It’s the end of the month, which means that it’s time once again for our KRCC DJ music picks of the month (you can see last month’s picks HERE).

As you’ll notice, there’s a link beneath each song that will allow you to purchase it from iTunes. If you click and buy from that link, KRCC gets a portion of the proceeds. Win-Win. Thanks!

Jeanette Hohman (Surround Sounds, Thursdays from 10 p.m. to Midnight):

My favorite for June is “Screwtopia” from Murdering Oscar (and other Love Songs) by Patterson Hood. After the success of the Drive-By Truckers, Hood has returned to an album he started 15 years earlier. It’s full turmoil, great guitar riffs, pedal steel, fiddle and piano. I couldn’t love it more!

Mothy (Suddenly the Sidewalk, Friday from 9 p.m. to Midnight):

June pick would have to be “Flash of Light” by the band Crocodiles from their new Fat Possum release, “Summer of Hate.” Even if you pulled the teeth from Crocodiles, they would STILL chew your ass up and spit you out. Serious, DEADLY serious head music for head people. If you can’t dig this, you ain’t got no shovel.

Jeff Bieri (Blue Plate Special and Afternoon Music Mix):

“What Is This” by Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens. Motown gospel funk with a conscience asking important questions that need to be answered by THE MAN.

Steve Harris (Grass Roots Revival, Wednesdays from 8 to 10 p.m.):

Todd Snider, “America’s Favorite Pastime” from The Excitement Plan on Yep Roc Records. Neo-folkie Todd Snider presents the heartwarming story of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Dock Ellis, who claimed to have pitched a no-hitter against the San Diego Padres in 1970 under the influence of LSD.

Your Friend and Neighbor Vicky (Morning Music Mix):

Favorite song for June is: “Tornado Alley” by Viva Voce on Rose City (on Barsuk Records). Indie pop/rock gem. Summer’s here and the time is right.

Tino: (Saturday/Sunday overnight)

“Black Hearted Love” on the new P.J. Harvey release A Woman A Man Walked By

Dick Fairley: Thursday Night Jazz Excursion, 8 to 10 p.m.

My favorite new jazz album for June is Cory Weeds’ “Everything is Coming Up Weeds.” This is straight ahead jazz at its best. Cory is a tenor sax player; he is accompanied on this album by pianist (and organist) Ross Taggart, trumpeter Jim Rotondi, bassist John Webber, and drummer Willie Jones III. Cory is the owner of The Cellar Jazz Club, an internationally known jazz club in Vancouver, B.C. He also does a DJ stint on Mondays at a radio station in Vancouver. I guess you could say he is really into jazz.

Nick: The Oscillation Propagation, Saturdays from 10 p.m to Midnight

Marc Antona, “Red Faces.” This energetic, hypnotic beat salad will swallow you whole into a relentless, irresistible groove.

Eric Cole (In The Groove, Tuesdays from 8 to 10 p.m.):

“Baby Goats” from Will Bernard’s latest release called “Blue Plate Special”. Will Bernard is one of the most underappreciated guitarists on the scene today.

Dearest KRCC Members and Big Something Subscribers (particularly those of you Trinidad, Walsenburg, Salida, Buena Vista, Raton, Westcliffe, Pueblo, La Junta and all those in the greater Southern Colorado KRCC listening area),

The Big Something is planning a mid-summer tour of our entire listening area and we need you to help us put together our itinerary. We need YOU to suggest ideas for Big Somethings in your area.

Are there any amazing homes or buildings like THIS ONE we could visit?

Are there any long-forgotten and esoteric curiosities like THESE?

Or perhaps there are local arts stories like THIS?

Please let us know your thoughts and ideas and please let us know if you can put us in touch with the people or institutions that can share these stories with us when we come to your area later this summer. You can leave your suggestions in the comments below or email us at thebigsomething@krcc.org or give us a call at 800-748-2727.

Thanks!

Delaney and Noel
Producers
The Big Something

Dear Big Something subscribers and KRCC Members, as you may have already heard, we’re doing an extra one-day fund drive this Sunday, June 28. It’s the end of our fiscal year and we need to make an extra push to recuperate almost $160,000 in lost underwriting revenue and some added expenses.

One of KRCC’s biggest annual expenses that you might not otherwise know about or ever see is our radio tower on top of Cheyenne Mountain. The rent alone is almost $5,000 dollars every month! Fortunately, it’s one of the best places in the country to have a radio tower and allows us to deliver a strong, clear signal to you.

As we ask you to dig a little deeper or become a member for the first time, we’re taking you to the top of Cheyenne Mountain with our Chief Engineer, Joel Belik for some spectacular views and a lot of geek speak.

If you appreciate the kind of local programming that KRCC brings you every day, including posts like this on The Big Something, not to mention all the national news and entertainment shows, please give a little extra or join for the first time.

Click HERE to give.

Thank you!

Delaney and Noel

Jeff Mapes, a Portland, OR-based journalist, has just published an incredibly useful look at the the political realities of cycling as transportation. Citing lessons learned from Amsterdam, Davis, CA, New York City, Portland and other communities, Mapes argues that something as as simple as adding a well-connected network of bike lanes (a few thousand gallons of paint!) can transform an entire community, increase safety for all, attract a creative work force, reduce emissions, increase community health and well-being, and save everyone a lot of money. Sound to good to be true?

Listen to this half-an-hour interview we did with Mapes and buy his book to find out why helmets don’t necessarily equal safety and how cycling could save our community $1 billion every year.

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The Palmer Trail (to Red Rock Canyon) from High Drive is a nice afternoon mountain bike ride for intermediate riders that’s only minutes away from town but feels like miles. Depending on the route you take it’s approximately 6 to 9 miles.

Read more about the Palmer Trail HERE and HERE..

(We like to hear from you! Please leave comments below or email us at thebigsomething@krcc.org. Thanks.)

We’re delighted to announce that, by popular demand, two of the Victorian “fancy craft” hair wreaths we featured here on The Big Something last week have been placed on display beginning today, Tuesday, June 23, 2009 at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum. We hope you’ll go see them both because they’re incredible to look at close up and also because the Pioneers Museum, like many non-profit cultural institutions, can use your help right now.

Each day we aspire to unearth one of the many amazing cultural treasures that lie stashed in dark and ignored corners of our region and bring it to light. When doing so results in the outpouring of interest and response from you about something like the hair wreaths, which then results in said wreaths being put out on display all within the course of a week… WOW! We couldn’t have imagined such an excellent form of community collaboration. Thanks to Matt Mayberry and Dave Ryan at the Pioneers Museum and thanks to all of you for making this happen. We sincerely hope that your feedback and suggestions will continue to shape the course of our cultural treasure hunting.

On that subject, we also hope that awareness of some of these treasures leaks out into the broader culture. As coincidence would have it, we just learned about an excellent new online compendium of places like The Pioneers Museum that house the very kinds of esoterica and curiosities we like to bring to you here locally. It’s called…

.

And it has a dizzying array of wonders from around the world. Not to be mistaken for a catalog of roadside attractions, the AtlasObscura aims for wonder and delight more than kitsch and schlock. Among many categories of Obscura, you’ll find: Follies and Grottoes, Purveyors of Curiosities, Micro-Nations (Republic of Kugelmugel is the only entry!), Wonder Cabinets and oh so many more. A great way to take a freak’s tour of the world from your armchair.

As of yesterday, Colorado Springs had no oddities in the AtlasObscura, so we quickly corrected that by adding the Pioneers Museum, their wreaths and historical relics.

We hope you’ll help us add more obscura to the Big Something’s growing encyclopedia by posting comments below or emailing us your thoughts and ideas for more Big Somethings in the Pikes Peak Region to: thebigsomething@krcc.org. Thanks!

As many of you may know, June is Bike Month in Colorado Springs. Says the Trails and Open Spaces Website:

Bike Week is a statewide event where all major front range cities participate. In Colorado Springs the event has outgrown just a week and is called BIKE MONTH. Presented by Metro Rides and organized by a volunteer planning committee, Bike Month is a collaborative effort on the part of area employers, individuals, not-for-profits and cycling shops to encourage bicycling, commuting and the open spaces and trails that make them possible.

Metro Rides and the Trails and Open Space Coalition’s goal is to promote bicycling for recreation and commuting purposes in a safe and fun manner.

This past weekend brought the events of the month to a crescendo (some sanctioned, some coincidental and some not-so-sanctioned) with the Starlight Spectacular, The World Naked Bike Ride, an ad hoc Bike Polo event on Sunday and the opening of the new Carmichael Training Systems in the Round House building on 21st Street and Hwy 24.

With all these events and the recent “silver-level” Bicycle Friendly Communities Award, it would seem that Colorado Springs may be finding its natural place among other bike-friendly cities like Portland, Oregon.

Here are a couple of slide shows from this past weekend’s events:

Portraits of World Naked Bike Ride Participants: (WARNING: While there’s no explicit nudity in any of these portraits, a few them are racy, and may not be entirely subitable for work or impressionable children)

Starlight Spectacular’s Spectacles:

(As per always, we love and encourage your feedback: please leave some in the comments or email us at thebigsomething@krcc.org. If you like what you see here every weekday, please encourage your friends to sign up for our email list. You can forward this to them by clicking on the “Share This” button below. Thanks!)