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.