Member-only story
Approaching 70 (Songs)
An Autobiography in Vinyl, Magnetic Tape, Digital Disc, and mp3
In the beginning was the sound
Music is vital.
I count it as one of the grand blessings on my brief visit to this planet.
My autodidactic approach has wound me through a labyrinth of styles and genres and journeys all around the world.
The collection of 600+ 45rpm records—and the hard drive with almost 900 gigabytes (135k tracks) of mp3s—are just two physical manifestations of my passion for the art.
Via headphones, electronic beats do help me maintain my stamina at the gym — or, on occasion, provide a Sinatra soundtrack to the city while I flâneur.
I dislike music crawling around the background as an audio-lube to retail shopping—I really don’t need to catch up on the past few generations of tacky radio hits while I get my groceries.
I am drawn to give music as much of my attention as possible—to listen, to hear the lyrics, to tap my foot; perchance to dance—and so I can enjoy it while I work on visual art but find it too distracting when I write.
Music bewitches me.
Family legend had me figuring out at a very early age on how to do a movement — probably akin to an Elvis hip…
