Good-bye, satellite radio. I cancelled my subscription last month, a service I loved from the get-go. Had it for four years and I’ll admit it saved me from going nuts while listening to commercial radio stations on my way to work.
Today, in our “reset economy,” I looked for costs to cut. Radio seemed a likely choice for a number of reasons: (1) it costs $12 per month, (2) I wasn’t listening to it as much, (3) the playlists got tiresome after Sirius bought XM and combined channels, and (4) I no longer drive to work every day.
I’ll find a way to survive, I thought. I have my iPod for recorded music, and the iPhone can tune in to Internet radio station. In my area, I’m lucky to receive listener-supported WFMU 91.1 FM on my home and car radios. Fortunately, WFMU is also available in iTunes’ radio (under eclectic), and via on a number of free iPhone apps that feature public radio stations (listened to my favorite show last Thursday while driving on the NYS Thruway). You can also listen directly via iPhone. That’s cool. Out driving earlier and I hear a song on WFMU that I wanted to make a note of. Sounded good; sort of ghetto-tech. Quickly turned to the iPhone and brought up the live stream, where the name of the artist came up: Buraka Som Sistema, from Portugal. The song was Kalemba (Wegue Wegue). The genre is actually kuduro, originating in Angola. Bet you can’t sit still listening to it…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CkXhtw7UNk]
Thanks to listener-supported WFMU, my musical interests are continually expanding. Learning never ends: read more about the group here.
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That’s right, “Glazed and Confused.” It’s a type of donut made and sold by Psycho Donuts in Campbell, California. They also sell Cereal Killer, Mood Swing and Headbanger (formerly known as Massive Head Trauma) donut varieties.
Love it. Great concept and very creative — an they’ve only been in business for six months. All in a down economy. I think they’ve got a chance at franchising, too. Nice T-shirts, too.
Mental health advocates find their marketing insensitive, and they’ve got a point. Chief Psycho Jordan Zweigoron agrees and he’s changing things around:
Sooner-than-later changes to Psycho Donuts could be the beginning of the end of a months-long controversy between the shop and the mental health community.
Psycho Donuts owner Jordan Zweigoron announced he’d be making some changes to the shop after taking sole ownership at the end of July, but gave few details about exactly what he would do and when he would do it. But last week, Psycho Donuts’ transition began with a revamped Web site that, among other things, includes links to several mental health advocacy groups and changes to product names.
The names of two of the more controversial doughnuts, “Bipolar” and “Massive Head Trauma,” are now known as “Mood Swing” and “Headbanger,” respectively. There’s also now a “Jekyll and Hyde” doughnut.
“It was becoming really something of a polarizing issue,” Zweigoron said of the controversy that began when the shop opened in March. “We had to do some soul searching, and it came down to two things: We had no intention of offending anyone, but we also didn’t see ourselves as a mascot for free speech. Some supporters wanted us to adopt that model, but what we really decided was we wanted to be the most unusual doughnut shop on the planet.
“A lot of [the changes] were things that I planned to do all along,” Zweigoron added. “It wasn’t about giving into demands, but more about in order to be the most unusual doughnut shop in the land, you have to keep innovating, and that’s my intention.”
Watch him defend himself on Fox Business Channel last week. When I visit the South Bay area, expect me to visit this establishment.
Here’s a typical day at Pshycho Donuts, seen in a video from May, 2009…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAHVOn5y8eE]
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