Build It

Posted: June 15th, 2010 | Author: Brian | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: blocks, building, childhood, collecting, Kevin Costner, music, nostalgia, small black, Waterworld | 1 Comment »

{ “Despicable Dogs” by Small Black}

Planned Destruction

There was a time, I’m not exactly sure when, somewhere between 2nd and 7th grade, when I spent a lot of time in the basement. Between watching TV and “learning” the computer, I spent hours and hours building stuff. We had a vintage Erector Set and Tinker Toys from my Dad’s boyhood, and I had Legos, and hammers and nails, and all of that stuff that you would expect a young boy to have. But my favorite thing by far was a dark blue plastic milk crate full of wooden blocks. I loved building all kinds of structures, always stretching the finite number of blocks with Jenga-like precision to see how tall, or how large, or how impenetrable I could make it. These were forts, castles, office buildings, cities. Anything was possible.

While occasionally such creations would survive the night, most often they were ceremoniously demolished with an onslaught of my own making. You see, after building the tallest, biggest, best, I would gather up a few remaining blocks that didn’t fit into my masterpiece—maybe the tiny triangle or the lone octagonal piece—and lob it, gently at first, right at the center of what I had just built. Initially, only one or two blocks would fall, but as more and more blocks where tossed, the war quickly escalated, and the the once magnificent castle was quickly dilapidated and razed.

I loved this ritual. I loved creating things with no real purpose that I could then quickly dispatch. What difference did it make? No one else would have been that impressed by my architectural ingenuity anyway.

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{ miniature wood blocks by Ed Brodzinsky }

The Unplanned

Latter on in life I began collecting.

Now collecting, in its way, is a kind of building. The only problem with collecting is that you never see the end coming. I mean, I should have. I know that my dad once had large collections of baseball cards and vinyl, but each was eventually sold. Growing up I never understood that. (I would never sell or giveaway my collection.) And so I spent the better part of high school and college collecting music (yes, mostly downloading music). In fact, I had so much music, and I became so passionate about it that it was well known. It was my thing. What I didn’t foresee (and I know I should have) was that it would come to an end. At approximately 2:30pm, May 23rd, my external hard drive, the lone container of all my music, died.

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{ Tinker Toy Computer by almk }

Resolution

While it’s somewhat sad, I realize that this was entirely my own fault. I also know that I had a whole lot of stuff I never cared to listen to. Yes, I love the Beatles. Yes, I had over 40 bootleg Beatles albums. But when was I going to listen to them. This leads me to my plan.

I’m not going to try to recreate my music library as it was. I don’t need to. I can create a better, more useful resource.  Here’s how:

1. Get stuff I want to listen to. I don’t need everything. This isn’t to say my library will lack depth. I’m still an album-guy. I still love tracing musical history through roots and fissures.
2. Solicit friends to make one or two CDs of awesome music that they think I shouldn’t be without. Over the years I’ve given people a lot of music. Some bad, some good. People know me and what I like. What better way to fill out a library than with some friendly humanity! No thanks, iTunes Genius, I think my friends have me covered.

Bonus: Exciting News! Thanks to Kevin Costner’s Waterworld, we’ll soon have a clean Gulf of Mexico. Well, here’s hoping.

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