I had originally planned to whine a bit about this being the two-week anniversary of my cold, and how school is so infected with viruses right now that nearly everybody is sick, students and staff alike. But then I thought about several people I know who are in much worse health than I am right now, and I felt pretty lucky that my cold is likely to fade away eventually while some of them might never recover from rather serious conditions. So instead of whining I’ll just try to be thankful for the health that I do have, and think positive about staying that way as long as possible.

The current state of music radio is fairly abysmal, being totally oriented toward top-40 songs and repetition, so there are not too many places where I can sample new, less-common denominator music. Thus much of my radio listening is to listener-supported stations and college stations which are not dependent on advertising and ratings so they can play what the staff enjoys rather than what the media giants demand they play. For those of you in the New York-New Jersey area, my favorite two listener-supported stations, which are both college-affiliated stations as well, are WFUV (90.7) from Fordham University, and WNTI (91.1) from Centenary College. I don't like everything either station plays, but I a lot of it ranges from interesting to outstanding, they introduce me to many artists not played on commercial stations, and there is virtually no repetition (thank heavens!).

Another place where I can sample less-commercial, or even noncommercial, music is Paste Magazine. Not only does it offer interesting articles and reviews every issue, but each issue comes with a Paste CD Sampler which contains about 80 minutes of music reviewed in their pages. The music ranges from rock to pop with stops along the way at jazz, blues, and folk. I have four disks so far and they are all enjoyable.

This has been an unpaid non-commercial announcement. ☺