James Stabile Informational Newsletter
March 2005
Discussion of the Month...
I’m as mad as Hell and I’m not going to take it… Well, no, not really, but I’ve always wanted to say that statement. Although, I am pretty upset about a few things going on in the state of Florida. I get up at about 5:00 a.m. on work days. I despise it, but I do it. In a few years, I will be free of that schedule. But I digress. As I shut my alarm off, I’m always up before it goes off, I usually switch on the radio to hear a little bit of my favorite radio station, Party 93.1 to kind of get me in the mood for my day. I turned the radio on and to my astonishment I thought I heard hear rock music, but I didn’t think much of it. Sometimes they play a new song, I thought that I just didn’t know the song. I turned off the radio and turn on TV 10 news to catch up on the days activities. Didn’t think much about the radio. Later as I was coming out of the shower, I hear the TV news anchor say, “they use to play party music”, but really didn’t too much about it. About 6:00 I left my house and went to my car. The radio came on and there was that rock music again. Then it dawned on me…they must have changed the format on my favorite radio station. You know what, they did.
I got to McDonald’s, as I was preparing
my coffee, I noticed on the front page of the
Sun-Sentinel the
headlines and the blurb that followed explaining the radio change. Later,
I read the article that followed. I was so upset that my radio station had
changed their music format. No longer would they be play old school and
freestyle dance music, but they would be playing rock music. The paper
said that 1990 and 1980 “active” rock music would be the genre of
choice. The change was made because Zeta, a Miami classic rock station had
changed to a Latin genre.
I really enjoyed the kind of party music
Party 93.1 played. I was new stuff, but the classic 1980’s and 1990’s
freestyle and old school were played, too. My kind of music - feel good,
active, robust, well, party music. At this time, I am unaware of any South
Florida radio station that exclusively plays party music. I know that
sooner or later another station will adopt the party format, but when and
who? In fact that’s how Party 93.1 got its start, Power 96 changed its
format to mostly R& B, 93.1 took up the slack. Soon party music will
once again fill the South Florida airwaves. Until then, I still have all
those CD’s and Zip disks with all that party music.
Active rock? What the heck do they mean by
Active rock? I don’t even like rock that much. I was never into that
acid rock of the 1960’s. I never was a 60’s flower child. I never did
any kind of drugs, none, nada. Hells
Bells (as my Daddy would say), I didn’t even drink alcohol until
I was in my mid-twenties. What do I need with Active rock?
After I started thinking I realized that
much more was happening here than a change in some radio station. I
realized that I was experiencing an attack on my very person and my
lifestyle. An attack on what I hold sacred and dear. I realized that I was
experiencing what every other aging, maturing person experiences – a
change in the way things are done.
Change, I use to take it for granted and it
stride, now I feared it and saw it as an affront on my person. In short, I
guess that I was too comfortable with the way things were and I was not
open to change. With this change in my life, I felt that I was losing
control of my life. I felt like someone was taking something away from me.
Maybe I perceived my life as tentative, not permanent, finite and I
reacted to this upset with fear, distrust and lack of control. Was I
growing old and did that mean is growing more vulnerable to changes which
occurred and will continue to occur in my life?
I think Sophia Petrillo (a.k.a. Estelle
Getty of The Golden Girls) put
it best. Speaking of growing old, she said that she felt like she was
being robbed. As one grows old, you start losing things. You lose your
body, (so to speak), your health is taken away from you, you may lose your
eye sight or hearing, you lose your ability to get up and move like a
young thing, and then you may start to lose your memories. We all know the
eventualities of this process.
The answer to this dilemma – stay young,
stay on top of things, stay in control, but stay flexible. Embrace the
change that the future will most definitely bring…embrace the change and
don’t give up.
I’m still young, so to speak. We all have
little warnings in life I think I just experienced a little warning about
change.
They may have taken my favorite radio station, but they haven’t taken the music away (to coin a phase from the 1970’s). As I said before, I have countless CD’s and Zips of my favorite music. On Friday and Saturday night’s before I go out, my home is alive with the sounds of Gloria Gaynor, Cher, Boy’s Town Gang, Laura Brannigan, Pet Shop boys, Viola Wills, Deborah Cox and all the others...They will never take that music away.
Patrick, Michelle and Jacob visited me the weekend of February 5-6. We had a great time. The highlight of their visit was Sunday afternoon when we went to Sawgrass Recreational Park in the Everglades. We went on a Airboat Tour of the Everglades. We also saw alligators and other wildlife and spent some time viewing their Indian Village and other attractions. Not only was the trip a lot of fun it was very informative to me. I learned things that I had not known about South Florida's natural resources. For one, Sawgrass Recreation Park is part of the Everglades, but it is also the reservoir that provides water to South Florida. I think it made an impact on me more than the tourists because I recognized and could appreciate the information and facts that the boat captain was telling our party. I was the only Floridian out of the 14 or 15 people on all boat. Needless to say, this was a tourist attraction. I think one visit is enough, at least for awhile. Every time I experience a nature event I vow to spend more of my time learning about and experiencing the great natural resources of the state of Florida.
Here are some pictures of
Patrick, Michelle, Jacob and me enjoying the weekend.
Click for a larger image.
