Presents from the Past

A sort of crate digging

DJ Shadow’s Entroducing…. holding up on the studio stereo

One very basic tenet regarding this new backyard studio space, a tenet I have not very capably explained: It’s approximately 180 square feet that are intentionally and resolutely Not Smart.¹ I’ll address Not Smart in more detail in the near future, but here’s what it means for this particular post:

After I arrive (arrive!) at around 6:15 AM with my tea and plug in the oil-filled radiators and light a few candles and pinch myself because I can’t believe these 180 square feet actually belong to me (me!), I turn on the receiver and the CD player. Then I choose and listen to, from start to finish, to one of the thousands of CDs Jim and I have somehow acquired so far in our 28+ years of music-driven life together.²

CDs are everywhere, but also nowhere, at our place. They’re racked in the basement, boxed in industry-standard 25- or 30-count boxes in the closet under the stairs, sitting inelegantly in a large, unmarked bin in the garage, snugged (or shoved?) into abandoned file drawers. It is terrible and I hate admitting it, but music as physical media largely stopped finding its way into our house collection well before 2018³, despite plenty of access; we relaxed, instead, into letting The Algorithm serve us and even feed us. [Ew.] It’s certainly easier to pay a monthly fee and let It decide, we can listen anywhere, and we’ve “discovered” some amazing stuff this way while ALSO having our tastes catered to via the endless mix, the curated collection, just For [Us]. It’s great. It’s terrible.

Enter Not Smart. Sorting through these CD troves as they resurface and then playing what I have, from beginning to end and then starting again with another CD, has been a practice in patience, frustration, vibe-matching. There’s a lot of junk and many gems. Sometimes the cases promise Talk Talk or Rainy Day or Gregorian chants… but the CD inside is Jane’s Addiction or a MOJO compilation or Yes. Occasionally a case is empty. In both circumstances, my brain attempts a game of time-addled “Concentration” with itself… where… or when… might I have last seen that CD?

Anyway, there’s a playlist. Artist, title, year released. No links yet, though I may add some, so bookmark it or do whatever people do now to keep track of cool pages they like on the internet! I update it every few days.

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Backyard Industry Radio Wayback Machine:

Bird of Courage

In 2013, Past Lisa traveled to Caveny Farm in Monticello, IL to learn more about heritage turkeys and help put some respect on their name.

A lot can happen on a farm in one year, never mind 11. Enjoy your fall holiday!

1. Nutshell: The studio is free of smart devices - i.e., phones, watches, tablets, speakers...

2. We met in 1993 while working at Cargo Music in CHGO. He bought imports; I sold everything we carried into record stores across the US of A. Days of absolute yore.

3. BREAKING NEWS: I was suprise-subscribed to the Slanky Monthly Music Club. Jim is the curator, and I am its only subscriber. Today I received my first CD via US Mail. I love it so much. The playlist knows all.