Classy is not an adjective that has often been attributed to me (much to Jess’ chagrin, I’m sure). I’m certain adjectives such as “Simple”, “Folksy(?)”, “Midwestern”, and “Plain” are the more common descriptors, and I count the times I’ve dressed up in a suit on both hands (probably, I can’t actually remember exactly, but you knew that if you know me at all). So I was taken by surprise today when I kind of felt classy.
I am a collector at heart (cut to Jess and a big “no duh”). While I have my usual vices of cards, games, comics, books, DVDs, and other paraphernalia that I bounce between, you may not guess one of my largest collections. It’s actually music, and it started way back in high school when I was doing sound for our youth group. I have a ton of CDs that I bought both new and second-hand, rarely paying more than five dollars per CD. Once music went digital, however, my collection really exploded. I now have thousands of songs, first in iTunes and now through Amazon.
My cheapness still holds, however, so I’m rarely spending more than five dollars an album and my bar has actually lowered now so that more than three or four dollars gives me pause. But Amazon has so many deals that I still end up buying one every week or so. Even better is that they’ve started doing ninety-nine cent albums for a day only (which is the main reason I follow them on Twitter).
How does this very long divergence from the topic of class relate? I’m glad I asked. One of the albums I bought recently was a ninety-nine cent, twenty-two song album of Frank Sinatra’s songs. All the classics were present and remastered. I had my computer playing my recent purchases while finishing up the grunt work of preparing our new mobile Photo ID stations for their first deployment when Old Blue Eyes came on. It’s amazing how simply having certain music playing can change how you feel. I listened to the entire album and felt that the proceedings, as mundane as they were, had just a touch of class.
Random, I know, but these are the things that I think about when slogging through the last few hours of a Friday making sure I hit a deadline (I did, exactly at five). I could write a similar post on classical music and feelings of intelligence (or with a certain playlist I once made, sleepiness), I’ve long been fascinated with how music affects attitudes and emotions. That’s probably why I own so much of it with so many varying types of genres.
Weight: 229 Loss: 11 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 258.1 miles
Volleyball Match Record: 5-4 (13-14 Game Record, 6th place regular season)
Fitocracy Level: 23 ID: disciplev1
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I’m always surprised how moving and emotional music is too. Especially classical music, if you close your eyes. I always find myself being tossed about, for lack if a better term, and feeling deeply effected after. Threats why I love musicals and how they make it perfectly natural to be talking in a diner and then have the whole place explode into song and dance and then just a fast suit down and go back to their mundane conversions like the flash mob never happened.