To love is to surrender. To understand is to destroy mystery. To know is to give up innocence. To be is to stay in one mode of existence. To forgive is to forget retribution. To listen is to lose voice. To live is to die To die is to live To trust is to risk To risk is to expose To expose is to be weak ... but to be weak is to surrender. To surrender everything... is to truly love.

                                                     there is no           
                                                                      best



                                                                               only destiny                                                                                          
                                                                                            to fulfill

MP3 players have become the bain of music. Long gone are the days when music used to be something exclusive and something of worth and value. I remember days when I could actually stand listening to a song over and over again. I remember such low tech days in which I would record the same song over and over again on tape due to lack of a "repeat" function on walkmans. The advent of the internet, mp3, and file sharing for that matter has diluted the novelty that has surrounded music that I fondly remember many moons ago. Gone are the days in which one would borrow a CD or tape from a friend and record them onto a tape so that it could be listened to on a stereo in the bedroom or car. Now... I can hardly stand listen through a whole song on my iPod. Listen to the intro... flip... next song. Over and over again. Technology has spoiled me, and I have lost... in part... my pure appreciation of good music. Don't get me wrong here... I heart my iPod... it's one of the greatest gifts you can give a person... the gift of music.... whoa... that sounded like some corporate endorsement... Anyhoo... where was I... ah yes. Yes, I acknowledge that it's good that we're stickin' it to the record labels... and I think these labels are taking the WRONG route to the solution. They must somehow bring back that "special something" back into music... stop concentrating so much on profits and numbers, and FIND... not produce... music that can be enjoyed by all... hmm... I'm not making much sense here. IGNORE THE LAST PARAGRAPH. When I think of tapes... it simply brings me back to my childhood. Memories of dancing to the Ghostbusters soundtrack in the basement of Cecilia and Emily's house back in the day. My first walkman... an Aiwa with an external speaker that my parents got me from LA. How the music starts to slow down when the batteries on the walkman start dying out. The R & B mixtape I made with Boyz II Men and Mariah Carey. Who could forget the Seo Taiji and Boys tape that I sang along to without having a CLUE as to what they were saying. (Only now do I fully understand what they were talking about.) Even though technology gives us more freedoms... it really can be a killjoy.