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Playing OHIO for others



I got my new work study student today, a very pleasant and handsome African American fellow named Justin. He's a freshman and he's from Wisconsin. He will be working two hours a day in my office for the next four months. If you've ever been in my office you've noticed two things: (1) It's a mess. (2) There is music playing. I told Justin the main portion of his job is to help me straighten away the mess, getting it all filed away into the appropriate folders. I wasn't so sure about what music to play, because I didn't know what music he liked (but I assumed he and I would like different music). I tried Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" first. That's a no-brainer. When it was over, I couldn't decide what to play next, so I just asked him what kind of music he liked, just to make sure I didn't put in anything he hated. He said he liked just about anything, so, after warning him that with me he could get anything from opera to death metal and anything in between, I put in disc 1! of OHIO.
 
From the opening bars of "BPD" he remarked that he liked it, so I left it playing while I went to a quick meeting across campus. Upon my return, I discovered he had started the cd up again when it was done. He told me that he had, in fact, repeated "Changes Come" two or three times. I showed him the jewel case and told him a little about OTR. His face visibly lit up when he found out there was a whole other cd to the album, which I promised to play for him tomorrow. I wonder how he'll react when there are nine other albums they've released in the past? I expect he will enjoy "Idea #21 (Not Too Late)" quite a lot. I especially like to contrast that song with "Changes Come" as they seem to be about the same thing, albeit from different perspectives.
 
It was small highlight, and feels like a kind of victory, not only that I played the cd for someone who liked it, but especially because I didn't expect him to. Yay, OTR.


Bradley S. Caviness, Bigwig
Bigwig Enterprises

http://www.bigwigenterprises.com


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