@ www. theotherpress.ca Life&Style Stuck in Purge-atory The delete key By Laurel Borrowman, Life & Style Editor I have way too much stuff. You probably do too. Stuck in Purge-atory is a weekly chronicle of the quest by my roommate Emily and I to get rid of extraneous excess in our lives by giving away or throwing out one thing everyday until the end of time. I love computers. I love phones. I LOVE the Internet. I love, love, love technology. I’m not even a huge techno-nerd. I bought my laptop over three years ago, and am pleased it’s still in pretty ship- shape. I don’t have a Smart Phone (actually, it was just over a year ago that unplugged from a long stint with a landline and rejoined the wireless world). I do spend a lot of time online, but I swear I’m not addicted (first sign: denial). The point is, I don’t think our world is being ruined because of technological advancement, or that communication is breaking down because of the rise of the Facebook empire. It’s changing, and I’m cool with that. Technological advancements have made us, in many ways, a hell of a lot more efficient. Think about how much space all the research papers you read online take up in paper form. Think about all the movies you've pirated on to your computer, and the number of closets you'd need if you had to store those in VHS format. Think of all the music you have in your iTunes library, and how many walls that would cover if you had them on vinyl, cassette, or CD. It’s a lot of clutter, but now that it’s all been transformed into a bunch of ones and zeros, and resides only on chips and sticks in the magical wonderful world of the digital, we don’t notice it so much. Just because it doesn’t take up a lot of space physically, doesn’t mean it won't bog you down mentally. Which leads me to the main topic of discussion in Purge-atory this week: the delete key. My roommate Emily and I love music. She actually is a musician (a violinist, and a damn good one). Aside from playing the saxophone in grade four, and knowing one song on my Casio keyboard (“Never Tear Us Apart” by INXS, obviously, but that’s another story), I can’t say the same for myself. I usually rock the hand-claps, the air- punches, and the slap-chops. I am a solid appreciator of music. And so is Em. And our apartment shows it. So, when I woke up in a post- Saturday night haze—M83 and a rad triple-bill at Anza (Shot Royalties: check them!)—scrolling through the 8000+ songs in my library, searching for the perfect tunes to segue into a lazy Sunday, and continually getting distracted by musical garbage, I knew something had to change. Specific details of the iTunes cleanse are below, but I will say now that I went from about 8000 songs to 7400 songs. I admit that the simple drag-and-drop from iTunes into the trash was anticlimactic; it would have been far more dramatic to Frisbee each jewel-cased CD (600 songs is about 40 albums) off of the back deck, letting them smash into a shiny, mirrored mess in the back alley. In the same vein, Emily also did her share to cleanse the digital realm by spending some quality time purging old phone numbers. To be more specific, boys that she has a number for, but has no desire to talk to or hang out with anymore; not necessarily full-on boyfriends, just boys that needn’t occupy that coveted space in her phone. We also did the usual: clothes out, lateral moves, nothing, and a few other tidbits. And with that, I give you week two. Friday Me: Purge-atory double fail. Nothing purged, and one coat richer. See Emily. Emily: Out: Long grey, high- collared, button-down awesome coat (given to me). In: Long black, high-collared, button-down awesome coat. Lateral purge from her extremely fashionable aunt, who needed to make room for her own new long, high-collared, button-down awesome coat. There’s karmic balance somewhere in Purge-atory. Celebrate victories by taking coats out dancing to Soul Club. Great date. Saturday Me: Purge-atory fail, unless purging $20 on a concert ticket counts. Emily: Accidental Purge. Black sunglasses lost at house party (sunglasses at night are not always a good plan, regardless of what Corey Hart said). Sunday Me: iTunes library. 600+ songs (counts for one item for summary’s sake though). Equivalent to about 40 albums. Was so carried away and impulsive that I didn’t even take time to write names down. Swift like Band-Aid removal. Ranged from U2’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb to some album by Neutral Milk Hotel to Felix Da Housecat’s Virgo Blacktro and the Movie Disco. Am indeed embarrassed for having these in my library in the first place. Deleted. Emily: We’re both exhausted from combing my 30 days of music. She gets a by this round. Monday Me: At the OP production meeting, Opinions Editor Jacey pitches a crazy scheme to cover the holey wall of the office with record covers from the days of zany. I support it, because it means I have another reason to purge a bunch of shitty records. My contribution to the wall: Fauré’s Requiem (we have three Requiems and in Emily’s words, “Verdi is the only one you need.”), Folkways Science Series Sounds of the Sea, Sphere Clown Band’s I Can Do Anything, the soundtrack to How the West Was Won, and the number two vinyl album found in thrift stores the world over (second only to anything by Nana Mouskouri; seriously) Zamfir, this one by the Harry Van Hoof Orchestra. If you want to see how ridiculous the covers are, come on down to the Other Press production meeting, this Monday at 6 p.m:! Emily: Takes first place, with 17 phone numbers of boys that needn’t be in her phone (counts as three for summary’s sake). Oh, snap. Enough said. Deleted. Tuesday Me: Two ugly tank tops and a denim skirt. Remind self, “Self, getting rid of summer stuff in winter is easy.” Emily: Zip up, earth-green fitted sweatshirt. High neck. Very attached. Sooo played out. Deleted. Wednesday Me: Fail. Emily: Superhero. I roll home after a solid 17-hour day, and lo and behold, a shower curtain sits by our dumpster, all neatly folded (see photo). She replaced the gross, orange-tinged mess of a curtain with a new one she had bought a few weeks ago, and scoured the bathroom to sparkling perfection, but also our bathroom has New Shower Curtain smell. Lateral move, but still good. Thursday Me: Tank top and shirt. Em’s other aunt brought this shirt back from Germany for her. Em gawked. Swore to get rid of it. I, in a moment of insanity, think she is insane. Take shirt. Four months later, have worn shirt once (for said photo). Came to senses. Deleted. Emily: Hair brush. She doesn’t brush her hair. Deleted. Stay tuned. Who knows what we'll get rid of next week. Days in Purge-atory: 14 Collective weekly target: 14 Items collectively purged this week: 17 Items that didn’t actually leave the apartment: 1 Total items purged this week: 16 Total items purged to date: 27 1