Braces update, the death of WBCN, a few more horror movies

So apparently I have "small teeth", this according to my orthodontist.  

I went for my monthly adjustment yesterday, and they applied a "torque wire", which is essentially used to change the angle of the teeth in relation to their positions in the jaw.  My upper front teeth have always sort of slanted in toward my throat (not at an extreme angle, but enough to notice if you're looking at them), and though they've moved quite a bit since last October, there's still some work to do.  But, looking into my mouth, he said he had a "predicament" - the gap between my top front four teeth has closed, but now there's a gap between my canines and my first pre-molars.  So I have that going for me, which is nice.

Anyway, he took a few moments in considering the next step, and I'm no expert (obviously), but I think he punted in favor of working on another problem (the angle) first.  I dunno.  My "small teeth" may mean that the gaps will take longer to shift/fill, or it may mean that I'm not going to have a nice, tight row of choppers.  

Either way, I'm extremely excited about the changes in my teeth so far, to the point that if I was told "that's it, we can't fix them any further" and the braces came off immediately, I'd be thrilled.  I've always been incredibly self-conscious about the way they look, and now I can't wait to show them off once the metal comes out.  (That's the "brace metal".  I will never, *ever* lose "The Metal".)

This photo is about a month old, but you get a good idea of the changes in just a few months (click for a larger version):

And to think that I wasn't sure I'd make it after the first few days!  My teeth were so screwy that the brackets didn't allow me to properly chew my food at first since I didn't have enough surface area touching to grind my food.  I'm not sure how long I have left, but I'm so used to them at this point that I'm not sure I really care so long as they're doing their job.  That's not to say I'm not looking forward to getting them off, of course.  I can't wait to bite directly into an apple again.

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I haven't always been the biggest fan of WBCN, but "The Rock of Boston" has always been part of my life as a music fan.  No matter what city I find myself in, there's always a station broadcasting at or very near 104.1, but I'm always a little disappointed that these other stations aren't also WBCN.  

In high school, WAAF was essentially a hair-metal station, and WZLX was only classic rock.  The broadcasting range for WFNX didn't reach my house.  But WBCN was steady and fairly eclectic, all things considered.  They played a good amount of older stuff, some decent modern rock, and a good amount of local music, which other stations tended to avoid like the plague.  They would broadcast live shows from the Paradise or the Orpheum, and I'd hoard blank audio cassettes to make sure I could capture great live sets or in-studio interviews as they happened.

When I moved to Boston in fall '92 to go to BU, I occasionally took a stroll over to the studio's home over in the Fenway area to try to gather autographs (that's how I met Henry Rollins once).  I skipped a chemistry class one morning to see Father Guido Sarducci "exorcise" Fenway Park (and got one of only 104 limited edition t-shirts commemorating the event).  I got to go inside the studio and hang out for about an hour once with Mark Parenteau while interviewing him for a journalism class.  (This was while he was still a popular, well-enough respected DJ - before the unpleasantness.  He was cool with me, though, and didn't even approach being inappropriate or weird with my relatively wide-eyed naive self.)

I wasn't particularly a fan of Howard Stern at the time, and I dreaded some of the DJs.  The music gradually gravitated to generic playlists that every other modern rock station seemed to be using.  But still, they had a legacy, and they still meant a lot to a lot of people, including me.  

And now we're on the verge of losing them forever, as they'll be changing formats next month.  I haven't lived in Boston now for about six years, but this still makes me sad.  

It's a sign of the times, I guess.  K-rock, Stern's pre-satellite NYC home-base, became a pop station a few months ago too.  And for whatever degree of complaint I may have about these changes, it's not as if I actually listen to the radio either.  I'm always listening to my iPod or using Pandora at this point.  So people like me, we may not have intended to kill the patient, but we didn't do anything to save him, either.  

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Nicole and I had a discussion about my horror movie recommendations and she proposed a few of her own that I had overlooked:

"The Ring" - I really enjoyed it.  The Japanese original is also very creepy, but as American remakes go, they did a really good job (supposing you can suspend your disbelief, of course).  The sequel, however ... Oof.  That was rough.

"It" - Even though they changed a significant aspect of the story's finale, the rest of the story holds up pretty well compared to the novel.  I haven't seen this in a while, but the "head in the fridge" scene really shocked me considering this was made-for-TV.  And Tim Curry as Pennywise?  Yikes!

"The Shining" - Another Stephen King adaptation that's holds up to the reputation that precedes it.  Kubrick, Nicholson ... yes, yes, yes.  "Here's Johnny" and all that.  But the story's the thing, right?  And this is a good one.

"Drag Me to Hell" - Sam Raimi's latest was completely underrated and overlooked.  There's not a lot of blood, and there isn't a high body count, but sometimes a simple tale with a slight gross-out factor can be very effective and a heckuva lot of fun.  Case in point.