April 24th, 2003

Today we’re going to talk a little bit about music. Music has been at the fore of things for me lately. Today, my mainstay of work day music, ShasRadio has been down out of commission. Fortunately, I have brought in several CDs to work in order to listen to them more closely and rip them and such. So all day I have been listening to my newest three CDs. One was a Valentine’s present from Kurt and the other two were spendings of an Amazon Gift Certificate I hadn’t used up yet and it was a particularly delicious pleasure choosing which ones from my wishlist I would have sent to me (thanks, Ielleen!). I just don’t buy CDs as much as I used to. For one, I already own quite a lot of music that I like, I don’t have an ever increasing appetite for more. In general, I think music is mostly overpriced. Also, since I work in an Archives, I feel a little queasy about the recording industry and what irrational screaming babies they’ve become about the whole copyright thing. Not to mention the whole napster/mp3 debacle. The idea of putting money in the hands of these greasy middlemen makes me feel like I’m paying gangsters. I’m not sure what the solution might be but I’m pretty sure helping keep the system entrenched by buying truckloads of cds isn’t it. The CDs are Gift by Curve, Skindive by Skindive and Heathen by David Bowie. So far I can say that I am very pleased with all three of these albums. Maybe buying less music means I’ll be buying better music.

Rant time : does anyone know what’s going on with CD cases? Two of the aforementioned CDs came not in a standard jewel case but in a cheap cardboard package with a flap cover and a plastic inset for the disc. I’m all for less packaging, but I’m not sure I’m thrilled about this. Sophia mouthed my Curve case for all of fifteen seconds and the cardboard cover practically melted away, rendering it pretty useless. My question is, is this the standard for CDs now or is this some sort of extra cheap packaging I get for purchasing from Amazon.com? Anyone know the lowdown?

Tangentially related gripe : I was extra bored, I suppose, so I ventured into some of those Amazon.com recommendations lists that flash up on the sides of the page. I’ve previously looked at ones relating to baby toys and baby books and those tend to be very useful with lists of extra durable toys that hold a kid’s attention for a particularly long time. Not the lists from the music section. The lists from the music section are all about people telling you what are great not to be missed albums that no one else has yet discovered. The thing that gets me is this : they’re all practically the same list. I must have seen Norah Jones and John Mayer 30 times. And my question is this, why make a list if it’s just going to look like everyone else’s list? Who do you think buys stuff at Amazon and hasn’t heard of Norah Jones? She won approximately 752 Grammy’s for heaven’s sake! Even my recently arrived from a foreign country sister-in-law was asking me if I’d heard Norah Jones. She’s not secret or undiscovered! Everyone who wants her album probably already has it. Also, every one of these best 20 albums ever listmakers acts like music began 10 years ago, with the exception of the obligatory Dylan or Hendrix album, to which the comment is always something like , “If you can’t appreciate this I don’t know why you’d listen to music at all.” Only less coherent. And with more misspellings. Yes, I know, serves me right for bothering to look. Had to gripe, though.

However, back on the sunny side of the street, I am pleased to report that
ShasRadio Volumes 3 and 4 have finally come to fruition. These are mix CDs I made for myself based on ShasRadio discoveries : bands or songs I had not heard before ShasRadio. I’m pretty pleased with myself about having finally finished these, and having them done well before the summer.

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Welcome to a new category in my journal : Dreams. I’m probably going to place every dream in the way I just placed this one, forcing you to click through to the extended text to see it, because I predict violent, sexual and generally bizarre content (though this one is quite harmless). I might even come up with a rating scheme on my dreams to put in this part of the post, so you can avoid the ones you probably don’t want to read.

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