# so much music, so little time



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

I know a lot of people manage to go through life just listening to whatever they want to listen to, or listening to whatever they happen to be hearing. I can't do it.

The thing is, I have a pretty decent music collection - it'd take me about two years to listen to it all one time. And there's a lot more I'd like to get. Thanks to youtube, anyone willing to overlook some copyright issues can hear pretty much anything anytime. There's a lot legally available on things like Spotify. With that much music in the world literally at your fingertips, and life so short, how do _you_ prioritize? More importantly, how should _I_ prioritize? When the dishes are all done and you notice you've got a couple hours free, how do you decide which of your tens of thousands of options you are going to listen to next? How do y'all do it?

(I put a little joke in there. Don't take it too seriously. Just a joke. But, oh, dear, let us do take the question seriously.)


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

I hear you. In June, I decided to start listening to every classical music CD in my vast collection, knowing this was a long-term enterprise. I chose for an alphabetical order (per composer) to catalog them at the same time. Nearing the end of September, I have reached Bax - mind you, while saving a lot of Bach for the coming weeks to spread him out a bit and avoid overexposure. Just the A composers (From Abe to Avshalomoff) added up to 254 CD's (63 composers). It's crazy. I'm crazy.


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## D Smith (Sep 13, 2014)

Random or whatever I'm in the mood for usually works for me. I do enjoy Saturday Symphony here at TC and listen to whatever is featured that weekend. Along those lines, I like referring to the various TC recommended lists to keep my listening varied. I also check the composer birthday list and try and listen to at least something of theirs on their day. Birthday boy Shostakovich will be playing this Friday in a marathon.


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## bharbeke (Mar 4, 2013)

I keep spreadsheets or lists of what music I have heard, enjoyed, and want to listen to, and I update them as I go. If I am choosing to listen to music, I ask myself if I want to hear something new or something I know I will enjoy. From there, I can decide what artist, era, or composer I am in the mood to hear.

Listening to music should be fun. If it becomes work, the point has been missed.


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## Faustian (Feb 8, 2015)

D Smith said:


> Random or whatever I'm in the mood for usually works for me. I do enjoy Saturday Symphony here at TC and listen to whatever is featured that weekend. Along those lines, I like referring to the various TC recommended lists to keep my listening varied. I also check the composer birthday list and try and listen to at least something of theirs on their day. Birthday boy Shostakovich will be playing this Friday in a marathon.


Yeah, I usually make my listening selections on a whim as well. Sometimes I'm in the mood for a particular work, an old favorite, while other times I desire the excitement of exploring something previously unheard. Time constraints also play a part; if I'm in the mood for Wagner for example I have to make sure I have time to set aside 5 or 6 hours of my day to really take it in.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Much of my listening is new releases; the rest is random play or just whatever the mood takes me - often it's something I've seen mentioned on TC.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I run an earbud about 5 hours a day, 12 hrs on weekends. That is not prime listening because of distractions as I go about my evening routine etc. I get some better listening in the car. I really have little time to actually just sit down and l isten, so when I do it is opera on DVD.


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## manyene (Feb 7, 2015)

Alas, and alack, it was ever thus: books, television programmes too.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Art Rock said:


> I hear you. In June, I decided to start listening to every classical music CD in my vast collection, knowing this was a long-term enterprise. I chose for an alphabetical order (per composer) to catalog them at the same time. Nearing the end of September, I have reached Bax - mind you, while saving a lot of Bach for the coming weeks to spread him out a bit and avoid overexposure. Just the A composers (From Abe to Avshalomoff) added up to 254 CD's (63 composers). It's crazy. I'm crazy.


You most definitely are crazy.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I'm pretty random. One reason I don't put all my recordings on a giant external drive is, I look around, and whatever catches my eye gets played.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

i never thought about this as a problem before. It doesn't take me long to work out what to listen to even thought there is justness much to hear. Sometimes I spend a while on Spotify listening to bits of things I don't know and might like, and this helps me gain knowledge for the future.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

science said:


> I know a lot of people manage to go through life just listening to whatever they want to listen to, or listening to whatever they happen to be hearing. I can't do it.
> 
> The thing is, I have a pretty decent music collection - it'd take me about two years to listen to it all one time. And there's a lot more I'd like to get. Thanks to youtube, anyone willing to overlook some copyright issues can hear pretty much anything anytime. There's a lot legally available on things like Spotify. With that much music in the world literally at your fingertips, and life so short, how do _you_ prioritize? More importantly, how should _I_ prioritize? When the dishes are all done and you notice you've got a couple hours free, how do you decide which of your tens of thousands of options you are going to listen to next? How do y'all do it?
> 
> (I put a little joke in there. Don't take it too seriously. Just a joke. But, oh, dear, let us do take the question seriously.)


It basically comes down to two options: listening to music that you know you enjoy or have a high chance of enjoying (e.g. already familiar composers and repertoires, periods) and second, listening to music that you know much less well of (or even unknown), in which case you may also enjoy (a new positive discovery) or music that you reject as unworthy for now (maybe for later as a revisit). Which means more to you? I think most people mix the two to different amounts. In the long run though my elder relatives go back to what they love more. That all makes perfect sense to me.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

I only have 10 operas to listen to, but I feel your pain. Still can't sing Act 2 of Gotterdammerung by heart, but working on it!


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

For the past 2-3 years I have mostly explored new music or music I might have heard but did not enjoy. I keep a very long list of composers and specific works culled from TC or various websites. I'm constantly adding to my list by reading TC threads and visiting websites. The vast majority of this music is modern/contemporary or pre-Baroque. I would guess that 80-90% of my listening is modern/contemporary and probably 90% of that is new or "heard but disliked". Sometimes I just go down my list usually finding works on the Naxos Music Library. Sometimes I focus on a particular composer (recent ones are Schnittke, Rautavaara, and Wuorinen). 

I'm not sure when or if my period of "manic" discovery will end. I imagine that, at some point, I will focus more on the works I know and enjoy, but I'm sure I will never stop exploring. As the thread says, "So much music, so little time." That would be OK if there weren't so much wonderful music.


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

Don't worry about "how to do." By that time it's already too late. Just do.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Couchie said:


> I only have 10 operas to listen to, but I feel your pain. Still can't sing Act 2 of Gotterdammerung by heart, but working on it!


I think you should check out La Traviata. Act 2 is a blast. Jam packed with adventure and fun for the whole family (nah **** that)


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

Once I went to a trip to the Sahara desert. Actually I have been there more than once (I'm quite fond of travelling - I'm also working in the travel business) but I'd like to briefly speak of this one.

I was in my 20s and we were three friends. Instead of hiring 4WD vehicles as usual, we hired local Tuareg guides, camels (méhari), we bought food and we started our 14-days "expedition" from Agadez (Niger) to the Aïr Mountains and the border of Ténéré.

When we were back home all our friends were concerned about the fact that we spent 14 days in the Sahara and toured/saw so little. You can imagine that If you are travelling with camels you can make no more than 20-25 km per day, so the area covered by our tour was indeed VERY small.

Anyway, I really didn't care, to me travelling through less than 0.000001% the Sahara surface was a life time experience. It's not a case that I'm still dealing with travels on a professional level.

Now, in my 50s, my approach to music listening is not so different. 
I'm perfectly aware that I'll have not enough time in my life to listen to all I'd want to, but I don't care any more. 
Just follow my mood of the moment, making short terms listening projects and try to buy not too much CDs (I have to admit that the last is the hardest...)


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

These days my listening is mainly based on just what I spontanenously decide to listen to, but objectively there´s less listening, and I seem to have developed a taste for a certain personal "core repertoire". There´s still some adventurous listening too though, because of a incredible amount of very cheap bargains and the amount of music of my collection.


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## Guest (Sep 24, 2015)

I've found that there's always plenty of time for music.

So what is your goal, to listen to everything or to enjoy thoroughly whatever it is you're listening to at the moment? If it's the former, I have no idea how you could possibly accomplish that. There's simply too much. But instead of thinking of "too much" as a bad thing maybe try thinking of it as a good thing. When I was young, I used to feel really intimidated by large cities. So many people. So much activity. It's overwhelming. But that's only one possible attitude. Think of the amount of music as a good thing. So much music--you will never run out of things to listen to. Like how I feel about large cities now. I only feel comfortable now in a really large town. It's Barcelona at the moment. Almost too small. The larger the town, the more things there are. The likelier it is that you'll easily find people you really like and have a lot in common with. The likelier, too, that you'll find people you never thought you'd like but who turn out to be perfectly delightful and have become close friends. And always something going on. You never lack for something to do or someone to do it with.

That's the best I can come up with for ya, science. The point of listening to music is to thoroughly enjoy whatever it is that's playing, to the best of your ability, not to be overwhelmed by the amount of music there is that you're not listening to, yet, and don't know if you'll ever get to. You won't ever meet every single person in the world, either. Some of those people could be people you like very much. But you'll never know. Best to thoroughly enjoy the people you do know. And be thankful that you will never lack for friends because there are so many people in the world--there will always be someone you like who likes you.

You will never run out of new music to listen to. Ain't that great?


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Like is read's on that fictional encompassing dictionary:










Life as we know it might end tomorrow, so stop worrying about it and listen to music instead, cuz, listening is much more important then worrying!

/ptr


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

ptr said:


> Like is read's on that fictional encompassing dictionary:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Ha! Thursday is almost over for me and I didn't see any bulldozers or plans for an intergalactic bypass!


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## helenora (Sep 13, 2015)

The entire thread reminded me of an aphorism by Karl Kraus "where can I get much more time to read less?"


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

It seems that most of us feel that if you have time to listen to it, listen to it. If you don't, don't worry about it.


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## Ilarion (May 22, 2015)

Morimur said:


> You most definitely are crazy.


Morimur,

Please be charitable to our brother Art Rock, ok?:angel:

And as some counterpoint to this thread - Shostakovich said about his disciple Sviridov's creations:
"So few notes, yet so much music."


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## haydnfan (Apr 13, 2011)

I usually listen to what is new in the mail, or what I'm in the mood for, or something random on a whim. If all else fails I fall back on Haydn and Bach.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

I reach for a Schubert album, become ashamed of myself for doing so yet again, and then flail about at random for something else on my shelves in a blind panic.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Today, three sets arrived in the mail, a 1CD set, a 2CD set, and a 3CD set. I decided to listen to the single disc first and then go in increasing order. Probably because that is the quickest way to experience all three. Alas the 3 disc set is probably going to have to wait for tomorrow.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

There's simply too much music out there—the majority of which is terribly lazy, inept and naive. I wish we had more quality and less music.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

"You're so lucky, young men, you're so lucky. You have so much beautiful music to discover. And I have heard all of it. Unfortunately."



I go very slowly. I've discovered lots of new music this past summer, particularly Sibelius and some "bronze" level Russians, i.e. Russians who are so obscure, even Russian fans (such as myself) hardly even heard of them before, and they have very few works even recorded. I got back to some old music that I listened to maybe 5 years ago, but wanted to rehear again. _Rehearing _music is a big part of my music consumption these days. I keep enjoying them and finding new things. That's why I listen to very little _new _music overall. All the Sibelius I've discovered, I wanted to listen to it 2-4 times over this summer.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Blake said:


> Don't worry about "how to do." By that time it's already too late. Just do.


Best answer :tiphat::cheers:


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Blancrocher said:


> I reach for a Schubert album, become ashamed of myself for doing so yet again, and then flail about at random for something else on my shelves in a blind panic.


lol 

lololololololololololol


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

some guy said:


> I've found that there's always plenty of time for music.
> 
> So what is your goal, to listen to everything or to enjoy thoroughly whatever it is you're listening to at the moment? If it's the former, I have no idea how you could possibly accomplish that. There's simply too much. But instead of thinking of "too much" as a bad thing maybe try thinking of it as a good thing. When I was young, I used to feel really intimidated by large cities. So many people. So much activity. It's overwhelming. But that's only one possible attitude. Think of the amount of music as a good thing. So much music--you will never run out of things to listen to. Like how I feel about large cities now. I only feel comfortable now in a really large town. It's Barcelona at the moment. Almost too small. The larger the town, the more things there are. The likelier it is that you'll easily find people you really like and have a lot in common with. The likelier, too, that you'll find people you never thought you'd like but who turn out to be perfectly delightful and have become close friends. And always something going on. You never lack for something to do or someone to do it with.
> 
> ...


We've had this conversation before.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

I've enjoyed this thread, particularly the zen-ish responses. 

Anyway, one assumption that most people seem to have is that we listen to music in order to enjoy the music.

I don't think that's true in my case; or, perhaps better, there is an intermediate step. I enjoy listening to music most when I am learning something about it. One of the attractions of classical music (and other intellectual-ish traditions such as jazz) to me is that it has so many complexities for me to discover. I don't of course mean "discover" as if I am going to figure out anything that no one else has figured out, but that I'm going to learn to actually hear what other people have figured out about the music. The more direct "this music makes me feel so good" thing isn't a very big part of my experience. 

So for me, one way that I prioritize my own listening is in terms of how much I want to get to know the music better. I want to be more educated; the question is, which of my abounding ignorances do I most urgently want to correct? In practice that usually means prioritizing my listening in terms of how famous the music is. 

I don't believe there's anything wrong with my approach, and in fact I think a lot of us here actually have similar values, though perhaps we haven't all thought of it this way. Or perhaps other people here have thought of other ways to conceive of these values, and some of them might be more precise or enlightening.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

science said:


> In practice that usually means prioritizing my listening in terms of how *famous* the music is.


I want to rephrase this. By "famous" I mean something like, "likely to come up in a conversation I'd find interesting with people I'd find interesting."


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## Piwikiwi (Apr 1, 2011)

science said:


> I want to rephrase this. By "famous" I mean something like, "likely to come up in a conversation I'd find interesting with people I'd find interesting."


Hahaha, I often do the same and not only with classical music, but also with Art and Literature


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Piwikiwi said:


> Hahaha, I often do the same and not only with classical music, but also with Art and Literature


Me too!

That's the thing.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

science said:


> Anyway, one assumption that most people seem to have is that we listen to music in order to enjoy the music.
> 
> I don't think that's true in my case; or, perhaps better, there is an intermediate step. I enjoy listening to music most when I am learning something about it. One of the attractions of classical music (and other intellectual-ish traditions such as jazz) to me is that it has so many complexities for me to discover.


I strongly agree. For me much of my musical explorations do two things. In some cases I find I like a work immediately (much more likely with older music than with modern/contemporary). In other cases I believe I am "learning the language" of the composer. I am starting to become more familiar with the style such that I am capable of enjoying the work. Of course, I don't expect to ultimately enjoy every work, but my listening gets me closer to that possibility. I find the process compelling and almost magical.



science said:


> In practice that usually means prioritizing my listening in terms of how famous the music is.


(Incorporating you definition of "famous"), I definitely do the same, but I think for a somewhat different reason. I have found that my tastes seem to align with the tastes of the classical listening community. If many listeners on TC recommend a work or composer, there is a higher chance of me liking that music than a work or composer recommended by many fewer listeners. So for practical reasons, I'll check "popular" recommendations before other ones.


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## Ilarion (May 22, 2015)

Morimur said:


> There's simply too much music out there-the majority of which is terribly lazy, inept and naive. I wish we had more quality and less music.


Morimur,

I quite agree that there is too much inept, lazy and naive music. I will refrain from asking you to qualify your statement because I perceive it to be your observation and therefore will respect it as such. And as another counterpoint to this thread: "Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music."

Cheers :tiphat::wave::cheers:

Ps: YES, more quality is of the essence.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Perhaps another way of looking at it, or of stating the same thing, is that I want to know about the music that a person I'd like to be like would probably know about.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Ilarion said:


> Morimur,
> 
> I quite agree that there is too much inept, lazy and naive music. I will refrain from asking you to qualify your statement because I perceive it to be your observation and therefore will respect it as such. And as another counterpoint to this thread: "Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music."
> 
> ...


I just can't look down on composers like that.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

Morimur said:


> There's simply too much music out there-the majority of which is terribly lazy, inept and naive. I wish we had more quality and less music.


I suspect there are works which may be the product of laziness, ineptitude, and naivete. But are you referring to recorded classical music? Those works could be the product of composers not working as hard as they could, having less talent than other composers, or being less worldly or knowledgeable than others, but I wouldn't consider them lazy, inept, or naive.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

science said:


> Perhaps another way of looking at it, or of stating the same thing, is that I want to know about the music that a person I'd like to be like would probably know about.


Well, until we know exactly the kind of person you'd like to be like, that's going to be tough for us to answer.
Personally I'm happy being like myself (I'm actually pretty good at it too!).

Let me ask you this: you're the only person who voted for Donnacha Dennehy's _Grá agus Bás_ in one of my recent polls; does this fact put you closer to or further from your goal?


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Having the freedom, free time and resources to listen to music and being able to explore and discover music in great detail as we do, well, I think it's a frikkin privilege. So make the best use of your time. I listen to lots of music while commuting these days. It works for me. The background noise isn't unbearable.


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## Muse Wanderer (Feb 16, 2014)

Music on my handheld mobile device - 64GB of music stored for few months. I delete once I listen repeatedly to every single piece and start the process again. Perfect for listening in the car on my way to work via noise isolated earphones. 

Music on my external hard drives - classical now amounts to a big chunky 6TB! It is overwhelming to choose at times. Depending on my mood I pick and choose. At times I leave the computer play on random overnight and in the morning I am surprised by so many albums I would not have even considered.

Only in exceptional circumstance do I listen to lossy files. It is just not worth the time and effort, so no youtube or Spotify for me.

In the future I may turn to vinyl and that will be a whole different ballgame, we'll see..


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

And that is why, my friends, I stick to my Germans and Austrians, with a few exceptions. Except that I feel I don't know even the Germans and the Austrians as well as I want to.


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## Guest (Sep 25, 2015)

science said:


> We've had this conversation before.


Yes, I did wonder why you made a new thread for an old topic, but your "I'm returning" post in area 51 mentioned something about turning over leaves. New ones, of course.

As the "conversation" you cite consists entirely of a string of brief quotes from me, arranged by you, and a single interjection from you, perhaps nothing really has changed.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

some guy said:


> Yes, I did wonder why you made a new thread for an old topic, but your "I'm returning" post in area 51 mentioned something about turning over leaves.


If I'd made this thread before, I've forgotten - as you perhaps forgot your past anti-list threads when you started the most recent one.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Nereffid said:


> Well, until we know exactly the kind of person you'd like to be like, that's going to be tough for us to answer.
> Personally I'm happy being like myself (I'm actually pretty good at it too!).
> 
> Let me ask you this: you're the only person who voted for Donnacha Dennehy's _Grá agus Bás_ in one of my recent polls; does this fact put you closer to or further from your goal?


Closer. I know I'm not the only one who has heard that! Of course, had I heard another work by Haas, or gotten to know one by Penderecki better, I would probably be closer than I am.


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