jakorte's blog

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)

Back, way back, in junior high school, I listened to Casey Kasem every Sunday afternoon on WINE radio in Connecticut. I kept a groovy pink, purple and yellow flowered notebook recording chart positions of songs I thought deserved to be recognized for their greatness – rejoicing happily when they rose in popularity, and becoming dejected if they fell out of favor.

It wasn’t until the late 80’s that I learned people actually got paid to do that exact same thing! In the meantime, though, I tried to cultivate my own musical talents. I wanted to play the flute, but needed braces. I tried to play the sax, but didn’t have enough air in me. I won a Yamaha electric folk guitar from WINE, but, alas, I sliced three consecutive fingertips with a v-shaped linoleum cutter in art class leaving numbed pads. I joined chorus, but was asked to leave because I kept throwing everyone else off key. I did get a part in GODSPELL, though – as a silent mime. I wouldn’t give up despite all those glaring signals. Nope, I would wear headphones and listen to music for hours. One day, I’d been at it a while and my parents reluctantly asked me to stop singing along. I complied, in my own way. Later, my dad asked me to stop humming, as well.

My first official music playing device was a red circle Panasonic tape recorder. I was allowed to tape my records on the stereo, and then was free to play them, over and over and over and over and over, locked in my room. I memorized lyrics, picked out bass patterns, read liner notes, and dreamed of finding my place in the music industry. In high school, my revolutionary dream idea was to invent a machine that would allow people to purchase just the songs they liked, and have them recorded on one cassette tape. So close, and yet so far.

I am writing this nostalgic little piece while burning 20+ hours of music loaded into my home computer onto CD’s for a road trip to North Carolina. If you want to come along for the ride, you can visit: http://mblog.lib.umich.edu/~jaselin/archives/2009/08/road_sic.html#more for the complete play list.

In this issue: Steve Gillman - Music Entrainment, itunes, Road Food
Now posted: Poetry for Motion, Poetry, 2009