The New Progressive

I put in the tapes today and got through half my radio footage. I fast forwarded through much of the The AM Conservative Talk station to the juicy bits -- the commercials. Yes, we (the royal We, I supposed) in the freelance jingle writing profession revel in the irony of cutting through the wheat to seek the chaff. As I listened to each ad for signs of a potential customer, I began to notice a pattern. My inadvertent research suggests that the entities likeliest to buy advertising space on local conservative radio are car dealerships, building supply companies and exterminators; in other words, participants in society's most manly stratum. If I write jingles for these people I'll probably need to crank up the guitar amp to 11 and hire a singer with a raspy voice. It won't be difficult music to write.

(Hey, I'm trying to pay my rent. I'll do anything.)

(Except the exterminator one.)

The little snippets of talk radio I caught were captivating, convincing, and completely one-sided. I did, however, hear one shining jewel of a comment by one host who lauded French Premier Sarkozy's foreign policy stances in spite of his being "a cheese-eating surrender monkey." For all that I tend to disagree with the thinking of many in the so-called Right Wing, I am continually impressed by the creativity of what they have to say and the boldness of how they deliver it. A part of me finds the candor of the other side genuinely refreshing.

On a different note, I posted ads on craigslist several days looking for college-age musicians with jazz chops. I had a terrific jazz sextet in college that doubled as a hard-hitting party band, and would love to start that up again. Actually, "need" is a better word. The resurrection of my chops is well overdue.

I've already received some interesting responses from my ads. I will look forward to documenting those in a future entry. By then, of course, I hope to have myself a band.