do.

Because we care.

A lot.

We are the undecided voter.

These songs are for us.

Writers, artists, filmmakers and songwriters have forged fictional cities for as long as real cities have existed.  Some of these cities are places we would love to live, ideal locations for a perfect society. Others are dark places devoid of hope and love, and some are simply reflections of real cities, or caricatures of reality.

For this playlist I wanted to explore songs about fictional cities.

There is not a clear dividing line between what constitutes a city and what constitutes a town, but cities are general larger, have a more complex government, and  significant infrastructure.  Because there are literally thousands of songs to choose from, I decided not to include "towns" in this list. In fact, a whole separate playlist of songs about fictional towns is now on my to-do list.

I understand that this playlist, at 25 songs, only scratches the surface. So please feel free to add your choices to the comments.

Also, in what fictional city would you most like to live?

Old media is dead.

This has been the rallying cry of the digerati for at least a decade. And while in reality, old media is not quite dead yet, it is on life support. This is also true for music journalism.

The old guard, like Rolling Stone magazine, has struggled to stay relevant by creating an online presence, and transforming into more of a pop culture and political magazine than a music magazine. In its place we have seen new, music-centric, digital media fill the gap. If I had to pick the preeminent music site on the web today, I would have to go with Pitchfork Media.

While I may not always agree with individual reviews at Pitchfork, they are laser-focused on music, and nothing else. And they have kept their integrity intact by exposing great music, as opposed to the regurgitating the pop flavor of the week, or expanding into areas beyond their field of expertise.

This playlist takes a single track from albums that Pitchfork currently lists as the "Best New Music". While you will not like every track here, if you don't find something to love, you're not listening hard enough.

Most people in the United States haven't heard of Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW for short), but the trio is responsible for writing and producing over 100 UK top 40 hits with sales in excess of over 40 million records.

SAW's biggest success came in the 80s when they developed a synthesized dance sound that came to be known as hi-NRG. They would use drum machines and synthesizers to write the songs, and then use up-and-coming singers. The formula was a huge success and earned them the nickname "the hit factory".

Although many people hold them personally responsible for the very worst of 1980s pop music, they laughed all the way to the bank, pocketing over $100 million with their work.  Famous songs produced by Stock Aitken Waterman include "You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)" by Dead or Alive, "Venus" by Bananarama, "The Loco-Motion" by Kylie Minogue and "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley.

If you enjoyed these songs in the 80s, this playlist is for you.

There are two different international airport code systems. One is the IATA three letter airport code, and the other is the IACO four letter airport code. Most people are familiar with the more public IATA code. Some airport codes are instantly recognizable, like Boston's Logan International (BOS) or Philadelphia International (PHL). But others are more hard to determine. For example, Chicago's O'Hare International's code is ORD. This is due to the airport being built in the same location as the Orchard Place aircraft factory, so ORD is short for ORcharD.

Another odd airport code is Toronto's Lester B. Pearson International airport, which has an airport code of YYZ. The code comes from old weather and navigational codes. This is the most famous airport code in rock history thanks to the Canadian prog rock trio Rush, who named their most famous instrumental composition "YYZ".

For this playlist I've pulled together songs that use an airport code in the song title.

What would you add?