This year’s
compilation is a bit difficult to describe. The original idea I had for this
year stemmed from early stage dementia in a 50 year old brain, playing music to
itself prior to waking, early in the morning. I thought if I could capture
those melodies over the course of the year it could be interesting. With
broadband at my fingertips, I was able to move to the computer and conjure up
the song by title or googling on a particular phrase to discover the title –
before the day’s thoughts came parading. Early on, as the collection process
started producing a growing folder, I started thinking of it as “Coffee
Thoughts” because the only discernable thread I could see was me drinking my
first cup of coffee as I was listening to each song.
The year
started getting busier at work and has continued to do so, sucking off any
spare REM sleep to the point that by mid-year I started getting the feeling the
CD would end up only half full. About that same time, the summer winds coming
through the Gulf of Candlestick were gaining momentum – I’m not sure if that
was the cause but one thing led to another and we ended up devising a weekend
getaway plan. We moved Harvey the RV to a ranch with dry storage and campsites
along the Russian River, in Sonoma County. Up there, about an hour’s drive
north of the Golden Gate Bridge, there is a great, modern country radio
station, 104.9. From that source, a few of the better country hits found their
way into this collection, further stirring the brew. Another part of that one
thing leading to another was a pass time of buying land on Internet auctions,
some in Sonoma, some in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and a bunch in Arizona.
That led me to think of another possible title for it, “Land Ho, All Over the
Map”.
There is only
so much time we can get away these days, likely to yet leave room on the CD, so
I recreated a couple of my variety collections from the late 80’s. I found a
tool that will combine individual mp3 files into one larger one – useful for
recreating playlists. Let me know if you like the collection but would rather
have the individual songs, I can reburn the CD. I’ve tried diligently to follow
my rule of “No Repeats” from past distributions, but there may be a couple this
time because of these variety collections. Sorry about that.
If you are
reading this, it is highly likely that you, in fact, own my shareJ Without further adieu, we are happy,
healthy, somewhat content, and wish the same for you. You can turn your
player’s shuffle setting on, but you probably won’t be able to tell the
difference. Please enjoy, “Coffee Thoughts, All Over the Map”.