I had a day to myself today. Kids at their dads, and Tats on a 3-day pairing out of town.
This doesn’t happen often, and when it does, it’s dangerous. Invariably, I abandon my long list of projects and “to-do” items that have been piling up over the previous weeks (and in this case MONTHS), and waste a whole bunch of time on some sort of frivolous drivel. Almost without fail, my big plan to build a website or manage a project and practise my music and read a book and have a nap and go for a jog with the dog and do some yoga turns into 5 hours of scrolling through instagram in my jammies, or, more dangerously, getting dressed and going shopping.
I am proud to report that today’s adventures were fairly tame, through I did end up dropping about $14 on iTunes.
This doesn’t happen often, and when it does, it’s dangerous. Invariably, I abandon my long list of projects and “to-do” items that have been piling up over the previous weeks (and in this case MONTHS), and waste a whole bunch of time on some sort of frivolous drivel. Almost without fail, my big plan to build a website or manage a project and practise my music and read a book and have a nap and go for a jog with the dog and do some yoga turns into 5 hours of scrolling through instagram in my jammies, or, more dangerously, getting dressed and going shopping.
I am proud to report that today’s adventures were fairly tame, through I did end up dropping about $14 on iTunes.
It was critical, I felt, to build up the “reliving my youth” playlist on my iPhone. The luxury of being able to instantly download and own forever a whole song that I would in former times have had to listen to hours of radio before successfully capturing with my uncle’s external mic onto a cassette tape was just too much of a temptation to pass up.
Listening to the whole intro right from the beginning without the tail end of some radio announcer’s voice is a delight that sends thrills down my spine.
My own LP collection as an elementary school student consisted of about five albums: The Mini Pops (No judging — it was a birthday gift people!!), Cory Hart, the Muppets rendition of the Frog Prince, Englebert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, and 101 Dalmatians.
The rest of my early musical tastes were acquired via the ghetto blaster my mother had installed on the sideboard in our modest dining room. Mostly it was CBC classical music and a little jazz. She also played CDs that she bought in Cuba (“Dancing with the Enemy”) and at the CNE (“Borgey’s Banjo Favourites”). If I wanted “pop”, I had to go to a friend’s, or lock myself in my room and turn my uncle’s radio on very low and try to record from there to an external tape deck using a detachable mic., I kid you not!
Listening to the whole intro right from the beginning without the tail end of some radio announcer’s voice is a delight that sends thrills down my spine.
My own LP collection as an elementary school student consisted of about five albums: The Mini Pops (No judging — it was a birthday gift people!!), Cory Hart, the Muppets rendition of the Frog Prince, Englebert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, and 101 Dalmatians.
The rest of my early musical tastes were acquired via the ghetto blaster my mother had installed on the sideboard in our modest dining room. Mostly it was CBC classical music and a little jazz. She also played CDs that she bought in Cuba (“Dancing with the Enemy”) and at the CNE (“Borgey’s Banjo Favourites”). If I wanted “pop”, I had to go to a friend’s, or lock myself in my room and turn my uncle’s radio on very low and try to record from there to an external tape deck using a detachable mic., I kid you not!
That set up garnered me some pretty hacked up but eternally cherished versions of classics like Madonna’s “La Isla Bonita”, Mr. Mister’s “Broken Wings” and the Pet Shop Boys’ “West End Girls”. “Lady” by Styx and “Two Outta’ Three Ain’t Bad” by Meatloaf were treats to be heard for a quarter on the juke box at the local billiard hall. “Take on Me” (A-Ha) and “Greatest Love of All” (Whitney Houston) were other favorites, as were “Say You, Say Me” (Lionel Richie) and the Bangles’ “Manic Monday”.
Van Halen, Rush, AC/DC, Guns n’ Roses and Sting did not enter my vernacular until later, in High School, when I started playing the drums. The bands I played with enjoyed basically anything with a loud and trashy beat. (I have my high school stage band teacher to thank for my continued later development of a continued interest in the somewhat more refined genres of Jazz and Latin.)
Van Halen, Rush, AC/DC, Guns n’ Roses and Sting did not enter my vernacular until later, in High School, when I started playing the drums. The bands I played with enjoyed basically anything with a loud and trashy beat. (I have my high school stage band teacher to thank for my continued later development of a continued interest in the somewhat more refined genres of Jazz and Latin.)
This past summer I took a road trip to NFLD with my kids. The “mom’s classics” playlist was short, since it consisted of mainly music I already had on my device. Between that and some Stan Rogers I wanted to expose my kids to, we soon exhausted the tunes (it’s a long drive, folks!! I underestimated!) and I was forced to listen repeatedly to Africa by Toto, which had made a comeback, and which my kids had decided they needed to listen to about 17 times a day!!!
So, inspired by my recent viewing of BoRap with said kids, I decided to spend a few of my precious hours today downloading more music for the “classics” list. $14 is not bad, I’d say. And I only lost an hour to that. Well, and the subsequent 2 hours I spent reading up on Boy George after I downloaded some Culture Club (did you know he DJ’d for a while? And how did my 12-year-old self not get that he was queer? Man we 80s kids were in some heavy denial around LGBTQ+issues!!!)
Nevertheless, I also managed to knock off a bunch of the tasks on my “to do” list for a youth aviation event I am planning. All while Walkin’ on Sunshine and listening to “Like a Virgin” (OOoooh!) and “Careless Whisper”. I Never Surrendered to any other distractions. Every little thing I did was magic. I even practised my trombone!
It was a New Sensation, having all this time to myself. What a wonderful Sunday afternoon.
So, inspired by my recent viewing of BoRap with said kids, I decided to spend a few of my precious hours today downloading more music for the “classics” list. $14 is not bad, I’d say. And I only lost an hour to that. Well, and the subsequent 2 hours I spent reading up on Boy George after I downloaded some Culture Club (did you know he DJ’d for a while? And how did my 12-year-old self not get that he was queer? Man we 80s kids were in some heavy denial around LGBTQ+issues!!!)
Nevertheless, I also managed to knock off a bunch of the tasks on my “to do” list for a youth aviation event I am planning. All while Walkin’ on Sunshine and listening to “Like a Virgin” (OOoooh!) and “Careless Whisper”. I Never Surrendered to any other distractions. Every little thing I did was magic. I even practised my trombone!
It was a New Sensation, having all this time to myself. What a wonderful Sunday afternoon.
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