I’ve been checking out some of the Sirius XM Satellite Radio stations I’ve never really checked out thanks to their new iPhone app which means I now have a radio on me all the time instead of my Sirius Stiletto radio which I leave at home so it will record the early morning programs that I want to listen to that are on while I’m at work. One of the stations I’ve been enjoying lately is the Raw Dog comedy channel.

On the talk stations I usually listen to the commercials are all the same kind so I was under the impression that commercials are pretty much the same on all the talk channels, but I encountered a commercial that I thought was a fake comedy commercial but turns out to be a legitimate commercial. It was for a website called “Cougar Life” an online dating portal for older women who want younger men. So the ad was soliciting men to sign up for these sexually mad cougars to ravage them. I was laughing at the commercial because I thought it was fake. So imagine my surprise when Google actually results for Cougar Life and links to multiple pages on their site, and short of signing up for it (as I’m not interested in the site) I checked it out.

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In one of those the truth is so strange it sounds like fiction moments, I was listening to Mary Occhino on my Sirius Satellite Radio because I woke up fairly early this morning. Her show now airs here in California between 4 am and 7 am due to the recent addition of Rosie O’Donnell to the Sirius XM Stars channel lineup. I decided to give Rosie O’Donnell’s program a try and stayed listening to her show.

During the Rosie Radio show, she was discussing how she and her daughter are addicted to one of the coffee style drinks at Dunkin’ Donuts. So I ended up checking out Dunkin’ Donuts webpage and on a long shot checked to see if any were in town. And it came up with no results. But a Google search yielded some different results, and so I ended up on Yelp.com where some local reviewers of some local donut shop were reminiscing about how that particular shop used to be Dunkin’ Donuts at one point in time. On the right hand side of the page was a Canadian Maple Leaf that caught my eye. Naturally as a Canadian, I had to see why there was a Canadian Maple Leaf on this page of reviews for a local donut shop that used to be a Dunkin’ Donuts however many years ago.

The Maple Leaf image was basically being used as a profile picture and it was tied to a list called “Comfort Foods” that was under a header called “Related Lists.” So whoever this person is had prepared a list of locations on Yelp, that he or she felt were great comfort food locations in San Diego, so out of curiosity, I clicked on because I’m assuming that he or she is also Canadian like me, so maybe they would have similar tastes.

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I recently decided to try the Sirius XM iPhone application with their free seven day trial, and I quite liked being able to use my iPhone as an additional Sirius radio in addition to the Stiletto 100 I already use for Sirius. So naturally when the free trial expired, I decided to give Sirius a call to add on the Premium Internet access which is required to take advantage of the iPhone application.

I didn’t really want to pay more money, so I asked the customer service agent if she could just cancel the added on Best of XM package I had added on. I mainly got to hear Oprah Radio from the XM lineup of channels, but I’ll be honest, I didn’t like the channel very much. I wasn’t listening to any of the programs and none of the other XM stations that were added were of any interest to me, so it was kind of silly to be paying $4.04 a month extra for worthless stations. As the premium Internet add on is only $2.99 a month, it essentially means it should be no problem “downgrading” my account. Since it was all prepaid I wasn’t expecting a refund on the extra already paid.

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One of the programs I really enjoy on Sirius Satellite Radio is Mary Occhino’s “Angels On Call” program. Mary is a psychic intuitive and also is a medium, able to communicate with people who have passed over. I often enjoy listening to Mary’s program learning about psychic things and have been fascinated by all the calls she takes. The program feels a lot like a lesson in the law of attraction rolled with a little of the paranormal. Whether or not you choose to believe that its possible, I happen to be fascinated with it.

The show is on the Sirius/XM Stars Satellite Radio channel (Channel 102 on Sirius, 155 on XM). Mary Occhino’s program broadcasts live Monday through Friday at 8 am to 11 am Eastern time zone, which is unfortunately the ungodly hours of 5 am to 8 am here on the west coast. So on work days, I’m still at work during the show, and on my off days I tend to be asleep at that hour. But fortunately, I have a Sirius Stiletto 100 radio and can record the show and play it back later in the day.

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To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Sony’s introduction of the Walkman which forever changed how personal music was defined, the BBC thought it would be an interesting experiment to have a 13 year old child trade in their iPod for one week for a classic Sony Walkman without any instructions other than to say the Walkman was the iPod of it’s day.

It was interesting to read the child’s insight into the whole thing, my personal favorite comment was it took three days before he realized there was a second side to the cassette. He also missed the shuffle feature of his iPod but decided he could simulate it by randomly holding down the rewind and stopping at random spots. It was also a great laugh to read how big and clunky he thought the device was because it’s huge compared to the iPod, but back in the day it was cutting edge small technology.

I still remember my first Walkman, I don’t remember the brand of it but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a Sony one. I used to listen to it all the time, even took it to bed so I could listen to my music to fall asleep, a habit I still have. I have a hard time falling asleep without music playing. Yes, the buttons were big and clunky, and for that matter so were the players. I always wanted one of the Walkmans with a built in speaker but never did ever get one of those. Cassettes weren’t a perfect medium, but they are what got me through the 1980′s. I didn’t get my first CD player until 1989.

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I’ve long felt that the music industry has been out of touch with reality with the business model it has been using since the Internet became so popular. My opinion remains unchanged but I wanted to share a recent experience, that had the record industry been set up to capitalize on it, they would have not only gotten a sale from me, for which I was perfectly willing to spend money on, but because of sheer stupidity and region issues, I was forced into downloading for free, what I was perfectly willing to pay for.

I am a subscriber to Sirius Satellite Radio and one of the programs I like to record on my Sirius Radio is a weekly broadcast called “Nordic Rox” which is a three hour program specializing in music from Scandinavia. The witty tagline for the show is that it is home for “Good Looking Music.” The program is hosted by Sven Lindström and is sometimes joined by Per Gessle of my favorite group, Roxette. As I tend to like acts from Sweden, it’s a good opportunity each week to hear some classic and new material from Scandinavian artists. Well on one of the recent shows, I came across a song entitled “Longing For Lullabies” performed by the remix outfit called Kleerup featuring vocals by Titiyo. Titiyo is the younger sister of Neneh Cherry, and half-sister to Eagle-Eye Cherry.

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Now that 2009 is now upon us, it seems that it would be good to take a few minutes to highlight what made high points for me in 2008. Taking a quick glance at the list of items that made the list this year, it seems that the very early 1980′s seem to be related to almost all of the items that make the list for this year. The influence of the 1980′s will be readily apparent as you check out the list. And I’ll point those out along the way for those who might not quite see the influence.

Without further ado, I now present My 9 Most Incredible Things of 2008, in no particular order… (more…)

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Sirius Satellite Radio’s Channel 77, Broadway’s Best, regularly runs a daily program called “Showtime!” where they play cast recordings from start to finish or as they call it, from Overture to Finale. They run the shows nightly Mondays through Saturdays at 8pm Eastern (5pm Pacific) and special “matinee” shows on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays at 2pm Eastern (11 am Pacific). This is a great chance to listen to cast albums from various shows to see if they might be ones you want to buy or shows you might want to try and see. And thanks to the Sirius 3-Day Free Trials, you can experience a couple days worth of shows for free.

On Wednesday, August 13th, 2008, Broadway’s Best on Sirius Channel 77 will be featuring the movie cast album of Mamma Mia! featuring Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried, and Pierce Brosnan. They will be running it for both the matinee presentation at 2pm Eastern (11am Pacific) as well as the evening broadcast at 8pm Eastern (5pm Pacific). It’s a great chance to hear the song from the movie as they appear on the cast album (which are different from the performances in the movie.) Even the newly added song to Mamma Mia!, “When All Is Said And Done” features some new lyrics that were not featured in the version used in the movie. You’ll be able to hear here at no cost with a free Sirius trial.

Click here or the Sirius Logo above to sign up for a free Sirius Satellite Radio trial, just don’t do it until just before or on August 13th to ensure your free trial encompasses the “Mamma Mia!” Movie soundtrack broadcast. And if you decide you like the soundtrack album and want to get a copy of it, click here to get it from Amazon.com. Or check out the auctions on eBay below for the Mamma Mia! Movie soundtracks below. (more…)

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SIRIUS Satellite Radio announced that Channel 3 for a two week period beginning July 7th, 2008 will be become the ABBA Channel. To tie in with “Mamma Mia! The Movie” being released this month, SIRIUS is getting in the act in making sure you have access to an all ABBA channel to get your fix of ABBA songs as well as songs from both the original cast recording and movie cast recordings of Mamma Mia.

The limited engagement channel will also feature stories and insights from ABBA members Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus about their many pop classics which have influenced recording artists for over three decades. ABBA Radio will also feature celebrity fans sharing their favorite ABBA music and personal stories, including stars from “Mamma Mia! The Movie” Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Christine Baranski, Amanda Seyfried, Dominic Cooper, Catherine Johnson, film director Phyllida Lloyd and producer Gary Goetzman, as well as Dionne Warwick, Alanis Morissette, songwriter Desmond Child, Joan Rivers, Brooke Shields, Andy Bell from Erasure, Randy Jones from the Village People, the cast of the Tony Award®-winning musical Spring Awakening, ambassador Ulf Hjertonsson, Per Gessle of Roxette, Nancy Sinatra and Martha Stewart.

Benny Andersson of ABBA in press release issued by SIRIUS said, “Thanks to ABBA Radio on SIRIUS, both new and longtime fans have a place to experience the original music of ABBA, together with the new songs produced for the soundtrack to Mamma Mia! The Movie, in a distinctively innovative way. ABBA Radio allows for our early songs to join the new ones in harmony on SIRIUS’ national platform, and engage all generations of listeners.” (more…)

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