hzaragoza (hzaragoza) wrote in repose, @ 2020-04-23 00:31:00 |
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Entry tags: | *narrative, hector zaragoza |
Who: Hector (narrative)
What: Preparing to look for new music and some thoughts about life and such
When: Wednesday
Where: Hector’s home
Rating: PG at best, no noticeable triggers
While not technically part of his job yet, Hector enjoyed looking for new music that could be played on his radio show. Still a new employee by most standards, he didn’t have much say in what was played on the channel, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t want to stay on top of the current music culture. As a fan of classic rock almost exclusively, it wasn’t always easy to figure out what to search for. He had a thing for the power ballads and strong vocals of the 80’s so the idea was to stick to similar styles. It wasn’t easy, but at least the channel he worked for was a rock channel. Generic rock music these days was vastly different from the generic rock music from the 80’s, or at least that’s what internet search results told him. Diving into the less popular categories of hard rock and metal taught him just how much screaming was added into music. Or, what he would consider screaming and not belting.
His best bet was using the bands that were played on the channel currently, though to be honest, he wasn’t the biggest fan of all of those, either. But he had to remember that the channel wasn’t necessarily for the music he liked most. There were paid time slots and certain songs that had to be played a certain amount of times in the day. Needless to say, radio today felt much removed from how it was when he was an intern at a radio station in college. Yet it was a nice change of pace from being a factory repairman. More relaxing, less pressing. Though he did miss his old coworkers and employees. He’d worked with most of them for so long that starting over with new people almost felt daunting. Hector was friendly enough, and would talk to near everyone he could at work, so it could only be a matter of time before some of his coworkers enjoyed his company enough to want to spend time together outside of work, right?
It was much easier working now that the boot was off. No longer did he need to sit in an uncomfortable position to keep his foot elevated and steady, nor did he have to worry about working from home. All he needed to worry about was being careful with his foot for a while to make sure he didn’t rebreak the toe or bruise the bone. Shaking himself from his thoughts, Hector focused back on the computer screen. He wanted to make sure he was able to pass a list on to his bosses with several potential bands and songs. At least ten of each would be ideal, especially since Hector was so new and couldn’t be sure which bands or songs may have already been played. He tried to stick to songs that looked like they were released within the past couple of months since he didn’t have access to any kind of insider information in the way that he would need to in order to make sure that nothing he found was repeated. Generally his bosses told him about new singles coming out about a week before he was supposed to start pitching them to the public. Good thing he was able to keep his mouth shut about things until he was supposed to talk about them, otherwise he may have lost his job by now for spoiling releases when people weren’t already supposed to know. Perhaps he’d have a talk with his bosses about getting information a little sooner so he wouldn’t run the risk of potentially listing songs or bands which were already slated for future debuts.
One of his coworkers had given him a tip early on to subscribe to a couple different music blogs and news sites so that he could stay on top of information. It wasn’t easy figuring out which ones were legitimate sites and which ones were nothing more than gossip and rumor rags. This led to Hector subscribing to more sites than he wanted to count, and also led to a very slow culling as certain sites began to show that they were a pile of crock or were too general in genre. In the end, it was ultimately a helpful thing to do, even more so when he found a site that seemed to be focused mainly on upcoming artists as opposed to the same ten or twenty artists already on the scene.
That newsletter was the first thing he looked for in his inbox today. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like there was any new information to read there, which meant that he’d have to actually do some searching on the internet. This was the part of making these lists that he liked the least. Listening to the music once it was found was great. Actually finding the new music or bands was difficult. Times like this he wished he had an ability that connected him to the internet and allowed him to search faster than he could type. Maybe he could ask…
No, he would do this himself. He’d never get better at this part of his job if he didn’t get used to it. He’d never get better without some kind of practice. This wasn’t like swinging a sword or a bat or a polearm. At least, it wasn’t like that for him. That gift is what made running around the city at night back east so much less dangerous than it could have been. There were only so many times he could have run away and stayed alive. Plus, that would have defeated the purpose of going out there in the first place. Thinking about that made a part of him miss the excitement and the adrenaline rush, as well as the person he ran around with. There was some joy to be had making the city a better place with someone else. If he’d been in his room, he would have glanced at his closet with a mixture of fondness and longing to go back out, but he was starting to get too old for that, regardless of the shape he was in. No, that mask was put up for good. It would take something extraordinary for him to go back to that life. It was time to let the younger generations take over.
Once more bringing himself back to the screen in front of him, Hector lightly chewed on a corner of his lip while typing away in the search engine. Most of his usual sites were failing him in one way or another, but giving up wasn’t an option. He wanted to get at least one new band and one new song on the lists today. Preferably he’d end up with three or more, but he wanted, needed, to get at least one. He wanted to work on the radio for a long time, and he wanted to move up and bring fresh ideas. Giving up just wasn’t an option. He tried one more site, the last one he would normally look at, and potentially struck gold! This one seemed to potentially have both a new band (or at least one he’d never heard of before) and a new song to listen to. Hector grinned, putting on his headphones and grabbing his pen, ready to write these down if they panned out.
He clicked the link and began listening.