It's called The Waterfront. Here's how the management describes it: "Whitney's record collection, intelligently programmed. Punk, new wave, indie, classic rock, soul, funk, reggae, deep cuts, old favorites, new discoveries and musical rabbit holes. No algorithm—just great records, unexpected connections and the occasional useless bit of music trivia from Les Coole."
I've been listening to it quite frequently since it hit the airwaves, much to the detriment of my Spotify statistics. Whitney's record collection is a hell of a thing, as you'd probably imagine. Thirty-six thousand individual tracks spanning more than 2,500 hours (~110 days!) across as many genres as you can name. It's an eclectic listen, to grossly understate things.
Starting today, The Waterfront is getting a little more crowded. Yours truly asked the station's proprietor if there was room for a new show, and he graciously created some space. Starting today, and every day forward at noon and 6:00 pm, tune into Ready to Play, hosted by GM Russ (my DJ name, which combines a sports reference with my grandfather's nickname - his given name was Seymour, so I think you can understand why he chose a different daily name). Each week we'll offer a different sports-related (sometimes maybe sports-adjacent) theme.
The first episode celebrates the 2026 World Series, with songs connected in some way to the Brewers and
Rays. Here's the playlist:
- John Fogerty, "Centerfield"
- Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, "The Waiting"
- Violent Femmes, "American Music"
- Seven Mary Three, "My My"
- They Might Be Giants, "The Famous Polka"
- Doechii, "Anxiety"
- BoDeans, "You Don't Get Much"
- Ray Charles, "St. Pete Florida Blues"
- Bon Iver, "Holocene"
- The Hold Steady, "Killer Parties"
- Trapper Schoepp, "Wildfire"
- John Prine, "Angel from Montgomery"
- Brother Ali, "Uncle Sam Goddamn"
- The Lemonheads, "It's a Shame About Ray"
Listen in, tell us what you think in the comments. Put me in coach. I'm ready to play.
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All of this is magnificently cool. I do think GM Russ could coax something a bit less literal out of his AI agent for the show's thumbnail, but that's just me.
ReplyDeleteMuch less magnificently cool is the unsolicited email I received from the IRS with the subject line "Claim your child's Trump Account today!" and encouraging me to "Claim your child’s account today! Download the official Trump Accounts app to activate your child’s Trump Account, make contributions, and track investments." and "Join the millions of families who have Trump Accounts and start building a strong financial future for your child today!" A significant aspect of what I do for a living is sniff out when people are lying to me, and I grew up in north Jerzy, so I have a robust bullshit detector and this email has it absolutely screaming "SCAM!!!" No serious governmental email has exclamation points in it. If I click on the embedded links I expect to wake up in a bathtub full of ice water with my kidneys stolen.
I did the thumbnail... and I agree, Z. That was an 11th hour image that I threw in there, and I just told GM Russ that he can have whatever he comes up with in there.
ReplyDeleteKudos to robbie for jumping in with both paws on this and knocking out a very solid episode 1 in short order. More to come...