Monday, March 29, 2010

"I'm trying to tell you somethin' about my life, maybe give me insight between black and white"

So Topher's done a fun, new thing. I think I can best describe its significance in terms of family history, because most people know we Mormons love to keep a record for our posterity, and this idea is more fun than scrapbooking. Are you intrigued?

Well, I'm telling you anyway: Topher has gone through our boxes of CDs (for you young folks reading, these are little disks we used to store our music on--after cassettes and before downloading onto ipods--for oh, about 15 years or so because technology changes so quickly and before you know it you have hundreds of dollars worth of technology that is outdated and takes up all this space and you think to yourself, "Well, that was a waste, I mean, it's nice to have this music, but now I've been introduced to a superior sound so I can't go back and it's doesn't have the same sentimental value as, say, keeping and playing vinyl records, so, was this a conspiracy created by record companies intended for me to buy the same music over and over again or is this the bitter pill I have to swallow for the price of exponentially advancing technology? I don't know. I just don't know.) and he has organized on our ipod in playlists according to year! So when we listen to them, we are immediately transported back in time (for you young folks, I'm not being literal now. We haven't reached this technology yet, and I'm not crazy or on drugs. I'm simply using a literary technique. Now, go read a book.) When it was Hugh's birthday, we listened to 2005. I was cleaning the kitchen and I listened to 1999. I went running, and I listened to the Indigo Girls. Now I feel that I should be putting on my flannel and going to class to flirt with Christopher Clark. Where's Erbecca? She and I are going to the Mighty Mighty Bozztones concert later. Wait, where am I?

So, do this with your CDs (if you have any. If you don't, then we can't be friends because you will be a constant reminder of how old I am). I went to a teaching conference once sometime after Crash Test Dummies but before Alanis Morrisette, and the instructor taught us, through music, that music has 100% retention (lecturing, a favorite among college professors, ironically, is the least effective method for retention). There are some years when the music is better than others, obviously, or the year is more memorable. There's a lot of Tori Amos that I still don't get (Topher loves her) and Annie Lennox, despite her artistic might to bring me feminist unrest, just brings me happy memories of building my first nest with Topher.

Doesn't that make you want to go back in time via music and say to your kids, "Keep your pretty paper and expensive die cuts! And stickers and sheet protectors and uv protected pages? What's that? We can't be bothered! We'll look at our photos online while Momma makes you listen to this music baby!" (Or, something like that.)

9 comments:

  1. This is a fabulous idea. And seems so time consuming it makes my head explode. How can get Randy to do it for me (and think it's his idea)?

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  2. Listening to early Tori Amos brings me right back to college days. "Happy Phantom" and debate tournaments. And being a size 2. Those were the days.

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  3. I love the Inigo Girls - but only circa late 90s. There new stuff is no good - or maybe it doesn't have the same emotional impact because I am not an angst college student.

    I had a friend make a mix tape for me in high school that I listened too on continuous loop. To this day any of those songs instantly take me back...I don't know if that is a good thing, but it is kind of fun.

    I think kids these days with their baggy pants and their rock and roll are really missing out on the joy of the mix tape. What is the point of making a playlist when you can have your whole library on shuffle? There was a certain joy in those creations, and the order the songs went in. And remember how you always had to have a handful of 1 min or less songs on had to fill in the gap when a there wasn't enough room for a full song? Oh, the joys.

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  4. Oh, such a good idea! It's amazing how music transports us. And amen to the comment about mix tapes. It was such a labor of love.

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  5. I do year collections too.

    And yes to Tori. I have a mix tape. I mean CD. I mean playlist with some good ones.

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  6. Do you remember the tape we made called let's get ready"? I just found it. Sting, U2, Annie Lennox, indigo girls... It takes me rightback to Liberty Square.

    We made a cd for each time we went to pick up our new adoped babies and listened to it during that trip. to this day Ron Sexsmith reminds me of Norah and Black Eyrd Peas is Jacob. Mariah Carey Christmas album is the sound track to my Christmas on my mission. good times.

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  7. Rebecca, I really feel like you shouldn't have been listening to the Mariah Carey Christmas album on your mission.

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  8. K, love this idea. My husband collects music, can hear a song and tell me who it is, what year it came out, which album and every instrument in that song. I know. So this is a great idea for him since he wanted to put all his cds on the ipod anyway. Thanks!

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  9. I loved Indigo Girls in the early '90's! And I also loved the comment about mix tapes. I now have several mix CD's as well. Haven't made it to the playlists yet.... Yeah, this whole comment just makes me sound old... :)

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