Jun 20th, 2008 • Response Categories • Songdiary Tags • Chesney Hawkes, Color Me Badd, Danville, Dire Straits, EMF, Guns 'N' Roses, Jesus Jones, Johnee Pitdylidhink, list, Lists, Little Shawn, MTV, nostalgia, R.E.M., radio, Scorpions, Simply Red, WDNL
This is a repost of an article I wrote very shortly after starting up this website. I've gone back through and made some changes and clarifications, and thought it deserved a spot back at the top of the pile. :)
Click here to browse the weeklies.
Conceived and launched at the age of twelve, the Song Diary project has been around in various incarnations since 1991. It’s a record of my weekly listening habits and a timeline to reference particular points in my life as they correlate to the music I was listening to. The songs chosen may be new discoveries of mine or songs I'm already acquainted with that are significant for that particular week.
WHAT'S THE POINT?
There really isn't a point to it all. But there is a madness behind it! My personality is such that I feel compelled to chronicle items and events for later reference. Fortunately, I tend to be practical enough in deciding what should merit such time and energy, in my own opinion at least. Now, add to this a nostalgic obsession, and there you have it!
This is my excuse.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY "VARIOUS INCARNATIONS"?
Well, I haven't always approached the task the way I do now. Since about 2001, I have been keeping a record of songs on a weekly basis, but prior to that it was really more of a monthly, or seasonal thing. The change really came about when I made the switch from analog tapes to CDs. As any practiced mixtaper can tell you, making a mixtape is—in comparison to a mix CD—difficult business, requiring (among other things) a great deal of time. Back when I was using tapes, I simply didn't have the time or patience to invest on a weekly basis.
WHAT HAPPENED IN 1991 TO BRING ABOUT THIS ABERRANT BEHAVIOR?
That seems so long ago, being eleven years old. The details are hazy to say the least. I can't say for certain why it was that I began doing this, but I suspect that I was inspired by seeing various countdown-type segments on MTV. This was also around the same time that my interest in music really started to escalate. I was graduating from the role of 'passive listener' to 'active listener' – actively seeking out stuff to listen to whether it was newly released, top 40 radio fodder or not. It was also becoming clear at this point in my life that I was destined to a future of compulsive list-making, as evidenced by my well-preserved, top-left-corner stapled, multiple-page digest of any-and-all toll-free telephone numbers I could get my hands on. If you don't believe me, it's okay. While most preteen boys were out doing whatever it is that most preteen boys do, I was back at home jotting down phone numbers from TV and radio commercials, leaflets, pamphlets, brochures, food boxes, et al. Maybe someday I'll get around to providing actual examples. Maybe.
My memory of the project's inception is fuzzy to say the least, so I shall relate to you the contents of a handful of documents that I have kept all these years, and which are now sitting on the table in front of me. Since I have only a faint recollection for most of the details of these papers, there is an awkward detachment present, as I feel as though I should be able to confidently and succinctly explain this to you, but cannot meet that expectation without "filling in the blanks" to some degree.
Take, for example, the first page, which says:
Johnee Pitdylidhink
** Music Countdown **
for the MONTH of:
NOVEMBER
It should pain me to confess to you that I can offer no insight as to where I came up with the name Johnee Pitdylidhink or, moreover, why I felt the need to take such frivolous liberty in the spelling of the name. My previous stint as "Resident Poetry Analyst" for local radio station D-102 at the ripe age of ten might offer some clues, as I was consistently known to use the alias of Joe Stevenz during those broadcasts, and was, therefore, no stranger to the use of assumed names. I will detail these events in a separate post at some later date. Promise, promise.
That being said, I have flipped the page over, and will now share with you what is, by all accounts, the very first entry in the annals of the Songdiary. As a sidenote, I remember special ordering #3 and #4 from a local record shop when I was still living in Illinois, the name of which I can't recall at the moment.
J.Pitdylidhink Countdown:
Week of 11/03/91
Top 10 CASSETTE SINGLES
1. Color Me Badd - "All 4 Love"
2. EMF - "Lies"
3. R.E.M. - "Losing My Religion"
4. Dire Straits - "Money For Nothing"
5. R.E.M. - "Radio Song"
6. Guns 'N' Roses - "Don't Cry"
7. Scorpions - "Send Me An Angel"
8. Simply Red - "Something Got Me Started"
9. Jesus Jones - "Real Real Real"
10. Chesney Hawkes - "The One & Only"
Jun 20th, 2007 • Response Categories • Travels Tags • Danville, photography, road trip, WDNL
"I never liked Douglas Park! And no one likes it now!!"
Sign at the entrance to Douglas Park, Danville, IL.
If you know the source from where the opening line was taken, then you deserve a pat on the back! First commenter to answer correctly gets bragging rights! No cheating!
It has now been four+ days since returning home from my road trip, and I figured it was only sporting of me to spend a little time covering the events of the last few days spent in Illinois and Indiana. I must confess that I felt bored-sick on a number of occasions, but only while I was in Danville. In hindsight, I would have liked to spend more time in Indianapolis, or make good on that inclination I had to spend a day up in Chicago. Thursday and Friday were spent driving lazily around Danville, trying to think of places that were worth visiting and photographing. I did manage to visit the last two schools St. Paul's Catholic School and North Ridge Middle School. I attended while still living there, and came away with a good set of photos to show for it.
Another stop I made along the way was the building 
Radio station WDAN-WDNL, Danville, IL. where WDNL D-102 broadcasts from. I had visited the station about three times prior, but not since moving away in 1992. This is the radio station where I made my As mentioned in a previous post, I do solemnly swear to share the details of my "tween radio years" in an article sometime in the near future. broadcasting debut, though I use this term quite loosely. I did not, however, enter the building this time around — I attribute this to (either) the fact that I was enjoying the cool air inside my rental car too much
TO BE CONTINUED…
Jun 15th, 2007 • Response Categories • Life, Travels Tags • college, Danville, Edison Elementary, photography, road trip
The school that I attended during the 1st and 2nd grades while still living in Danville, Illinois.
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Jun 15th, 2007 • Response Categories • Life Tags • Alice Cooper, Danville, nostalgia, YMCA
A recent visit to my hometown has reminded me of this article. Written almost one year ago and posted to my now-defunct blogs at Multiply and MySpace, the article describes events that took place while I was still living in Danville. I was born in Danville, and lived there until age 12 when my parents moved us to Naples, Florida. This photograph of the Danville YMCA sign 
Photographed the night of June 14, 2007. was taken during my visit in June 2007, but the rest of the article remains relatively unchanged from its original publication.
This article was originally posted to my blog on MySpace in July 2006.
On summer camp days, I was dropped off at the YMCA at 8:00 in the morning. Little time was spent at the Y, however. Instead, 30 or so kids would pile into two conversion vans with 6 counselors, and drive out to Kickapoo state park. I was about 12 years old. It was incredible. I think I even had a couple of girlfriends.
It was understood that the counselors had complete control over the tape deck, but kids brought their tapes from home anyhow, and believe it or not, most of those tapes were played liberally. It was a fantastic preteen road trip day after day. Alice Cooper's album Trash  got played a lot. I don't remember where it came from, whether one of the kids brought it, or one of the counselors. It just sort of landed. I'd certainly never heard of Alice Cooper before, I don't think the vast majority of us had. It was most likely a counselor's tape, then, or else something "borrowed from big sis," with or without her permission. What a fucking great album. And I don't mean in that "oh, wow, innovative, groundbreaking" way, quite simply: I fucking rocked out over and over to this tape alongside a sweaty van full of elementary school comrades, and it was good. It quickly became a staple, a permanent fixture in Van #1. I'm convinced it made Van #1 cooler than Van #2. Umbros, slap bracelets, Bart Simpson t-shirts, and Alice Cooper! Much of the content on that tape is overtly sexual, but at the time it totally didn't register. In fact, the words themselves didn't really have any meaning: the joy came entirely from being able to repeat them, to sing along. And the ballads! They sounded especially dramatic.
Swimming, walking trails, inventing games, who likes who, who did what with who, does she like me, does she want to kiss me… and back to the vans, as it were. And we reached a point where we had heard it so much that we could sing along pretty damn well. And I did have girlfriends, I remember this now. Though I can't remember their names, I remember their smiles. And their hair. I think one was named Vanessa. Mom would pick me back up at 6, and we would drive home. But I'd be back the next morning.
That was the first cassette I ever bought. I remember the day — riding to Target in my brother's car… 10 bucks, or something like that… and I took it home, and stared at the cover, and it wouldn't be long before I tried to dress up like that (I think there's a single Polaroid out there somewhere… but I didn't own leather pants so I improvised with black, spandex shorts). My life really began at that point.
Jun 14th, 2007 • Response Categories • Travels Tags • college, Danville, East Park Elementary, Law & Order, photography, road trip, Royal Donut
This is the infamous "nut roll" from Royal Donut.  So far I have consumed three of these. They're big. This is me watching a Law & Order mini-marathon on TNT.  Once 6pm rolls around, there's not much to do around here unless you have friends or something.
Much of Tuesday and Wednesday were spent getting reacquainted with the city, trying to find my way around. All in all, I did fairly well and did manage to navigate to most of the locations on my list of PLACES TO SEE.
On Wednesday I visited East Park, the elementary school I attended from grades 3 through 5. In third grade I won a school-wide art contest to design the school's new mascot Before the start of the contest, the principal had decided that the new mascot would bear the name "Eddie." My design — a two-dimensional representation of the front of the building, with a half-circle shaped head protruding from the top, one arm protruding from each side, and two legs coming out of the bottom — was selected as the winner by a committee of judges made up of teachers and administrators. A Google Image search for 'eddie east park' yields no resulting images of my design, though I do have copies of my drawing and will likely post it here when I return home from my trip. as it had recently made the switch from middle school to elementary school. I was eager to see if the mascot I designed was still being used — sadly it is not, the nickname having since been changed to the Rockets, with a new mascot resembling a Clip Art image of a rocket. I must admit, however, that I can understand why the switch was made. First of all, it only makes sense for your mascot to resemble the nickname of your school's sports teams, and being called the "East Park Eddies" is rather gimpy. I suppose they could have decided to go the route of some schools, whose mascot is not a clear indicator of the teams' nickname The University of Miami, for example, are known as the Hurricanes, but their mascot is Sebastian the Ibis. but this leads me straight into my second point: there is hardly anything fierce about a personified building smiling and waving at you.
Seeing as though all the schools in this town are closed for summer break, I was lucky enough to visit the school at a time of the day when custodial staff were present, thus allowing me access to the inside of the building. I snapped a few pictures, both inside and out, which you may see here.
Jun 12th, 2007 • Response Categories • Life, Travels Tags • college, Danville, East Park Elementary, photography, road trip
The school that I attended during the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades while still living in Danville, Illinois.
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Jun 12th, 2007 • Response Categories • Travels Tags • Danville, FOUND.COM, Indianapolis, Jackie A, Kentucky, McDonald's, photography, road trip, trance
DANVILLE, ILL — The drive to get here was a long seventeen hours.
Fifteen hours after departing Tallahassee at 4:00 a.m. we arrived in Indianapolis. Along the way, I invariably consumed huge amounts of coffee, smoked an entire pack of cigarettes, and didn't surrender the  driver's seat for a single mile. I enjoy driving for long distances, and sometimes wonder if I don't have a future in big rigs. Memorable highlights from the drive itself include this McDonald's in Kentucky that is situated next to a cemetery, and a very informative and elaborate conversation with Jackie on the subject of Techno that resulted in a revelation that: I'VE BEEN A HUGE FAN OF TRANCE FOR YEARS… BUT JUST DIDN'T KNOW IT. Once we got to Indianapolis, Jackie and I met up with her friend Josh Orbitz At several points during our trip, Jackie made phone calls to her friend Josh (who she's staying with in Indianapolis) to advise him of our driving progress. Josh, who was apparently at his computer, was most-helpful in providing directions and travel-time estimations; consequently I affectionately bestowed upon him the "street" name Josh Orbitz. :) at his building. From there, the three of us drove to the Indianapolis Airport to pick up my rental car. We then parted ways, and I finished out the final leg of my trip, alone and behind the wheel of an  uber-posh 2007 Chrysler Sebring The rental place was running a special when I made my reservation, and for whatever reason, this luxury sedan was the cheapest option!. A couple of hours later I check-in to my room at the Candle Lite Motel, which is where I am now writing from.
The Candle Lite Motel is incredibly charming. Make no mistake, however, in assuming that the facilities are anything more than the bare essentials. The rooms here are not lavishly apportioned. I have a private bathroom with a shower tub, a bed, a mini-fridge, A/C unit, pair of end tables, and cable TV. Oh, and the free wireless, too. It's perfect, though, as I really don't require anything else. I do wish Barrett were here to see the decor, as I'm certain that we would both share the amusement (mismatched furniture, wood paneling on one wall only, burgundy carpeting, and gaudy bedspread). I spent about thirty minutes last night inspecting the room thoroughly, not because I'm a fussy traveler looking for something to gripe about (because I'm not like that), but rather I found the place fascinating and was curious to see if there were any  hidden secrets. Apart from this priceless artifact found on the last page of the telephone book, I also found evidence from the past, in the way of prior phone and electrical installations. The gold Honeywell thermostat on the wall, for example, doesn't do anything — nor do three out of the four phone jacks I found. The heating units along the baseboards also appear to be inoperative, having been replaced decades ago by the wall unit, which handles both heating and cooling duties. Surprisingly every power outlet is functional; and the lone electrical peculiarity I've observed thus far is that one of the tungsten light fixtures in the ceiling unpredictably wills itself off and on every few minutes or so.
Sleep came around 2am after a delightful shower that I had been craving all day. In the morning I awoke . . .
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