Master CraftsMon - Aired Monday, December 12, 2005 at about 11pm CST - Segment 4
Master CraftsMon - Aired Monday, December 12, 2005 at about 11pm CST
Segment 4
KEOS is all volunteer. That means that even the secretary doesn't get paid. You hear music on KEOS. I play a lot of it myself on my other shows. Before a CD can be play, someone has to review the CD for compliance with FCC standards. Each CD is logged into the system and the date it is set on the shelf for review is recorded. If no one volunteers to review a CD, then it sits on the shelf until... hell freezes over I suppose.
When I got to KEOS, I discovered that there were CD's that had sat on the shelf since 1996. I systematically went through and reviewed all these legacy CD's. I stopped looking at legacy CD's with dates of January, 2004. Most of these CD's I reviewed were singer/songwriter CD's. I must have reviewed 150 or 200 of these sucker. Each one of them seemed to be made by whiny people who could NOT sing, but were bound and determined to inflict their voices on people.
There was one album that I just could not bring myself to review. It said that there were 48 songs on the album. Each song was in the rounds genre. You remember rounds, surely. Oh, you know, the first person does "Row! Row! Row! Your boat! Gently down the stream!" Then the second person starts the song half way through then the third does it. By the time you're done, you may have five or six people singing the same song but at different parts of the song. I looked at that CD and said, "No way. 48 songs of rounds? Forget it." I assume the dust bunnies will grow to love that CD, because if I don't review, no one will.
Anyway. I was reviewing this album with a date of September, 2004. The artist is Ray Herndon. Album is called Livin' The Dream.
That was the title track, Livin' The Dream. I listened to that and I thought he really did a good job. Surely better than any of the others I had reviewed. So I went out to his web site and posted on his guestbook and wrote:
Then I explained why I had done it. I emailed him back saying:
I was just going to send you email telling you how much I liked your CD, but the message board was a better medium. I live by a truism:
"Proclaim the Good, Lest Evil reign unopposed."
In this life, too many people extend themselves and do their best and are not complimented and encouraged. The woman who spends an hour doing her hair to make it look exceptional. The maid who picks up that last tiny piece of paper from the floor. The mechanic who buffs off a small smudge on the car he's been working on. The cop who tells you to ride your bike on one side of the road because the other is too dangerous. And, yes, the singer who extends himself when others do not. Itty bitty things that make life better in a community.
Fighting Evil is costly. If Evil is prevented, you never notice that Good has triumphed. No one notices the absence of Evil. Evil may never rule. We allow Evil to reign over us and enable evil people to do evil things to us.
I know, too weird, particularly this early in the morning. People become upset when they deal with me because I have thought about life too much in the last few years. I ask people to think and most do not wish to. Of course that makes me crazy, but I've decided I do not care.
I kind of wonder what he thought about that, but again I do not care. The point I was attempting to get across to Ray was that Evil exists. We let it grow when we do not promote Good. The seven county area around Brazos County has over 400 service clubs. Each of these clubs promote Good at the expense of Evil. When you have that many people committed to doing Good, Evil has a harder time taking root. I always like to say that the aether, the background noise of a community, changes when it has a lot of community service clubs. When the citizens of a polity decide that they care, then things get done.
Too many people in our society extend themselves without getting complimented for it. People should not expect praise for doing their best, but it should be given. I know, that does not make much sense, but all fits in with what I have been trying to say with this show. Our society has changed. We no longer can or should conscript people to do what is correct behavior. I believe that too many of the problems in our society center around the subsurface fight between what our society has become and what people perceive it to be. As long as Reality is denied we are going to have problems.
There's an addon to this story. Once I posted the message on Ray Herndon's guestbook, I got an email from the publicist for Gary Portnoy. I know, that name means nothing to you as well. Gary wrote the theme song for the show Cheers. After all these years, Gary Portnoy is putting out a CD of songs. I said I would listen to it. Why I don't know. Anyway. I thought it was kind of strange, because I do not particularly like listening to music. Other people do. I say to them, "Great. Enjoy. Not my business. I would not think of asking you to change." Hmm... I checked. Nope. Gary Portnoy is not in our library. Too bad.
Segment 4
KEOS is all volunteer. That means that even the secretary doesn't get paid. You hear music on KEOS. I play a lot of it myself on my other shows. Before a CD can be play, someone has to review the CD for compliance with FCC standards. Each CD is logged into the system and the date it is set on the shelf for review is recorded. If no one volunteers to review a CD, then it sits on the shelf until... hell freezes over I suppose.
When I got to KEOS, I discovered that there were CD's that had sat on the shelf since 1996. I systematically went through and reviewed all these legacy CD's. I stopped looking at legacy CD's with dates of January, 2004. Most of these CD's I reviewed were singer/songwriter CD's. I must have reviewed 150 or 200 of these sucker. Each one of them seemed to be made by whiny people who could NOT sing, but were bound and determined to inflict their voices on people.
There was one album that I just could not bring myself to review. It said that there were 48 songs on the album. Each song was in the rounds genre. You remember rounds, surely. Oh, you know, the first person does "Row! Row! Row! Your boat! Gently down the stream!" Then the second person starts the song half way through then the third does it. By the time you're done, you may have five or six people singing the same song but at different parts of the song. I looked at that CD and said, "No way. 48 songs of rounds? Forget it." I assume the dust bunnies will grow to love that CD, because if I don't review, no one will.
Anyway. I was reviewing this album with a date of September, 2004. The artist is Ray Herndon. Album is called Livin' The Dream.
That was the title track, Livin' The Dream. I listened to that and I thought he really did a good job. Surely better than any of the others I had reviewed. So I went out to his web site and posted on his guestbook and wrote:
I'm with KEOS 89.1FM College Station, TX. Before an album gets on the air someone has to review it for FCC violations. Your album, Livin' The Dream, came into the station in September, 2004. No one reviewed it... until now. I do the cleanup detail. Any album that sits on the shelf for a year, I review. When I got to KEOS, there were albums, from 1996 still unreviewed. Mostly singer/songwriter albums are awful. The singer is by in large a whiny self absorbed person who's doing the album is a way to pump up their ego. I have had to plow through over 200 albums like that and each one was like nails across a blackboard for me.What really freaked me out was that the singer, Ray Herndon, sends me email almost immediately thanking me for the compliment. I sent him a note back saying that I did it to encourage him. To let him know that there was someone out in the world that had listened to his music and appreciated it.
I was impressed with all the songs on Livin' the Dream. Some I liked more than others, but I was impressed with how well your voice melded with the instruments. The lyrics are heartfelt and correct for the music. I was also impressed with how well you filled up the background making the sound fuller than most of the other singer/songwriter albums I have had the misfortune to review. The word pictures your lyrics paint are right on, the title track particularly. I hope you live your dream. You are truly a gifted musician, singer and songwriter.
If you are touring in the Texas region and want to have a live session on the air, we do a live radio and interview show. Please contact me if you are interested.
Please note that KEOS is a tiny station, 1000 watts, so we may not be worth fooling with.
Then I explained why I had done it. I emailed him back saying:
I was just going to send you email telling you how much I liked your CD, but the message board was a better medium. I live by a truism:
"Proclaim the Good, Lest Evil reign unopposed."
In this life, too many people extend themselves and do their best and are not complimented and encouraged. The woman who spends an hour doing her hair to make it look exceptional. The maid who picks up that last tiny piece of paper from the floor. The mechanic who buffs off a small smudge on the car he's been working on. The cop who tells you to ride your bike on one side of the road because the other is too dangerous. And, yes, the singer who extends himself when others do not. Itty bitty things that make life better in a community.
Fighting Evil is costly. If Evil is prevented, you never notice that Good has triumphed. No one notices the absence of Evil. Evil may never rule. We allow Evil to reign over us and enable evil people to do evil things to us.
I know, too weird, particularly this early in the morning. People become upset when they deal with me because I have thought about life too much in the last few years. I ask people to think and most do not wish to. Of course that makes me crazy, but I've decided I do not care.
I kind of wonder what he thought about that, but again I do not care. The point I was attempting to get across to Ray was that Evil exists. We let it grow when we do not promote Good. The seven county area around Brazos County has over 400 service clubs. Each of these clubs promote Good at the expense of Evil. When you have that many people committed to doing Good, Evil has a harder time taking root. I always like to say that the aether, the background noise of a community, changes when it has a lot of community service clubs. When the citizens of a polity decide that they care, then things get done.
Too many people in our society extend themselves without getting complimented for it. People should not expect praise for doing their best, but it should be given. I know, that does not make much sense, but all fits in with what I have been trying to say with this show. Our society has changed. We no longer can or should conscript people to do what is correct behavior. I believe that too many of the problems in our society center around the subsurface fight between what our society has become and what people perceive it to be. As long as Reality is denied we are going to have problems.
There's an addon to this story. Once I posted the message on Ray Herndon's guestbook, I got an email from the publicist for Gary Portnoy. I know, that name means nothing to you as well. Gary wrote the theme song for the show Cheers. After all these years, Gary Portnoy is putting out a CD of songs. I said I would listen to it. Why I don't know. Anyway. I thought it was kind of strange, because I do not particularly like listening to music. Other people do. I say to them, "Great. Enjoy. Not my business. I would not think of asking you to change." Hmm... I checked. Nope. Gary Portnoy is not in our library. Too bad.
posted by aRandomTexan at
8:35 AM
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