Brother/Sister E-mail #1

From Brother:
Subject: Brother's feelings on his new field trip

I had a meeting yesterday ... and my supervisor has
given me blanket permission to travel to help.

So, when I got home yesterday, I thought I should find the right music
to set the tone. I subsequently found my Less Than Zero Original Motion
Picture Soundtrack, put it on Track #4, and cranked up "Going Back to
Cali" by LL Cool J 'cause I'm just that cool.

Whenever I remember to bring it in, I'll be playing it here in the
office whenever I find out the exact date I'm going.

From Me:
Subject: RE: Brother's feelings on his new field trip

Having that song in today's digital world would raise relatively few
eyebrows to those of us who remember music released prior to 1990.
Undeniably, we can all play songs from our youth that bring forth fond
memories and perhaps lend way to a few good laughs among good company.
However, we all read that you pulled out your "CD," which means that at
some point in time you willfully obtained and spent money on this entire
album. While standing in a retail establishment, you spotted this CD
and thought, "I should get that. This is a good idea" and thus further
expanded your immense CD collection. I've often wondered how you have
been able to acquire a collection of, at my personal last count, close
to 500 compact discs and thereby compiling one of the most eclectic
music collections this side of Plan 9 and other similar
patchouli-reeking emo establishments that no self-respecting untattooed
white chick with brushable hair from the suburbs should enter. Now I
have figured it out: you simply cannot be too discriminate. You must
live for the moment. Make the purchase. You recognize that at some
point in time, the soundtrack of life may necessitate any and every song
ever composed and you must be ready.

Thus, one must remain ready--Be Prepared, if you will--for any occasion
the soundtrack of life may need to further enhance--nay, illuminate--to
provide proper support of the moment.

And Brother, you are ready.

Never will you be forced to let the question of, "Will I have the
appropriate musical styling that will fit this precise moment with which
life has presented me" go unanswered. You already know the answer is
yes--yes you will have it. Whatever "it" may be, you will have it.
Less Than Zero: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack? Check. Spice
Girls' Spice World? Got it. Hall & Oats? Undoubtedly. Iron Maiden's
entire catalog and Hilary Duff are available as well for those
situations requiring their use. You are an example of preparedness to
us all. You, sir, are ready. Ready for life. That, unquestionably, is
gangsta. And it should feel damn good.


From Brother:
Subject: RE: Brother's feelings on his new field trip

...and on the way home, particularly on my way to and while I'm at the
airport to depart to come home, I shall play Phil Collins "Take Me Home"
from the "No Jacket Required" album, because that's the song played at
the end of the "Prodigal Son" episode of Miami Vice's Season 2 premiere,
when Crocket & Tubbs go to New York, and Crockett's waiting at the
airport, smoking a cigarette mind you (taboo in today's society, now he
would drink coffee), waiting on Tubbs to decide if he's going back to
Miami or staying in New York. It's a timeless classic.

Gene Simmons is in that episode, in the beginning, living a boat, I
mean, a yacht.


From Me:
Subject: RE: Brother's feelings on his new field trip

The Miami Vice Soundtrack should be at the top of the queue for this
field trip. Remember that it doesn't matter if it's heroin,
cocaine, or hash--you've got to carry weapons, because you always carry
cash. Considering they move it through Miami and sell it in LA, such an
occurrence is not absent from the realm of possibility and Glenn Frey
can most assuredly assist in adequately captivating that moment.

And please, for the love of God, if you must storm into a room for
whatever reason, you must be ready to amp up your partners and there is
but one sound bite that will adequately address that need: Leeroy
Jenkins. Yet one more reason why one's music catalog must always grow
and be open to additions no matter how large or small. Every moment in
life needs its musical support and none are too unimportant. No sir,
every moment bears with it its own importance.