Confection

Seen chez poetsworld:

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My LiveJournal 12 Days
My True Love gave to me...
12 snugsbugs a-giggling.
11 two_stars a-calling.
10 clintonos a-dancing.
9 paigedaysprings a-snorting.
8 anavolenas a-swimming.
7 nerdsholmferrets a-squatting.
6 erikreds a-yodeling.
5 tan boutells.
4 munching ayrsayles.
3 Swiss senjis.
2 kitten 1isteners.
And a rimrunner in a apple tree.
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Flower Chips

Winter has definitely arrived in Edmonton, for real now. Several inches of snow on the weekend, and dipping down from what was close to 10°C late in the week to -20°C on the weekend. Tonight it's going down to -30 °C. Time to plug the cars in at night, in the carport; no more leaving the Jeep on the street even if we need to move it out of the way so we can get the car out.

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What with NaNoWriMo and all, I've been neglecting cataloguing recent acquisitions in books and music. Yes, I have lists of all this stuff. While the MDB file I stored my book info in miraculously escaped the FAT-smashing of my recent hard drive travails, the several plan-text files I still have my tape/CD information in did not escape unscathed. Some of them are still intact, but some of them I have to go back to the old backup and then fill in the missing information.

One of my files(I really need to get this stuff into a real database sometime)lists the albums in my collection by year. As I was filling in the four most recent additions on CD, I noticed that, as we draw near the end of 2003, I still have not bought any albums that have come out this year.

This is not really a surprise. I don't try to keep up to date with the current music scene, and haven't since the mid-90's. I don't watch music videos regularly anymore, nor do I listen much to the radio these days. (The last music video I remembering watching may have been "Californication" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, for instance.) What I do do is keep an eye on allmusic.com's new album releases, catch occasional news articles about bands and musicians, and put those on my library request list; as well, I pick up CDs from the racks at the Millwoods branch every few weeks, some of which are fairly recent.

So I've probably heard some 2004 albums, but I don't just stick to the newer stuff. I know for a fact I listened to "On The Beach" by Neil Young and "American Woman" by The Guess Who from the library this year, for instance. And even if I do find a new album out that I like, it will almost certainly go to the wishlist and languish there for months or years. My wishlist is slowly but steadily growing, too.

But I will keep muddling along, trying out new(to me)music, because somewhere out there may be another Shriekback or They Might Be Giants waiting for me to discover them. Or, more likely, a band with its own unique but irresistible personality. Of course, I can filter somewhat--I skip most country and almost all rap, for instance, and often it won't take me all the way through an album to know that it's just not a type of music I like. And who knows what I'm missing because I only give the library CDs one listen? I'll pick up the albums that have instant appeal for me, and may neglect ones that would grow on me.

Robert Christgau reviewed as many albums as he could get his hands on the 1970's. By the 80's, he knew that he was neglecting whole subgenres, but chose to concentrate on what he liked. By the 90's, he was giving up the pretense of being comprehensive. I'm a little behind that curve, but not too far.