WHAT ABOUT MY HEROINES?
FILM NOTEBOOK, PAGE 3B.
ANDROGYNOUS FASHION ISN'T JUST FOR BOWIE ANYMORE. PAGE 6B.
B
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2006
On the
rad
again
Blue skies, open windows,
a spliff behind the ear
and a whole lotta road
in front of you - there's only
one thing
miss-
ing: the
perfect
tunes.
The
sound-
track
to your
journey
is almost
as impor-
tant LLOYD H.
as the CARGO
destina-
tion, and for all the spontane-
ity involved in choosing music
over a long period of time, I
think I've got playing in-car DJ
down to a fairly exact science.
Now, there are a lot of fac-
tors that come into play when
picking music for the car. For
one, it's important to take into
consideration the taste of your
passengers, but also to establish
your authority over the stereo.
Repeat after me: "My car, my
music, my car, my music."
Really, this shouldn't be a prob-
lem, as your friends will be
happy to cede control to some-
one who clearly knows what
they are doing.
The time of day and the
weather is also important. Is
it raining as you drive through
the night, or are you departing
at 7 a.m. on a nice day? Let's
assume the latter.
To get you started you need
some soul music (and some
coffee), preferably upbeat (and
not from Starbucks). Try King
Curtis's Live at Fillmore West
or James Brown's Live at the
Apollo and that first hour will
fly by. Be careful, though: It's
tough not to speed when Curtis
is cooking up that "Memphis
Soul Stew." Trust me, getting
a speeding ticket is the fastest
way to turn a road trip sour.
It's better not to try and fol-
low either of those bands with
any jam-related music. People
have been trying for a long
time, and believe me, you just
can't get funkier than James
Brown,andnoband has ever
been as tight as King Curtis's
was in the early '70s.
To mix up the pace a bit, go
for Neko Case's Blacklisted or
The Band's self-titled record.
Both of those records invoke
Americana and really sound
like the open road, making for
perfect traveling music. This is
also a good time to spark that
spliff.
And when you're good and
ready, hit yourself with the
second side of Abbey Road
(that means starting with "Here
Comes the Sun" for anyone
without the good sense to own
a turntable). It's a bit of an
obvious choice, I know, but
considering its near-perfection,
you really can't go wrong. In
fact, the only downside to play-
ing it is the fact that you then
have to put something else on.
But that's what I'm here for.
Since that final, make-the-
See CARGO, page 2B
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY
ANDREW KLEIN AND
BRIDGET 0'DONNELL/Daily
Open up a treasure trove of new music with the
Internet's latest tool: Pandora
For music fanatics, casual listeners
and curious minds, the customiz-
able online radio at Pandora.com
ought to be of serious interest.
The website bills itself as a music dis-
covery service - type in the name of a
favorite artist or song and the site will
find other choices to match your taste. It
has already changed the way at least 3.5
million users discover and enjoy music,
and its reach seems to be expanding, in
part due to cooperation from industry
giants but mostly because of those who
use the free service.
Pandora co-founder and lifelong musi-
cian Tim Westergren has spearheaded a
promotional campaign, traveling all over
the nation to connect with users through
town-hall meetings and open forums.
He will host a forum tonight at 8 p.m. in
the Student Activities Building's Maize
and Blue Auditorium.
Pandora has come a long way from
its rough beginnings. For nearly two
years, employees of the fledgling com-
pany labored relentlessly without salary,
fighting to bring it to the surface at the
tail end of the dot-com bust. What could
possibly compel a staff to follow some-
thing so impractical? What values must
these people have had that they were
willing to forgo compensation (neces-
sity ultimately forced many to quit), and
to what end were their toils directed?
The answer, quite simply, is the music.
Music has been a constant force
in Westergren's life. He began play-
ing piano at 7. Though his time is now
almost completely consumed by Pan
dora, Westergren continues to play
piano at least once or twice a week.
After studying computer acoustics
and recording technology at Stanford,
where he received his bachelor's degree,
Westergren spent the next decade play-
ing in rock bands, the five years after
that working as a film composer and
additional time as the owner and opera-
tor of commercial digital recording stu-
dio Nightfly Studios.
Westergren said he undertook the proj-
ects that led Pandora (and its foundation,
the Music Genome Project) because music "If I was to really boil down this whole
was such a personal part of his life. adventure, this whole company, into
"In my life, music and music discov- its most basic inspiration, it's the feel-
ery is one of the things that affects me ing that I get when I find a new band or
the most emotionally," Westergren said. See PANDORA, page 4B
Oct. 18 to 22
* A weekly guide to
who's where, what's
happening and
why you should be
there. Arts editors
recommend this
week's best bets.
ON THE STAGE
Gotta love that a cappella. And
if you love a lot of it, check out the
6th Annual MACfest at Rackham
Auditorium. The concert features
all 13 student a cappella groups
on campus: 58 Greene, Amazin'
Blue, Compulsive Lyres, Dicks
& Janes, Friars, G'men, Gimble,
Good News, Harmonettes, Head-
notes, Kol Hakavod Kopitonez
and Sopranos. Tickets are $10
and performances start at 8 p.m.
IN THE STARS
All of you on the Hill, here's an
event where your locale is actually
convenient: the Detroit Observatory
open house tomorrow night on E.
Ann Street. It's the Detroit Observa-
tory but when it was built in 1854,
it established the University as one
of the nation's leading research uni-
versities. The open house is free and
will be from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m -
come take a look the observatory's
150-year-old telescopes.
IN LECTURE
Duke University's Paul Berliner
will be giving his lecture "The Heart
Remembers: A Tale of Musicians
in a Time of War" at the Rackham
Auditorium amphitheater tonight.
Sponsored by the School of Music
and Dance, Berliner's mixed-genre
presentation actually combines a
lecture with readings and Zibabwe-
an mbira music performances.
The event is free and starts at
6 p.m.
ON SCREEN
OK, so it's in Flint. But if you
really love Tim Burton's cult classic
"Nightmare Before Christmas" - a
fantastic Halloween and Christmas
film rolled into one - Showcase Cin-
emas Flint West is showing it in 3D
tomorrow night, coinciding the film's
eye-popping re-release. The return
of Jack Skellington and his rag-doll
lady-friend, Sally, is just in time for
the holidays. Call 810-230-6668 for
showtimes and ticket prices.