I’ve had enough drama this week.  Difficulties with people (and not just those reading this blog who know who you are), a long string of very early mornings at a job I really shouldn’t be at, and a general fall funk.  Then I turn on my favorite radio station at 93.1 FM which I believed like it had been every day I had been in Madison that it was my favorite Classic Rock station anywhere.  Instead, I got Madison’s #1 place for Hip Hop, which I swore was way at the other end of the dial.
The fuck?  The fucking hell? My favorite radio station that 95% of the time plays songs that don’t make me want to extract my eardrums and at least a third of the time makes me glad I have eardrums suddenly turned into a station that made me want to veer into oncoming traffic. I had to go through the whole day in goddamn Rockford* under this gloom that Madison lost something so special that I felt like a Packers’ fan when Brett Favre retired.
So after work, after I finally made it off of work, I went to my local used book/music store and binged:
Led Zeppelin IV- Led Zeppelin; Pink Floyd – A Momentary Lapse of Reason; Pink Floyd – DSotM; Jackson Browne – Running on Empty; Reo Speedwagon – The Hits; The Doors – The Doors.
Plus a couple other clearance titles. Pretty sure I already had at least half of those on my computer already, but it didn’t matter. A part of me was lost and I had to do something to fill the gap.

And then, I came home, and read the news:
(Copy and pasted from the website of the best fucking classic rock station that ever was.)
Last night just before midnight “The End” began. The Doors classic had haunted The Lake’s airwaves many times over the past five some odd years. This time though it carried with it a message. It was truly marking the end of 93.1 The Lake.

The premise of The Lake was always to try and create a unique radio experience for fans of classic rock. From our formative years of no contesting to our playing 93 album sides ON VINYL this past Labor Day weekend. Playing vinyl in the age HD. How dare us!

What a long strange trip it’s been, and we thank you taking it with us. Supporting The Lake, our clients, and our different approach. This is the point where we could try and explain why this did not work. We could blame the suits, the fact that no fewer than five radio stations in the Madison area are now playing Classic Rock. [HH note: Bullshit. Only one other station is classic rock themed and Bob & Tom in the mornings does not make a good radio station. I've also heard too much new shit on there, the on-air personalities (those that aren't syndicated) don't give two shits about the music and the music they play is far too heavily into glam rock and hair metal.] We could even try and find a way to blame the economy. That seems to be the trendy thing to do these days. If your passion for The Lake is as strong as ours though, than no one excuse or list of excuses will truly satisfy.

So rather than offer up empty explanations we will simply again say thank you. The Lake is gone. The parts that have made machine known as The Lake go are not. You will be able to hear all of us through out the Madison area. Greg and Kurt will both return to 94.1 WJJO. [HH: Still the best fucking new rock station in the country.] Greg in mornings [HH: Mild-mannered Greg teaming up with Johnny Danger? That's like having your beigeocractic uncle sit in on your weed session.] and Kurt hosting the cities only local music show Sunday nights at nine. [HH: Awesome] Sara, Sue and Jim can all be heard on Madison’s legendary Magic 98. [HH: YOU LIKE JOHN MAYER? YOU LIKE JASON MRAZ? You'll love this station. I got pulled over by cops while listening to "When Smokey Sings" on this station. 'Nuf said.] And Sly does what only Sly can do every weekday from 10a to 2p on 1670 WTDY AM.

Please tune in and join us.

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There are many, many huge changes I knew were coming this year, and quite a few I didn’t. This came out of nowhere and hit me like a fucking bus. I don’t know what I can do anymore except adapt. And I don’t even know how to do that anymore. At least these CDs will keep me sane for a few hours.

*Cues up The Doors -The End*

Addendum: In retrospect, I should have got these CDs a long time ago. Zeppelin IV alone is not only a find, but a treasure, despite having at least a thousand times the print run as Stokesia and about ten or fifty thousand copies of this album to every copy of Dear Feeling. Yet, just having these CDs physically mean so much for some reason. Dirt from the pitcher’s mound at Yankee Stadium to use a timely sports analogy, but more like air from Yankee Stadium. I don’t know, I have too much of an attachment to physical things anyway. I’m listening to DSotM right now.
Check out my last.fm profile. Apart from the Homestar Runner sound clips, my tastes are almost confined to two kinds of artists, one consisting of I’ve and artists very closely associated with I’ve (Haruka Shimotsuki, etc), and the other consisting of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and the Beatles, with a little Metallica and NIN to round it out.
I listen to I’ve, etc., on my iPod, previously my CD player. I listened to the classic rock bands more often on the radio than anywhere else. My car doesn’t have a CD player, and my FM transmitter doesn’t work in the part of the city where I spend most of my time. So I have to listen to the radio.
Now what.
I feel so abandoned, really. Something that connected me with the rest of the city in some superficial manner. It was about the music. It was about the music that I liked, and those who know me should know how much music effects me. They should know now anyway. To be connected by music with someone or some culture is more important than nearly any other connection to me. I really feel my connection has been cut off, like Madison said “You know what, you’re not one of us any more. We don’t like long guitar solos, we don’t like lyrics that never mention sex or even love, we don’t like lyrics that take a backseat to the band, we don’t like bands that are just as important as the front men, we don’t like experimentation, we don’t tolerate innovation, and we are so urban we can’t see the forest for the trees because there are no trees where wish we were. We don’t like you, there aren’t enough of you to care about you, so we have nothing to say to you any more. We’ve passed on. This is the new world, this is the new shit, adapt or get the fuck out.”

*Rockford is a hellhole of a city, don’t ever live there. In fact, except for a few isolated parts of Chicago stay out of Illinois altogether, you’ll thank me.