I am trying to balance work and play as the summer begins. So, last night and this afternoon–it is Saturday, after all–I skipped working on the syllabuses and played with music instead. I couldn’t find all the Cat Stevens music I thought I had imported before I gave the CDs to my nephew. Turns it they all got imported, along with music by Be Bo Deluxe, Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, Elton John’s 11-17-07, and more. Oh, The Strawbs, too, which was Rick Wakeman’s band before Yes. I have been immersed in music: identifying track titles and albums. Some are easy…like the Cat Stevens. The Strawbs and Be Bop Deluxe were a little harder because the music was new to me when I digitized it. I used a combination of Google Music and Rhapsody to identify the songs. It does seem like a few are missing, but I’m sorting now. And, I can’t believe I didn’t digitize any Kate Bush or Don’t Shoot Me I’m Just the Piano Player by Elton John.

A bit later: Turns out a lot of this music is on my old iBook. Still running Classic and there in the iTunes folder was more music: Jethro Tull, Don’t Shoot Me, and lots of other stuff. I’m burning a CD and hope that transfer will be easy.

The next step is to figure out how I used to record music on that iBook. I’ve got my iGriffin dongle and it showed up in the Sound Control Panel. I have SoundEdit installed but when i tried to open it, it crashed. Hmm…I’ll wait until the CD is done and then see what else I’ve got. I seem to remember there might have been a problem with SoundEdit and the dongle.

Meanwhile, I dug out three Kate Bush albums (The Kick Inside, Hounds of Love, Never for Ever). I haven’t followed her…frankly, I haven’t really followed anyone except maybe Neil Young and Bob Dylan. Plus, I’m trying to keep up with new music! The amount of music out there is staggering. Right now, I’ve got 8.5 days of music in iTunes. And I’m about to import at least another day or two.

Free time is fun! I have projects to work on, but nothing so pressing that I have to give up weekend time. If it is rainy tomorrow, I’ll have great music to listen to as I work on writing syllabuses.