The Rules: Part 3 (of 37): Playing Music

As you may know if you know me, or if you’re a regular reader of this blog, I am a compulsive about some things such as filing my recorded music. I’ve likely mentioned that I’m also obsessive about playing music I own. I figure that if I own it, I should play it. If I don’t play it, I should probably get rid of it.

To that end, I play music on a musician’s or classical composer’s birthday week. This week, in honor of their birthdays today, it’s Frank Sinatra and Dionne Warwick. This birthday thing also applies to compilers of compilations, so the guy with the Omnibus coming out is heard in January, while the Eddie-torial pledge dude gets played in November.

There used to be a time when I’d play a given artist two or three times during the course of a year, but with an increasing number of recordings, I’ve had to figure out how to parse some groups.

Simon & Garfunkel I play in November, Art’s birthday; I also play my one Garfunkel album. Simon solo I play in October.
I have so many Rolling Stones albums that I play the store-bought ones in July, Mick Jagger’s birthday, and the ones I’ve burned in December, Keith Richards’ birthday.
Led Zeppelin gets played in January, Jimmy Page’s birthday; solo Robert Plant in August.
I play Crosby and CPR in August, Stills in January and Young in November. CSN(&Y) I play in February, Nash’s birthday, since I have no Nash on CD.
The Police get played in July, Stuart Copeland’s birthday, while Sting gets played in October. (Why not Andy Sumner as the Police trigger? Because his birthday came later in the year, in December.)
Don Henley in July; the Eagles in November, Glenn Frey’s birthday.
With so many Beach Boys albums, most of them I play in June, Brian Wilson’s birthday, along with solo Brian Douglas Wilson. However, the box set and the greatest hits I play in December, the birthdays of Dennis Carl Wilson and Carl Dean Wilson. (I didn’t know until yesterday that Dennis’ middle name was Carl; how odd.)
The Beatles are the most convoluted. Solo artists in their respective months, of course. In October, for John, I play the canon, the British albums as they were originally produced, since he was the leader of the group; also the Past Masters, which represent, mostly, the singles. February I play the American albums, since George was the first Beatle to come to the U.S., visiting his sister Louise. June, Paul’s month, gets the other items: the Anthologies, the BBC, the remixes of Yellow Sub and Let It Be, and LOVE. As for July, Ringo gets all the many Beatle cover albums.

Speaking of which, I’m in the midst of moving my tribute albums from their own section to the end of the run of the given artist; there are now so many that I forget.

As for the rest of my music: February gets compilation love albums, compilation soul albums (except Motown, played in November for Berry Gordy’s birthday) and, if the Oscars are in February, soundtracks, which usually takes a couple months in any case. As for the rest of the albums, other compilations, artists with birthdays I don’t know, I play whenever I want. Well, except the Chieftains and Clannad, which I listen to in March, and Christmas albums, which I play between December 1 and Epiphany. Oh, and Halloween albums for guess when?

The requirement to play, say John Lennon in October, doesn’t preclude me from playing it again in March just because I feel like it.
ROG

ROG

Musing about February

February? It’s not even Christmas yet!

But February is Black History Month, and I’m always looking for a new angle to tackle the subject in my church . I think the topic’s still important, and that was before I skimmed the US Human Rights Network finding that “the US Report On Race Covers Up Reality of Discrimination in America”.

I’m interested in the New Demographic workshops. I’m intrigued by the titles. As important as I think the topic is, quite often, diversity training DOES suck. The core beliefs work for me. I’ll have to price these seminars. I’m also intrigued by a recent report which indicates that We’re ALL prejudiced; Now what? Some New Demographic article I can’t puts my hands on addresses this as well in a different light. To say one does not see color, usually in some hyperbolic terms such as “I don’t care if he’s black, white, red, yellow or purple polka-dots, because I don’t see color” is insulting. It’s insulting because virtually ALL of us see color, just as we see gender and age and hair color and height and weight. (So, Lefty, I WAS kidding when I “confused” you with the musician Chris Brown.)

So if you’ve come across a fresh way to talk about race, racism, racialism in America, please let me know.
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I don’t know what “liberal” and “conservative” mean. Listening to the Writer’s Guild, I’d find the six big production companies to be conservative, trying to maintain the status quo. But I get regular e-mails from self-proclaimed conservative groups, and Human Events writes: “liberal media giant Time Warner lobbied the federal government’s taxpayer-subsidized mail-delivery monopoly, aka the United States Postal Service, to hit us with a postal hike that will cost us an extra $120,000 per year to deliver HUMAN EVENTS — a shocking sum we simply cannot afford to pay.

“Our subscribers and supporters are rightly outraged about liberal Time Warner’s machinations that can put smaller competitors such as HUMAN EVENTS out of business.” By liberal, the group means that…well, I’m not sure. Limiting access to a variety of forms of information – where exactly does that fit on the political spectrum?

ROG

ROG

My Christmas Wish List

Sure I want music and I always want the World Almanac. Oh, and the Hess truck.

But do you know what I really want?
*Time: time to keep up with paper, with my friends, with my family.
*Finding a regular babysitter so that Carol and I can go on our monthly dates again.
*Staying in a period of joy. Remembering the good more than the bad.
*Appreciating the simple things, such as latte coffee art.
*For my left knee to stop aching so; taking a flight of steps is nigh unto impossible lately, and going down is much worse than up; the right elbow’s sore, too.
*For the success of the Underground Railroad workshop. It’s not until February, but what the heck.
*For better health for friend Fiona
*For ADD to be able to write right.
*For Kelly to get over her health challenge.
*For my friend Mike’s well being; he starts chemo for esophageal cancer today.
*For peace on earth. Yeah, I know it’s cliche; I don’t care.
ROG

ROG

Library Poster Person

In lieu of actual content, an article that appeared in the October 2007 Albany Public Library BiblioTech newsletter, on the back page. This article, I understand, has been, or will be, copped in my neighborhood association newsletter:

Roger Green loves to use APL, and he does it from the comfort of his home or office. He is a librarian at the New York State Small Business Development Center and almost daily he uses the APL free databases that he accesses from his office computer with his library card. As a business librarian, he finds the various databases such as Reference USA, Business and Company Resource Center, and the Thomson Gale Legal Forms extremely helpful.

And Roger gives back to APL. As Vice-President of the Friends of the Albany Public Library, he promotes the library and helps create programming. He also created and runs the Friends of the APL blog.

Roger worked as a page for the Binghamton Public Library when he was a teenager. He assisted patrons using the microfilm machines and put away the items in the stacks, including the magazines. He might have glanced at some old issues of Psychology Today and Billboard a little too long before refiling them. “As wonderful as I found going to the library as a child, I’m even more appreciative that what the library usage is no longer limited by four walls,” he says.

Outside of work, Roger does visit the library frequently. He loves to bring his three-year old daughter Lydia to the library for story times and to borrow books and DVD’s. He’s impressed with the Youth services staff and the extent of the collection available for his daughter.

To find out more about the Friends of the APL go to the Friends’ blog at http://aplfriends.blogspot.com/. To find out more about Roger go to his blog at http://www.blogger.com/profile/05298172138307632062.

ROG

ROG

Shopping QUESTIONS

So how are you doing with that Christmas shopping? I happen not to be fond of shopping at any time of the year, but particularly now. If he didn’t live 800 miles away in Louisville, I’d probably hire Eddie to do my shopping for me, assuming he worked cheaply enough.

It doesn’t help that after watching The Story of Stuff!, a down-to-earth story of production, consumption and our future on the planet, I’m wary of buying much of anything.

1. What percentage of your shopping is done? Mine’s about 45% finished.

2. Where do you shop?

In box stores? Well, not in THE big box store, and generally I tend to avoid big stores like the plague.

At the mall? Rarely at Colonie Center. Never at the Pyramid Corporation’s Crossgates, even before this debacle that briefly made the national news:
The first Crossgates Mall Peace Walk was in 2002 when a group of folks from various groups entered the mall wearing shirts that said: Drop Toys Not Bombs, Don’t Attack Iraq and Peace on Earth! They were rounded up and escorted off the property under threat of arrest. Steve and Roger Downs heard about this and went into the mall to see if it could possibly be true. The rest is history. From Wikipedia: “At the dawn of the Iraq War in March 2003, the mall (Crossgates) became the center of a free speech controversy when Selkirk resident Stephen Downs was arrested refusing to take off an anti-war t-shirt that he had purchased in the mall. After many objections, the mall dropped the charges. Shortly thereafter, a large protest was held at the mall where many people came wearing anti-war attire.”
BTW: this year’s WEAR YOUR PEACE TEE SHIRTS Crossgates event will be Thursday, December 20
5:15 pm – press conference in the parking lot of the Cinema 18
5:45 pm – in the food court to hook up and to to meander and “shop”
6:15 pm – converge at the food court again to sing

I’ll go to the non-chains – in this area, today is Buy Local Day.

But I’m generally inclined to use mail order.

3. Are you spending more or less than last year? I think I’ll end up spending slightly less, but I’m not sure yet.
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I called to get my renewed credit card authorized using the automated system yesterday morning. After approving it, it asked if I wanted a PIN number – OK. But then it told me I couldn’t get a pin number at that time and that I needed to speak to a customer service rep. I gave my name to the human. THEN he tried to sell me some damn service I didn’t want. I told him that I needed to catch a bus in eight minutes, which happened to be true. Grrr!!
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Getting into the holiday spirit.
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From the Shake That Brain! Newsletter

TRUE STORY:

I recently took out $100 from my bank’s cash machine. Only when I got home I discovered that my cash card was missing. I called the bank and they explained that the cash machine had taken it back.
Taken it BACK???
Turns out that the bank was having problems with people using fraudulent bank cards. So they rigged the system to keep the card for 60 seconds while the inside optics scanned it for authenticity. Great solution? No. Because that same machine is designed to spit out your cash in less than 30 seconds. So what happens to a lot of people? They take their cash and leave their card behind — like me.
“No warning bell? No buzzer to let you know to not leave without your card?”
“Why would anyone need that? People know to wait for their cards.”
“Tell me: How many cards does each machine ‘take back’ on a daily basis?”
“Two or three.”
“So you solved the problem of fraudulent cash cards?”
“Absolutely!”
“And that other problem your solution created?”
“What problem is that?”
LESSON NOT LEARNED? When you “solve” a problem make sure your solution doesn’t leave a NEW problem in its place. In the case of my former bank, this is the difference between: “It’s all about me” and “It’s all about our customers.”

ROG

ROG
Ramblin' with Roger
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