“You Have Been Randomly Selected…”

“What is this?”, you may be asking.  That is easy. It is a CD, they contain music and you put them in a player of CDs and the songs on them flow out and surround you and make your spirits soar.  “Why do I have these?”, you may also be asking.  Well, that is a little harder to answer because it involves assumptions, some back story and a little self-pity as well.  But since you did ask, even if it was only after I stated that question for you just now, I’ll tell you the why.  Here’s the back story.  Last year, I wrote up my Year In Music review and posted it on FaceBook and my blog and asked people to let me know if they wanted a copy of the CDs I made.  Many of you did.  I hope you enjoyed hearing them because I enjoyed sharing them with you.   

This year, I wrote up a music review again and posted it on my blog (http://richardsrantingandramblings.blogspot.com/2012/05/year-in-music-2011.html).  I made a batch of CDs in anticipation of sending them out to people again and I asked you to let me know if you wanted one.  That was the assumption part.  Now here comes the self-pity part, which is a little pathetic, I must say, and I don’t look that dignified by revealing it either but I’m going to say it anyway:  No one asked for a CD!  Not a single person.  Granted, the offer was made way down in the fourth paragraph and sounded a little off-the-cuff and casual but still, no one asked.  That meant either they didn’t want one or they didn’t read the blog post.  Both of those possibilities made me feel a little sad.  I might even have teared up a little.  I’m not saying I did, mind you; I’m just saying “maybe”.  (Okay, I did.)  Now I have ten CDs left that are just sitting around, as a constant reminder that I’m not they aren’t wanted.  It’s a little depressing so I have decided to send them out to people and give them a new home, a place for the my own inhabitants of the Island Of Misfit Toys.

You have a set in your hands right now because you were randomly selected from my group of friends and acquaintances because either 1) You asked for them last year and I’m going to pretend that you wanted them again this year but forgot to ask me (Just work with me here, okay?) or 2) You seem to be interested in music and might appreciate hearing some new things.  That is the “Why” and the “What” and now things are in your hands, literally.  These are really good songs, really.  Really.  You might not like all of them but I’m hoping you come across a couple that you like a lot and that get stuck in your head, an earworm that lodges itself so deep that the song comes to you in the shower, or in the car or even when you are dreaming.  Please give these songs a home. For only zero cents a day, you make life better for this CD.  Act now- go put them in your CD playing device and show them that somebody cares.  Then tell me they are in a better place, that they are better off than when they were gathering dust on my shelf.   You can lie to me if you like, I don’t mind.  If just one song is better off than before, I will consider this awareness campaign a success and I will thank you for that.  But I sure as hell won’t pre-make any discs next year.