The Great CD Listening Project
Inspired by Sweetie's past project I am starting a CD listening project of my very own.
Here are the current guidelines for my project, although they are subject to change at any moment based on a whim I may have:
- The Swankette CD Listening Project shall take place exclusively at the gym, while working out.
- Any CDs shorter than 30 minutes in length (i.e., CD singles) shall be exempt from the project.
- I shall listen to one CD per workout. If a CD is longer than a workout, I reserve the right to roll it over to a second workout, or to not listen to the whole CD.
- Although I will listen to nothing but that particular CD for the workout, I reserve the right to skip songs on the CD if the CD is longer than the workout.
- I shall listen to each of our CDs sequentially as they are stored in the CD racks. This means that I will start with the bizarre Japanese techno-pop CD given to my by my brother (that defies alphebetization due to the fact that the title is in Japanese and translation would be near impossible), and I will end with The Minus 5's "Let the War Against Music Begin" (And before Joe goes all librarian on me, it's part of a two-CD set with Young Fresh Fellows which holds the final spot on the CD racks at this moment)
- If/when we obtain new CDs and I have not yet reached their spot in the sequence they will be worked into the mix. If I have already passed that spot in the lineup, I will have the option to either incorporate it or not as my whim sees fit.
Part of the goal of this challenge is to get to know Sweetie's CDs. I also want to determine what the "best" workout music is, because not all great music is great workout music. From my unscientific CD-listening-while-working-out thus far I think that good workout music either a) contains short, uptempo songs (i.e., Me First and the Gimme Gimmes) or music that I forget how much I love until I'm listening to it (i.e. Liz Phair) With these two factors in mind, and given that Sweetie's CD collection is more about depth than breadth, the following rule applies:
- If I have determined, beyond a reasonable doubt, that an artist is not workout-appropriate I reserve the right to skip the remainder of the CDs by that artist. Although The Beatles occupy more shelf-space than any other, I don't fear having to invoke the rule for them. The Indigo Girls and Aimee Mann may be different stories.
Perhaps I shall occassionally post reviews of CDs on my blog. But given that we've got a LOT of CDs, I work out 3-5 times a week, and I don't listen to CDs during every workout we're currently looking at probably 2+ years for me to complete this.
Which means the pool must begin now as to how far I make it through the project before I give up. Bonus Points if you name the actual artist. Bonus Bonus Points if you can name the final CD of the project.
Here are the current guidelines for my project, although they are subject to change at any moment based on a whim I may have:
- The Swankette CD Listening Project shall take place exclusively at the gym, while working out.
- Any CDs shorter than 30 minutes in length (i.e., CD singles) shall be exempt from the project.
- I shall listen to one CD per workout. If a CD is longer than a workout, I reserve the right to roll it over to a second workout, or to not listen to the whole CD.
- Although I will listen to nothing but that particular CD for the workout, I reserve the right to skip songs on the CD if the CD is longer than the workout.
- I shall listen to each of our CDs sequentially as they are stored in the CD racks. This means that I will start with the bizarre Japanese techno-pop CD given to my by my brother (that defies alphebetization due to the fact that the title is in Japanese and translation would be near impossible), and I will end with The Minus 5's "Let the War Against Music Begin" (And before Joe goes all librarian on me, it's part of a two-CD set with Young Fresh Fellows which holds the final spot on the CD racks at this moment)
- If/when we obtain new CDs and I have not yet reached their spot in the sequence they will be worked into the mix. If I have already passed that spot in the lineup, I will have the option to either incorporate it or not as my whim sees fit.
Part of the goal of this challenge is to get to know Sweetie's CDs. I also want to determine what the "best" workout music is, because not all great music is great workout music. From my unscientific CD-listening-while-working-out thus far I think that good workout music either a) contains short, uptempo songs (i.e., Me First and the Gimme Gimmes) or music that I forget how much I love until I'm listening to it (i.e. Liz Phair) With these two factors in mind, and given that Sweetie's CD collection is more about depth than breadth, the following rule applies:
- If I have determined, beyond a reasonable doubt, that an artist is not workout-appropriate I reserve the right to skip the remainder of the CDs by that artist. Although The Beatles occupy more shelf-space than any other, I don't fear having to invoke the rule for them. The Indigo Girls and Aimee Mann may be different stories.
Perhaps I shall occassionally post reviews of CDs on my blog. But given that we've got a LOT of CDs, I work out 3-5 times a week, and I don't listen to CDs during every workout we're currently looking at probably 2+ years for me to complete this.
Which means the pool must begin now as to how far I make it through the project before I give up. Bonus Points if you name the actual artist. Bonus Bonus Points if you can name the final CD of the project.
posted by Swankette at 9:07 PM
4 Comments:
Given how completely schooled I've gotten in a debate about how you store your CDs, I have absolutely no desire to "go all librarian on you" regarding the order in which you listen to them.
Although I am feeling a strong urge to give you a Warren Zevon album just for completeness' sake...
Warren Zevon would NOT come after Young Fresh Fellows (or XTC, and I think there are others that I just can't think of at the moment).
Joe--you'll have to get her a ZZ Top collection if you want to be complete...
See, even when you're not trying to go all librarian on our asses, you're going all librarian on our asses.
Oh, darn it.
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