Stuarto Glasser, host of the All Around the World Music Show, called me up a little after 5pm Friday and asked if I could fill in for him. Thinking it would be a great way to attract a few more listeners I agreed. I headed home and put together a playlist of some of my favorite indie artists from around the world.

As the days and nights get colder, and we enter full-fledged winter, it becomes more and more difficult to justify taking the BMW out. In the cold, it’s almost better to just walk. But I braved the chill and barely-working defrost on December 2, taking the car out for one last night show before the new year. It would be a good one, filled with dreamy music pretty much throughout.

What a decade it’s been. 2004 was my first year in the so-called Real World; jobs, car payments, instability everywhere. Things weren’t all happy and seemingly upbeat like the mid 90s. After eight months in Seattle, I found myself unemployed and decided it was time for more education. I moved to the greater Portland area and began prep to enter a Masters in Business Administration program, taking night classes at WSU Vancouver and making a frequent trip out to Pullman, where I’d soon attend graduate school. …