iTunes-a-rama

A micro-managing employer of mine once evaluated me with two different personality tests, both of which did not seem to be all that accurate at the time, but now seem oddly spot on.

The first was one of those what-kind-of-animal-are-you? gems, and given the options of being a Lion, an Otter, or an Owl, I emerged as . . . a Golden Retriever. Ruff. Friendly, loyal, and yours forever if you give me treats and rub my back. (Wait a second . . . G, are you reading this?)

The second resulted in about fifty pages of analysis, but all I can remember about it was that the number one descriptor of my personality was Information. (Don’t even get me started about how that isn’t even a descriptive word.) The analysis said that I was probably a collector of something, and I remember being offended by that. What, did the test think I had a room full of ceramic cats or crocheted tea cozies? I don’t collect useless things. Except . . .

Remember the days of a little thing called Napster? Napster hit its peak just as I was leaving college, and we kids excitedly plundered music libraries of friends and acquaintances alike, delighted at the new endless world of music at our fingertips. Over the past ten years, G and I have taken that basic music list and added countless CDs and downloads to it, and as a result, we now have a list of over 4,000 songs on our main computer. Four thousand, six hundred, twenty-five songs. It would take you almost a year—309 days—to listen to all of it, playing continuously. Ridiculous.

While attempting to make a playlist today, I found myself laughing at the sheer randomness of the music we have accumulated. We probably listen to less than 1/16^th of this stuff, but still, how can you get rid of such gems and moments in time? When our grandchildren ask what kind of music we listened to back in the day, we can haul up our old music library and give them a sampling. Information, information, information!

Below are some gems I discovered today. I started to categorize them (pre-adolescent nostalgia, one-hit wonders, etc.) but then realized that most of these simply defy categories. Draw your own conclusions (and don’t judge!):

New Kids on the Block, “Please Don’t Go Girl”

Arrested Development, “Mr. Wendell”

Debbie Gibson, “Lost in Your Eyes”

The Bangles, “Eternal Flame”

Poison, “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”

The Band, “The Weight”

Dave Matthews, “Ants Marching”

Dixie Chicks, “Wide Open Spaces”

Blackstreet, “No Diggity”

Garth Brooks, “Friends in Low Places”

Jay Z, “Big Pimpin’”

I could go on and on. Seriously.

Soundtrack: Take your pick!