What is Districts?

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Districts is an evolving experiment in geography, music, and stories. Tune in every Sunday morning to WRMC 91.1 FM beginning at 8am to hear chatter and songs from hometowns around the world.

Each week, two different guests will come on and we’ll play songs that are in some way connected to their hometowns.

If we are featuring YOUR city, email wlaw at middlebury.edu or text 206 849 1516 to request a song.

Scroll down to see posts with links to the songs we play and bits from the show.

Grace – Enterprise, OR – (541)

Today on Districts, we heard the sounds of Entreprise, OR. Scroll down for music and chatter.

Grace ‘13.5

“Whiskey Before Breakfast” – Bryan Sutton

  • Grace, born in Seattle, WA, grew up in the northeast corner of Oregon in a town called Enterprise
  • Grace grew up playing the fiddle. She competed in and won many competitions.

“Festival Waltz”

  • Beware of goathead weeds if you ever camp out in Oregon
  • Grace attended a fiddle festival called Stickerville (named after the goatheads that stick to the bottom of your feet)

“Nocturne No. 2 in E Flat Major, Op. 9,2” – Frederic Chopin 

  • The soundtrack to Grace’s childhood as Frederic Chopin
  • The Weiser Fiddle Festival is the major fiddle festival on the West Coast

“In Wallowa” – Heidi Muller and Carolyn Lockheart

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/songs-from-the-end-of-the-road/id283143147

  • Grace’s father is currently traveling around the country by school bus to help people learn how to sequester carbon
  • Enterprise, OR is the end of Oregon’s Route 3

Stay tuned for next week, when we hit up a different hometown.

Boone – Greater Portland Area – (541) & Kiya – Manhattan, New York – (917)

Today we took a trip to Oregon and New York. Scroll below for music and chatter.

Boone ’16

“Sympathique” – Pink Martini

  • Boone grew up with music often being played in his home

“Furr” – Blitzen Trapper

  • Boone spent most his time as a 15 year-old among the tall trees and under the grey skies of Oregon

“So American” – Portugal. The Man

  • Boone’s father can tell you a lot about music

“Ships in the Night” – Mat Kearney

  • Like Mat Kearney, Boone also left Oregon. But he’ll always have a place in his heart for the Pacific Northwest

Kiya ‘13.5

“In the Flesh” – Blondie

  • Kiya grew up in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, which is a neighborhood of many layers
  • Kiya attended a progressive high school

“Thorn in My Side” – Quicksand

  • Kiya’s father plays bass for Quicksand
  • Kiya cannot stay awake during a Pink Floyd song

“The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side” – The Magnetic Fields

  • Kiya grew up with her aunts, whom she considers her siblings

“L. E. S. Artistes” – Santigold

  • Kiya would like to be a scientific journalist

Until next week. We might go global.

Jasmine – Brooklyn, New York – (718)

Daylight Savings Time tripped us up! Thanks to my guest, Jasmine ’16, who woke me up at 6:18am 7:18am so that we could put on Districts. In a slightly hazy and tired mood, we explored the music of Brooklyn, New York.

(Unfortunately, my other guest also forgot to turn the clock forward and couldn’t make it to this week’s show. Tune in next week to find out who it is!)

Scroll below for music and chatter from this morning.

Jasmine ’16

“New York, New York” – Frank Sinatra

(Sorry, no official music video, because they didn’t exist back then.)

  • Richard, Jasmine’s father, grew up in The Mission of San Francisco, went to Stanford, got degrees in law and business from Cornell, and then settled into a law career in New York.
  • Jasmine had mommy and daddy class as a toddler, AKA music time.

“Deja Vu (Uptown Baby)” – Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz

“Hypnotize” – The Notorious B. I. G.

“Empire State of Mind” – Jay-Z ft. Alicia Keys

  • There’s a mural near Jasmine’s condo that says, “Comandante Biggie!”

Tune in next week, when we’ll again have a guest from New York and perhaps return to the West (Best) Coast.

Until Sunday.

Dylan – Baltimore – (410)

Today we started off the morning with some tracks from the rotation shelf before delving into Baltimore with Dylan ’16.

Scroll down for music and chatter.

The Baltimore Skyline and Inner Harbor at Night

“The Great Fire” – Future Islands

  • Baltimore has a thriving music scene that encourages young people to engage with and create art.
  • Dylan grew up in a neighborhood called Hamilton.
  • There is actually a body of water named Prettyboy in Maryland.

“Diagonally Talking Echo – Dustin Wong

  • Dylan has five sisters. One of them, Bella, is moving to Chicago to today.
  • Despite a strong independent school culture, Baltimore’s public schools, according to Dylan, remain underserved. Dylan, citing her inspirational kindergarten educator mom and high school English teacher, envisions herself becoming a teacher.

“Prettyboy” – Dan Deacon

  • Baseball season starts soon. Dylan is an Orioles fans. Watch out Yankees and Red Sox.
  • Baltimoreans, not Baltimorons. Got it?
  • If Dylan sees you wearing an Orioles shirt and enthusiastically says hi, you shouldn’t leave her hanging.

“Supers” – NARCstudies

  • There’s an abandoned warehouse in Baltimore with pink and pastel-colored puff balls. Dylan says it looks like someone vomited color all over its exposed-brick walls. Can someone verify?
  • Dylan’s interested in narrative journalism and wants to secure a MiddChallenge grant to tell the stories of people in her city. Help her make it happen!

Next week: we’ll at least have New York.

Winson – Seattle – (206) & Erin – San Francisco Bay Area – (415)

In the early hours of the 24th day of the second month of the year 2013, we launched the first Districts show. Featuring Seattle and the San Francisco Bay Area, Erin ’16 and I jammed to music from our hometowns.

Scroll down for songs from Seattle and the Bay Area. (Note: songs may contain profanity.)

seattle

Winson – Seattle

“We Heart Pho” – Sabzi

“The End” – Macklemore and Ryan Lewis

“Slick Watts” – Blue Scholars

“Molly Moon (feat. Geo and Thig Nat)” – Brothers from Another

“Peaches” – The Presidents of the United States of America

“My Oh My” – Macklemore and Ryan Lewis

bay area

Erin – San Francisco Bay Area

“San Francisco” – The Mowgli’s

Music Video

Equally Cute Lyric Version

“Northern Cali” – Bayonics

“Blow the Whistle” – Too $hort

Tune in next week for two new cities and two new guests.