Clutter

My sis in New York introduced me to Pandora, well named indeed for its addictive properties. Once opened, you can't put it back in the box and ignore it. Pandora is Internet Radio, done finally the way that all of this technology we have at our fingertips should have long allowed us to do.

You create your own radio stations on Pandora. Like an artist or genre? Tell Pandora, and she will find like-minded (or -sounded) things. If the song she pulls up wasn't what you were seeking, give her a thumbs-down, and she moves on to the next thing.

My sister has also been nagging me to find my old cassette tapes, where I had such diverse things as Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 to Poison's big 80s album, whatever that was called. They're around somewhere, and sis wants me to get the assorted Janet Jackson stuff I have on to a digital format and share it with her.

Of course, this nagging has reminded me that I loved Miss Jackson back in the day, and as I have no desire to spend a fortune on iTunes buying back her catalogue when I've got it somewhere 'round here, just not in a digital format, to Pandora I went to give a listen to some of that old stuff.

Is it any surprise that I can still sing every single song that Pandora plays? No, I suppose it isn't. Music was a fundamental part of my teen years, and as I ran around in both high school and college with a bunch of music geeks, it is no surprise, really, that each bit of music evokes a time, a place, a memory.

As much fun as that is, wouldn't be nice if we could do a memory purge and get rid of some of the clutter running around in our heads? I don't need the lyrics to every single top 40 song from 1986 until the mid-90s running around in my head. At some point, I stopped paying attention to top 40 radio, and expanded my already schizophrenic music collection to the "eclectic" level where it currently resides, adding music from small indie labels, stuff I heard on reviewed on NPR, (which tended to be world beats) opera, jazz, (for which I can thank my ex, a die-hard jazz-lover) and then along came the sugar-pop revolution with Britney et al, and I stopped paying any attention to popular music, instead seeking stuff outside of the mainstream.

I think it would be better, for example, if I could remember more html coding and less En Vogue. Or maybe the ability to remember my other sister's phone number, she who is first in my alphabetical phone book listing on the phone. Since she changed her phone number in 1999, I've never bothered to remember it, because clicking the phone book button on any phone I've had since then brings up her name. I'm just sayin. There's got to be room up there for stuff other than "Every Rose Has Its Thorn."

On the other hand, if you're playing 80s/90s music trivia, you want me on your team.

And let's not even talk about the clutter in the house that I'd have to dig through to find those old tapes.....

Listening to: my Janet Jackson Pandora station