Ninety-Seven Thousand (97,000)

Just listened to my 97,000th unique iTunes track, an instrumental riff from a 1974 Los Angeles concert by Steely Dan at The Record Factory, from a bootleg provided me years ago by my friend Gary. The track was a bridge between “Pretzel Logic” and their hit “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”.

This represents 632.17 GB of data, constituting 264 days, 48 minutes, and 58 seconds of playing time. Which leaves 77,170 items (once again more music added in the interval) remaining unheard, totaling 482.56 GB of data lasting 218 days, 10 hours, 20 minutes, and 49 seconds.

The slick rockers of the 70’s were followed by the smoke-filled strains of Johnny Clarke’s “Collie Dread”, from the Trojan Ganja Reggae Box Set.

Ninety-Six Thousand (96,000)

Just listened to my 96,000th unique iTunes track, a classic version of “Harlem Nocturne”, by the incomparable Johnny Otis, from a collection of different Harlem Nocturnes. This compelling instrumental — in almost any version — is one of the all-time best songs ever.

This represents 626.67 GB of data, constituting 261 days, 14 hours, 22 minutes, and 44 seconds of playing time. Which leaves 77,924 items (and yes, a few more CDs in the mix) remaining unheard, totaling 486.53 GB of data lasting 220 days, 8 hours, 126 minutes, and 35 seconds.

100 Books (Not Really)

On Tuesday, June 21st, I apparently finished my hundredth book since I began recording the same just over a year ago. Of course, this is only a seeming fact, for multiple reasons. Imprimus, this “100 books” total includes comics and graphic novels, which cannot really have the same literary ‘weight’ (not to say ‘mass’) as other texts. Secondus, the earliest books read — according to my database of same — only have rough estimates of when they were completed, and I suspect they were finished perhaps as much as a month earlier than the approximate 6/17/2015 date given. Tertius, and perhaps most telling, whilst the unexamined life is deemed to be unworthy of living, the micromanaged and databased life may only be a debasing of the actual substance of life itself.

Perhaps more to come, perhaps after I can lay claim to one hundred actual books not bound with staples.

*Forgot to mention the particular book which ticked over the counter; ’twas Rumpole of the Bailey, the well-known mystery book by John Mortimer. The stories are somber, if not actually despondent.

Ninety-Five Thousand (95,000)

Just listened to my 95,000th unique iTunes track, the sexy reggae — or is it mento? — 1972 single, “Night Food Reggae”, by the mysterious Nora Dean, found on the Trojan Records collection Tighten Up Volume 7. The alleged singer later moved from Jamaica to New York, became born again, and turned from reggae to singing gospel. We say ‘alleged’ because Ms. Dean denied in 2005 that she ever sang this track, which is a slightly sticky tale of oral sex and frustration.

This represents 618.61 GB of data, constituting 258 days, 22 hours, 32 minutes, and 28 seconds of playing time. Which leaves 78,749 items (I’ve been ripping quite a few CDs since last we met) remaining unheard, totaling 491.53 GB of data lasting 222 days, 16 hours, 11 minutes, and 20 seconds.

The 94,999th track, in case you care, was the lovely song “Проходит Всё” sung by Екатерина Юровская (Ekaterina Yurovskaya) from the album Золотые Россыпи Романса (something like “Golden Hits of Romance”). The song title means “It Takes All” — according to my rudimentary Google Translate skills — though it appears to be a different number than the same title with music by Rachmaninoff (again, according to my untutored ear). Reversing the two words gives ‘Всё Проходит’, changing the meaning to ‘everything passes’ — thus this last Russian phrase is also the translated title of George Harrison’s classic solo album All Things Must Pass.

Completing the somber bookends to that ninety-fifth thousandth tune from the dancehall, the 95,001st* song from my iTunes was the beautiful and melancholy “Dark Eyes” by Bob Dylan, from Empire Burlesque. At the time of its release (1985), it seemed only a lugubrious coda to yet another breakout album by my favorite artist. But one can now hear in its slow sad strains the gloomy tenor which pervades his albums since 1997’s Time Out Of Mind.

*Technically this was not the 95,001st song, as I’ve already listened to “Dark Eyes” three or four times before. No, technically, the 95,001st song was B.B. King’s “Beautician Blues” from The Jungle, a much more upbeat melody. Unfortunately, this particular version is one I ripped from my own LP, which has suffered over the years (I think it never had a record sleeve until I turned it into mp3s), and one can hear the damage of time.

Friday Vocabulary

1. toast-and-water — water in which toast has been soaked, thought to be cooling and refreshing (also seen as toast-water)

I availed myself of some toast-and-water from the pitcher near at hand, attempting to calm my febrile brain and efface the frightening visions.

 

2. glaucous — pale grey-green or greenish-blue

In the crepuscule of the evening the bushes beneath the ground floor windows attained an eerie glaucous hue.

 

3. pretermit — to suspend or abandon (a customary action)

Also at this time, Bob pretermitted the weekly poker game, as required by the conditions of his parole.

 

4. purfling — a decorated border, such as an inlaid border around the back of a violin

The purfling of Satan’s fiddle was tricked out in gold and ruby highlights.

 

5. tripudiate — to dance in joy, triumph, or contempt

No, Snoopy, there is no reason to tripudiate upon your dog house, for the Red Baron is merely wounded.

 

6. sempiternal — eternal

And so another battle in the sempiternal war of the sexes came to its desultory end, resolving nothing.

 

7. alinea — another name for the pilcrow, a typographical mark used to designate a paragraph (“¶”)

Within each section the separate paragraphs began with an alinea followed by the number for that sub-topic.

 

8. actinic — of or relating to radiation causing chemical or biological effects; of light which causes exposure of monochrome film

The amber lantern provided non-actinic light by which to develop the incriminating images.

 

9. achalasia — inability of a circular muscle, esp. of the esophagus or rectum, to relax, causing the structure above the muscular constriction to widen

His refusal to credit logic and science led to a peculiar psychic achalasia, leaving his mind filled only with trifles, superstitions, and discreditable ideas.

 

10. sciolism — superficial knowledge

His petty sciolism, derived from Pinterest posts and Wikipedia articles, provided him with no insight into actual construction of a working Murphy bed.

Ninety-Four Thousand

Just listened to my 94,000th unique iTunes track (with replays of the same item not counting towards that total), the George M. Cohan smash hit from 1911, “That Haunting Melody”, sung by the inimitable Al Jolson on the A-side of Victor 17037. (He is inimitable because of the blackface, naturally.)

This represents 609.37 GB of data, constituting 255 days, 15 hours, 29 minutes, and 4 seconds of playing time. Which leaves 78,705 items (meaning I’ve had a net loss of one track since last report) remaining unheard, totaling 491.44 GB of data lasting 223 days, 2 hours, 18 minutes, and 10 seconds.

Oddly enough, iTunes seems to be on a George Cohan kick, as the ninety-four thousand and first track is “The Yankee Doodle Boy” — you may know it as “(I’m a) Yankee Doodle Dandy” — from the Cohan musical Little Johnny Jones which opened in 1904. The particular cut I’m listening to is that sung by the tremendous pop star Billy Murray, on Victor 4229 (a single-sided disc). Not to worry, though; we won’t always be stuck in the hinterlands of century-old popular music. The next song is a 1987 number: “Misfit” by Curiosity Killed The Cat off of their #1 album (both on the UK charts and in the order of their album releases) Keep Your Distance. Perhaps that’s good advice, as I’m not sure we’ll be talking about Curiosity Killed The Cat as frequently as George M. Cohan in another half-century.

Ninety-Three Thousand

93,000th iTunes track (with all necessary caveats): “Soul Feeling, Pt. 2” by Eddie ‘G.’ Giles from the simply terrific Soul compilation Downtown Soulville! (Yet another title ending in an exclamation point… Hmm…)

This represents 598.67 GB of data, constituting 251 days, 8 hours, 29 minutes, and 49 seconds of playing time. Which leaves 79,706 items (give or take) remaining unheard, totaling 501.78 GB of data lasting 227 days, 6 hour, 9 minutes, and 10 seconds. Should be under a half-terabyte by the next update!

Ninety-One Thousand

Listened to my 91,000th iTunes track. Turned out to be John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers singing “Sitting In The Rain” from The Mono Singles Collection 1964-1968 — which is a great collection.

Doing a little math, I see that this song stands at the peak of a pile of 582.27 GB of data, representing 244 days, 19 hours, 37 minutes, and 45 seconds of playing time, if all the items listened to so far were laid end-to-end along the “t” axis. Which leaves 81,535 items (more or less; see last post) remaining unheard, totaling over 515 GB of data lasting more than 233 days. Like sand through the hourglass.