Seasons of Your Life: Fifteen Albums

Do they even call them albums anymore? The CD's that you buy, or don't buy actually. I haven't bought a disk of music in a few years, I subscribe to Napster and my family downloads tracks to their MP3 players.











Once upon a time, a long time ago, people listened to their music on round, flat things that were called records. They came in different diameters, and were called 45's, 33's, and 78's depending on what speed they had to be played at on a record player. They were kind of a precursor to the CD/DVD, except they used a needle (or a industrial diamond) to transfer the music from the record to the speaker instead of a laser.










Record Albums were a group of songs put together on one album, usually by the same artist, and were given names like "The Christmas Album."







Soon after that technology came out with the 8 track tape. The 8 track tape looked a lot like the games for the NES Nintendo game console. It was plaid on a tape deck and was still called an album.







Not too long after that came the cassette tape. It was smaller and thinner than the 8 track tape, and was a little sturdier than it too. Soon it replaced the 8 track tape and was a staple in most cars until the CD player replaced it.







Then the Internet became widely and wildly available, and people learned how to share tracks, illegally. Very few people were buying albums anymore. Along came the MP3 player which allowed people to store their music on the computer hard drive and transfer files to their MP3 player at will. Sites like Napster became wildly popular for people who liked a single song or track from an artist, but not necessarily any other of their songs.







I can not name a single new album, which is pretty sad considering I know so many old albums.







So, here is a list of 15 albums that colored my life. See how they compare to your list.







1. Let It Be by the Beatles







2. Sesame Street (I was about ten with 3 younger brothers. Besides, this album had cool songs on it like Kermit the Frog singing "It's Not Easy Being Green."







3. Gypsies Tramps and Thieves - Cher







3. Calypso - John Denver







4. Photographs and Memories - Jim Croce







5. Best of Bread - Bread







6. The Best of America - America







7. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars - David Bowie







8 Young Americans - David Bowie







9. The Man Who Sold the World - David Bowie







10. Out of the Blue - Electric Light Orchestra







11. Led Zeppelin (can't remember what album)







12. Appetite for Destruction - Guns and Roses







13. Black Rain - Ozzy Osbourne







That last CD actually was given to my son. I liked some of the tracks, and listen to them on Napster, so the last album I ever bought was over 20 years ago. Yes, Appetite is from 1988/89 and still Welcome to the Jungle is played sometime at every baseball/football game.







What are the albums of your life?

About the Record Player:
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date/time username edit summary
07:37, 14 August 2005 en:User:Paulnasca (further explanations about the picture)
07:29, 14 August 2005 en:User:Paulnasca ({{cc-by-2.0}} Phonograph manufactured in Romania, by "Unitra" company)

Bad Buys for 2010

So, I'm reading online, and up pops the title, 10 things you shouldn't buy in 2010 . Well that sounded interesting, so I clicked on to see what these ten items are. What I expected to see were items like computer, netbooks, big screen televisions etc, because I thought the article would advise us to hang tight, the cost is coming down. But no, that is NOT what the article listed at all.

I'm not going to list all ten things, if you are interested, you can read the article yourself, but the ones I found shocking were:

No more land lines. Okay, with everyone popping out a cell phone almost anytime, anywhere to make and receive calls, or text, I knew that cell phones were important, and they are almost like the coveted private number of long ago memory. I will admit, I am loathe to give out my cell phone number and when asked will give my home number. Really, does the doctor's office, the library and a host of others need to be in touch with me at all times? And just because they think they do, do I think they do? No. I enjoy knowing that when my cell rings, the person on the other end is either a friend or family member. May-be that's just me.

The other alternative, is what I have now, over the internet phone. Probably your cable company offers it for $20 per month, or their about. There is also Skype and Vonage and a host of others if you look. My second favorite is Magic Jack. You buy it for just under $40, and then each year after that, it costs $20 per year. The advantage? You can bring Magic Jack with you and check for messages and make phone calls from the hotel/friends house you are staying at. But my most favorite, and if you've read this blog right along you know it, is OOMA. It has a steep buy it price, about $400, but from then on, it is free. So four months after quiting my AT&T phone line, the OOMA was paid for. Every month after that, free. The only bad thing, you can't just bring the OOMA with you when you travel like you can for the Magic Jet.

Another object not to buy is the DVD. Okay, I'm already guilty. We have been using NetFlix since 2005, when we lived waaay out in the country and there wasn't any cable available and the nearest movie rental place was miles away. NetFlix certainly was convenient, movies at the end of our half mile driveway. We've been fans ever since. Now that NetFlix has instant download to the computer or TV (when you figure it out, which I haven't, but my son has), I love NetFLix even more and the price of $10 per month, definitely worth it.

Lastly, do not buy CD's. According to the article Napster, Itunes and the like have made the CD obsolete. Considering my children and husband all of Mp3 players, I can may-be agree. But when Napster became to expensive for my son in this economy, or as he would say, there were other services he'd rather spend the money on, The Resourceful One, discovered and sings the praises of Playlist. My friends have recommended Pandora to me. These are not good options for me because I have the (cheap) speakers my computer came with. They have also been knocked down over and over by Sir Jack. The sound quality of the speakers is not good. The truly persnickety would think them unbearable, and they wouldn't be far off. I have however a CD player with radio. The speakers are pretty good, and the whole device is so sturdy (read too large) that Sir Jack hasn't been able to knock it over even once making the speakers even better. The other thing I like better about CDs, is the gadget we have playing it doesn't offer a option to use headphones/earbuds , so the whole family listens to music they might not usually choose. (Taylor Swift and Lady GaGa for me; Nocturne, and Beethoven for them.)

What do you think?