A few months back I got reacquainted with the library. Not the traditional book part of the library; I can’t even remember the last book I checked out from the library and read cover to cover. There might not even be one, save the Book It program I faked my way through way back when you got free personal pan pizzas from Pizza Hut if you “read” enough books. No, my re-kindling of the long-forgotten love affair I had with the library has come in the form of albums. CDs to be more specific to the times.
During the high school years I used to check CDs out of the library, copy them to tape, and then make mix-tapes from the songs. I’d put a song on the tape, and listen to it, how it played individually, how it fit into the sequence of the overall tape, what mood it set. This was serious business. My goal was to have the tape say all of the things I couldn’t; there were girls to impress–to win their attention, and if lucky enough, their heart–and the mix-tape, at least in my mind, was the key; the perfect (hopefully) compliment to the poem and/or letter that I’d spent all night writing for them.
These days I’m more or less doing the same in terms of collecting the music. I take the CD and put it on my computer hard drive. At one library you’re allowed to take 10 CDs out a one time. At another library in the county the amount of CDs you can check out at any given time is unlimited. In the three or so months I’ve been doing this I’ve accumulated 42.28 GBs worth of music. That breaks down to just under 23 days worth of music. 7821 songs. In iTunes terms, that’s at least $7821 worth of music. Give or take. I got rid of my iPod because it reached it’s capacity. So now I’m back to making mix-tapes. Or mix-CDs. Or, I suppose to be specific, mix-mp3 CDs.
It’s still about perfecting the proper mix. One song at a time. The magic of the two-sided cassette tape is gone; with an mp3 CD I can get 150 or so songs on one mix instead of 16. In that aspect it’s more difficult; this army I’m leading into battle is full-on battalion; it’s easier to let them stray, if you don’t pay close attention the whole damn thing can get away from you quick. These days I’m more confident in my words, but the idea is still the same; words and music compliment each other like one happy family. Like a movie has a soundtrack, I want my writing to have its own booktrack, reader companion, or whatever you want to call it. An old school mix-tape worked just fine; a letter or poem only took so long to read, 16 songs were enough. But a novel is a marathon; 150 is more like it.
At least that’s my excuse.
