WPRB Princeton 103.3 FM

The history of club zanzibar, newark and more!! plus and exclusive live set from virtua dx

it has become a little bit of a tradition for this show that every so often we get together to celebrate the noble Doot...the majestic Honk...indeed, all the calls that a Horn might make.

in this installment, while we will continue to make some time for joy, we will also honor the original purpose of the Horn itself: to call people together for gathering, or even for battle.

we will remember that all doots are solidarity doots.

it has become a little bit of a tradition for this show that every so often we get together to celebrate the noble Doot...the majestic Honk...indeed, all the calls that a Horn might make.

in this installment, while we will continue to make some time for joy, we will also honor the original purpose of the Horn itself: to call people together for gathering, or even for battle.

we will remember that all doots are solidarity doots.

it was just recently my birthday, so i'm gifting this playlist of songs i believe in; not just songs i know are good, but songs i know have been good to me.

in going through it, we'll tour all the ideal birthday party moods: "oh i couldn't possibly," "i guess we'll try it," <full-on headbanging>, and "all is well with the cosmos."

thank you for joining me this year; here's to many, many more.

it was just recently my birthday, so i'm gifting this playlist of songs i believe in; not just songs i know are good, but songs i know have been good to me.

in going through it, we'll tour all the ideal birthday party moods: "oh i couldn't possibly," "i guess we'll try it," <full-on headbanging>, and "all is well with the cosmos."

thank you for joining me this year; here's to many, many more.

so cyndi lauper sang about one feminine desire, but surely there are others? here are some of them.

so cyndi lauper sang about one feminine desire, but surely there are others? here are some of them.

this episode was going to air 7/14, but got stormed out; we're trying again!

originally it was a response to the two very cerebral shows that i ran 6/30 and 7/7; also, i had just gotten a tattoo, and i wanted something that spoke to the emotional and physiological depth of that experience.

so let's think today about how we endure: how we start from a place of home in ourselves; then, when pain finds us there, how we can escape it, or ignore it, or even revel in it. we'll do what we have to do to make it through.

this episode was going to air 7/14, but got stormed out; we're trying again!

originally it was a response to the two very cerebral shows that i ran 6/30 and 7/7; also, i had just gotten a tattoo, and i wanted something that spoke to the emotional and physiological depth of that experience.

so let's think today about how we endure: how we start from a place of home in ourselves; then, when pain finds us there, how we can escape it, or ignore it, or even revel in it. we'll do what we have to do to make it through.

i went on a trip, so this is a "what i did on my summer vacation" essay of sorts, but it's a lot of other things, too. words will fail me; good thing this is a radio show.

let's be with each other and figure it out together as best we can.

i went on a trip, so this is a "what i did on my summer vacation" essay of sorts, but it's a lot of other things, too. words will fail me; good thing this is a radio show.

let's be with each other and figure it out together as best we can.

two falls ago, i did a show solely devoted to my favorite video game composer, Miki Higashino. in researching that show, i found out about a 1998 album called Ten Little Plants, which featured Miki (a notoriously prolific collaborator) and a bunch of her video game music friends making some weird, fun little music together. many of the other participants were luminaries in their own right.

but there were a few i didn't know, including today's subject, Tsukasa Tawada. and it turns out that they rule, too. so today we're doing another deep dive with another one of the ten little plants. our Tawada, it turns out, has the pure heart, the proper technique, and the playfulness, to do something very few other composers can do: make really good happy music. let's give it a listen.

two falls ago, i did a show solely devoted to my favorite video game composer, Miki Higashino. in researching that show, i found out about a 1998 album called Ten Little Plants, which featured Miki (a notoriously prolific collaborator) and a bunch of her video game music friends making some weird, fun little music together. many of the other participants were luminaries in their own right.

but there were a few i didn't know, including today's subject, Tsukasa Tawada. and it turns out that they rule, too. so today we're doing another deep dive with another one of the ten little plants. our Tawada, it turns out, has the pure heart, the proper technique, and the playfulness, to do something very few other composers can do: make really good happy music. let's give it a listen.

two falls ago, i did a show solely devoted to my favorite video game composer, Miki Higashino. in researching that show, i found out about a 1998 album called Ten Little Plants, which featured Miki (a notoriously prolific collaborator) and a bunch of her video game music friends making some weird, fun little music together. many of the other participants were luminaries in their own right.

but there were a few i didn't know, including today's subject, Tsukasa Tawada. and it turns out that they rule, too. so today we're doing another deep dive with another one of the ten little plants. our Tawada, it turns out, has the pure heart, the proper technique, and the playfulness, to do something very few other composers can do: make really good happy music. let's give it a listen.

it was a travel week this week, so i have broken the emergency glass and revived an old favorite format: today we'll hear some very long -- dare we say symphonic? -- video game songs, interrupted by covers of The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony."

i enjoy this, because it lets us hear the depth and scope that some vgm works can achieve, while allowing us to simultaneously more deeply investigate Schrödinger's Pop Song: is "Bittersweet Symphony" a meme? is it earnestly good? or is it a superposition of all the states in between?

we'll also end with the most epic chiptune cover that exists, as a treat.

it was a travel week this week, so i have broken the emergency glass and revived an old favorite format: today we'll hear some very long -- dare we say symphonic? -- video game songs, interrupted by covers of The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony."

i enjoy this, because it lets us hear the depth and scope that some vgm works can achieve, while allowing us to simultaneously more deeply investigate Schrödinger's Pop Song: is "Bittersweet Symphony" a meme? is it earnestly good? or is it a superposition of all the states in between?

we'll also end with the most epic chiptune cover that exists, as a treat.

five days ago, the united states supreme court wrote that tennessee was free to deny gender-affirming care to children; consequently, those kids will no longer be fully free to do the work of being kids -- that is, exploring who they are and want to be.
but the work will still get done. it always does. and this week's playlist is an attempt to provide an example of how.

even when the path to who you are is blocked, even when it seems to go through territory that you can't believe even exists, you will find a way. and along that way will be joy, and strength, and people who love you and walk alongside you. here are mine. happy ******* pride.

hey, we herd you liek music, so we put some car music in your car music so you can nyoooooom while you nyoooooom

the head of the nyu game design program frequently insists that video games are not a literature, but rather something between drugs and pornography, and she's got a point: there are moments in games, particularly in those games designed to induce a flow state, that are utterly consciousness-altering, at least while we're playing them. the music, of course, has a lot to do with that.

so tonight's songs, game-related and otherwise, are meant to trance us, to transport us, to put us outside of ourselves. oh the places we'll go!

i did a big long sub shift not three days ago without knowing i'd be spinning on the first day of the new season. needing a show idea that would provide sufficient restrictions to guide me quickly towards a playlist, i decided to only consider track 1's and music from video game title screens. an introduction full of introductions!

naturally, even this very narrowing restriction did not prevent me from falling down a musical k-hole, and so perhaps the results will be a little all over the place. but maybe the real introduction is the songs we met along the way.