HAH

SSo when shopping for the food mentioned in the last post, I got involved in some freindly music banter with the staff of said cafe. When the topic of “do you want to listen to Patsy Cline” came up behind the counter, I could not help but say, “Well I sure do.”

So Walking After Midnight came on, and we started singing. I contined singing all the way home, and wanted to key up my own copy of the same album. Imagine my surprise when I not only do not find it in my hard drive, but also missing from the stack behind my head of physical discs.

Great weeping, but I spin up Glen Campbell as a quick palliative.

Fast forward 10 hours, when I make myself stop playing loud music and video games, and do a tad of cleaning and box lifting. And while I unpacked relatively few boxes (I still have things crated from my move to Seattle in 1997, which in turn transferred boxes from my Idaho Exodus in 1995), imagine my surprise when I discovered a hidden box of cds amongst the tower of paperbacks that WAS behind me at the ‘puter.

Sadly, no Patsy Cline (damnit). But of great amusement to me is the following anecdote, presented free of charge.

So I used to work nights when I lived in Richland. I worked them over in Walla Walla, which is roughly an hour away at straight highway speeds (home was on one on-ramp, work was on the other). This is in the days before i-pods, or even effective cd burners. So mix tapes were the preferred transport method for music, followed closely by hauling the discs from place to place. I had little patience for mixing, and in fact was quite content just to set the 100-disc changer on shuffle and let it fly.

Part of working nights is having one’s afternoons free. Part of being “relatively” young and VERY stupid meant spending money instead of saving it. This is how I amassed the lion’s share of the stack of CDs to my back. For there was a used CD place just a short walk away, and I knew where all the other ones were in town. As well as the bookstores, which accounts for the other boxes I schlepped today.

So I used to buy a LOT of cds, for just a few bucks each. I would “save” money by buying compilations, which were “lesser” in price for the number of discs accquired. One such compilation was a three-disc set entitled “Non-Stop Disco Dance Mix.”

Don’t you dare judge me.

This collection had 100 hot, Hot, HOT hits from the seventies, and made the nights in the warehouse go that much faster. Nothing like a little “Ra-Ra-Rasputin” to warm you up after you come out of a 22 below walk-in freezer, into a 25 below desert winter. that and Art bell kept me more or less sane through that period of my life. And the beer, of course. Moved that around two weekends ago.

But I digress. A few months later, I bought discs 1 and 3 of a similar set, but one that had (I thought) a different title and artist. For the price, I really could not argue the value, even if a couple songs were to be repeated.

The funny part is coming. For I had indeed purchased the same two discs I already owned as part of the boxed set. right down to the name and publisher, so I couldn’t even feel superior about collecting different printings (okay, sthat would have been a lame justification, but go with me. I was pretty messed up ten years ago). But since I had resolved not to sell my CDs ever again, I was more or less stuck with them.

Fast forward to the year 1999. It’s my birthday, and I get a special present when my truck is broken into, my CD player stolen, and my CDs along with it. This happens while I sleep, so the joy is waiting for me when I groggily go down to drive into work.

Here is a list of the CDs that were stolen. I can compile this list, because I still have all the cases. I kept them so that I might replace them through my (then) semi-regular practice of hitting the used cd racks of various stores.

Cake – Fashion Nugget (replaced 1999, see below)

Denis Leary – No Cure for Cancer (replaced 2006)

Republica – (untitled) (replaced 1996. Because it was not my cool import version that was stolen, but my even cooler advance radio copy. sigh)

Chris Isaak – Forever Blue (replaced the SAME FRIGGIN DAY in 1999. because this is the COOLEST CD EVAR. Sadly, the one that was stolen was an advance radio copy, but the case doesn’t know the difference. If any of you squeal, it will cry. Oh, and see below)

Alterno-Daze Survival of )80’s( The fittest (hey, I don’t name them, I just buy them over and over again ) (still at large)

Deadicated (a compilation disc of folk singers doing Grateful Dead tunes) (still at large)

Gipsy Kings (untitled) (My first Gipsy kings album, and the one that got me though the hardest drinking years. The ones represented in yonder cabinet, for those that have visited the casa) (Still at large. I own 4 GK greatest hits albums, and everything on it is represented 4 times over. I’m fine. Really. I don’t miss it at all.)

(Much)

Indigo Girls (r) Starter kit ( a breif anthology disc containing remastered singles from their first 6 albums) (still at large. See above, no reason to replace this one)

Stairways to Heaven (The keenest loss of all. this disc was the soundtrack album to an Australian TV show named “The Money or the Gun” It has to be heard to be beleived. I bought a copy on eBay a few months later, and that transaction is one of two negative feebacks I have ever left. Since it never, EVER showed up. My soul will bear those scars until my dying day)

Legend * Bob Marley and the Wailers (replaced 1999, see below)

Godspell (production album, not the soundtrack or Broadway cast. Still at large)

Non-Stop Disco Dance mix, Volume 3. The “Good One”, of course. (replaced 1996. and see below the see below)

See below the first. Having replaced some of the cds, my stereo (twice) and my entire truck, I wake up one morning during the 2001 ALCS. The morning of Game 2, in fact, for which I have a ticket. My plan was to head out for a breakfast, park in a shady spot and catch morning batting practice before an afternoon game.

Plans change when both your side windows are busted out, your stereo is stolen, and along with it your cd visor containing (you guessed it)

Legend * Bob Marley and the Wailers

Chris Isaak – Forever Blue

Cake – Fashion Nugget

And some other cds I just can’t remember at the moment. For this time, they bastards stole the cases as well. Ha Ha, says I, for I still have the other cases from before. As an aside to an aside, the Forever Blue that was stolen was not the cool case, or even the replacement case. It was the spare copy I bought, just in case I needed to loan it out, or if some moron were to throw a rock through my window and steal it.

I made the game on time. I impressed upon all the replacement techs that I had playoff tickets, and they busted their asses to get me new windows.

I love baseball fans.

But I digress. (P.S. the freaking Yankees won)

Again. (Again)

Now that we are below the see below, the real humor begins. Fast forward to 2006. I’m making changes in my life, and one of them is that I’m just not going to carry around stuff I don’t need. Like that “second” disc of Volume 3 that I clearly don’t need, since the other copy is safe and snug in the cardboard slip cover holding the other two volumes of the set. So I take it in to work, leave it in the place where folks leave stuff they don’t want, and it magically dissapears.

Really, one of the best tricks ever, since I only discovered it today when I unpacked the box with the compilation and attempted to scan in disc three.

Good times.

I’m keeping the empty case. Just out of spite.

It’s 1 AM PST. Do you know where your CDs are?