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!

South Pacific Moves From My Grandparents’ House To Broadway

This week my grandma decided she wants to see South Pacific the musical on Broadway.  Which means that I get to go too!  Why does this make me nostalgic?  While I never saw South Pacific the original on Broadway (she has, of course), I’ve had some great experience with the story and music.

I used to eat dinner at my grandparents’ house every Friday night.  I still do occasionally, but when I was younger it was a weekly ritual.  Oftentimes after dinner, we would listen to old records on their phonograph, particularly old Broadway soundtracks.  Fiddler on the Roof, Hello, Dolly!, and South Pacific were among some of our favorites.  I would dance around her house while South Pacific songs blared from the semi-archaic record player.  She also had an old guitar of my uncle’s that I pretended to play (thankfully, I can actually play now, but I did “practice” from time to time…). 

When my grandma called me to tell me she purchased the tickets, she explained to me how nostalgic she felt about seeing the show with me and my grandpa.  She said this show would always be special for her because of the fun moments we shared bonding together and singing the songs.  Particularly “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair.”  We acted out the act of washing our hair while dancing around the den. 

I love Broadway, I love South Pacific, and I love my grandparents.  I can’t wait to see this show with them because the thought of it is making me feel as nostalgic as my grandma feels.

P.S. We are seeing this September 21st, so I’ll have to post my review

More Powdered Drinks – The “Koolest” Aid In Town

The “powdered drinks from my childhood” theme continues here.  Look who I ran into this morning:

Source: My personal photo

How many of you said “OHH YEAHHHH!!!” when you saw that?  I know I did (I hope he wasn’t terribly offended).  The elusive Kool-Aid man lives on in the hearts of “grown-up” children (unlike me) everywhere!!  What flavor do you think he is?  Mountainberry Punch?  Rock-a-dile Red?  Sharkleberry Fin?  Mmmmmm I can just taste that cold, artificial goodness running down my throat on a warm, spring half-day in fifth grade.  Of course, my parents would never buy the stuff so I was definitely on a play-date whilst enjoying this fantastic beverage.  Therefore, Mr. Kool-Aid Pitcher Dude reminds me of fun, elementary school play-dates (and super red tongues!!).  Man, he makes me look so short.

Did I mention this was taken on a Polaroid camera?  Classic.  That makes me think of, oh I don’t know, taking countless ridiculous pictures with my friends?  It also makes me think of Cher (Alicia Silverstone) taking Polaroid pictures of her outfits in Clueless.  :-)

However, I’m definitely not the only one who becomes reminiscent when running into the Red Man.  Check this out:

I remember the first time I saw this on Family Guy, which is one of my favorite shows of all time.  It just goes to show us all that Seth MacFarlane and all the guys over at Family Guy are also constantly having “flashbacks” and interjecting these bits of memory and nostalgia throughout the show.  It is the perfect placement of the iconic wall-crashing “OH YEAHH!” and reminds me of every Kool-Aid commercial as well.

Dane Cook takes this one step further:

He’s picking on our poor pitcher pal, but his commentary is hilaaarrrrrious so I HAD to post this here.  Dane remembers him, I remember him, Seth MacFarlane remembers him…do you?