sunday, february 19, 2012

i bought a cd today. yes, i went out to best buy to check out a new computer and ended up buying a cd. oh, i know i could have downloaded it to itunes—or even borrowed it from the library, if i were inclined to do that sort of thing–but i bought a cd, $12.99,including cover and insert with lyrics.

it was not an entirely spontaneous act; i had written down the names of several recommendations from npr. but i bought it and popped it into the cd player of the sedan and it suddenly dawned on me that i haven’t actually bought a cd in…years. it’s all itunes and ipods and youtube and sirius radio. just last year i put away the stereo, put it upstairs right beside my record player, on top of the vinyls. i’d moved the hundreds of cds into a dish cabinet and didn’t even put them into alphabetical order by genre!!! what alien has possessed me???

flash back to those record albums stacked upstairs, still in some semblance of order, though they were used as a cat-scratch several cats ago and no longer are appropriate for the front room. when i converted to cd i made every effort to replace and enhance that collection, but most of my cds were “new”. hundreds of songs that i heard for the first time…listening for what would connect me to the music, whether a chord or a word…and hearing it, listened again and again until now those songs can transport me to where i first heard it, first understood it and to the time that i listened over and over.

i must admit, it’s much more convenient to download and carry your music with you; and if i didn’t have sirius radio i’d be hopelessly out of touch. i know that the covers are a hassle to store. but they’re sooo cool and you know you love the lyrics. so i bowed to my younger self, who wants to sit between the speakers and hear something from bottom to top for the First Time.

in order to put the universe back into balance, i brought down my old stereo. yes, the sony 5-disc changer with the Real Speakers. i dusted it off, hooked it up and popped in the cd…