06 Sep A groove on a record makes a sound
I can remember the first time I encountered a CD. I was enchanted by the pretty rainbow colors on the play side of the disc. I salivated at the absolute ease in which I could play my favorite song over and over again without toil.
Yes, I had my humble music beginnings in he 8-track tape. Sitting in a 66 Dodge Dart i would dread the end of my favorite song realizing I would have to sit through 4 so-so songs to hear it again. After a summer of too hot vinyl seats and Cola-Cherry Icees, I would start to enjoy the latter songs. I can remember hearing “Hey Tonight” by Creedence Clearwater Revival (Creedence to those in the know) ((CCR to the tragically hip)) and immediately singing the opening bars of “It’s Just a Thought” (A song I acutally didn’t come to love.. just got used to) and feeling shortchanged .. incomplete.. as the DJ shifted to some other song from another band. I remember popping a Zot (remember those candies that fizzed in the middle) into my mouth and asking my brother to pop in the 8-track CCR. He smiled knowingly and we both signed as we heard the last few chords of “Hey Tonight.”
Back at the homestead I spent many an evening with my ‘portable’ pink record player playing my 45’s. Begging my brother to let me borrow the orange die cut inset that kept the 45 from wobbling around. I was always losing those darn things and my player didn’t have a permanent one. One scratch on one of my records and it was the end of the fun. The diamond needle of my player carefully navigating the groove to emit a sound… ‘oh oh big old jet airliner.. don’t carry me too far away… oh oh big old jet airliner.. cuz its here that i got to stay.” Steve Miller was god to me then.
I had a deadline today. I am a wee bit late in producing some proposals for a couple of big hitters. I just haven’t been able to figure out why I am dragging my feet in creating the pre-game that will get me in the field doing what I do. I had a glorious lunch with a couple of friends teaching them some communication techniques to sell folks on the idea of their organization. In the middle of training, I realized that we all have grooves in our communication style- not necessarily ruts – just comfortable places where we go.
I was i the same industry for nearly 23 years. Today, as my friends left my office to take what we learned back to their organizatons.. I realized that my groove is not creating the right music for me right now. The groove I am in is belching out “I can feel your heartbeat” by David Cassidy instead of “Sweet Home Alabama” by LS. Huh?
My bio years ago said that for fun I enjoyed teaching classes. It seems that perhaps I have not caught up with myself yet. Um, Christina, you are doing the training now as your day job. You get to do this for fun – yes… and now you must do the work during the day. Not after hours when you used to do it.
I used to come home and work on the training stuff – it was fun. Now I have this sweet little boy waiting for me at home.. waiting for me to pop in some music (not by 8-track, record, or even CD … by On-line Internet Radio) Tonight as we danced to “BustAMove” by Young MC I promised myself i would never bring work home again. It doesn’t belong here anymore. The fun for me is watching this little boy learn the white man’s overbite dance. Who teaches them this anyway?? He is naturally doing that weird dance.. all on his own.
A new groove- a new tune. Yum.
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