For The Record- 01. June. 2024

Bingo, Bango, Bongo!

Welcome to another edition of For The Record, the weekly newsletter that brings the world of music news straight to your inbox. Part essay, part good old-fashioned link drop, For The Record is a benefit for paid supporters of On Repeat.

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KA~

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The Summer Notorious B.I.G. and I Went On a Road Trip Together

I have a vacation week coming up, which means a time-honored tradition in the Alexander household: trying to decide where to go. We become 4 living examples of the paradox of choice. My older son’s picks almost always default to Florida or, at the very least, a beach. My youngest is a chaos agent and will throw out ideas in the order in which they pop into his head— this is why I can say I’ve been to places like Buffalo and Biloxi. Meanwhile, my wife quietly begins planning the trip she’d like us all to go on and laying the groundwork to make it happen.

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The line between the best and worst possible ideas is usually a fine one. The side you land on often depends on who’s in on it with you. Deciding to fly across the country with absolutely no agenda could’ve gone either way, but I had some good company.

In 1997, I was a broke 20-something slogging it out at a regional airline. The carrier paid little more than minimum wage but made up for it with a (relatively) generous pass travel program. This allowed us to travel space available on other airlines. And it worked; many of us were lured in and stayed simply because we could get on a plane and go somewhere. Being able to afford it? That was an entirely different issue.

And so it was on a searing hot tarmac, a coworker and I conspired to do an east coast road trip.