I have been told by one of my friends "wow, you are so critical." I prefer to see myself as "discriminating," as in: "I can discriminate between things that suck and things that do not."

That is, at base, one major point of being educated, is it not? To learn to discriminate between things, to define them, categorize them, understand them, critique them, etc.? It is not necessary to accept things as they are, or as they come to you, or as they occur. It is ok to judge things if you are cognizant of some form of criteria. You know this, of course. You are discriminating.

(why else chose this fine blog instead of the many lesser ones, for instance?)

Let's take a look at the simplest critera there may be: good and bad.

For example, there is such a thing as good music and such a thing as bad music.

Considering this clear truth, I have found a true enemy of good music: the dj of the "out of the box" show on the local public radio station here.

This man (who insists on keeping the bass levels on his mic excessively high for some reason--much higher than the other people in the studio at the same time-- which renders his voice unlistenable and incredibly grating because of excessive bass, and not, as I think he believes, some kind of Barry White style deep voice thing), this very man plays any and all music that comes out. Which means he truly does play some of the worst music ever recorded. And revels in it...

That is the whole unbearable schtick of the show: it's out of the box, new music out of the box, just out new music...

It is, simply, insane. It appears that this man, this silly silly man, opens the boxes and plays whatever is there--new terrible blues, new terrible alt rock, new silly pretentious folky music, new electronica, new records by washed up hasbeens. It's just out of the box. Get it?

what could possibly be wrong with this man?

I hear this show because it kicks in after NPR is over and asI often have that on in the background while I am doing something, I unfortunately catch the first song, sometimes two songs. I marvel at the unerring ability of this complete clown to be drawn to terrible music.

It is, at least, another daily reminder why you should never support public radio!