Tenting
The Dots, They’ve Been Connected
I’ve known Leigh Marble, or at least known of Leigh Marble, as long as i’ve played guitar.
Literally. The night i came home with that crappy Ashland i headed directly to Leigh’s AniTab’s, which still exists at the same url to this day, almost nine years later. The first song i played on my first guitar was “Dilate.”
Two years later and i was a pro at figuring out my own arrangements of Ani DiFranco songs, and a contributor (and argumentative corrector) of Leigh’s tabs. At the time he was splitting a 7″ record with Erin McKeown.
Five years ago this week I saw and heard Erin McKeown for the first time in 2001, on a split bill with Peter Mulvey, and it was from that perspective that i first connected the dots between my favorite inspiration (Peter) and my first (Ani), through Leigh.
Leigh’s self-recorded his first full-length CD, Peep in 2003. He gives an elucidating account of the recording process, as well as samples of his songs. Each one i’ve heard is a fresh idea laid over an innovative arrangement, none betraying his Ani affiliation than “Bucket Seat” does mine. I’m buying a copy; you ought to buy one too. (Also, Erin has a free four-song session up at the spectacularly neat Daytrotter, and an album of standards on the way.)
I think the connection is that we’re all doing it ourselves. And, nine years later, i just submitted the 101st tab to AniTabs.
Alert! Alert! iPod Full!
Well, it’s been coming for over a year now as i’ve been selectively paring down my less desirable tracks by unchecking them but – after a brief All of MP3 shopping spree this afternoon* – my 40gig iPod is one album away from being full.
One album!
Of course there are easily another fifty albums in iTunes that i might never willingly listen to again, so those could be safely unchecked. The issue is that i literally have to take one album off for every one i add. And, given my typical monthly purchase volume (two-five digital albums in a slow month) the attrition is going to get ugly by this time next year.**
So:
Do i try to sell my b&w click wheel 40gig iPod and multiple accessories for $200ish, plunging the capital into the purchase of a 60gig? The extra space would last me through more than 215 more albums.
Or, do i wait until Apple releases another generation of iPods (presumably later this year), suck up the purchase price and just hand off my b&w to a deserving friend?
Or, do i just suck it up and not carry my entire music collection around with me every day?
* I was in the mood for some atmospheric music, and thus bought Sia – Colour The Small One; Medeski, Martin & Wood – Best of Blue Note Years; Mandalay – Instinct; Frou Frou – Details; Emiliana Torrini – Love In The Time of Science (excellent!); and a goth-band tribute to Tori Amos.
** No comment on the implications this has on my hard drive space; i really can’t even contemplate that right now. Now that i have a new acoustic guitar an external hard drive is probably #3 on my big ticket item purchase list.
Welcome to My Obsolescence
Meg at CK’s parent-by-proxy blog Meish links to an article about the creators of the recently mentioned Threadless, and how they’re upkeeping their technical skills with new drink-mixing site Extra Tasty.
Extra Tasty is pretty cool – it does everything i had been trying to implement for Tipsy Flicks. Perhaps i can just use their site for the drink mixing, thus taking a huge backend-burden off of myself. Of course, how would that be upkeeping my technical skills?
Hallelujah
Hallelujah by way of Peter by way of Rufus by way of Jeff by way of Leonard.