# Desert Island Discs



## Guest (Jul 30, 2015)

This used to be a popular BBC 4 show. I dunno, maybe it still is.

Anyway, several years ago, I met some guy (no, I didn't meet myself--it was some journalist or other) at a small dinner party and damned if he didn't ask me what my one desert island disc would be. Well, I gave him an answer, just to shut him up, but now I'm going to ask you all a similar question.

It can be a fun game.

So here's your question, if you were marooned on a desert island with electricity (come on, let's at least be logical, even in our absurdity), which 5,000 discs would you want to have with you?

[Next week, favorite books!!]


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## MrTortoise (Dec 25, 2008)

Consistently on my Desert Island list has been Gould's Goldberg Variations. These days I may opt for another recording, though I still love the Gould, vocalizations and all, but some form of the Goldberg's is on it.


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

5,000 discs? Awesome that's about 4 times the size of my music collection


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## Guest (Jul 30, 2015)

Do we have to narrow it down to 5,000?


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

some guy said:


> This used to be a popular BBC 4 show. I dunno, maybe it still is.
> 
> Anyway, several years ago, I met some guy (no, I didn't meet myself--it was some journalist or other) at a small dinner party and damned if he didn't ask me what my one desert island disc would be. Well, I gave him an answer, just to shut him up, but now I'm going to ask you all a similar question.
> 
> ...


How on earth do one get 5000 disc to a island?


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

To hasten insanity - then, much easier to cope with isolation


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## Guest (Jul 30, 2015)

Pugg said:


> How on earth do one get 5000 disc to a island?


Well, apparently, you and the discs are flown to the desert island with electricity and then somehow everything breaks down in the world, and you cannot leave the island, ever.

Presumably, the electricity also fails, but the hosts of the bbc show are remarkably reticent about this detail.

Anyway, just list the 5,000 discs you would select to be the only discs left for you to listen to. (It's a game, not real life, but some people apparently do have to buy some more discs in real life so that they may play the game.)


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## Guest (Jul 30, 2015)

I need some general data regarding the environment/climate/fauna/flora/etc. As it is, how am I to know which discs of Francisco Lopez or Natasha Barrett would be rendered entirely redundant?


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## pianississimo (Nov 24, 2014)

it never specifies the size of the island.
The UK is an island and already has considerably more than 5000 disks. 
I want to be invited onto this programme so I can confound them and tell them I don't want any disks, just a free spotify account, my piano and an unending supply of electricity, vodka and cheesy wotsits. I don't want to be rescued.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

I think I'd be perfectly fine with about 1000. The island better be outfitted with state of the art stero system.


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## Guest (Jul 30, 2015)

Due to being quite risk-averse, I think, all factors considered, I'll be choosing 5,000 copies of one disc.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I'd opt for the collected symphonies of Leif Segerstam but being limited to 5000 discs would mean leaving some of the cycle behind.


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## padraic (Feb 26, 2015)

Why this crazy number? 5000 albums is over 5 times the size of my entire music collection to date, and I certainly don't feel particularly bereft of music. The point of "desert island" is to find those albums without which one simply cannot live, the number I see bandied about is usually like 10-20.


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## Balthazar (Aug 30, 2014)

I would opt for 5,000 frisbees. 

I wouldn't need to worry about power supply, they could help keep me fit, and I'd have a few back-ups as some would inevitably get washed out to sea.


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

I think 'some guy' is being facetious.

He is making fun of the threads were someone asks what is your favorite single whatever.

This is one time where I get the joke.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

anybody who says he has 5000 favorite albums does not even have a clue of what favorite means. At least he has lived for 500 years and has a the most incredible memory in the history of humanity.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

norman bates said:


> anybody who says he has 5000 favorite albums does not even have a clue of what favorite means. At least he has lived for 500 years and has a the most incredible memory in the history of humanity.


If people on a certain social networking site beginning with 'f' can have 5000 friends, why not 5000 favourites?


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

5,000 discs? Does this involve skeet shooting?


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## Grizzled Ghost (Jun 10, 2015)

Some Guy is a champion of listening to music with an open mind, without pre-judgement or even solicitation of recommendations from others. As far as I can tell, Some Guy would be happy waiting for a tornado to hit a massive record store (with a very good selection of modern works) and then picking up 5,000 discs at random. Even this though would constrain you to listening to those works of music previously recorded on discs -- which is a serious limitation.

I think the correct answer to Some Guy's question is: "Surprise me!"


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## Proms Fanatic (Nov 23, 2014)

The BBC Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs is still going strong and requires you to choose *8* pieces of music. You can also take one "luxury" item with you, so some people take a musical instrument with them.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Arpeggio got it right. The 5,000 is tongue in cheek.


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

Can we select the desert island? I pick Maui, Hawaii. 

My selection of 5000 discs will include all major works from 1780 to 1880.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

This 5000 disc requirement discriminates against senior citizens. My lifetime accumulation of music consists of about 4000 CDs. By the time I acquire the next 1000 I may be too old to travel or, possibly, dead. Are there HUD-subsidized islands where the rent is based on a percentage of your collection, or any that give AARP discounts? I already have all the Haydn symphonies and more than enough Bach cantatas, and I can't see resorting to Lachenmann and Ferneyhough just for a limitless supply of clams and coconuts.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

Right then, made my list, counted them up and it comes to 5001
Now I can't decide which one to leave out.
Decisions decisions


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

There are lots of classical recordings I just love, but if I had to live on a desert island with only a handful of them, I would still get terribly frustrated . I'm the type who craves variety in classical music . 
I would still get horribly bored with just a handful of classical recordings .


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

DaveM said:


> Can we select the desert island? I pick Maui, Hawaii.
> 
> My selection of 5000 discs will include all major works from 1780 to 1880.


I could live with just works from this century. It would be more fun to have works from all centuries.


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## Guest (Jul 30, 2015)

GreenMamba said:


> Arpeggio got it right. The 5,000 is tongue in cheek.


Actually, the 5,000 is the serious part.

Seriously, we spend way too much time narrowing things down to just a handful of things, and almost the same handful, too. It's bewildering and kinda creepy, actually.

Even in a recent list of only three composers, we are asked to narrow that down to one. Say what? Three is too many? Since when?

Of course, none of it's really real. All of those favorite this and best that and most popular the other thing, none of those have any real effect on anything--all that is what is most definitely tongue in cheek.

But I think it all conceals something that is real, though, hence the 5,000. And that is the idea that it's somehow better, more critcally valid, more morally uplifting, too, I'm sure, to winnow. It's the whole wheat and chaff thing. Which comes from a Bible story, so it must be morally uplifting. Stands to reason, eh?

But while winnowing works great with wheat, that whole idea breaks down pretty badly when it comes to other things that aren't so, um, grainy. Including people and the arts people make.

So anyone who's not up to 5,000 yet but getting on in years, get crackin' by cracky! Time's a wastin'. Here you've been wasting your precious few years with cutting down, or worse, letting other people do the cutting down for you, when you could have been expanding.

I know some wine connoisseurs who believe that life is too short to drink bad wine. I believe that life is short, too, too short to let other people decide things like that for you. (I.e., how do you know it's bad unless you try it yourself? Hmmm? How can you become a wine connoisseur without doing all your own drinking?)

Drink up, friends.:tiphat:


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

I'll go with 5000 Beethovens. He's the most popular of classical composers, right? This way I can't go wrong; another advantage is I won't have to give the matter much thought. After all, thinking is bad for the body. Yes, another great decision on my part.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

some guy said:


> So anyone who's not up to 5,000 yet but getting on in years, get crackin' by cracky! Time's a wastin'. Here you've been wasting your precious few years with cutting down, or worse, letting other people do the cutting down for you, when you could have been expanding.


Suddenly I don't feel so bad for spending part of the afternoon listening to Little Boots.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

I'd want the batteries that powered the transistor radio on Gilligan's Island through many TV seasons. Come to think of it, it must have had a heck of a tuner as well.
In no particular order:
Bartok-MSPC and Concerto For Orchestra--Fritz Reiner/CSO
Bach--The Art of Fugue--Jordi Savall
Bach Goldbergs--Sergey Schepkin, p
Beethoven--middle String Quartets--Hungarian Qt.; Complete Piano Sonatas, Annie Fisher, p; Symphonies--Szell; COmplete PCs Perahia/Haitink
Debussy--Chamber Music-Boston Chamber Music Players Preludes--Michelangeli
Shostakovich---Eith String Qt--Borodin Qt
Mahler--Symphonies--MTT/SFSO
Handel-Water Music--AAM
Rzewski--The People United etc--Ursula Oppens
Vaughn Williams--5th Symphony/Lark Ascending--Bryden Thompson


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## Grizzled Ghost (Jun 10, 2015)

Some Guy seems to be advocating unconstrained gluttony.

There is a school of thought that says we should de-clutter our lives. We should surround ourselves with only those things that we truly love − things that generate an immediate, positive, warm feeling when we see or hear them* − and give away everything else.

To do so requires asking ourselves some hard questions − such as what kind of music do we really like and why? Pushing ourselves to understand ourselves takes guts and a large dollop of self-awareness.

Not only would reducing our collections of classical music greatly enhance our personal feeling of well-being, but we would also liberate unwanted albums so that they would have a chance to find owners that really care for them − via used record stores and whatnot. 

I'm beginning to understand that we have a moral responsibility to be as discriminating as possible so as to minimize our footprint on the natural world! 

Don't listen to Some Guy! 5000 discs is selfish and destructive! Be more selective!




* this is measurable by the way


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## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

Could the Op list his 5000 discs?


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

just think of this. If one is not very selective (actually not selective at all) could have a favorite for every ten albums listened. That means 50000 albums. Let's say that those non favorites are listened only three times, a superficial listening. It requires the time to listen 45000 albums three time, and let's say at least 10 times for those favorites (I actually listen my favorite music hundreds of times). That means that to the previous time to listen 135000 albums it must added also the time to listen just once 50000 albums. So how many hours in a single day and how many decades of listenings it requires something like 185000 albums? And I'm using numbers of someone that can be called a tourist of music who listens everything very superficially.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

I would randomly select a desert island disc, somehow. Maybe print out a list of discs I have, cut up that list, put the cut up pieces of paper in hat and draw out one randomly. That should help.

In reality this is very unlikely to happen. I have the luxury of listening to discs that engage me and reject those that don't.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Here's the first part of my list. I'll post the rest later.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

I will start off with every Ring Cycle ever recorded, whether legitimate or not. Add in all the permutations and various releases of the Callas performances and I maybe at 20% of my list. 

BTW, can I count each 78rpm record as a separate item in the 5000?


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## EDaddy (Nov 16, 2013)

Uh... we're seriously supposed to list out 5,000 discs and actually have a real life at the same time?


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Selecting 5000 discs IS real life, the rest is all fantasy.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

EDaddy said:


> Uh... we're seriously supposed to list out 5,000 discs and actually have a real life at the same time?


Never having had a real life, I am not worried about this.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Grizzled Ghost said:


> Some Guy seems to be advocating unconstrained gluttony.


As long as the bank account can handle it, why not?


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## Chipomarc (Jul 18, 2015)

Remember if you go to the island with only itunes the theoretical library limit is about 2,147,483,648 files.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Does the island have Wi-Fi?


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## Chipomarc (Jul 18, 2015)

brotagonist said:


> Does the island have Wi-Fi?


Yes but it's very slow


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## Guest (Jul 31, 2015)

Dr Johnson said:


> Could the Op list his 5000 discs?


Of course not. I haven't gotten to 5,000 yet.

That's the point. I enjoy listening to music. Listening to music is not taking away time from anything. It is time spent listening to music, which I enjoy.

Why would I even mention time? It takes time to be with this certain woman I like. But if I'm aware of time at all in this context, it is only that there's not enough time to spend as much time with her as I'd like.

It's the same with music. The only time time enters into it is realizing that there's not enough time for all the things I'd like to hear. But even that. I'm focussed on the music, not on the clock. The clock is only there so that I don't miss my next time with that nice female person.

I get the feeling sometimes, on any of the music boards I've ever wasted (!) any time on, that I'm surrounded by people who don't really like music. Well, my cat is meowing at me. I guess I have to take up a lot of my precious time now petting her and scratching her chin. SO TEDIOUS.


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## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

some guy said:


> Of course not. I haven't gotten to 5,000 yet.
> 
> That's the point. I enjoy listening to music. Listening to music is not taking away time from anything. It is time spent listening to music, which I enjoy.
> 
> ...


Please forgive the clumsy errors in understanding of a newcomer to the forum.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

To start with 


The complete discography from *Dame Joan Sutherland* , worlds most Beloved Prima Donna



The complete recordings from* Freni*, one of the most versatile singers .



And as guilty pleasure all recordings by *Renée Fleming *

And last but not least the complete recordings by Lucia Popp


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## Guest (Jul 31, 2015)

Dr Johnson said:


> Please forgive the clumsy errors in understanding of a newcomer to the forum.


I did not read your request as being either clumsy or in error.

Plus it afforded me the opportunity to make a really smashing post of my own, can't be bad.


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## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

some guy said:


> I did not read your request as being either clumsy or in error.
> 
> Plus it afforded me the opportunity to make a really smashing post of my own, can't be bad.


Hurrah!............................


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

No discs! I will join the natives in their socio-musical activities in the hopes of being offered one or two of their beautiful daughters for marriage.


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## Celloman (Sep 30, 2006)

My desert island discs would be frisbees so I can catch the rainwater.


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## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

Haydn man said:


> Right then, made my list, counted them up and it comes to 5001
> Now I can't decide which one to leave out.
> Decisions decisions


I made my list, counted them up and it comes to... -300  I guess I just have to choose 5300 more....


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## Guest (Jul 31, 2015)

Dim7 said:


> I made my list, counted them up and it comes to... -300  I guess I just have to choose 5300 more....


Surely you mean 4700 more.

(Yay! I found someone who's worse at math than I am!!)


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## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

some guy said:


> Surely you mean 4700 more.
> 
> (Yay! I found someone who's worse at math than I am!!)


Well dunno, maybe you did, but negative numbers don't seem to be your forte.


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## padraic (Feb 26, 2015)

some guy said:


> I get the feeling sometimes, on any of the music boards I've ever wasted (!) any time on, that I'm surrounded by people who don't really like music.


I personally hate music. Especially classical music. SO BORING


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## breakup (Jul 8, 2015)

some guy said:


> Surely you mean 4700 more.
> 
> (Yay! I found someone who's worse at math than I am!!)


There are 3 kinds of people in the world,

Those who are good at math,

And those who aren't.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

padraic said:


> I personally hate music. Especially classical music. SO BORING


Me too. That's been my secret agenda all along, to infiltrate the classical music world, gain its trust and replace it with country-rap.


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## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

5,000 is about right for a favorites list. I could do this pretty easily, the hard part actually writing them down. 

A couple quick questions first:
#1 - Does it have to be all classical music or just my favorite 5,000 CD's from all genres? 
#2 - For box sets do you count the actual number of CD's included? 

It might take me a week or two or three but I would have no problem narrowing down my favorite 5,000. I have no idea how many albums I have right now but I know it's easily over 20,000.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Dim7 said:


> Well dunno, maybe you did, but negative numbers don't seem to be your forte.


Negative numbers are pianissimo not forte.

Can I use imaginary numbers? That would make it soooo much easier!


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## echmain (Jan 18, 2013)

Just an audiobook, "How to get rescued from a desert island".


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

realdealblues said:


> 5,000 is about right for a favorites list. I could do this pretty easily, the hard part actually writing them down.
> 
> A couple quick questions first:
> #1 - Does it have to be all classical music or just my favorite 5,000 CD's from all genres?
> ...


I don't know how old you are but to consider a "favorite" an album every four it's certainly incredibly far from my idea of favorite music.


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## jenspen (Apr 25, 2015)

Dr Johnson said:


> Please forgive the clumsy errors in understanding of a newcomer to the forum.


I'm just guessing that you're not the Doctor Johnson who said "All animated nature loves music - except myself!"

and also asked:

"And pray, Sir, who is Bach? Is he a piper?"


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## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

jenspen said:


> I'm just guessing that you're not the Doctor Johnson who said "All animated nature loves music - except myself!"
> 
> and also asked:
> 
> "And pray, Sir, who is Bach? Is he a piper?"


No 

Although I love his remark to a violinist: "Difficult, do you call it, sir? I wish it were impossible!"


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I've often wondered what I would choose if the BBC ever asked me this question, and it's actually pretty impossible. How could any real music lover restrict their choice to just 5. For the rest of your life you would only have 5 discs to play.

At first I thought about being facetious and taking the whole of the recent Callas Remastered box,










but, actually maybe I wouldn't need to. So deeply are her inflections, her individual accents etched into my brain, that I can hear many of them without listening to them. Ditto some of my other favorites, those discs that come out time and time again.

Maybe all I need is the silence and my memories.


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## Guest (Aug 1, 2015)

realdealblues said:


> 5,000 is about right for a favorites list. I could do this pretty easily, the hard part actually writing them down.
> 
> A couple quick questions first:
> #1 - Does it have to be all classical music or just my favorite 5,000 CD's from all genres?
> ...


Hah, you have outwitted me.

No culling!

Expansion only!!


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## Grizzled Ghost (Jun 10, 2015)

Consume! Consume! Consume!

Don't think, just consume!

You love ALL music!

You can never have enough!


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Grizzled Ghost said:


> Consume! Consume! Consume!
> 
> Don't think, just consume!
> 
> ...


I remember a time when I was listening huge amounts of different things everyday. After a while I've realized that I didn't remember anything of a lot of things I had listened, not even those I liked and it wasn't adding a lot to the things I knew. It's much better to me to really have time to enjoy and understand the music I really like than had that superficial touristic approach.


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## TurnaboutVox (Sep 22, 2013)

Becca said:


> Can I use imaginary numbers? That would make it soooo much easier!


Can I use imaginary works and imaginary recordings, please? I'd like my entry to be a great work of fiction...


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

TurnaboutVox said:


> Can I use imaginary works and imaginary recordings, please? I'd like my entry to be a great work of fiction...


Sure. Let's start with your first √−1 recordings.


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## TurnaboutVox (Sep 22, 2013)

Mahlerian said:


> Sure. Let's start with your first √−1 recordings.


My first √−1 recordings are certainly imaginary. The problem is that for them to be made real they'd have to be squared and negative. I don't like square, negative music - it's neither popular nor good.


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## Guest (Aug 1, 2015)

I can't believe you said that about squared, negative music.

Why that's the very best music there is!!

I'm not imagining that, am I?


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## Andolink (Oct 29, 2012)

Perfect. At 5000, I can just grab my whole CD collection and go!


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## EDaddy (Nov 16, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> Never having had a real life, I am not worried about this.


Well even a fake life then! Real, fake, surreal, unreal, whatever you want to call it... 5000 is a _LOT_ of discs to list out. Perhaps it's just me and my ADD tendencies.


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## breakup (Jul 8, 2015)

TurnaboutVox said:


> Can I use imaginary works and imaginary recordings, please? I'd like my entry to be a great work of fiction...


Would this work for imaginary, by Beethoven, "Quasi Una Fantasia".


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)




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## Clayton (Nov 10, 2013)

Mahlerian said:


> Sure. Let's start with your first √−1 recordings.


it was called i


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

I have found a dessert island disc for sure,


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## Guest (Aug 3, 2015)

OK. Here goes...

1 Symphony No 1, Beethoven
2 Symphony No 2, Beethoven
3 Symphony No 3, Beethoven
4 ...
...
...
5000 Symphony No 5000, Beet-


Oo-er...sorry, I must have dozed off!


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