I wish I had a podium. I would set it up in my living room in front of a dark blue backdrop and a circular insignia of my own creation. I feel the logo would have mountains in it even though I have never been to the mountains. Perhaps even an “In God We Trust†to show up the goons who “forgot†it on the new dollar coin. Extending from the podium would be three microphones that are connected to nothing and a small camcorder in front for my briefings with America. Today, I would step somberly to that podium. Actually, wait… go back. I would have my buddy Anthony introduce me. “Ladies and Gentlemen of the press and Americans watching at home, may I present king of this castle… Daniel Kozuh.†Now I would walk somberly to the podium and stare deep into the unblinking eye of the camera and announce, “At approximately 11 a.m. Central time today, March-the-tenth in the year-of-our-Lord-two-thousand-and-seven, the music has died.â€
Perhaps I should be more specific. No one has died in a plane crash, but I did lose Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper today. While importing Aha Shake Heartbreak, the last Kings of Leon album, in preparation for a review of the forthcoming Kings of Leon album, my computer froze. If you have a Mac laptop I am sure you are familiar with the fact that they tend to overheat and freeze—how’s that for an oxymoronic computer problem? This has happened many times before, even with the addition of a laptop cooler under the base and a house fan at its side. When I rebooted, after a period of letting the old girl rest, I reopened iTunes in an effort to finish the importing. iTunes opened with a message saying that my file “iTunes Playlist†was corrupt and needed to be restarted. There was not option not to do this; iTunes was just letting me know it was going to happen.
All of my 7607 songs were gone, along with the playlists that I had spent years sorting those 7607 songs into. The music, thank some sort of demigod, was still in my hard drive, what I needed to do know was re-import all 7607 songs back into iTunes, re-download all the album artwork, and re-determine gapless playback (whatever that is).
The question is: Now what do I do? My iPod has the record of every song on every list that I made, but do I honestly pore through hundreds of songs per list and replace them anew?
Here is a quick make-up of my iTunes playlists:
!Best of 2006! (The exclamation point puts the list at the very top at all times)
!The Greatest List Ever! (A perfect mix of all genres compiled into one 800+ song list)
1. Arcade Fire (I keep a ever changing top 10 list of the current year)
2. Andrew Bird
3. Deerhoof
4. The Shins
5. Explosions in the Sky
6. Apples in Stereo
7. K-os (Thanks JF2K7!)
8. The Good, The Bad, & The Queen
9. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!
10. The Frames
Album: Amon Tobin (These are all albums I need to listen to/integrate into iTunes playlists)
Album: Bob Dylan
Album: Do Make Say Think
Album: Echo & the Bunnymen
Album: Field Music
Album: Gothic Archies
Album: Gym Class Heroes
Album: Joni Mitchell
Album: Kings of Leon
Album: Kinks
Album: KT Tunstall
Album: Sufjan Stevens
Album: Miguel & the Living Dead
Album: Of Montreal
Album: Pogues
Album: Run-Dmc
Album: Slipknot
Album: Tim Fite
Alternative
Bob Marley (Discography)
Classic (Songs from 1960-1989)
Dance/Techno (Perhaps it would be better to rid myself of this list anyway)
Dead Kennedys (Discography)
Folksie (Devendra Banhart and the like)
Funky (I created this list because I could find a list to put my P-Funk into)
Goodies (Oldies but…)
Hardcore (Pantera, Slipknot, Acid Bath, etc…)
Humor Makes Me Laugh (Stupid crap that I giggle at)
Instrumental
International (I tend to really like music in Bollywood films)
Jazz & Blues
Led Zeppelin (Discography)
Magnetic Fields (69 Love Songs – I didn’t have the heart to break them up)
Michael Jackson (Discography – even Invincible which I still haven’t listened to)
Musicals (Hair, Hedwig & the Angry Inch, and one song from the Chicago soundtrack)
Punk N' Ska
R.E.M. (Discography)
Rage Against the Machine (Discography)
Rancid (Discography)
Rap/Hip-hop/R&B
Rock N' Roll
Slow Rock (Less “getting the ladies in the mood†music – more “take a bunch of pills and
fall asleep†music)
The Pixies (Discography)
The Police (Discography)
To Be Sorted (Albums I need to listen to but that haven’t made it onto the Album: list yet)
Wed (I am getting married soon and I am picking out music I like)
What???? (Animal Collective, Deerhoof, Bearsuit, experimental stuff)
Work Out (When I pretend to work out, I pretend to listen to this list)
So that, my friends, is what I need to recreate in order to be happy again. True, the Discographies and Albums will be easy, but the mix lists had hundreds of songs each. Perhaps, this is a blessing in disguise. Is it time to cultivate my musical tastes and weed out songs I don’t wish to be associated with anymore? Perhaps it was a sign from a higher power telling me that instead of cursing every time “Under the Milky Way†by The Church comes on in my !Greatest List Ever!, I just won’t put it on in the !The Greatest List Ever: Part 2 – The Reckoning!
This is a project I am willing to undertake. My iTunes shall be reborn like a mighty electronic phoenix and rise triumphantly to the docks of people’s house parties and cotillions. I’ll get invites to the hippest art gallery openings where I’ll sip champagne and it will taste just like cherry soda. S-O-D-A, soda.
Till next time. I got to get to it.
