Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Dear XM:

I recently purchased a vehicle that came with XM Radio free for 90s days. I like the idea of commercial free music - I am not interested in Talk Radio, or Howard Stern or MLB so I am only interested in the music part.

Thing is - now that you merged with Sirius you've gotten rid of all your cool music channels and just took on the Sirius channels - which to me are sub par. XM Cafe was excellent - now it's the spectrum and I turned it on today to hear a Bob Marley song off the Legend album - um ya... that album is practically handed out at college orientation - that isn't a "deep track". I want songs I don't know yet, not the same old bullshit I can listen to for free on 93.7 or some similar channel.

So far the only music channels I've found worthwhile are: Area (for some club music), 1st Wave (80s alt rock), and XMU (Indie College Radio). But honestly XMU isn't any better than WERS 88.9 Emerson college's radio station that has been going strong and FREE for 60 years! In fact 88.9 is such a great station I listen to it exclusively M-F during my commute. And 1st Wave is basically my cd collection from the 1980s - I haven't heard a song I don't already own on that station.

If you are going to get me to pay $10 a month for commercial free music I want to hear GREAT music that I haven't heard before. I don't want to hear top 40 pop that is played EVERYWHERE for free already! Or the same alt rock track every free 'alt rock' station is playing.

I know satellite radio is in trouble - I believe the way to get and keep paying subscribers is to offer channels that really are playing deep tracks, not the stuff that is already played on free stations. Otherwise people like me are going to stick to their ipods and commercial free college stations like 88.9.

Monday, February 23, 2009

I don't think so...

What the hell is this new thing, I mean jacket from Marc Jacobs?

Up close it looks like jean corduroy in a horrible light wash (not really a fan of light washed denim) and what is up with all the patches and random buttons? For almost $400 I want something that doesn't look like I bought it vintage at the thrift store.



Been on hiatus

The last month has been a tough one and I have sadly neglected my blog :(

Between work and the passing of my grandmother (my last living my grandparent) it's been a busy and an all around difficult month.

With spring rapidly (I HOPE) approaching - I am getting excited for that spring footwear again and need to figure out what the hell I am going to wear this summer!

Finally a car!

After 2 months of aggravation and negotiation - last Tuesday I finally purchased a car!

I ended up buying a TSX from Bernardi Acura in Brighton. They definitely negotiated quite a bit and overall I felt my buying experience was good (as good as it can be arguing over the price of a car). But now I have my car and I love it! The great thing about Acuras is that they have 2 packages: Base or Tech. It's that simple. I got the tech package and it's fantastic! Navigation system - that really works well, back-up camera, sunroof, voice recognition, bluetooth, XM radio, heated leather seats, and great ipod integration. Initially I had wanted an RDX, but at 17 MPG and no ipod integration - I changed my mind to the TSX which is also super fun to drive since it's a manual 6 speed.

And the Gov. just passed a new law trying to get car sales going again that any car under 45k is eligible for a tax break.

It was a long and painful process, but I ended up with a car I love!