CIRCLE WITH A DOT

My teenage kid's interest in music is ratcheting up, and she recently asked if we could get a subscription to Apple Music. Neither my wife nor I use any streaming services, and I am skeptical of them for all the usual reasons. (They pay artists poorly while enriching the worst people on Earth, the algorithms encourage bland, predictable taste, they devalue art to the level of a budget car rental, etc.) All of that being said, I'm sympathetic to the needs and customs of her generation, and don't want her to be the pariah at school because of my weird values.

Music is extremely important to me. It's not aural wallpaper or background decor—I think music can change lives, inspire art, end wars, help bring down governments, and motivate people to keep going in their darkest moments. I also think streaming services suck the life out of those possibilities, and I see it on a daily basis in my work as the advisor for a college-adjacent radio station. More and more young folks (especially those who've grown up with streaming services) are making radio that sounds like an Instagram reel had a one night stand with a viral Tik-Tok video and gave birth to a well-manicured celebrity influencer playlist. (In other words, radio that's total crap.)

But I sat on the kid's request for a few days and came up with a counterproposal: Instead of Apple Music, I offered to buy her two new records of her choice every month for the remainder of her time in high school. (Naturally, I bundled this offer with some conditional expectations for chores around the house.)

And she went for it. Eagerly.

She also brushed away my offer to pick up her initial requests on my lunch break today, saying she'd rather we just go to the record store together this weekend. This made my heart melt a little bit, because as every parent knows, the sting of your kid pulling away from you as a mid-teen is a quiet pain that we all manage differently. I hadn't anticipated that my offer would result with the bonus of a monthly daddy/daughter date in a place we both love spending time.

And yes, it's going to cost me five times as much as any streaming service would, but I think the benefits will be incalculable.

A short story with a surprise ending:

On this day ten years ago, I drove with one of WPRB's student DJs to purchase a $10 keyboard for one of the station's computers from a guy on Craigslist. We were to meet in the parking lot of a Dunkin Donuts in Trenton, NJ.

Upon our arrival, it is immediately apparent that nearly everyone else in this parking lot is in the process of either buying or selling drugs. It is lunchtime, on a weekday.

We stand around for a minute waiting for something to happen. Finally, it does. A muscular guy with a shaved head begins walking towards us, carrying what looks like a Mac keyboard. Even though he is dressed in street clothes, I can CLEARLY tell that he is a cop. (I have a good eye for this.)

"Fuck", I think and say at the same time. "What the fuck have we walked into here."

From a distance of ten yards, the cop yells: "Are you Mike from Craigslist?"

"Fuck", I think again (but do not say aloud this time.)

"Yes?"

Officer Friendly arrives, shakes my hand, and then hands me the keyboard. I hand him ten dollars. He thanks us, and he then turns around and walks back to his car. Narcotics-related transactions continue all around us in every direction.

I toss the keyboard in the back seat of my car and we leave. Upon our return to the station, I examine the keyboard more closely and discover that instead of the customary English-language keys, it features only Turkish characters. I plug it into the computer it was destined for and learn that it is also broken.

#otd #wprb #shortstory