The Daily: 20 March 2024

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I had to buy a new CD player. OK, so that statement wasn’t precise. I didn’t have to, but I wanted to — because I have possibly thousands of CDs of recorded music. I’ve never counted, but they fill many bins and a couple library card catalog cases. The choice was between acquiring a functioning CD player — and storing the dead one in the attic with a number of other dead 20th century appliances, some of which came with the house — or trashing the CDs. These also could have been stored in the attic, but I didn’t want a half ton of plastic waste that needed to be warehoused forever.

But just as importantly, I listen to these recordings. Constantly. I don’t do music on my phone. I only sometimes listen to YouTube (the ads usually drive me nuts within minutes). For many reasons, I have not embraced cloud storage for anything, least of all music. I do go listen to live performance, but that’s not available or accessible as often as I want to hear music. I do noodle around on various musical instruments in my house, but that’s not listening and it can’t happen while I am doing anything else. So this library of CDs is most of the music in my life. It’s not trash.

Unless I have no way to play them… which was the case for most of the month of March. My old player finally gave up the ghost. To give credit where it is due, this gadget lasted far longer than I probably had reason to expect. I think it came into my life in the 1990s, but Son#1 thinks it probably showed up in the early aughts. Either way, it’s been through several relocations and a couple decades of daily use. In that time, I think I have been through the last days of taped video and audio players, four or five DVD players, at least three television screens that I remember, and two receivers. I have also owned two desktop computers, three laptops and a plug-in hybrid car. As far as electronica goes, this now-retired CD player was amazingly durable. But all things end eventually… And it must be said that noise had been creeping into my musical enjoyment. This is a subtle process that you mostly don’t notice until it’s gone. But I could tell the difference between the few good recordings you can find on YouTube and the recordings I had on CD.

Still, I didn’t want to buy a new player. I didn’t want more trash, but I also didn’t want to support the market for new things. (Ecological awareness makes life complicated…) Furthermore, I couldn’t readily find a new player that would hook into my entertainment system. It seems that nearly all new CD players are not components, but stand-alone music boxes, with radio and speakers all in one gadget. This is fine as far as it goes, except the sound is rarely good. Certainly not as enveloping as I like Copeland, Stravinsky and Puccini (to say nothing of Jane’s Addiction, Above and Beyond, and DeadMau5). The few that were actual CD players that hooked into an actual sound system cost far more money than I had to spend, even if I wanted to spend it. So I really didn’t want a new CD player.

But how do you trust a used one? Presumably most of them are old and… well… used… Probably near death. So I had to find someone who had lovingly restored an old one, preferably for less expense than the mint that I’d have to spend on a new one. It was a bit of a gamble because I couldn’t listen to it before I bought it, but miraculously an affordable and well-restored old one is exactly what I found — a refurbished Pioneer from a place that normally renovates vinyl record turn-tables.

Not only is the player in good condition, but it probably will last a long time. It has fewer bells and whistles than my old one, so therefore fewer things to break down. Its feeder tray is on some sort of track that apparently has zero friction on it. I can hear nothing when it is opened or closed, nor from its spinning. It weighs much less and heats up much less than my last one. And the sound is pristine! Not even a whisper of electronic noise. I was rather shocked at the difference, actually. For the first time, I am hearing the music on my recently acquired CDs as it was recorded. And I can turn it up as loud as I want without underlying static ruining the sound. (And my ears…)

So I am going through the whole music library now, really listening to it. It is all familiar and dear, but it is also startlingly different. This is quite possibly the happiest experience a monkey brain can have!

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Wednesday Word

for 20 March 2024

sap

Since the Sap Moon is new this week, it is time to think about this life-blood of trees and all it means to the world. My favorite poem of all my work revolves around the theme of the giving tree. I have shared it before… but it is my favorite… so…

If you also choose to share a sappy ditty, you can respond in the comments below or go visit the All Poetry contest for March. Your response can be anything made from words. I love poetry, but anything can be poetic and you needn’t even be limited to poetics. An observation, a story, a thought. Might even be an image — however, I am not a visual person, so it has to work harder to convey meaning. In the spirit of word prompts, it’s best if you use the word; but I’m not even a stickler about that. Especially if you can convey the meaning without ever touching the word.

If you have nothing to say, that’s fine. But if you’ve read this far, then I’ve made you think about… sap.

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©Elizabeth Anker 2024