I have spent the best part of two days sorting out the chaotic mess of my music collection. A “new” refurbished laptop sparked this heroic endeavour. The reason it wasn’t that well organized: most of it I ripped before Y2K, when computers were slow and file names had relatively recently broken the 8-character limitation. Although I fed a CD into my computer’s CD drive every now and then post-Y2K, my brain injury and the consequences thereof pretty much put paid to acquiring new music or even listening to it except when I specifically wanted to listen to it. One of the big changes the closed head injury wrought in me was being unable to listen to music and do much of anything else. No writing, no reading, no talking on the phone.
It’s rather poignant I complete this task 11 years to the day and date when a multi-car crash rendered my brain – and me – changed forever.
I became a new person. The person that I was died that day. The music I liked changed that day.
But it’s been a long time for me to admit it to myself, never mind anyone else. I used to be a huge – I mean friggin’ enormous – Beatles fan. My first album, back in days of vinyl, was one of theirs. Yet I haven’t listened to The Beatles in years. I have all these CDs; I put their songs on my iPod; yet I skip over their tracks when they come on. I don’t get it.
Well, I should. It’s called a personality change. And just as I’ve almost adapted to my changed taste in clothes, it’s time I faced my new taste in music. The problem is when one has little money and not much energy, it’s a bit difficult to browse and listen to the infinite variety out there in an effort to decide what I like. One thing I know: I like trendy stuff (the old, dead Shireen just shivered in her grave) but not the sappy pop or whatever that is that comes out of the US. Tunes like Nelly Furtado’s, Madonna, and, dare I say it, Britney Spears. There, I said it.
Now that my new laptop got me to organize my collection, it’s time for me to figure out what I like…well, maybe later. Right now, I have more laptop setup to do. Getting a new computer at this time of year was genius. Computers suck up your attention and divert your emotions from crappy days like today.
