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Remember when you had stacks of CDs on your desk and you could cycle through music? An interesting cover would catch your attention, you’d pop it in the player, skip to track 4 (the ubiquitous best track) and give it a listen. Like it? Rip it or buy it. It was a time of innocence.

Now, our music seems to be tied up in devices and services. The iPod is great, but heaven forbid I need to update or add music. I must endure 2.5 hours of iTunes updates and installs just to get a new CD on the iPod. The iPhone made this a lil easier, but don’t tell me wifi syncing is working for anyone. So, how do I learn about NEW music?

Enter Rdio! I love this product. $9.99/mo. Unlimited music online whenever and wherever I want it. There are a ton of features available, but let’s focus on how it becomes my stack. I tend to look around and find new music and add it to Rdio. This might be in the RedEye magazine on my El ride to the office or something NPR said. When I hear of a new band or album, I do a search on Rdio (go now and try it out: www.rdio.com). Then I “Add to my Collection.” Simple enough, BUT I want to find it easily again and all the other most recent additions.

In Rdio, click on your and then Collection. This brings up your music. Hit the 2nd button “Albums” and sort on “Recently Added” (this will be saved for the next time). Now you are looking at a bunch of new CDs on your desktop. You can see all the albums you heard about over the weekend from friends, in the paper, on the radio, etc… Should you actually like the music you can set the album to download to your mobile device. Don’t like it? Remove it from your collection. Have an older album you want on top? Remove and re-add to your collection and it appears on top.

I love this trick. When I sit down at work I have all the most recent albums I am listening to at my fingertips and a nice way to experience new music.

Nothing says Merry Christmas like a good date rape song on the radio every five minutes, so hold on to your kerchief and snuggle close, this one is going to be bumpy:

Have you ever stopped to listen to the words in “Baby, Its Cold Outside?” I have to admit, I hadn’t. I blame it on Zooey Deschanel. She sings this song on the Elf Soundtrackand I just love it. I love the other versions too, but this one to me seems the best. The trouble with listening to something over and over is that at some point you actually try to understand what they are saying. When I did so I was shocked! I started looking at B to see if it was just me and she was coming to the same realization I was. Now maybe it was my incredibly great sounding Sonos system or the Scotch, but too many of thelyricsjumped out at me. For example,

I really can’t stay – Baby it’s cold outside > I’ve got to go away – Baby it’s cold outside >

She said “can’t”. She said she has to go. What are you doing dude? We all know which jingle bells your thinking with, that’s why you can’t come up with any better argument at her second objection.

This evening has been – Been hoping that you’d drop in > So very nice – I’ll hold your hands, they’re just like ice

Why are her hands cold? Hasn’t she been inside with you up till now? Where has she been in some meat locker in the back?

My mother will start to worry – Beautiful, what’s your hurry > My father will be pacing the floor – Listen to the fireplace roar

Uh oh, he used “Beautiful.” Psychologists the world over are cringing as the pursuer tries to implant suggestions of beauty while secretly also making a play for domination over the subject. Never mind that she clearly is nervous now, since he is physically holding her back (“your hand are ice”) and she felt compelled to pose a threat of bringing a 3rd party into it like her Father and her Mother. This dud must not have grown up with the Shotgun-toting, Boyfriend-hunting Dad’s of the South.

So really I’d better scurry – Beautiful, please don’t hurry > Well maybe just a half a drink more – Put some music on while I pour

“Put some music on” – Again with the demonstrative statement. No “please”, no “could you,” but a commanding tone for the second time.

The neighbors might think – Baby, it’s bad out there > Say, what’s in this drink – No cabs to be had out there

The definitive line. Now we know he did something. What’s in this drink? What’s in this drink? Didn’t your mother teach you to pour your own drinks? Your gazing at the records and he’s slipping you roofies.

I wish I knew how – Your eyes are like starlight > To break the spell – I’ll take your hat, your hair looks swell

So, we have glazed over eyes now thanks to the roofie, She is showing physical signs of duress while she seems to be under a spell and he has moved in close enough to mess with her hair and is beginning states of undress.

I ought to say no, no, no, sir – Mind if I move closer > At least I’m gonna say that I tried – What’s the sense in hurting my pride?

Saying she tried is admissible in a court of law. No, means no mister. Skipping a few more oohs and aahs and we get…

I simply must go – Baby, it’s cold outside > The answer is no – Ooh darling, it’s cold outside > This welcome has been – I’m lucky that you dropped in > So nice and warm – Look out the window at that storm

…more no’s, more requests to leave, while he distracts her from his actions with the scenery outside. Those neighbors should be calling the police.

Now, I’m sorry that I have ruined this song and your Christmas enjoyment of it for all eternity, but you are starting to get my point. The melody is lovely, but the meaning is deadly.

Now that your eyes are open and your mind is revved up, I leave you with a few remaining choice phrases. I’m off to breakdown Jingle Bells.

Man, your lips look delicious > Gosh your lips are delicious > Well maybe just a half a drink more > It’s up to your knees out there > I thrill when you touch my hand > But don’t you see – How can you do this thing to me? > Think of my life long sorrow > At least there will be plenty implied – If you caught pneumonia and died > Make it worth your while baby > Ahh, do that again….

We tried a new hamburger place just down the street in a back alley today. JB burgers. We go the sense that it might be a Christian restaurant when we walked in and I said, “This music sounds like what we play at church.” Then there was the blessing of the patties… (J.K.) Although it did get us thinking why they were open on a Sunday and if JB stood for Jesus Burgers? Regardless the burgers were good and even B liked her bun less pattie. We may have to go again soon!

This is too strange to be a coincidence:

To say I am out of touch with the US music scene is an understatement. I have no idea about pop artists and who’s hot and who’s not. It takes me finding one of B’s People mags laying around for me to even know a person’s name. So, suffice it to say on our trip to the States when I tuned into Star 94 to hear the same six songs over and over and over again, I had no idea who I was listening to. No worries. iPhone to the rescue! I recently downloaded Shazam. Basically, a simple app that records 10 seconds of a song, then looks it up in a database. Doesn’t do me any good in Asia, but is the States it works great giving you artist/album/etc. So, one catchy tune and 10 seconds later I find out I like this song by Jason Mraz called “I’m Yours”.

Now, I need this tool as I couldn’t name a song/artist to save my life. When I was little I played “Name That Tune” on TV with my parents and I rocked it. Granted, these were all songs of the 40′s, but I was good at hearing the immediate details. Last week I went to trivia and was in awe as my friends were racking up 55+ points naming every song that came up. I can’t do this as I don’t know the songs, but what I do know is the music. High school band, college band, drum corp, symphony… what these have all taught me to do is listen. I can listen to a 120 member corp play a piece and tell you not only which person played a wrong note, but what the note was and what it should have been. So, back to Jason and “I’m Yours.” I found it undeniably similar to Wyclef Jean’s – “Your Love (L.O.V.E. Reggae Mix)” from 50 First Dates. Listen to it. You can even sing the words right on top of Jason’s song.

This was enough for me to write this post, but I was curious. Maybe this Jason guy also sang LOVE. Nope, it was Wyclef, BUT while I was looking all of this up Shazam told me title of Jason’s album is “We sing, we dance, we steal things.” I agree with the stealing part. Especially, since on the 50 First Dates album, track 12 is sung by none other than Jason. Call it sampling. Call it too much listening to that album and getting the rifts stuck in your head. I think it is either a very strange coincidence or a very small world.

From MissGioia.com

Rejoice! After flying 20+ hours to get home to Taipei, I found the most amazing package at our door. Our 13 months of waiting has finally ended: the referral has arrived. Little Fu Le Xin is seven months old and is waiting at the Fuling Social Welfare Institute in Chongqing. At four months (in September), she weighed 6.5 kg and had FAT CHUBBY CHEEKS!!! Apparently, she is fond of listening to music and playing with toys.

Hopefully we will be able to travel to get her very soon. Happy New Year baby girl! We are coming as soon as we can.

So, the move to Taiwan did not turn out to be all Guns and Roses (bad pun, sorry. Read on). My 300GB USB disk drive decided it was time to die. Why it could not die BEFORE we moved I will never get a chance to ask it (sob). This was at the same time that I was a decided to add a network storage disk of 750GB to complement it. The reason? I had filled my 300GB and 250GB USB drives with music and movies (yes, music. I had deleted all that other stuff, ask my wife. And if you don’t know what I am talking about… good for you).

I could not believe it. 300GB. Over 140,000 songs. Over 40 DAYS of music! You know, I just might need something to do for 40 days and 40 nights, you never know. My first thought was I can repair it myself. Wrong. 12 downloads of lame programs later and I had not recovered one song. The reason is my USB drive did not show up as a disk when plugged in, so Windows (and Linux, yes I tried that too) did not know what to do with it. When I did get it mounted in RAW format. I still could get nothing back.

So, I thought I would take it to the ubiquitous “lil Chinese guy”. I suppose I should say, “lil Taiwanese guy”, same-same. They could not help me either. I got a price quote of 100 yuan($3) per MB of recovery. This would mean each mp3 would cost about $12 to recover. Let’s see… times 140,000 songs comes out to … er.. nevermind.

So, I tried the backup. I have been using an online company called Mozy. They let me backup anything in a “trickle charge” effect across the internet. When you need it back they burn it to DVD and mail it to you (technically, they mail it to my Mom since it has to be a U.S. address). I was using another company as well called iDrive until I received a nasty lil email from them stating that I was in the top 99.8% of users on their site and I needed to cease uploading and reduce my UNLIMITED account. I guess this is what you call a “Cease and Delete” leterr. Apparently, unlimited storage for $19.95 does not mean unlimited. (jerks!) So, I was back to Mozy. Mozy is good, but backing up 140,000 songs can take wayyyyyyy too long and apparently it never finished. When I checked the site I found that only 40GB had been backed up. 40 is better than 0, but it is not ALL of the music (this is where my OCD kicks in).

After toying with pulling a few songs off our our army of ipods, I finally decided to bite the bullet and go ahead and re-rip all my CDs. Since Shanghai, I have been wondering why I am carrying around 4 giant cases of music. You see, we are constantly going through our stuff and trying to reduce the amount of “shi-tuff” we have. I have so many cables in bags I was called a walking Radio Shack. Twice previously in Shanghai and Beijing I thought, “Why am I carrying all these CDs from house to house. I have them on my disks. What could happen? And you never know when we might have to move again. The less shi-tuff the better, right?” Now I’m glad I kept up with it.

For the past week I have been ripping CDs one after another. It has actually allowed me to discover some new music and artists that I did not know I had. For example: There is this guy/group called Adama Yalomba. They have a song called Miri Yoro. This isn’t it on Amazon, but it sounds kinda like it. It is Indian, African, Modern, and Techno all in one. Very cool. I also found some crap music. By crap I mean when did I buy an Enya CD? I think this is one of Rebecca’s CDs. I must say, ripping it made me kind of cringe. I had to fight the urge to chuck it frisbee style in the la ji tong (trash). The music is way too ethereal. Play a guitar for Heaven’s sake! Ironically, there is rarely a Day Without Rain in Taipei, so maybe that has something to do with not liking it.

Now, in doing all this ripping my worst fear was realized and that is that I could not recover some song that Rebecca wanted to hear. Of course, the first thing out of here mouth was: “Do we have any Christmas music?” Ahhhh… I had anticipated this request and already put all of the Christmas music I could find to the top of the rip pile. Then she said the words that Stung Me: “… like Harry Connick, Jr’s Christmas Album?” What? No! I did not have that, but wait… we were listening to it before… that means… that means…. NOOOOoooooo…. It is lost. Lost forever, lost until the dying reaches of time, lost until… until.. yeah, I know. Until I just download it again, but come on! I have spent a week and recovered 100,000 songs with 30 days of music. what are the chances that the one.. i say.. ONE ALBUM my sweet dear innocent lil wife wants to hear is the ONE that we don’t have.
I have:

• Harry Connick – She
• Harry Connick – Songs I Heard (for Gioia, excellent baby music)
• Harry Connick – Star Turtle (dude, what was I thinking when I bought this. it is weird)

but no Christmas Album. In fact our Christmas music list is pitifully short. So, I guess I will just have to find it on Amazon’s MP3 downloads and get it. Consider it an early Christmas present or a stocking stuffer or just my OCD being unable to rest until ALL THE MUSIC HAS BEEN RECOVERED, but we shall have a complete music collection once again, I promise! (cue thunder and lightening).

The only question left is how do I back all this stuff up again?