Subway State

Be the next to be featured for your taste in tunes! Get onto iTunes and compile a list (approximately 78 minutes long for CD convenience) that you would play in your favorite modern lounge or club while socializing, sipping your drink, dancing, whatever. Send your list, along with the address of your blog (or not) and a lil blurb about yerself to my Facebook email!

I’ll take care of posting the list to the iTunes store with a similar description. Then you can send the link to your buddies and promote the rightful purchasing of music in your very own name!! I’ll also write a post on it, and add a link for your playlist on the right side of the site. Your selections will be featured as I play at Science Club Thursdays, as well as other gigs!! (You can also become a fan of A-Ron on Facebook if you want to track my gigs.)

My previous guests are listed below. Can’t wait to hear from you. ENJOY!

Past·Guest·Room·Sets (and the blog sites of the Guests…) Links to music require iTunes.

• Guest Room v.1 ‘Jase’ - Doesn’t write his blog anymore.
• Guest Room v.2 ‘DJ me’ - DC DJ Matt Bailer!! His blog here.
• Guest Room v.3 ‘Fenster’ - From S.W.I.N.A.
• Guest Room v.4 ‘Aanthems’ - Doesn’t write his blog anymore either. *sigh*
• Guest Room v.5 ‘Jase’ - Same guy from Volume 1. Such great taste.
• Guest Room v.6 ‘Chemistry Lad’ - Is anti-blog.
• Guest Room v.7 -meichler- - TheNewGay.net.
• Guest Room v.8 ‘BooDaddy’ - From BlueWraeth
• Guest Room v.9 ‘Chrisafer’ - From Blah Blah Black Sheep
• Guest Room v.10 ‘cb’ - From The Mangina Monologues
• Guest Room v.11 ‘Jimbo’ - From Jimbo.Info
• Guest Room v.12 ‘The Rex Monday’ - From The Sean Show
• Guest Room v.13 ‘Little Buddha’ - Partner of Chrisafer.com fame.
• Guest Room v.14 ‘Ewsichek’ - Bryan, of Ewsichek.com
• Guest Room v.15 ‘Wufpup’ - Nick, of defenestrate.org
• Guest Room v.16 ‘DJ LeDuxe’ - Ben Norman, of DC’s Halo

And remember - keep it interesting. Nothing too mainstream if you can manage it. This is about exploring the different things that are out there - something people might not have heard had you not pointed it out. And for those guests that want to come back…all I need is another list! Cheers!

Note: Some of the earlier sets have been shortened due to song-license availability decided upon by the record labels. The most recent sets are complete for the most part. Don’t worry, though…I still have all of the tracks if a guest needs a copy.

Tonight I lied. And it was wrong. But I’ll never be able to take it back, so….

As I sat waiting for a subway at Cleveland Park tonight, I was feeling quite relaxed. Could have been the dinner…or the drinks…or the prescribed (have to be clear on that) cyclobenzaprine. Regardless, I am the type to nod and smile politely if you walk past me and we make eye contact. Those of you already imagining this situation who know me…have a suspicion what happens next. Hello’s are, of course, exchanged. She starts.

“How are you?”
“Fine thanks.”

She sits down next to me at an acceptable distance. Her clothes are ragged, her hair thinning. She looks about 40. She has what Boodadday would call the crazy eyes.

“Did you eat dinner?”
“Yes, did.”
“You look like you could use a few meals.”
“I’ve been told that before.”

She pauses. I am staring at the wall, legs crossed. Relaxed. Why is someone trying to carry on with me right now? Really?

“I mean no insult to you, but you don’t sound like the person who opens himself to conversation.”
“I’ve also been told that before, regardless of its lacking in truth. But there is a time and place for everything.”
“Well if no one told you this today, I’m glad you’re here.
“Thank you.”
“What’s your name?”

This is where I lie.

“Michael.”
“What’s your last name?”
“Walters.”
“Michael Walters.”

She ponders over the name. Then she takes out her wallet. From it, she pulls out a 5 dollar bill.

“Maybe this will make you feel better,” she said holding the cash up to me.
“Oh no, thank you.”
“Are you sure?”
” Oh yes. I have a few of those in my bag. You never know when you’re gonna need that 5 dollar bill, you know.”
“True.”

I can’t make this shit up, people. As she continued to talk, the brown-eyed, balding, middle-aged, overweight, black woman with a child’s heart and mind never lost her tone. I couldn’t help but starting to feel bad about lying on my name. I was suddenly reminded that DC is not only full of pill popping yuppies, crystal queens and Canadian pharmacy enthusiasts… but also people like her - the likely homeless, God-fearing, mental children whose disorders have gone undiagnosed for so long that their personality is starting to slip away. And what are we doing for them outside of lying for convenience or institutionalizing them?

This hit me especially hard because I recently found out a relative of mine I’ve known for 15 years has Alzheimer’s disease. I shudder to think what would happen to her (or my bench-mate from tonight) if she got lost in the subway system in a state of false elation and oblivion. One would hope they meet a neutral party such as myself. I recently started taking Paxil for mood swings. It’s been an awesome change I wouldn’t trade in for the world. At least for now. It brought back the real me. Now that I know that me isn’t dead it will be more likely he stays around after I quit the stuff.

If you’re reading this that means you still check for posts. And I appreciate it. I promise to try writing more account like this one. Life is kicking my ass in so many ways, as George Michael says in ‘Precious Box’. I see more fucked up things around me lately and I can’t decide if it’s just an influx of bullshit or if it’s the first period where I let myself see it was always there. I’m empathetic. But at least I have the most awesome people around me to see it through. :-). The woman on the subway doesn’t. She doesn’t have anyone and I could tell. I don’t want to say it this way but she was…really trying to connect with someone and I shut it down. And now I feel horrible about it. How would I like to have that happen to me?! I wouldn’t at all.

All of this on the heels, mind you, of our fearless leader’s speech to the American Medical Association. Public mental health is becoming more of a crisis than people realize in the Capitol of the country. And what do we do with these people, send them to Melwood? I scoff. It’s just as bad as us Gen-Xers ignoring our elders as if they don’t exist and aren’t part of the world too. It’s fucked up.

If anyone visited this planet and understood how plagued we are with selfishness, they’d encase us in a space-cube force field so we don’t travel space. Space cash. And cynical much? Maybe. But at least I speak my mind.

Anyway, I lied. And I’m sorry. It was a simple situation and with everything going on I actually caved a little and threw the shields up to someone who only needed recognition and human interaction - something I suspect she never gets from anyone. But then again…maybe she said she was glad I was there because I actually spoke back. Maybe I’m the only human contact she’s been able to manage in years.

I’ll never know.

Ben Norman is the latest addition to the Subway State Guest Room!  We hope you enjoy the set!  It can be purchased and previewed by clicking here.  The link requires iTunes to function.

Be the next to be featured for your taste in tunes! Get onto iTunes and compile a list (approximately 78 minutes long for CD convenience) that you would play in a modern lounge while socializing and sipping your drink. Send your list, along with the address of your blog (or not) and a lil blurb about yerself to my Facebook email!

I’ll take care of posting the list to the iTunes store with a similar description. Then you can send the link to your buddies and promote the rightful purchasing of music in your very own name!! I’ll also write a post on it, and add a link for your playlist on the right side of the site. Your selections will be featured as I play at Science Club and EFN Lounge on Wednesday nights for ATOMIK!! (You can also become a fan of A-Ron on Facebook if you want to track my gigs.)

My previous guests are listed below. Can’t wait to hear from you. ENJOY!

Past·Guest·Room·Sets (and the blog sites of the Guests…) Links to music require iTunes.

• Guest Room v.1 ‘Jase’ - Doesn’t write his blog anymore.
• Guest Room v.2 ‘DJ me’ - DC DJ Matt Bailer!! His blog here.
• Guest Room v.3 ‘Fenster’ - From S.W.I.N.A.
• Guest Room v.4 ‘Aanthems’ - Doesn’t write his blog anymore either. *sigh*
• Guest Room v.5 ‘Jase’ - Same guy from Volume 1. Such great taste.
• Guest Room v.6 ‘Chemistry Lad’ - Is anti-blog.
• Guest Room v.7 -meichler- - TheNewGay.net.
• Guest Room v.8 ‘BooDaddy’ - From BlueWraeth
• Guest Room v.9 ‘Chrisafer’ - From Blah Blah Black Sheep
• Guest Room v.10 ‘cb’ - From The Mangina Monologues
• Guest Room v.11 ‘Jimbo’ - From Jimbo.Info
• Guest Room v.12 ‘The Rex Monday’ - From The Sean Show
• Guest Room v.13 ‘Little Buddha’ - Partner of Chrisafer.com fame.
• Guest Room v.14 ‘Ewsichek’ - Bryan, of Ewsichek.com
• Guest Room v.15 ‘Wufpup’ - Nick, of defenestrate.org

And remember - keep it interesting. Nothing too mainstream if you can manage it. This is about exploring the different things that are out there - something people might not have heard had you not pointed it out. And for those guests that want to come back…all I need is another list! Cheers!

Note: Some of the earlier sets have been shortened due to song-license availability decided upon by the record labels. The most recent sets are complete for the most part. Don’t worry, though…I still have all of the tracks if a guest needs a copy.

As if it weren’t enough that a girl was killed in the Brookland /
Woodridge area at Burroughs Elementary School field…and as if it
weren’t enough that the guy who did it was also killed in an
undercover cop shootout in the same area…now we have our local
subway stops joining the list of problems beginning to plague our area.

A man was robbed of his wallet and iPhone DURING RUSH HOUR on the red
line around 630pm one day this week. This happened IN A SUBWAY CAR
between Rhode Island Avenue and Brookland CUA stations. When the guy
got to the Brookland station and asked the attendant for use of her
phone, the attendant declined. She told him to use the f’ing pay
phone, suggesting that he look for change in his pocket.

Don’t get me started. That’s my home station, to and from which I
have already had many problems with the timliness of the G8 bus line.
Now we have robbery ON THE METRO!!!!!!! WTF, DC??