You'd never guess it, but I love little radios and TVs.

I can't believe it! Seton Hall university is making their college radio station WSOU change their hard rock/heavy metal format after 15 years. Apparently the university administration and the local Catholic diocese (it's a Catholic school) are no longer happy with the messages in hard rock music. I grew up at the shore in central New Jersey and I remember working hard with an antenna to try and catchWSOU's signal, which was located about 70 miles away in South Orange. When my parents moved the family to North Jersey one thing that made it tolerable was being able to listen to WSOU more regularly.

It's amazing to reflect that 'SOU stayed with heavy metal through the boom years, the big-hair years and through the early and mid nineties when "metal" became a bad word in the music industry. Though sometimes a little too trendy or light, their 15 year dedication to a single format is unusual in these days of radio format-swapping. And because of this dedication they became one of the most listened-to and well-known college stations in the US.

But I do have to admit that I did occasionally find it curious to hear Slayer's "South of Heaven" on a station owned by a Catholic college. Maybe God finally called up to complain.

By the way, the statement from Anthrax on their website about their name made me chuckle -- primarily the PPS.

Admittedly I've got a sick sense of humor. On top of that I'm a metalhead (much to the surprise of many acquaintences). So when there was an outbreak of anthrax in Florida I couldn't help but think of the New York thrash/speed metal pioneers. Of course, then, I couldn't help hope that nobody comes down with Megadeth, then and someone would have to call the Coroner.

It just gets worse from there.

Apparently, I'm not the only one to make this kind of association. Wired News has an article about the whole Anthrax phenomenon.

I've been buying too many CDs lately, with an emphasis on metal. Recent purchases include: King's X, "Manic Moonlight;" Dragonlord, "Rapture;" Queensryche, "Live Evolution." I'll put capsule reviews over on the sidebar soon.

Something I'm lusting over is membership in the King Crimson Collector's Club. It's been a long time since I dropped $96 all at once for CDs. But damn, these are good CDs.

My pal Jason Pitzl gave me shit last night for making a new weblog (this one) but only linking to Salon. Apparently some people can't read past the last entry (two weeks old I must admit.) So go look at his "pagan politics site" Mythworks. Being an areligious person myself, my impulse is to make fun of a "pagan politics site," but I must relent and admit that Jason does a good job, and I also must admit that persons following indigenous religions and religions outside of Chrisitianity/Judaism/Islam are frequently and quietly discriminated against and oppressed. Although I'm no fan of any religion whatsoever, I am even more an enemy of ideological persecution.