Leapfrog's Journal: Barcaloungers, Liberace, and Zenyatta Mondatta

So, about three months ago, my grandfather passed away. His health struggles were compounded by the loss of his wife and the persistent nagging lonliness finally caught up with him. I will not, at this point, go on for pages describing the man and the great things he did; nor will I blather about life, death, and otherwise. The time for that sort of thing is long past. Suffice to say he is at rest, and it was his time.

The details of his estate have not been made clear to me but it seems that he had little concern for the dispensation of the few personal effects that remained. After the dust settled, I found myself in possession of his record player and collection.

I approached this gift with cautious excitement-- unlike the uncle who was certain the collection was worth thousands of dollars, I know that the monetary value of most vinyl is measured in cents. After some hardware issues in the player were resolved, I started through some of the records. It was much as I expected, a few gems among piles of bad classical, promotional Christmas records, and saccharine big band. Listening through his records made me realize just how much one can learn about a person from his tastes in music. A new long-term goal developed for me-- to start a digital repository for this, a living legacy for Grandpa. Something that the RIAA would stomp almost immediately if it were public, but to be kept among friends. "grandpasrecordcollection.com" or some such.

It also lead me to wonder what a snapshot of my listening tastes would tell future generations about me, and what format will still live after I'm gone. And then I wonder what happens if no one wants to know what I was like after I'm gone (which is probably a very likely scenario). I know precious little about my great-grandparents, and even less about their parents. Names in a family tree- and in 100 years I'll be a name in a family tree. Blah, blah, everything is meaningless, sieze the day, rust and ruin, gaze upon my works and weep, etc. Didn't I just say I wasn't going to blather on about this?

Anyway, I've also started cruising the local thrift stores for more vinyl. Last weekend, I found a few gems.

• Zenyatta Mondatta by the Police.
• Love Tracks by Gloria Gaynor.
• Music to Relax by in Your Barcalounger a promotional album given away with Barcaloungers-- it's lounge-a-rific.
• The Girl from Ipanema featuring Buddy Collette. More uber-lounge.
• The Sea, Rod McKuen and the San Sebastian Strings. Serious makeout music.

Someday, I'd like to have my own lounge band. And that band will cut vinyl.

Whoo, I'm rambling. Anyway, one more hobby for me. If my loyal readers express interest in recordings, I might just digitize some of the choice picks.