Wow. Maybe not just like that, but boy what a fun analogy! Glistening grapes. I feel like I just swerved and missed the guardrail by two inches on purpose.

Anyway. In all the time I've been fooling around with guitars and keyboards and microphones, I've always made much of my experimentation ("music") free to others. To me it was, as they say, a "no brainer." If you like my junk enough to play it, then I'm happy! Granted, as time went on and more and more people wanted copies of each new tape that I would personally hand out to my friends, I had to think about charging at least a little money to help finance it. Because in the beginning I was actually losing money from buying casettes and cases (remember cassettes?) and spending time making dubs, xerox copies, etc. I was fine with that. Didn't even really think of it as "losing money." No way! Just knew that 13 people wanted a tape. So I had to make thirteen cases. A lot of time, as at first I was handwriting all the credits and letters on the tapes with a tiny brush! But it was love, not work. I had so much fun finding a cover image, putting those final mixes in the final order, handwriting the credits. Coming to a house party and finding one of my songs on? Are you kidding? Granted, these people had 8 kegs delivered to their parties, so by the time a few hours went by you could find about anything on the playlist.

I'm not commerce minded. It's been very hard for me to get used to charging money for art, or even for my time and knowledge of things. I've been drawing and being praised or punished for it (doing it at the wrong times, or drawing things that upset people) all my life. You know what I'm interested in? Making music. Painting. Drawing. Writing. Performing. Making art. Not in marketing it, talking about it, or charging money for it. But I've learned to charge money because the alternative is to deplete my time and not be able to remain self-sustaining. And I've become used to it through bartering, in the beginning. There were times when what I made was all I had to give, and I would do custom work on call, for rent, or in trade for aquatic brazilian centipede refills, etc.

Mp3s. The huge debate over "filesharing." I have my philosophy on it, and basically its that you really shouldn't be so uptight over it. Music wants to be shared. It's here to do many things for us, but make one rich? Nah. I say nah. And I'm an independently produced musician, so it's not like I want everyone else to give away free stuff. I just like the idea of music being shared. And to tell you the truth, any time a musician gets freaky about this stuff, it turns my stomach. It turns my stomach to see megastars (and I mean like Madonna or Metallica) who are living in such a way that they may as well be royalty start clawing at pennies. It's gross and I have no respect for it.

This is a long way round. I wanted to say that I won this CD in a little write-in contest, and I enjoyed both winning it, getting it in the mail, and listening to it. And I'd like to share it. I have made my fair use copy (whatever) and want to give it away. So I won't ask you the question I was asked: to name your five top favorite hip-hop songs and talk about why...because I really don't feel this disc has a lot to do with my love of hip-hop. It's more of a "remixed 70s tunes" disc. If you have ever liked these songs, and your taste in format is flexible (not a lot of preconceptions about "hip hop beats" or sampling, etc) then this disc is supercool. But I would predicate the enjoyment primarily on if you can feel anything for the originals of these songs, which may have something to do with growing up in the 70s in the hippie culture of America or "progressive" mainstream 70s America, I don't know what the hell it would be called, or whatever. I don't do focus groups and I don't know all the proper discussion terms. It's sort of moot, because you can hear all the songs here.

I'll try to keep the question relevant. I'll mail ya this snazzy disc if you share a memory of the time you first remember hearing either Rod Stewart's Do ya think I'm sexy, Gary Wright's Dreamweaver, Charles Wright's Express Yourself, Nicolette Larson's Lotta Love, the Doobie Brothers' Listen to the Music, or any song by Devo. Have any interesting thoughts when you first heard that song (any of those)? Was it an interesting situation you were in when you heard it? Does someone you care for have an obsession with one of these songs, or do they in any way resonate with you for any reason? Tell me a little story. I will thoroughly enjoy all stories, if any are tasty, I'll post excerpts, and I'll mix them up in a hat and pick one at random for a winner. You don't have to be a regular commentor, either, so come on! If you decide you really want this disc and don't even have a cool memory, email me and say so. Maybe I'll toss your name in the hat anyway.

*Of course, if you heard all these and thought not a thing about them or never heard any of them or hate the mixes without even a twinge of deliberation required, well, that wouldn't make a very interesting email and in that case, I will feed your note to my pet lizard. And dance while he eats it.