The other day I was downloading some music on to my iPhone. That was right after I had downloaded a book. It struck me that there was something gone from my life that may never come back.
Record stores for one thing.
I remember going to Woolworths with my mom when I was 6, having a grilled cheese sandwich at the lunch counter, and then going over to the record department and picking out my first record.
I used to love to go to record stores and flip through the albums (yes, I remember albums and even singles!) and hear the music speak to me like a chorus as I made my way from Herb Alpert to Led Zeppelin. I loved the creativity of the album art and I even read the liner notes. And all around me were people there to feed their soul at this buffet of sound and lyrics.
Gone. Now, I hold my Shazam app up to a radio to find out what a song is that has caught my ear, get whisked through cyberspace to iTunes and then the song comes to me.
I think I have lost something.
Books- really no complaints. Love being able to just grab a book online and then read it on my phone a few minutes later. There are really no bookstores left- at least out here. I will still browse Denver's Tattered Cover for ours (fireplaces, overstuffed chairs....) or the Upstart Crow in San Diego (always keeping your fingers crossed for one of the coveted tables by the window nestled between Women's Studies and Philosophy book shelves where you read and sip arguably the best latte this side of a coffee bean. Or, less notably for aesthetics but with its own charm, Latitude 33 book store in Laguna Beach. This is a place where the owner will put the perfect book in your hand whether you want her to or not- whether she knows you or not- and she uncannily right.
Books and records....record stores and book stores. Shopping online and sharing thoughts online.
Some scientists believe that this is the beginning of the creation of a great cosmic consciousness- all of us connected through the net of cyber space.
Wouldn't it be a drag if the answer to the eternal question was Facebook?
