Repeating Playlists

I live over a record shop. I’m lucky to have the apartment. A vocalist had first dibs, but she decided the record shop’s music would drive her nuts. I had no such qualms. They stock music I like. I don’t mind overhearing music. It’s kind of nice, actually. There’s always some background tones.

Over Christmas they started repeating the same play list over and over and it included Christmas songs and was driving me insane. I came back from break and there was something new on. Huzzah! But it’s still on. The same CD. On repeat. Every day. For five hours a day. Coming through my floor. The same seven songs. Loudly. Over and over. Every day.
So I was coming into my apartment and heard the same CD again, so I went into the shop. The shop owner was arguing with a customer over something involving receipts. She asked me what I wanted. I said, “I’m your upstairs neighbor. I don’t mind that I can hear your music through my floor. It’s kind of nice, actually. But you’ve been playing this same CD over and over again and it’s starting to drive me nuts.”
I’m happy to report that the shop owner was a total asshole. “This is what I like” she said. “In a few months, I’m gone from here. There’s absolutely nothing else I can play. All the new stuff coming in is shit.” I’m looking surprised and looking over her shoulder at the Nirvana box set, at Kraftwerk, at Ladytron, and Peaches and shelves and shelves of CDs.
“There’s nothing else?” My eyes were on the shelves and shelves of CDs. “Do you want to borrow my ipod?”
“No, there is nothing else but soon I am gone. I’m with a customer.” she gestured at the man with the receipts and her angry eyes dismissed me.
Well, in a few months I’m gone too. She acted like I was being totally unreasonable. She’s been listening to the same CD for over a week. I’ve been listening to her same CD for a week. I could try to drown her out, but I know from experience she would just turn up louder. (I asked her once if my music was bleeding through and bothering her. She said it was not. (This was not snarky on my part, sound design is very important for a record store.))
In other news about me going crazy, I have an appointment with a shrink scheduled. Yay me. All the shrinks in the Netherlands that deal with gender issues are at a university hospital in Amsterdam. I do not have an appointment with such a shrink.
Finally, while I tag my old posts, some RSS readers like bloglines and livejournal are publishing old posts as if they are new. This is a bug, because they are ignoring the post date in the feed. (Safari does not have this bug.) Those of you being annoyed by this should consider filing bug reports.

Edit

She’s been playing this same CD from before. This is the one that was driving me crazy before Christmas. It’s been a month. jldgsfljgsdfgSLJDF

Edit 2

The record shop owner just knocked on my door and explained that she was pissed off at the customer, not me and that she has a cold and can’t hear and she switched the CD and turned it down and explained their marketting policy about their playlists. So it’s all ok now.

Published by

Charles Céleste Hutchins

Supercolliding since 2003

2 thoughts on “Repeating Playlists”

  1. so *that’s* why it’s been doing this! I thought you were going through your blog and rereading them or something.

    smurfette

  2. Hi Les,

    Thanks for the pics from the cd presentation. BTW, the person that you tagged Guy Harries is actually, Han Buhrs! Guy is the “guy” who sings with tap dancer Marije Nie.

    I remember that you said to Adri that we should have a dinner with the four of us sometime soon. Nice idea!
    My agenda is still quite empty.
    Shall we mail to find a date?

    Luc

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