The GGA Project -- Day #201 "Nueva Estacion"

I remember a while back my friend Kelsi mentioned that her taste in music had opened up to include a whole array of things she might have poo-poo'd before.  At the time I couldn't relate to her; I felt the opposite was true of me at the time, but now I'm beginning to understand where she was coming from.  I think I'm coming from there too these days.


Not only am I listening to and even enjoying and definitely sometimes dancing in my seat while I drive to the likes of Katy Perry and Taio Cruz, I now have room in my groove for KBAY and KOIT.  wtf?  I have made fun on my Mama since I was a teenager for listening to soft rock stations, and now I totally get it.  When your child is in the car, there is something so relaxing about knowing that nothing even remotely offensive could possibly come on, and it's also fun to know the chances are good you can sing to most songs.  The only downside is the heavy presence of artists like Taylor Swift, but when the unbearable songs come on, I can always switch the station.  Which brings me to


Today's New Activity: Grooving en Espanol


The station I came across was called La Kalle, which is a urbanized version of La Calle, which means "the street."  This is the Spanish language version of a station like Wild 94.9.  It plays the latest hip-hop and pop, but also mixes in occasional merengues and salsas and just basically anything you can dance to.


I used to listen to a lot of contemporary music in Spanish.  This was back when Shakira singing in Spanish was contemporary (and for the record, I think her music was much better back then, though her (belly) dancing has been consistently crazy good).  In fact listening to, transcribing, and translating Spanish language music of all genres was how I learned a lot of the Spanish I can speak.  I'd run my translations by native-speaker friends and ask them to fill in gaps and translate slang words and phrases.  It was far more fun than trying to learn from books and practice alone.


Anyway, on the ride home from work today I was in the mood for something completely different.  I started scrolling through stations with the idea of finding the country stations, but 1) I couldn't seem to find and and 2) it's probably for the best since I can hardly stomach country.  I was sort of looking to see if my newly wider-opened musical acceptance also included country, but I somehow doubt that is the case.


Instead I landed on La Kalle and thoroughly enjoyed everything I heard, including some of the stuff I used to listen to 15 years ago now!  Gosh I feel kinda old.


The best thing was when one DJ signed off for the evening with a little pep-talk about thinking positively, because changing your thoughts can change your life.  I can hardly argue with that, and it was great to hear somebody say in out loud on the radio, for all to hear.  It was a nice thought for the traffic battle home :)