pandora...my salvation

have you guys heard of this dice thing called pandora? it's basically an online customizable music station. it's basically keeping me from taking everyone out at work.

about 3 years ago, before i realized just how important renter's insurance was, my apartment was broken into and my beloved ibook was stolen. not only was my at-home internet access taken, but also a way to add music to my ipod. i made due with making CD's on my brother PC and using my girl, jen's, imac to upload music sporadically. but now jen's computer, and jen, are in spain. i, unfortunately, can't afford a computer yet and, even more unfortunate, don't have any friends that have a mac. plugging into a PC is not an option as there are songs on my ipod that were not saved on a CD. so, my ipod remains at 1,717 songs from 2007 and before...

i had heard about pandora from people at work whose musical tastes i didn't necessarily share, so it didn't register as something i would be interested in. earlier this year, sara mentioned it during one of our gchats. i thought, "she seems neat, i'm bored with the 'that thing you do! soundtrack' that's been on repeat for 2 weeks, i'll give it a try!".

so the first thing you do is create a station by typing in a song title or artist that you like. i let me authentic self decide for me and typed in LISA LISA & CULT JAM. what followed was 6 hours of musical diceness that i had not experienced since the mix tape i made in the summer of 87. lisa lisa, stevie b, shannon, seduction, exposé, trinere. all my childhood memories in one place! i may have shed a tear or two.

from there, my stations grew. bell biv devoe station, 4 minutes station, shakira station, even a hall & oates stations for those easy listening days. the greatest part, when a song comes on that's hitz, you can tell pandora you don't like it and it will NEVER PLAY IT AGAIN! it's like a dictatorship and i'm drunk with power!

pandora has helped me get through my increasingly mind numbing days and has also reminded me that the shit they play on the radio here in the bay area is not representative of what's actually out there. while i don't have the most discriminating taste, i do, as you know, like stuff that is dice. pandora let's me remember the good ol' days of new jack swing and reminisce on the love i have of freestyle. it has also opened my eyes to artists like miguel bose and rbd. how did i live without mi amante bandido?

what i'm trying to get across is that pandora is dice and there's just no other way around it.