Gourd Times.

This is my favorite time of year.

Fall means donning warm sweaters, listening to the rustling of dry, colorful leaves on your front lawn, and enjoying the last few weeks of greenery and sunshine filled days.

Unless you live in Nome.

Look at those beautiful Fall colors!

I'm not quite sure, but I think autumn came at about about 2pm on a Thursday afternoon of September and left us by 3:30 pm the same day.  Now if you were to go out to your front lawn and try to listen to rustling leaves in just a sweater, you may get more than a few strange looks and passing car honks.  Maybe it's the lack of trees to provide said leaves, or maybe it's the fact that the temperature is known to drop well below what I would deem 'sweater' weather, but one is forced to rethink what October festivities mean to them when dwelling in Western Alaska.

Luckily, us volunteers have a plethora of wonderful friends and contacts here in the Nome community who are more than willing to indulge our occasional homesick inspired whims with the Nome equivalents of Lower 48 practices.  This was the case just the other week when I was feeling more than a touch nostalgic for Autumn evening spent with my parents decorating for our favorite family holiday, Halloween.  You see, my mother always makes this time of year feel so special.  While our family usually isn't the type to go all out for holidays, Mom usually ramps up the excitement of late October with whimsical decor, mornings paired with pumpkin spice pancakes, and of course, jack-o-lanterns. Here's where the Nome whimsy kicks in.

Our good friend Jenn whisked away our feelings that we may have missed the brief period of time that was Autumn here in Nome by inviting us over for some October themed celebrations.  Namely, pumpkin carving.  I'm happy to say that none of us were injured in our gourd based festivities, however some of the pumpkins are in critical care at the Volunteer House.

Daynee may look scary but...well, she is.

...and we rode off into the sunset.

Margaret made fun time look so professional.

We obviously enjoy this kind of thing.

A Day With Headphones

Ever wonder what the Music Director does at KNOM?  Here's a look into my typical Monday:

Eva always looks this busy.  I like to bug her anyways.

At 10am I roll into an already hopping studio.  Lucus and Daynee are rocking the end of ahilarious morning show that I had the chance listen to while I was at the gym.  They were their usual hilarious selves talking about everything from existentialism to pancakes.  I stroll by Studio C which is occupied with its usual morning guest, Margaret, who is getting her news stories ready for the day.  I stick my head and to confirm a meeting with her later today about her KNOM Crew Picks.  On my way to complete my most important morning task, grabbing a cup of coffee,  I pop into the batcave (the loving name given to Eva’s black-clad recording studio/office) to let Eva know how much I loved her recent profile on a non-profit doing some much needed good in the area.
I make my way upstairs to find three packages on my desk, all sent from both big and small record labels.  It’s a good sight as it means I have brand spankin’ new music to screen later.  It’s like a miniature musical birthday present moment.  To add to the birthday moment, I also find a new music magazine on my desk detailing Alanis Morrisette’s newest album.  For once I have a job that warrants reading about music during work hours.

We get in everything from digital downloads, to CDs, and even a vinyl now and again

I log into my e-mail to find new music downloads from small labels who have switched from sending tangible recordings my way to doing everything digitally.  I start a hefty download of several new singles and albums from various artists and let these kind music promoters know what I thought of last week’s selections provided to me.  Nine times out of ten I say something along the lines of “That was great!  Send me more!”.  You never know what you’re going to get in the mail from week to week.  It’s all pretty exciting for a music buff like myself.

Double headphones (like a boss).

 I open up an audio file that I’ve been working on the past week or so for one of my pre-produced Music Detour shows.  This episode has been a lot of fun to piece together as it is about one of my favorite topics – space.  While I must admit my reservoir of songs about space hadn’t been completely tapped, Lucus sent me a link to an excellent song to add to the mix.  It’s great to be able to blend multiple kinds of music into one show and it helps the amalgamation process to get outside recommendations from others.

It’s lunchtime.  I ate a turkey sandwich with spinach, swiss cheese, and spicy mustard.  But you probably didn’t need to know that.

I return to work and switch a couple of my Music Detour songs out and edit any mistakes in the script I wrote and recorded for the show.  I decide it’s time to drop it until tomorrow – I don’t want to over-edit.  In my striving to be ever hip and with-it, I check out what the Billboard charts have to say for the day.  I take note that some of the singles I’ve recently added are climbing ever higher on the Billboard Hot 100.  That’s good news.  I also make a mental note to move some of our song selections that are losing their momentum to a less regular rotation.
As promised, I meet with Margaret to talk about her KNOM Crew picks.  Everyone already has a grasp on what their doing here work-wise, but I enjoy it when I’m asked my opinions on music selections.  All of my fellow volunteers have an excellent grasp on music knowledge so they can always be tapped for inspiration.  They also help me keep in check that I am keeping our system up to date with music that I wouldn’t normally be a fan of.
Margaret tags me on my way back up from the batcave to give me some interview leads for my upcoming Sounding Board show.  I’m not a newsie at heart, so I take to heart any advice that the news department has to give.  I take one last moment to look at some of the smaller music charts.

Then it’s time for the really fun part of my workday, The Late Afternoon show.  Here’s where I get to put all of my musical taste and trivial knowledge to use as I get to hang out with Western Alaska for the remainder of the day.

At the end of the day I leave feeling pretty awesome that my job has me doing something I’ve always love – sharing great music with others and doing my small part to make the world a more groovy place.