Pruning the Bonsai - Learn from My Mistakes

A typical Saturday afternoon finds me playing with the music collection, sorting through new CD/digital releases and old LPs, trying to decide do they stay or do they go? Trying to revive the O/CD Tally, I started a new database which allows me to sort by artist, album title, digital or physical delivery, purchased or promo, etc. Why? Because I want to.


If a new CD replaces an old LP, I check to see if the vinyl is worth selling on amazon.com (it has to fetch more than $10 and not have more than a dozen copies available to make the process worthwhile). If it isn't, it goes into the pile for the trade-in store. Going into the LP shelves invariably leads to finding stuff I haven't heard in ages and want to hear again. Today's "Oldie But Goodie" - Aztec Two-Step's "Second Step." I was especially excited to hear "Faster Gun" again - a gentle love song that knocked me out Back In The Day, when I saw the acoustic duo perform at my early alma mater Stony Brook (two years there and then I finished at NYU) - yeah, it was that long ago. And I rediscovered "Humpty Dumpty," a sweet/sad song that tells of unrequited love and asks if the Eggman jumped. (Sounds goofy but trust me, it works.)


And then I found some old Arlo Guthrie (I heard he and Pete Seeger showed up at OWS, NY, so good on them) and I thought I'd see if "Washington County" is worth holding onto. Frankly, listening to it now, I'm surprised I put up with that nasal-y whine as much as I did. Not to bash AG; he's written some fine songs, it's just that a little of that voice goes a long way. Ultimately, I think I'll just use my remaining emusic.com credit for the month, grab a few songs from this LP and add it to the Outta Here bag.


Oh, and while I was ripping some songs from CDs that don't need to be kept (if it's not a favorite artist and there's nothing special about the packaging, I convert to digital and trade/sell off the physical copies) I discovered that I've lost a bunch of previously ripped tunes! My own damn fault; I wasn't paying full attention to the iTunes playlists. I have just learned the hard way that, if the time of the track is "Not Available," that means it wasn't transferred at all. And there's a bunch of songs that are suspiciously short. Checking them out, there are a few tracks under 30 seconds that are meant to be that way - interstitial (great word!) bits and band introductions, dialogue snippets, etc. - but again, a really short time listing is a sign that a song didn't get fully transferred. Oh, poop!


As I have often told the kids, if I can't set a good example, let me be a horrible warning...