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This will sound like hyperbole (and it is), but the most betrayed I have ever felt is when I was in high school, and I was on MSN with my high school boyfriend, talking music, and I mentioned a song I really really liked that he had never heard. (I'm 90% sure it was Smashing Pumpkins' "Galapagos" - very pretty song, I think, to this day!) So I said, "hey, why don't I send you the song?" Which I did... as an .mp3 file. I think it took 20 minutes to send it over to him. And then he listened to it.

And then he listened to it, and reported back five minutes later, "Sorry, this song is shit!"

I know it's odd to say that this (presumably torrented) MP3 file is like the brisket you cooked your mom, but I think there's something similar going on here - you imbue some artifact with your heart and give it to someone. I think if contemporary life robs of chances for connection, it's not because we lose the physical CD, it's because we lose the ability to give the CD to someone else.

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This is great and I agree

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I like it.

Back when I lived on a beach and went snorkeling regularly, I used to think about how the resistance of all that water pressure gives you the ability to "fly" in three dimensions underwater. Without resistance, you're just a bottom feeder.

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Ah, I like this a lot!

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I prefer hiring the travel agent! Lol 😆

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For more support of your idea about lack of friction making music worse -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bZ0OSEViyo

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That was excellent! It may lead to a direct follow up on this essay

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