......Friday, July 06, 2007

The Wisdom to Know the Difference


I love the serenity prayer:

God, Grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.

When I’m up against anything difficult, I find myself saying the prayer over and over, hoping to find acceptance of the multitude of people, places, situations and things I cannot change.

The key, however, is in the last line: the wisdom to know the difference. I struggle mightily to know what things I have the ability to change, and to find the courage to change those things.

An alternative version of the prayer indicates that the only person I can change is myself, and that I agree with completely. Some say that all I can change is my attitude to the situations I face, and certainly that is what I have most control over. But some situations I can change, and that is where I need the courage, to face the situations I fear the most.

Certainly many African Americans in the South originally determined that slavery and racism was a given, a situation that they could not change. But some people found the courage, and changed the world. Imagine if women in the 70s had not found the courage to change their situation? Of if people in South Africa hadn’t rallied against apartheid.

The wisdom to know the difference, to know what situations I can actually change, is so vital, so important to my finding serenity. It’s more than just picking my battles and determining what fights are worth fighting; it’s knowing which situations I really have any possibility of affecting, and then mustering the courage to actually make a difference.

I have been building a radio station with a partner who has at best been absent, and at worst really dragged on the station’s ability to function. It has brought down the mood of the staff, and tripled my workload on a day to day basis. The little things that are meant to make running the station easier have never happened, and can’t occur because the passwords are held by my partner, forcing me to do things like DJ changes manually.

For the longest time, I put my problems with the co-owner into the category of things I cannot change. I can’t change his work ethic, or his participation in the station. I thought I simply had to accept his lack of participation and move onwards with the station, with the knowledge that eventually the station could be ruined by his absence.

Slowly but surely, I see the station and its morale falling apart as a result of the situation. And after praying about it, I realized it: I could change the situation, I just needed the courage to do so!

Tonight I turned in my resignation to BigDawgRadio. It was a tough thing to do, having spent so much time and energy building the station into a what I consider to be a wonderful station, with amazing DJs, and people I’m proud to consider my friends. But in the end of the day, to heal the station I had to make this move.

I’m still hopeful that my co-owner will step up and allow BigDawgRadio to continue in its present form. But if he doesn’t, I’ll start a new station, and invite the various members of the station to create a new, better station that can exceed the hopes and needs of our audience.

Today, God provided me the courage to change the things I can. I hope he also provided me the wisdom to know the situation I could change, and I believe he did. Perhaps tomorrow will be a better one for this station or another as a result.

Posted by Scottage at 2:01 AM /

......Saturday, June 23, 2007

Sending love to Watchdog!


It is hard to write something sassy when one of our own has lost the center of his world. As a blogger we get to know the others pretty well. When I started my blog " Gidget Bones" last January, Watch Dog was one of my first regulars. When I went on the air at Big Dawg, he tuned in and supported me. Watch Dog is an awesome man. My heart breaks for him! To loose a child is unimaginable. The pain is inconsolable. There are a lot of people that love him, it is time to give him that love and show him support.

I am here for you my friend!

Posted by Anonymous at 11:41 PM /

......Tuesday, June 19, 2007

DeeJays and the Internet

Morning - or whatever time of day it is for you, as you read this. I'm still half asleep, even the cats' favorite game of Trip the Human has not wiped all the cobwebs from my brain, and the first cup of coffee is just passing my lips.
Something odd happened last night in chat. Well not truly ODD, and for most not even noteworthy, and true it could be just the way I took it, but still it made me sit back and reflect on a very basic truth... As I've mentioned before a good many of Bigdawg Radio's deejays hang out at 3 Paws Saloon, and often do their shows from there, playing requests, etc. Rogue was finishing up his show and was obviously not feeling well at all, so Ice Queen and I were offering to cover for him today (Saturday) if he still felt rotten. Nomad piped up, that although he knew folks were getting tired of him deejaying he was still there and could step up to bat also. Maybe he was being a bit sarcastic with the 'tired of him deejaying' - an attempt at left handed humour- I don't know, but it slapped me in the face. How could the man that we consider the backbone of Bigdawg - the one who actually carries it and the fella we all strive to follow , think anyone had grown tired of his stylings? Listening to Nomad is like...having a visit with a good friend who happens to have this enormous jukebox right handy. He's witty and charming, and most of all the fact that he CARES about his listeners shines through. That's when the 'basic truth' hit me. No matter how great you think the other person is...sometimes they just need to hear it. This holds true for all relationships. Sometimes we just get so comfortable with a person we start taking for granted that they should just know how we feel , and we fail to express our appreciation for them being - well- them.
A favorite comedian of mine, Red Skelton, once said, "If you take away the smiles, deafen my ears to their laughter, how would I know I was doing what I love well?" The radio medium is a deaf and blind situation for the deejay. We can't see if folks are enjoying themselves, or hear if they are having a good time. Since we're on the Internet, we depend on our IMs, email, and the Chatrooms, to let us know if 'we are doing what we love well'. So...have you emailed a deejay today? Hmmmm? Have you?

Posted by Scottage at 1:01 AM /

......Monday, June 11, 2007

Just what is Country music?

Country music is actually a catch-all catagory that embraces several music genres. Each one unique in its execution, rythum, and chord structure. It seems to have started in the South Western United States , where a different mix of ethnic groups from Mexico, the British Isles, Germany, and the Czech Republic created the music that became the Western music of the term Country Western. It has roots in traditional folk music, Celtic music , blues, gospel, hokum(a humorous song which uses extended analogies or euphemistic terms to make sexual innuendoes), and old-time music .
It first surfaced around the 1920s, but didn't start being called 'Country music' until the 1940s.
Country music has many sub-genres, that quite often, folks just don't realize are country. They include:
Nashville sound the pop-like music very popular in the 1960s;
Bluegrass, a fast mandolin, banjo, and fiddle-based music popularized by Bill Monroe and by Flatt and Scruggs;
Western, which encompasses traditional Western cowboy campfire ballads and Hollywood cowboy music made famous by Roy Rogers, The Sons of the Pioneers, and Gene Autry;
Western swing, a sophisticated dance music popularized by Bob Wills;
Bakersfield sound which used the new Fender Telecaster guitars, a big drum beat, and dance style music that would catch your attention like "a freight train running" (Buck Owens) popularized by Buck Owens and Merle Haggard;
Outlaw country made famous in the 1970s by Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Billy Joe Shaver, David Allan Coe, Jerry Jeff Walker, Mickey Newbury, Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard, and Hank Williams, Jr.;
Cajun and zydeco is rooted in the ballads of the French-speaking Catholics of Canada. Cajun music is often mentioned in tandem with the Creole-based, Cajun-influenced Zydeco form, both of Acadiana origin.
honky tonk primarily oriented toward blues and jazz;
Old-time music;
Rockabilly ;
neotraditional country
As you can see, almost any music could fall under the heading of 'Country music'. Even Plácido Domingo, the world-famous Spanish operatic tenor, has sung country. The one that comes to mind is Perhaps Love, sung with John Denver. Groups like the Gateful Dead, The Eagles, and Areosmith, can fall under the heading 'Country', if you truely listen. Sure, maybe not every tune they do, but quite a few.
According to Wikipedia "As of 2007, country is the most popular radio format in America, reaching 77.3 million adults--almost 40 percent of the adult population--every week."
Staggering, isn't it?

Posted by Scottage at 12:10 AM /