Andy Gapin

This is actually the second version of this post, I scrapped the first and started over. I had kind of gone off more about the reasons why my fiancée and I moving and how much I’m not looking forward to the process, but that’s not really want to I want talk about today–expect one of those posts in about a month. What I want to talk about is the fact that I’m leaving Highland Park and that I’m going to miss it. This is kind of an appreciation post for a great New Jersey town.

Highland Park is awesome. It’s a quiet, (very) little town with pretty much no crime, but it’s also pretty much the most convenient place I could possibly be living these days. My apartment is very close to multiple major transportation arteries in NJ. I live about a quarter mile from the road that takes us halfway to either my parents’ house or my fiancée’s parents’ house, depending on which direction we go. That same road also takes us halfway to Philly or up to 287 and towards NYC. There’s a movie theater less than a mile away which is where we see most of our movies. There’s a Wegman’s close enough to make it worth going to, but if we don’t want to go that far, there’s a ShopRite much closer and Stop and Shop even closer than that. On top of that, there’s a Rita’s just out of walking distance and the cheapest gas station in the area is just a few blocks away.

It’s a great town for walking, it really is. This is probably why the town has such an incredibly large Orthodox Jew population, it really works out for them. Within walking distance from our apartment there is a diner, a Dunkin Donuts, White Rose (if you don’t know about this, find out), a Quick Check, a great pizza place, multiple liquor stores (one of which has a great selection of beer), a Stop and Shop, our bank (it’s a small regional bank), a Rite Aid, an ice cream place, a decent sushi place, a ton of Chinese places, an amazing Greek restaurant, a so-so Thai restaurant, and multiple apartments inhabited by my friends. We also can walk to New Brunswick if we want. It’s a solid walk to get to our friends’ places or meet up anywhere in the city, but we’re big fans of walking and on a nice day, it’s great. Sometimes, we’ll just walk to New Brunswick and back for fun.

Highland Park also works out great if you’re a runner. You can do laps around the triangle or you can head on down to Donaldson Park. Either way, you can make your run as long or short as you like by going up and down streets or doing multiple laps. Being laid out like a grid means there aren’t really any dead ends so you can just go wherever. I’ve even run down to Johnson Park in Piscataway for a little change of scenery.

I’m really going to miss all of that walkability. Highland Park, as a town and a place to live, has been great to me for the last five years and I’m really going to miss it, but unfortunately, it doesn’t offer what we were looking for as far as apartments go so it’s time to say goodbye. We’re not moving far, just a few miles, but it’s enough to completely change all of that convenience.

We’ve got a little more than a month left and I plan on taking advantage of that.

Easy A attempts to make a modern day, high school comedy version The Scarlet Letter, but that intention isn’t kept a secret, it’s instead laid right out on the table and sort of even thrown in your face.

Olive, played by the intensely hot Emma Stone, starts down a long path of lying about having sex with various boys in the high school to help them boost their social statuses as well as put gift cards in her purse. Obviously, this becomes a big mess almost instantly, but even more obviously, hilarity ensures. All the while, Amanda Bynes plays a somewhat inconsistent Jesus-freak with a bitter hatred towards Olive. This story line is a somewhat solid driving force for the plot throughout the movie, but feels like it was somewhat forgotten in the end.

While Easy A is quite comical on its own, it’s even more funny when you have a gaggle of 15 year old girls sitting near you in the theater and these girls giggle and yell “awwwww” at every other line. This is the best way to see this movie, in my opinion, so be sure to round up some high school girls before you head over to the theater. Just make sure you find a way to do this without looking like a creep and getting yourself arrested.

Easy A isn’t a knee-slapper, but it’s one of the best high school comedies of the past few years. If you’re a dude, this is a no-brainer, Emma Stone and Amanda Bynes, you should be there already. If you’re not a dude, you’ll still enjoy it.

Rating: B+

This morning was another quick run, 7:30/mile overall with my last mile, the one that’s a bit uphill, being my fastest. I wanted to go for an easier run and I really thought my first mile was slower, but it was around 7:25. It didn’t feel that fast at all. I tried to slow down after that, but I couldn’t. My legs were a little sore in the calves, but they just wanted to go. It’s like the faster I run in the Vibrams, the more comfortable it feels. This time, my breathing was able to keep up more better than Tuesday.

Now I just have to keep this pace for 13.1 miles in January.

So after seven years, The Playlist is over. It’s hard to believe that something that’s been a large part of my life for so long is gone, but it’s true. Almost fittingly though, last night’s show was the most fun I ever had doing a radio show. It reminded me of everything I loved about doing college radio, much of which got lost in a cloud of jadedness. Hosting an all new music show was great, but it was often hard to fill the entire show with music I was excited about. There’s only so much great stuff that can come out each week. I’d get to play a few great records and fill in the rest with average records. That was always the biggest struggle, but last night had none of that. Last night’s show was nothing but music I love.

I spent the night before running some really custom queries against our database–you get this luxury when you’re the sucker that wrote the software that the radio station relies on for music databasing and logging. I found the artists that I played the most over the last four and a half years and built a playlist from there. I would have liked to go all the way back to when the show first started, but we were still using paper logs up until the beginning of 2006 and there was no way that I was going to try to hunt those down…assuming they still exist. The playlist I created was over two hours long so I had more than I was able to play, but it was alright, I was able to prune down as I was doing the show. I decided not to order anything, I didn’t want to make a pre-planned show and just sit there on autopilot. Instead, I burned two identical MP3 CDs–works out better than playing everything from a computer–and stuck them in the CD players. I had a list of the tracks and switched between players selecting what felt right at the time and what was going to create a solid flow. It’s the way that I always did my show and I didn’t want to change that. I’ve always been about going with the moment and what songs just feel right together. I feel like I nailed this as well as I ever have last night.

I was lucky to be able to score a second hour for last night. It was the first time in two years that I’ve done a two hour show, but it was great, I was able to fit in 34 songs along with a lot of stories about the last seven years and about the music I was playing. I always tried to talk about what the bands I played meant to me, but it wasn’t easy when much of the music was coming from new artists and not just new albums by artists I already was into. Last night, I was able to tell many stories about the bands and what they meant to me. It was great and it made me remember why joining the radio station was my first priority when I started college nine years ago.

The decision to end the show wasn’t easy, I knew it would come eventually, but I could never bring myself to do it. Once I finally made that decision, it was a tough back and forth between knowing how much I’ll miss it and being relieved that I could end it positively and free up a little bit of much needed time in my personal life. Though, as I progressed through the show, I felt myself becoming sadder and sadder that it was ending. By the end, I was feeling almost like I was going to cry. I knew walking away wasn’t going to easy. So I’m sad that it’s over now, but I do know that it was the right time for me and that the show had an amazing seven year run. I had many dedicated listeners and got to expose them to over 1500 different artists and bands over that time. I don’t know how many different albums I played, but my best estimate puts it well over 2000. To me, that’s pretty impressive. That’s a ton of new music. I can walk away knowing that the show was very successful in doing what I created it to do, push new music.

Over the last week, I’ve learned that beyond doing what I set out to do with The Playlist over the airwaves, I also was able to extend that via my blog for the past few years. I learned that I not only had listeners who looked to the show for new music, but I also had readers that couldn’t listen to the show and instead came here to see what I played and found out about the music that way. So awesome.

So last night’s show was a seriously stacked playlist, there was a ton that I still wanted to play, but I couldn’t get it all in. I dediced to end the show with the band that had the most spins on The Playlist. I was surprised when I found out it was The Loved Ones, but thinking back, I did play Keep Your Heart in its entirety when it came out. I wanted to post a big list of the most played artists, but I didn’t know where to cut it off. I may save that for a future post to milk one last entry about the show here. We’ll see, but if you’re really interested, let me know and I’ll make it happen.

The show wasn’t entirely hiccup free though. Just as I was about to start, the internet in the studio went out and for a while, I had to do the show entirely old school. I had to log on paper and couldn’t look up album info. I guess it was an appropriate reminder during the last show of what it was like when the show first started. It was surprisingly fun. However, this seems as though it may have messed up the beginning of the recording of the show. I haven’t verified this yet, but if it’s true, I will almost definitely cry. It was such a memorable show for me and to not have a recording of it would be seriously upsetting.

I’m staying an active DJ at the station so I don’t plan for this to be the last time I have a radio show playlist to post, but when it comes down to it, only the future knows how much I’ll actually end up subbing shows when needed. So for the very last time ever, here’s the playlist from last night’s The Playlist…

• Cheap Girls – A Lesser Rate – Find Me A Drink Home
• Ted Leo And The Pharmacists – Me And Mia – Shake The Sheets
• Drive-By Truckers – The Day John Henry Died – The Dirty South
• Minus The Bear – Knights – Planet Of Ice
• Spoon – Don’t You Evah – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
• Electric Six – Night Vision – Switzerland
• Tilly And The Wall – Bad Education – Bottoms Of Barrels
• Feist – So Sorry – The Reminder
• Frank Turner – Poetry Of The Deed – Poetry Of The Deed
• Conor Oberst And The Mystic Valley Band – Air Mattress – Outer South
• The Thermals – I Don’t Believe You – Personal Life
• Maritime – Parade Of Punk Rock T-Shirts – We, The Vehicles
• The Pipettes – Pull Shapes – We Are The Pipettes
• M. Ward – Never Had Nobody Like You – Hold Time
• The Hold Steady – Chips Ahoy! – Boys And Girls In America
• The Copyrights – Knee Deep – Make Sound
• The Steinways – Arena Rock – Gorilla Marketing
• Against Me! – Thrash Unreal – New Wave
• Murder By Death – Rum Brave – Red Of Tooth And Claw
• Coconut Records – Microphone – Davy
• Neko Case – The Next Time You Say “Forever” – Middle Cyclone
• The Lawrence Arms – The Revisionist – The Greatest Story Ever Told
• Radiohead – 15 Step – In Rainbows
• Okkervil River – Pop Lie – The Stand Ins
• Lucero – I Don’t Wanna Be The One – Rebels, Rogues, And Sworn Brothers
• She And Him – I Was Made For You – Volume One
• Bryan Scary – Macedonia Hotel – The Shredding Tears
• Lemuria – Pants – Get Better
• The Measure [SA] – Portland – One Chapter In The Book (A Collection Of Standard Waits And Measurements)
• The Gaslight Anthem – Orphans – American Slang
• Rilo Kiley – The Moneymaker – Under The Blacklight
• Mclusky – She Will Only Bring You Happiness – The Difference Between You And Me Is That I’m Not On Fire
• NOFX – Seeing Double At The Triple Rock – Never Trust A Hippy
• The Loved Ones – Living Will (Get You Dead) – Keep Your Heart

90.3 The Core

This run was more than 2 minutes faster than my personal best 4 mile time and it hit my goal of a sub-22 minute 5k. It was a fast run for me. I felt like I couldn’t control my legs. They just kept on going. It was like the Vibrams were running them instead of the other way around. My breathing could barely keep up, even the slightest bit faster would have been more than my lungs could handle, yet my legs wanted more.

I shouldn’t be running at this pace right now, it’s a little stupid actually. While only ever so slightly faster overall than my 8 mile run on Saturday which felt great–and left me sore for two days afterwards–this run didn’t feel as comfortable as I’d like. My first mile was an idiotic 7:05, but I couldn’t keep that pace for the other three, I slowed down a lot from there.

If you’re keeping track, I didn’t run on Sunday or Monday, one of which I should have, but I was sore from Saturday and didn’t want to push it. Also, my fiancée seems to have seriously messed up her ankles. We’re not sure what happened but last Thursday’s 5 mile run in her Vibrams didn’t go so well. Her tendons are swollen and she looks like she has cankles–which is saying a lot for someone so boney. She’s having trouble walking without pain too. Considering that the pain and swelling doesn’t seem to be getting any better yet, we’re starting to get worried. I’m starting to fear that she won’t be able to get back to training for the half marathon for a little while still and it’ll push her progress back a little.

It’s interesting how my legs have taken off with the Vibrams, but hers have struggled. I still feel soreness in my lower calves, some while running and more afterwards, but during each run, my legs really want to take off.

I just wanted to post a quick update and reminder about my last ever edition of The Playlist tomorrow. It will be a two hour show starting at 8pm. I’m planning to do a kind of greatest hits thing for the show. Make sure you’re listening!

www.thecore.fm

Today was a much faster run than most lately. I kept a 7:33/mile pace overall which is what I’m hoping to run the half marathon in Disney with. I think it will be doable, actually. I felt pretty good today. My legs seemed to have no trouble with the pace and even when I hit the eighth mile, they felt pretty good. I was a little sore in my calves, but it wasn’t too bad. My legs could have done another couple of miles at that pace. They definitely felt better than they did at the eighth mile mark during the half marathon in April. Unfortunately, I was feeling quite dehydrated to the point where I was getting close to that pukey feeling that I’ve been getting on the hotter runs this year. Today wasn’t even that hot, it was very nice out actually. The temperature was around 70 and the humidity was low, I just didn’t drink enough water between waking up and heading out the door.

It was nice to keep that pace and know that running 13.1 miles at 7.5 minutes/mile is realistic for me. I didn’t feel like I was overworking myself, but I did feel that I was at the upper end of what felt comfortable. Excitingly, today’s pace was actually a little better than my best 5k pace so I’m really excited to run the races I’ve got coming up in the next two months. I’m looking to get my 5k time under 22 minutes.

As for the Vibrams, the early part of run still felt a little awkward, but my run also started off going downhill for a little while so that didn’t help. Running in them fulltime seems to be working out so far though. My calves are a little sore from the run, but with the past few runs, this hasn’t stayed into the next day. The balls of my feet are a little sore too, however. Nothing too bad, but I don’t plan on running them very far tomorrow just to go easy on them. I’ve noticed that I really don’t worry about what I’m stepping on now, I just land each step where it comfortably wants to be.

My ankle pain from a week and a half ago, still not gone, but not a hinderance while running either.

Run number 4 with the Vibrams! Tonight’s pace started off pretty good, but my legs still feel confused for the first half mile or so with them. It’s like they start off trying to run like I’m wearing sneakers just out of habit, but then they figure out what’s going on and are good to go.

We were planning on running 6 miles tonight, but my fiancée’s Achilles tendons were killing her. It was her third run in the Vibrams and her lower legs don’t have the mountain biking background that mine do so they’re a little weaker. That said, once her legs get used to running in these things, I think they’re going to do wonders for her race performance. I’m already amazed at how much she’s grown as a runner this year. She was training for the half marathon at almost a 10 minute mile, but lately has been running at around 8:45/mile. That’s a lot of growth in about six months’ time. And she doesn’t seem to show any signs of slowing down either.

The second to last The Playlist ever went well last night, definitely a decent show all around. I’m not a big Screaming Females fan myself, but I felt like they were a good way to start off the show. The Thermals double dose wasn’t planned, but the three songs in between all went by much quicker than I thought they would so I needed an extra song. I’m actually listening to the record right now and liking it a bit, but not quite as much as their other stuff. “I Don’t Believe You” is a great song though.

I’m trying to get a second hour for my show next week. I feel like I’ll need two hours to properly end it. It’s hard to believe that after nine years, I won’t be doing a steady show anymore. The Playlist itself has been going for seven years which makes it one of the longest running shows ever on 90.3 The Core. I always wanted to pass it on to someone else to host after me, but I guess that’s not really going to happen. Anyway, I’m going to need to set aside some time this weekend to think about what I want to play next week. I decided that I’m not going to do a show of all new music to end a show that was dedicated to nothing but new music. Hah! Instead, I think I’m going to a highlights show of all my favorite stuff I’ve played over the years. It will be a completely pre-planned show which is entirely atypical of my normal style of doing the show. The only pre-planned shows I do are the best albums of the year countdowns at the end of each year.

• Screaming Females – Nothing At All – Castle Talk
• Best Coast – When I’m With You – Crazy For You
• The Cinnamon Band – I’m Asking You – All Dressed
• A Great Big Pile Of Leaves – Race Car Driving – Have You Seen My Prefrontal Cortex?
• Lost In The Trees – A Room Where Your Paintings Hang – All Alone In An Empty House
• Jenny And Johnny – Scissor Runner – I’m Having Fun Now [EP]
• Samantha Crain – Up On The Table – You (Understood)
• Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band – Hurrah – Where The Messengers Meet
• Upstairs Downstairs – Pessimist – Inland And Out
• The Thermals – I Don’t Believe You – Personal Life
• Woven Bones – Hey Kid – I’ve Gotta Get [Single]
• Hayley Taylor – What’s Going On – One Foot In Front Of The Other
• Mike And Ruthy – Covered – Million To One
• The Thermals – Your Love Is So Strong – Personal Life
• Jesca Hoop – Tulip – Hunting My Dress
• Frontier Ruckus – Ringbearer – Deadmalls And Nightfalls

90.3 The Core

It’s a position I never thought that I’d find myself it, but with The Playlist coming to an end after next week’s show, I’ve realized that I don’t know how to keep up with new music on my own anymore. It’s actually kind of interesting when I think about it.

For the last seven years, I’ve hosted a radio show dedicated entirely to new music, so you’d think that I’d know all about digging up new music. Unfortunately for me, that’s not true at all. Being at a college radio station gives such amazing access to new music that you really don’t even have to try at all, it’s just there for you. Seven years ago, I took over the position of Head Music Director at 90.3 The Core and it was awesome. Even though I had been a DJ there for two years already, I had no idea just how much music the station received on a weekly basis. We’re talking 60-100 new albums a week. That’s a lot. Even with ten other people working under me in the department, I still had to be reviewing at least 30-35 of those albums each week myself just for the department to be able to keep up. I had no choice, all this new music was shoved in my face. I would complain every once in a while about not having the time to listen to the music I wanted to anymore, but in hindsight, that was probably one of the best problems anyone could ever have.

After a while, I had gotten so used to this that I didn’t look for new music on my own anymore. I would find out about a few bands here and there from friends or the indie music message board that I spent way too much time on, but I never had to actively look for new music. When I stepped down from the position as Head Music Director after two years–I wasn’t a student anymore and didn’t think it’d be right to keep the position–I still had access to all of the music. Since then, I’ve shown up a few hours early to every show just hang out and check out new music. Again, no effort. And one of the best things about this was that I had access to the full albums for free.

That’s all over now.

In the couple years before all of that, most of the music I found out about was from friends, going to shows, and from running a small venue for a while. None of this really took any effort either, there was still a ton of music just being pushed in my direction.

The last time I had to actually put effort into finding out about new music was before people did this via the Internet. It was the late 90s when most people still didn’t go online regularly. I would actually have to go to the CD store and take a risk buying something I knew only by name. I would check out the bands listed in the thank you section of the liner notes for albums. I would check out bands that I saw on show flyers for shows I didn’t even go to. I would actually ask people what they were listening to and go through the CDs they had in their backpacks. This was real work! Even once Napster hit the scene, you still needed to have an idea of what you were trying to listen to.

Over the course of the last ten years, everything changed. People don’t need to do that kind of work anymore. The Internet took over and made it super easy to find out about tons of new music and download it for free to at least check it out (totally not suggesting that people shouldn’t make sure the artists get some money in their pockets). I missed out on a lot of that. I don’t even know what sites to read and where to download music anymore. I really don’t. I didn’t need it, so I didn’t pay attention to much of it. Now I need it and I don’t know where to go.

Even though I’m a pretty big tech geek that spends a lot of time keeping up with technology, I feel like some clueless old dude who was just told he needs to use online banking for everything now, but has never actually used a computer before. What the hell do I do?!?

What are the credible sites to read for finding new music? Where do people download stuff these days? Beyond subscribing to the RSS feeds for Punknews and Absolute Punk and looking at what people are listening to on Last.fm, I’ve got nothing. I don’t have time to read any new sites or message boards. I don’t know how the hell I’m going to do this when I actually have to work for it and it’s not just all right there for me.

I guess I knew this day would come at some point, but that doesn’t make this any easier.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!