I was considering playing a record today and I was trying to remember
How does one select a record to play?
Why do we pick a particular record?
Moods
The album Tales from Topographic Oceans takes me back, way way back
Back to a formative southern California of the 1980s
An era of constant freedom and exploration and learning
It is complex enough to conceive as a grown ass adult
But just how did we do it as a 17 or 18-year old?
Why would a 17 year-old in Claremont driving around
In a tomato orange 1976 Toyota Corolla
With a stereo system far out-valuing the car
Play Tales from Topographic Oceans from beginning to end over and over?
Loudly
(Why am I doing that right now?)
(Loudly)
Influences
Fortunately I had an older cousin (Bruce) and a friend (Tom of Casa Flores)
They turned me on to some of the music that has stuck with me for a lifetime
I'm sorry but Bruce is dead
And honestly Tom probably is too because he always played fast and loose
(So many of my people are now dead like Dave Gary, Johnny B., Anya, Chris...)
(Florence said the worst part of growing old is all your friends die)
How did we pick an album then and how do we pick an album now?
How did we do anything then and how do we do anything now?
Especially now because everything so different
(Everything is also the same)
What is a record?
A document and a memory or a document of a memory
What if I were to randomly select some memories from my past?
What if I were to randomly select some photos from my past?
What would that tell you about me?
What would that tell me about me?
Who are these people and what do/did they mean to me?
What could I mean or have meant to them?
Life is a series of decisions and crossroads
(And all decisions and crossroads lead to other decisions and crossroads)
What do I mean to me?
What do you mean to me?
What do I mean to you?
Because life is randomness disguised as intent and planning
And we will never know otherwise
This is my story, this is my deal
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