My new car came with a free three month trail to Sirius XM satellite radio. It has hundreds of channels of programming, and being an engineer I had to listen to them all to decide if I should pay for a subscription once the free trial ran out. (To end the suspense, yes, I subscribed.)

Sirius offers a good variety of music and talk channels, and I have listened to them all, if only for a few minutes. What surprised me is that I find myself returning to Sirius XM Hits 1 (channel 2) over and over again. That can’t be me. I am a middle-aged, white male. I should be listening to political or sports talk radio, easy listening, or, if I want to stay in touch with my youth, some 70’s rock.

Instead, I now know who Kimbra, Flo-rida, Sia, fun., Neon Trees and Gotye are, and I enjoy their music. (By the way, whoever thinks the younger generation is illiterate should pay attention to how they use grammar and punctuation. Clever of that Gotye to be pronounced Gautier. Perhaps his first name is Dick?) Maybe this is a temporary phase or one of those famous middle-age crises. I don’t know, and I cannot explain it. I am just enjoying it for now.

In an homage to Flo-Rida, I am thinking of starting my own musical act. I will call myself Tex-Azz, and I will be a country hip-hop artist. If only I had any musical talent! In the meantime, I will enjoy listening to fellow DFW native Kelly Clarkson sing Stronger.

Just to show I have not gone completely wacko, the other channel I listen to is Willie’s Roadhouse (channel 56), as in Willie Nelson’s Roadhouse. I know. That is not proof I am not wacko. It probably just reinforces the notion.