In hindsight, I wonder if their limitations pushed me into the more singer-songwriter music that I increasingly leaned toward during those awkward couple of years-Ben Folds, Guster, Elliott Smith, the acoustic version of WilcoвЂ™s вЂњIвЂ™m Always in Love,вЂќ along with a turn-of-the-millennium melange of live bootlegs by your Matthewses and Mayers-music that could come across without a subwoofer (or any bass, for that matter). I still remember blasting newly acquired MP3s, via Winamp software, again and again over those dumb speakers in my dorm room. вЂ“Vrinda Jagota Radio Shack Computer SpeakersД®ver since my freshman year of college, in 1999, I have owned two ugly, gray, decidedly non-audiophile RadioShack computer speakers. My friends and I were not discussing the intricacies of sound quality, we simply wanted the endorphin rush of putting on glitter bell bottoms and вЂ‹вЂ‹Lip Rageous *NSYNC Lip Balm and singing, вЂњIf you want it hereвЂ™s my heaaaaartвЂ¦ no strings attachedвЂќ over and over. HitClips are often described as toys, but to 7-year-old me, they were legitimate listening devices-perhaps even the only listening devices that had cultural cache. I exhaled, unplugged my MiniDisc player, and got out of the car, John LennonвЂ™s wails still ringing in my head. He said he started following me because it was getting dark and I didnвЂ™t have my headlights on, and that in the future I really should be more aware. I told him no, and that I was coming back from jazz band practice and didnвЂ™t see him. Apparently, while dumbing out to my Beatles MiniDisc, I didnвЂ™t realize the cop had been signaling me to pull over for the past half mile. When I arrived in my driveway, I noticed flashing red-and-blue lights behind me, and a Suffolk County police officer walking up to my car window. As the song blared through the carвЂ™s factory speakers at a ridiculous volume, I drummed on the steering wheel and screamed along. One afternoon, I was driving back home from high school and I cued up the BeatlesвЂ™ gloriously nonsensical вЂњEverybodyвЂ™s Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My MonkeyвЂќ on my curated MiniDisc version of the White Album.

One last time sheet music