only the best

so, i lost all the music off of my mp3 player. i plugged it in to the computer at my house, tried to add some music, but when i took it out, all the music was gone out of my mp3 player and furthermore, it was impossible to add new music. this qualifies as a tragedy, especially considering that all my cds etc are in new york, where i am not. i had 190 albums on my mp3. 190! gone. i immidiately recognized the fact taht they were gone. it was a scenario i had played out in my head a million times, i mean, lets be realistic: you cant rely on technology - you cant rely on file transfers and invisible thins to get you through in life. you cant totally do away with hard copies. this was my personal y2k. this was that which was supposed to send me over the deep end. especially living in a country that blasts music and horror movies throughout entire night time bus rides.

yet, when it happened i remained calm. i understood there was nothing i could do about it and i sought a solution. yes. there are some cds that people had brought down for me. my parents were down at the time and had brought me some good stuff. there is a thriving bootleg industry here in cuenca. the quality may not be great (quality of music, not quality of sound), but there is bound to be something...

but at first i was stuck with nothing. a blank slate. from that point on whatever i did was representative of who ive become and not who i was (and i must admit, there was some music on my old mp3 that was only there because of force of habit andnot becuase i was excited about it), so i took stock of what it was. az, the format. good. blockhead. good. the roots newest album. always a safe bet. the juggaknots newest album. ugh. not too good. there are some songs there that are ok. the newest album by zero 7. not all that great. the newest inspektah deck album. yikes! what was i thinking? if he didnt sell another album other than the one i bought, i would understand. there were some other good albums i was left with and some more on the way when carly comes to visit soon, so whereas i wouldnt ever replace my old collection, i would certainly have enough that would necessitate buying an mp3 player.

so i went to the electronic store that i had once bought an electric shaver from. the shaver turned out to be crap, but it wasnt the stores fault - i had quite consciously bought the cheapest one. i looked to see what they had by way of 2g mp3 players. i saw the ipod nano sitting there, all shiny, for $140. but no. as soon as the idea of myself having that ipod crossed my mind, my automatic get-the-cheaper-shit button clicked in my head. my instinctive aversion to top of the line stuff took hold and i saw sitting next to the ipod, in a dustier box with two handwritten stickers on it, one that said $125 and one that said $110, i saw the digipod. clearly i bought the digipod. my confidence in technology strained as it was, i figured the least i could do was to save a couple bux.

so i was with the new mp3 and the music that had been brought or sent to me had not yet put a dent in the memory space, nor would it suffice for the next 6 months. so, i was forced to make do with the music i had acquired here. some cumbias. fine. the new jay z album. ok, not a classic, but ive convinced myself that i like it because it is the only rap available here in ecuador. if i dont like it, it is 1/20 of my music down the drain, so dont burst my bubble! the newest christina aguilera album. yes, i said it. but let me explain... the album was given to me by one of my students who i had made do a presentation on english music. its not my fault and im in no position to be throwing music away once i get it. plus, i have to admit she does kind of have a nice voice.

needless to say, within 1 day, there were problems with the digipod. there was a hidden folder worth 1g taking up space in the harddrive and i didnt know how to get it out. i tried everything i knew how to try and then took it back to the electronic store to have it checked out. long story short is that the guy there was nice and it took him about an hour to realize that all that was needed was to format the hard drive and then all was well. we talked a bit and he even gave me some music from off the computer. sure, it was the amelie soundtrack and beethovens greatest hits, but who am i to complain?