Reflections on ConneKXions
Dear Friends, Sisters and Brothers who love Life,
For the last four years, I have tended a nomadic musical garden on KX Radio, creating a non-format called ConneKXions.
During my travels, the Bluebird Studio has lit up its tiny red and yellow lights in all kinds of places.
Some shows were recorded with the microwave in a friend’s kitchen as the studio surface. Others found their birth on a sturdy oaken desk on the 26th floor of a hotel room in former East Berlin. Others were created on a wobbly, plastic lace-covered folding table in the front yard of an English cottage. Sometimes circumstances only allowed for the back of a pick up truck.
My views from these varied locations ranged from harsh, concrete parking lots to vast, starlit deserts, from cute Dutch canals to sheep-filled meadows and Bladerunner-esque skyscrapers bordering a ghetto.

As long as there was an Internet connection available, the show rolled on, celebrating music from as far back as 100 years, when public radio was only a dream.
“How do you know which songs to play?†people often ask me.
“How can you explain falling in love?†I ask in return.
One fine day I was walking among stunning orchids, exotic trees and turquoise lizards in a desert park many thousands of miles away from my Native Holland. Suddenly….out of nowhere….a Dutch song popped into my mind, called “Zuurkool met vette jus†by Sjef van Oekel.**
What on Earth…?!?
**Sjef van Oekel was a well-known Dutch comedian, the song’s title translates as “Sauerkraut With Greasy Gravy†and is an ode to food.
The scent of a flower, the look in the eyes of a songbird, the taste of a cookie, the memory of a loved one….all of these amazing experiences connect us to the great mystery, called Life.
And yes, of course — with some songs it can be a particular chord change, a lyrical phrase, a photograph or the life story of an artist that inspires and guides the random music choices, which characterize ConneKXions.
However, most often it is just a change in the direction of the wind.
With Love,
Simone
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