Thursday, January 28, 2010

Jesus, it's Nazareth

So, it's been a month since we officially moved to Kelowna and we're settling in quite well. The commute is the biggest change in our lives - it's 10 minutes tops, door-to-door, from home to my office. It's 4 minutes from the house to the school, and that's if you miss the traffic light on the main road. My commute is the bus 3 days a week, as I open the branch on those days and have to be there early, the other 2 days i work the evening shift as we're open late, so I get to take the kids to school and come back home and putter about until Alex whips me down in time for the lunch hour crowd. We feel like we have so much spare time these days - the time that was typically devoted to commuting in the big bustling city. We're not missing the old days.

I'm still having a deep, soul-effecting daily struggle though - finding a radio station to wake up with in the morning. This is something I used to take for granted in Vancouver. It's been CBC since I can remember. The friendly soothing voice of Rick Cluff, his direct approach with guests, his sarcastic sense of humour....If you’re reading this, I miss you Rick.

There is a CBC station here but it’s not the same in the morning. Plus, on the clock radio by my bed, it comes in like it’s being broadcast from Russia. I’ve played with the antenna, but to no avail. So I’ve been experimenting. For a while I was waking up to French CBC – comes in clear, the music is lovely, but I was missing out on current affairs. It has helped me in brushing up on my French, so it wasn’t a total waste. Then one of the kids played around with it and changed it to the Top 40 station in town. It was fine, I was catching up on the Miley Cyrus happenings, I knew the exact schedule of when American idol would be on, and who the guest judges were going to be, I was informed where and when the big parties in town were and got the scoop on how to win free tickets for me and all my friends to drink and dance all night long.

Anyway....

I woke up one morning to Jordan Sparks searching for air again and thought I should find a new station. As I lied there under the weight of one of my children’s limbs (yes, they’re still sneaking into our bed) I grabbed the radio and started to move the dial. The wonderful comforting sound of Bono came through so crisply I felt like I had won a lottery. Finally, a station that plays good old U2 – can’t get better thatn that. I found my new station. I turned the radio off and got up for the day feeling like if I had already accomplished something this great before 7am, this day was set to be magnificent.

The next morning brought quite the opposite feeling. Again, I stirred to feel that there was a child in my bed, which I was grumpy about. Then the alarm went off and the most god-awful music blared out of the horrid piece of plastic. To add to the instant headache and nausea, Tea, who was lying half on the bed and half on top of me, started to rock and tap to the hard and heavy sound of something that was a perfect fit for a drunken brawl in a mid-70s smokey bar. She was perfectly in time, which made me proud, but i could not, would not encourage her by telling her. As I reached out my hand to hit the damn thing’s Snooze button she grabbed me and screamed “No!” “What??!?” I said. “Mummy, can you hear those drums, they’re amazing, I love them, this is such a good song.” OK, so I get that she’s probably never heard this kid of music as every room or vehicle she’s in she changes the station to something Top 40ish, and I’ve never heard JT do drums like that, but COME ON. I had to listen to the whole thing, and it must have been some EP version of the damn song cause I swear it went on for 10 minutes before the guy came on and announced with such glee that it was the best song Nazareth ever recorded.

Jesus, it’s Nazareth. My daughter has just heard Nazareth and she’s enthralled. I was dumbfounded. I needed a new station. Apparently, I had dialled into the classic rock station in town. Playing U2 the day before was stretching their identity. I changed the clock radio back to Top 40.

The weekend after the Nazareth incident Alex and I were invited to a dinner as an opportunity to meet some new people. We got all dolled up and off we went. I ended up sitting next to 2 women who work for a local radio station – the country station. Heather, who just happens to be the co-host on the morning show, was very charming and talkative and we hit it off right away. I explained to her how I’ve been looking for a new station and my experience earlier on in the week with Nazareth. “Nazareth” she screamed, “I love them, it must have been Hair of the Dog. I love that song” and she started rocking about just like Tea was that morning. “That’s a great Canadian band” she said “every Canadian should listen to Nazareth and like them.” There I was, lamb morsels growing chewy in my mouth, the co-host of a radio show gyrating in front of me, I took a swig of my Tanqueray and had a moment of questioning my patriotism – all because of Rick Cluff.

By the end of the evening I had resolved my inner guilt of un-Canadian-ness, and made a new friend. I agreed to listen to her show, she said she would play me a favourite Sugarland song at 6:30am the next morning and said goodnight. She played the song as she promised, and she even talked about meeting me and Alex – it was sweet. But that station didn’t last very long either. I found myself a few days in a row, listening to Heather and then turning the volume down when the New Country came on. I just can’t do that either early in the morning.

Alex suggested getting a new clock radio, maybe something from this century. I’m thinking about it. In the meantime, CBC with lots of interference is probably the best choice.



2 comments:

  1. For $15 a month, you could get Sirius Canada for the house & car.

    Or, use your iPhone as an alarm clock ...

    Or stream .... no, wait ...

    You want a simpler, local solution? You'll need to turn to online for music and local radio for news and chat, I'm afraid.

    The big city has spoiled you for terrestrial radio ...

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  2. go on chris - i am not canadian and stil think this song is a classic... back from ta' zmieni :-) it sure must get you out of bed with a bang!!!! lol!
    ps) had no idea nazareth were canadian... weren't rush also canadian (if yes, i think they were a far better export!) ;-)
    big hugs
    angelica
    xxxxx

    ReplyDelete