iTunes Album Art Gets Nostalgic

Before iPods, there were CDs.  Before CDs, there were cassette tapes, but let’s not go there.  Before I got an iPod or iTunes, I bought CDs – lots of them.  We had a local Sam Goody’s in my town (which is now a bank) and I used to go every weekend to pick up a new album.  This warranted a semi-desirable CD collection, however there are many hidden gems in that dusty stack that I still listen to, to this day.

Now, when I started using iTunes and my iPod (old, original white thing…that still works!  Ok I’m not that vintage, I do have an iPhone…), I decided to upload many of my old CDs into iTunes, which made sense.  I didn’t want to just download new music, I wanted to listen to all my old stuff in this new, innovative way.

Everyone knows that when you download a song from iTunes, you download an associated “album art,” which is usually a picture of what the CD cover looks like.  If you upload CDs into iTunes, unfortunately you don’t upload it’s associated album art.  Instead, a placeholder image appears, which looks like this:

via: Flikr

Now, this is lovely if you like musical notes.  However, recently I began to really miss the old CD covers that I grew to love.  A friend told me he started clicking and dragging album artwork into a space at the bottom of iTunes that looks like this:

via: Pain In The Tech

This has been proving to be an extremely arduous task, however, it’s really fun looking up some of my old album covers!  For instance, I found the first three CDs I ever owned, which are (in order or appearance in my boombox):

via: Amazon.com

via: Amazon.com

via: Amazon.com

This really made me think about browsing the shelves of Sam Goody.  And my old CD collection.  Although iTunes really cuts the clutter and makes listening to music so easy, there is something about having a physical CD library on display in your home.  My CDs are still there, collecting dust along with my old Discman, but hey, at least I can “look” at them on my iPhone whenever I want!

Holiday Time In NYC

I love the holidays, especially in NYC.  It seems like the whole city is wrapped like a present (for eager tourists!).  No, seriously, the city is decked-out in beautiful lights, intricate store displays and lots of very happy people!  Despite our troubles that seem to linger in the air like rotten eggnog (and those “troubles” will remain nameless, because we’ve all heard enough!) this time of year gives us all a wonderful opportunity to remember what’s important in life.  Aside from our good friends and family – all those things that make each one of us feel special in our own way.  So, the holidays always make me feel nostalgic because I can’t help but reflect on the past year and all that has happened, both directly to me and in a larger sense throughout the world.  A lot can, and does, happen in 365 days.

One moment that is especially nostalgic for New Yorkers is the lighting of the humongo tree in Rockefeller Center.  This year marked the 76th Anniversary of the Christmas Tree, and posted below is one on-looker’s personal video of the extravaganza (not me!  I’m a New Yorker!  Do you think I’d be caught dead attending the tree-lighting in person?! )

Aside from the Rockefeller Center tree-lighting, here are some things that make me feel especially nostalgic during the holiday season (in no particular order):

Menorahs

Snow

Vacation

Hot chocolate

Pumpkin and cinnamon flavored things

Teddy bears

Ice-skating

Scarves

Bulky, turtle-neck sweaters

Soup

What makes you nostalgic during the holiday season?