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The Dross

30 Sep 2007 04:33 pm

McMegan explains that "The lone benefit of losing all my CD's in the move to Chicago, and then my MP3s in two separate hard drive crashes, is that I have no dross--no embarassing choices left over from my adolescence, no random songs downloaded while writing the annual GSB follies." That drossless collection comprises 2,406 tracks. I, having been well-backed-up for several years now, have managed to compile 8,609 songs not all of which are among my absolute favorites.

It seems to me, though, that being in easy possession of a certain amount of random material is one of the great pleasures of the internet age. I wouldn't say that I ever really spend much time listening to The Advantage's rendition of the "Dr. Wiley Theme" from MegaMan 2, but it's sometimes amusing to play it for others during those moments when the conversation turns to memories of youth. And I prefer to think of Anti-Flag's "Captain Anarchy" as more a monument to a past era than an embarrassing choice left over from my adolescence. And who wouldn't want to own Avril Lavigne's live cover of Green Day's "Basket Case"? And the alphabet contains so many more letters. My only regret is that I don't have way more dross.

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Comments (23)

Girls just don't have the collector gene when it come to music. Genetic research has proved this beyond all doubt.

I agree completely.

An apt title for a post referencing McArdle and her thoughts.

Look, we all know your boss wants you to drive traffic to the other Atlantic bloggers, but no matter how many times you link to her, I for one am not clicking across.

I feel like you feel like you have some obligation now that you and she are part of the Atlantic empire to quote from Megan McCardle. I guess that's the downside of being paid to blog.

I've lived not unhappily for the past 2 years not reading her - my own stab at a dross-free life - and have been quite content.

I don't know how old Megan is, but when I turned thirty I started to feel huge "Citizen Kane"-style waves of nostalgia for the personal dross of my childhood and youth. (Fortunately, this was about the time eBay appeared.)

From a life-efficiency standpoint, then, I'd advise everyone to preserve as much of their personal dross as possible. It will obviate the need for time-consuming re-drossing when one is old and sentimental.

(Also, as far as "easy possession" goes, it might be overly optimistic to assume that everything will be available forever--for example, try finding anything by the Pooh Sticks on P2P.)

I like how the whole post is a link (no doubt this will be corrected in the fullness of time, leaving future historians to infer the original state of the post from this clue). Er, driving the point, er, home, eh? Never mind, it's boring.

I just found three P2P-able Pooh Sticks albums in under 10 seconds.

Maybe if we could just limit the "mcmegan" posts to one a day. That would be progress

How do you have room for any dross when you only have 8,609 songs?

>>I don't know how old Megan is, but when I turned thirty I
>>started to feel huge "Citizen Kane"-style waves of nostalgia for
>>the personal dross of my childhood and youth. (Fortunately,
>>this was about the time eBay appeared.)

WAY too true. One of my prize possessions reclaimed from eBay is the Sixfinger spy toy ("Sixfinger, Sixfinger, man alive! How did I ever get along with five?"). Now I want that James Bond attache case.

14,552 with dross aplenty...

'Dross' is when you have way more than 8,609 vinyl albums. Love that dross though.

I'm with Nat, except for the part about "dross." Vinyl is supreme, CDs are acceptable. Downloading is for people who are only pretending to like music.

That first-part-of-Wiley theme from Mega Man 2 has a wonderful melody, and it's really well suited to being covered by real instruments. I've just been listening to the Minibosses and NESkimos versions of it...

I thought the whole point of MP3 players was publicity-free enjoyment of stuff that one would be embarrassed to play for a crowd, or that annoys one's significant other? I have a number of ABBA songs on my iPod, which I can enjoy without offending my disco-hating husband. (I'm quite old enough to be the mother of all Atlantic bloggers but James Fallows and everybody who comments here, so those songs are from my early teens.) I can also listen to Wham!'s "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" without incurring the ire of the office music snob. I can't understand wanting to eliminate dross. Dross is the entire point.

That second Advantage album is truely good though. I listen to it with about the regularity I listen to my other music.

I just found three P2P-able Pooh Sticks albums in under 10 seconds.

Do they include Orgasm? It's pretty rare that one finds someone who knows someone who knows the Pooh Sticks.

It's pretty rare that one finds someone who knows someone who knows the Pooh Sticks.

I know someone who knows someone who knows the Pooh Sticks quite well.

"It's pretty rare that one finds someone who knows someone who knows the Pooh Sticks."

I had an LP of theirs on the Fierce label years ago, but it was misplaced when I moved out of my cave.

We don't have any dross in our music collection. Unless you count the Jane Fonda workout LPs.

I have the Dragonball Z and Telefrancais themes on my mp3 player, and I'm damn proud of it. Count me firmly in the dross count (and yes, I am a girl).

Megan 2 x 4, IMO, sees all the past as "dross." She's trying to run from her past, even though the Internet keeps on bring it up.

But, really, music files stored as data is created to permit more dross in less space. A Donna's album might be more Donnas than I can handle. Thus, I would part with it without much reservation. But an empegg of their cover of Crue's "Too Fast for Love"? That's the raison d'etre of compressed digital music formats!

I suspect that you a wee bit older than mcmeagan and thus more nostalgic for dross


Comments closed October 14, 2007.

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