I crossed a line today. I bought this CD for the girls after they'd mentioned, in a casual, off-hand sort of way, that they might be interested in it. But there’s no such thing as a “casual” or “off-hand” comment when it comes to nurturing their interest in books and music, so I ordered it straight away and within a few weeks they were listening to it and loving it. Sometimes, however, they would neglect to put it on. So before a long drive I might say casually, “Shall we listen to El Dorado in the car?” And at night, before sitting down to dinner, I might say in an off-hand sort of way, “Who wants to put on El Dorado?” But I never listened to it on my own. After all, I’m cool, and not a child. But today, as I drove to my shop knowing that El Dorado was still inserted into the CD player from the night before, I turned it on. Just to listen to one song! But after the song finished, I wished I hadn’t done it. It just wasn’t the same.

Tarzan CD, $2, Vinnies, Sunbury
Brother Bear, 99c, Salvos, Watsonia

I didn’t set out to turn my daughters into Phil Collins fans. But even I get carried away with the opening sequence of the animated feature Tarzan, which is set to the pulsating rhythms of the song Two Worlds. So even though the girls adore the Tarzan soundtrack, I stopped short of buying them the cassette tape of No Jacket Required when I saw it in an op shop. But I couldn’t resist buying them the soundtrack to Brother Bear. Hey, what harm can it do…

Used CD, $4.86 plus postage,
Amazon Marketplace

I’ve always been Popular. I’ve never felt Popular, but apparently I am. Every so often I’ll think something I’m interested in just might be a little outré and I’ll excitedly go looking for it in Alternative. But nope, it’s always in Popular.  

Separate Ways, $2.99

Young women have started calling me darl. More specifically, young women working as barmaids have started calling me darl. At 35, I’ve now overtaken the age of the average inner-city barmaid; but she goes on calling me darl. I’m not sure how I feel about that.

The singer-songwriters whose CDs I’ve been buying have also gone from being (much) older than me to (slightly) younger than me. But then, that was bound to happen. If it didn’t, then I'd have to concede that I was just listening to the same old stuff, in rotation and ad infinitum. 



Tape, 20 cents

This plain-looking cassette turned out to be a treasure trove of animal-themed songs from the ‘40s to the ‘80s. There’s a folksy, fast-paced Daddy’s Taking Us to the Zoo Tomorrow, a big band arrangement of When I See an Elephant Fly, a husky bass-baritone singing Little White Bull and a slow and sultry rendition of Top Cat. Without this tape it might have been years before I realised my five-year-old was actually partial to a bit of swing, jazz, rockabilly, bebop, country and Hall & Oats; though Maneater isn’t technically about an animal. The tape was one of a jumble without covers in a big old op shop with furniture.

CD, $12

My six-year-old recently graduated from Peter Combe to Martha Wainwright. That’s right; she skipped Hannah Montana and High School Musical and went straight to the good stuff. It wasn’t without some encouragement from me, of course, such as making sure there was always a Martha Wainwright CD in the car once I realised she was partial to the singer-songwriter, but I still think it’s an inspired leap. My daughter may well revisit the bad stuff later on, though. After all, she has a mother who is a rabid Twilight fan, right down to owning a Twilight keyring. That’s right; the kind of keyring they normally sell to twelve-year-olds.

Blank tape, 50 cents

When was the last time you took a good look at your local librarian? If it has been a while, you might be surprised to find that he or she has evolved into a pretty cool customer. Once upon a time, the music collection at a suburban branch library consisted of some classical, a Dylan or two and maybe some Tina Arena. But there has been an attitudinal shift and most libraries are now as cutting-edge with contemporary music as they are with contemporary fiction. This may not mean much to the file-sharing, CD-burning generation but I’m still on dial-up internet at home and cassette tapes in the car.

AV cleaning kit, $4

When I choose to watch a TV show I’m not choosing to watch all those ads, nor am I always prepared to drop everything at precisely 8.30pm. Instead I set the timer on the VCR, watch my shows at my leisure - especially if there is a newborn in the house as there isn’t a lot on at 3am - and fast-forward the ads. This head cleaning kit represents my bid to keep the humble technology needed to do this in good working order, though sometimes, as I’m sitting there applying the scientifically-formulated alcoholic fluid, I do feel like a bit of a throwback. Fitting, I suppose, since the kit comes from an op shop with good stocks of Perry Como albums and a large assortment of Houndstooth apparel.

CD $1

My four year-old is a huge Peter Combe fan. When she got this CD she sat stock still on the couch to listen to it and even examined the liner notes, noting her hero’s thick head of hair in the circa 1991 photographs. Some of Peter Combe’s songs are especially enchanting to adult ears, but best of all, his heyday as a children’s entertainer came and went with nary a trademarked plastic toy nor cheap polyester top in sight. I found this CD in an enormous establishment that houses dozens of antique stalls. Most stallholders had supplemented their stock of meat safes, wall pockets, bed jackets and Bakelite canisters with cast-offs from their own lives. Hence the CD. And last month’s issue of Vogue next to a 1940s planter.