library progress

[dragonlady7]

It didn't feel like a transitional point in my life until I got the new computer and started to organize the data that make up my life into chunks to put neatly onto the new computer.
(I hadn't actually realized I was thinking this until I started writing that very sentence, so, there's how little thought I'd given to it.)

But it had never before occurred to me that my life was divisible into eras, such as it is-- many of these eras being, interestingly enough, defined by who I was dating or romantically (or platonically!) interested in at that time. My music collection is an interesting window into that, as well. Importing it roughly in order was a good idea from that standpoint, if only because I would never sit and consider it this way for any other reason. (Make a playlist, Z suggested. I don't, I don't make playlists well and I don't like spending the time on them.)

Everything before college falls into, mostly, one category-- there's a bunch of classical music, and some scraps of pop music that I got from family and friends. Hole's "Live Through This" is the first album I remember owning of my own volition, although that was purchased for me by my sister Fiona, ever more in tune with pop culture, after I mentioned that I had listened to a friend's copy and enjoyed it greatly. (If "enjoyed") is the word.
The year before college I was heavily influenced in my listening by Ursula's tastes, and her 200-CD collection. But I did not rip any of those, and all I have are some mix tapes, which I haven't tried to import. But there were certain artists I later sought out because of her interest, and certain of the artists already in my collection that I enjoyed more because she had approved of them. Indigo Girls, Tom Lehrer, Billie Holliday, Ella Fitzgerald, Queen.

My early years in college are marked by the phenomenon of my first network, and everyone sharing their mp3 folders, and also by the phenomenon of Record Archive's $5 used CD saturdays. I also had a crush on a boy who liked music, some atrocious and some not so bad. Insane Clown Posse has not stood the test of time, but Ani DiFranco has. The album Living In Clip, in particular, moved me deeply-- someone had left it in the CD player at work, and I taped it, and listened to that tape over and over before I finally bought the album myself. It's remained in heavy rotation for six (?) years now.

Halfway through college I started getting into punk. Broadband introduced me to the streaming radio stations run by several minor punk labels-- the band Rancid, owners of the Hellcat label, had a radio show they did, Lars Fredericksen DJing things like Billy Bragg and Motorhead. Fat Wreck Chords had some sort of streaming radio show too. I bought a lot of things used-- a lot of L7, Motorhead, Rancid, etc. My baby sister Ann influenced me in this period, though I think it was mutual-- she was into Operation Ivy, Less Than Jake, NoFX... I would find out things on the Internet and sometimes I'd print out and mail them to her.

The last year of college I had two big influences on my record collection. The first was Darius moving in. He is a big music fan, really into Americana-type stuff. Rock, alt-country, blues-- he played a lot of Springsteen, some B. B. King, some Gin Blossoms, and he introduced me to Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, which is a deep and abiding love that has never faded. I didn't get much music directly from him, but I downloaded a lot of things based on stuff I'd heard him talk about or play in his car. I also got way into bluegrass and folky stuff because of O Brother Where Art Thou and how inexplicably perfect all that music sounded.
There was another minor influence, that was important at the time-- my brief and torrid affair with neopanda meant that I downloaded a lot of techno and electronica. Actually he downloaded a lot of it at my computer. I have a lot of it, still, but there's very little of it that I really got into listening to.

And then the next major epoch of my life, which I suppose is still ongoing, is the Z's Record Collection phenomenon. When Z and I were courting via email, after we first met when he came out to Rochester just after Christmas to play drums in an Annie Lin show, I made a disparaging comment about saxophones. I played clarinet in high school and that meant I had to sit by the saxes, and they sucked (or, more literally, blew). He sent me a mix CD of songs off his extensive collection of Morphine albums. And I had to admit that, yes, the saxophone could often be used to good effect. Yes. He won that argument. (I'd never said that sax was always bad, but had said I hated it. I guess I don't always.)
When I moved in with Z, there were several hundred CDs, mostly in stacks on the floor. When he got his Powerbook, those all got ripped to the iTunes library, and I started listening to them intensively.

My point is that I've imported everything I had that I think I actually want, that predates Z now, and I'm only at 9.25 GB. So I guess his music collection's pretty big. I've got the Morphine to start with but will probably take a break and do some grocery shopping (and, er, write that restaurant review) before I dive into the Barenaked Ladies and Parliament and B.B. King box set and They Might Be Giants and the such that await me.

But just because I'm not moving or changing jobs or starting a new relationship doesn't mean that I'm not sliding into a new era of my life. We'll see if there are any changes, but things are definitely not the way they were before. Whether I get this novel published or not will sort of determine what kind of era this new one is. But not entirely. It's not just about that.

Comments

[mackmace.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've heard Morphine in like 10 years!!!!!

Really Good Stuff.