So, this week I received a couple of packages from Tucson. They were full of CDs. I was slayed, mostly because it brings me to having about 98 or 99 percent of my collection with me in Baltimore. But I was also slayed because, as a result of this bloody recession, I’ve yet to purchase a single CD this year.
Seriously, I’ve never been happier to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ double album (which plays more like a quadruple album), Stadium Arcadium. That’s how starved I’ve been for this music.
It’s depressing but as much as I love music, it’s the most expendable part of my monthly budget. I mean, I need to eat. I’ve got to get to work. I need to pay rent and BG&E. Plus I’ve got a cell phone and a mean comic-book habit.
But music isn’t something that goes bad; it might not age well, but it doesn’t spoil. When I go to the comic-book store I might spend $40, but if I go to the Soundgarden, I could easily spend $150, which I don’t have. So why even tempt fate?
I mean, I’m an optimist; I truly believe that before the year is out, things will have returned to normal and I’ll have a purchased a year’s worth of albums. I’m not sweating it. It’s not like I’m swearing off music or purchasing music forever. It’s just a hiatus—hopefully, a very brief hiatus.
But back to what I said about not having 100 percent of my collection here with me: What’s weird is that I’m not really obsessing over what’s still in Tucson. In fact, it’s sort of fun trying to figure out what’s still there. I was at work when I realized that both Mark Ronson’s Version and Modest Mouse’s We Were Dead… hadn’t made the trip yet. Just tonight it occurred to me that I was missing Talib Kweli & Madlib’s Liberation.
I’m pretty sure that they’re all in a shoebox that contained music that was just out of heavy rotation. It’s mostly stuff that came out in 2007, like Finding Forever and Under the Black Light. I know that the longer they’re there, the more I’ll want them here; you always want what you can’t have. But for now, I’m relishing the new arrivals and what I’ve got.
It’s the same tact that I’ll be taking when it comes to new music.
