Nina Simone

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2003-04-22

when i worked at the fancy bookstore, we would have to sometimes work on the upper level, in a little area where the CD's and magazines were. most of the music was classical, with some jazz, and lots of "International" music. which usually meant the latest in bad, bad Euro disco. $25.00-$30.00 for bad Italian disco pop. i use to get so mad at customers who drove in from places like Ohio so they could get a copy of some really cheesy Italian/French pop music when i could hardly afford to buy myself lunch and the fact that there was GOOD music they could buy instead. it wasn't even good cheesy, it was sort of like American Idol stuff. but "international!" "Oh i'm so glad you guys have this! We can't get it back in our town," they would say (pre-amazon.com), clutching some crappy Italian christmas synth CD done by monks or some bearded guy in a bill cosby sweater. and we had a list of about 10 CD's the manager would make us play on the CD player. i still want to kill the 3 Tenors. so it was an hour of standing around, putting away CD's, and magazine reading (ah, I miss the Face and Dazed and Confused), and then a mad scramble to put in and program the cd player so that the music kept playing without a stop, and the super mean pre-Don manager would not come upstairs and beat me with a large remaindered art book on Degas. but they would let us play, i think, one CD of our own choice that the store had in stock. and for me that was usually Nina Simone. most of the other people really had no right to be on the same CD player as her. and yesterday when i read that she had died i felt really sad. i can't describe how good she was. i can only say that i loved her.

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