Archive for September, 2009

Top 5 Musicians to Include in the Soundtrack to Your Dreams by Michael Barnes

Michael Barnes, KCRW DJ.

The artists in this list are not just pleasant to sleep to, they’re more specifically recommended to act as dreamscapes. This music remains with you as you dream and works as a soundtrack to your dreaming life away from this waking life. If you’re having trouble sleeping, best to find the sound of flowing water, rainforests or Enya. However, if you want music that is equally beautiful, gorgeous, intense and a bit challenging – where you’ll become so enthralled that you’ll actually carry the music into your dreams — this is your list.

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5 Dream Jobs for an Illustrator by Garth Trinidad

Garth Trinidad, KCRW DJ.

Before I joined the ranks of infamous pancake turners at KCRW, I was stacking major units as an illustration major at Otis College of Art & Design, shooting for big fame in the world of arts and entertainment. My whole life was spent developing my artistic acumen; it’s in my blood. I still fantasize on occasion about exchanging the headphones for the paintbrush. The following is a list of what I would be doing had 89.9 not blown my mind…

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Five Secret L.A. Pleasures by Marc Porter Zasada

Marc Porter Zasada, Host of The Urban Man.

Every Angeleno keeps a list of secret pleasures, the "locals-only" joys we try not to share with tourists. Since KCRW listeners are like family, I’m offering five of my favorite places to sneak off and relax.

Drinks at the Casa Del Mar
This great 1926 hotel, with its high, wood-paneled lobby and elegant, slightly stuffy bar, overlooks the modern Santa Monica Beach with big picture windows. The whole thing exists in a deep, if expensive L.A. time warp. I order vodka martinis and read Raymond Chandler here.

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5 Best Places to be Stuck in Traffic by Kajon Cermak

Kajon Cermak, KCRW Traffic.

With 10 million people in LA County, 789,000+ in Ventura County and over 3 million in Orange County, why is it that every single one of them is on my freeway at exactly the same time I am going exactly where I want to go? We’ve all experienced some of the same annoying, overly repeated traffic scenarios — driving into Hollywood, southbound on the 101 you can pretty much count on hitting a brick wall at Melrose; the 5 in Santa Fe Springs always seems to bottleneck at the 605; in Orange County the northbound 405 is a nightmare into the Westside and now, through the Valley to the 118; the southbound 405 from Hawthorne to Long Beach always crowded, and then from the 22 to the 73 just doesn’t make sense. And the eastbound 10 from the beach to downtown, don’t even get me started.

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The 5 All Time Greatest Help You Through a Breakup Songs by Mario Cotto

Mario Cotto , KCRW DJ.

I’m a dj. I’m not very good at math or science. This is not to say that djs can’t be good at math or science in general, I mean I personally am not. I am not a statistician. However, as a dj, I am prone to making great, sweeping, opinionated but potentially unfounded, hyperbolic statements like, "this is the best song ever," or…"89.9% of songs written in the whole of human history are about breaking up."

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