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Hoarders: Media Edition

Meghna Mahadevan

respect the .mp3, revere the .wav

I generally freelance and one of my jobs is working in nightlife as a DJ in Atlanta. Through my craft, I've been very lucky to be able to connect with dancefloors and people around the world. Also, throughout this process, being involved in the nightlife art scene has also come with some personal difficulties that have also made me feel a bit disconnected from Djing, a craft that I love and which brings me so much joy.

I've discussed some of these disconnections I've been feeling with friends (particularly Sanjeet! s/o Sanjeet) and got many suggestions on how to better re-connect with my self that relates to music. Some important ones include:

(1) switching back to wired headphones. I like the physical connection and feeling plugged in and signaling that I'm plugged in to others. The music quality is also better lol

(2) Using my phone as an iPod! I love this decision, too. Instead of using streaming apps on my phone, I'm happy to listen to more files I have collected accessed from my curated finite collection.

If you DJ with CDJ's you know the sacred tool that is the USB. I love my USB! I have three, but I have a favorite one that I mostly use. It has archives of every gig I've played in the past few years, it has stories, it has energy, it is important to me. Right before I headed out for my trip to India, I thought I was cleaning up my USB, I SADLY deleted an important folder on it. .·°՞(≧□≦)՞°·.Now, I mostly still have all those files on my computer, but they are NOT organized. I then, in trying to retrieve the files, CORRUPTED my usb (╥﹏╥).

However, I'm an optimist..... lol. And I want to use this opportunity as another way to deepen my connection to my craft and to music. I take a million photos and collect a lot of music, which I think I'm realizing- I'm becoming a media hoarder. My computer and USB are filled with duplicates and messed up files, never cleaned or organized. I see how much love and effort producers put into their tracks, I want to honor that and have less music but know it So well, be So connected to each track.

So, I am on this endeavor to write a script to help me mass organize 12,000+ digital tracks on my computer.....