I STARTED LISTENING to early exit polls from the 2020 US election and somehow transported myself back to 2002 when Ruth and I walked alongside the River Liffey. I can find only a few photos from November 2002 but it's easy to lose myself in the sound track of my life from those less stressful times.
From my 2002 Sound Track
Eminem -- "Lose Yourself" in 2002, a song I used to play for my Media Writing students on campus.
Avril Lavigne -- "Complicated" in 2002, describing my life in Dublin and Kilkenny.
Peter Gabriel -- "In your eyes" from 1986 when I first arrived in Europe.
REM -- "Everybody Hurts" from 1992 when I started my lost years in Germany.
Guns N Roses -- "November Rain" from 1992 and the last rock concert I attended in Germany.
No Doubt -- "Don't Speak from 1995 when I first walked alone in Ireland.
Dido -- "Here with Me" from 1999 when I first learned how to place anything I wanted into the top 10 of Alta Vista, Hotbot, Excite and that new Google thing.
I need to set aside a few hours to bore through several terabytes of hard drives because I know I have several hundred orphaned images that deserve to be archived online. I've discovered three rolls of undeveloped 35mm film in boxes holding Moleskine journals from the years when I wrote for the Irish Examiner. People have told me the handwritten notes in more than 200 Moleskines should be pulled into Roam Research because those books are like my second brain. The notes give context to gigabytes of files on 14 different handsets I've saved in a steamer trunk. I still have five different Nokia Communicators with their power units. Some of those old handsets contain images that have never been seen outside of the small screens on the phones.
Like so many people trapped by COVID-19 restrictions, I want to get back to meeting up with people in cafes, lobbies, and hidden corners of Irish cities. I miss those personal face-to-face contacts, many recorded as notes in my unshared Moleskines or snapped but never seen on my old phones. I want to get back to sharing stories with people and recording some podcasts to share with others. I feel better thinking about the prospects of reconnecting in the months ahead instead of stressing about the American election that's underway.
[Bernie Goldbach teaches creative media for business on the Clonmel Digital Campus for the Limerick Institute of Technology.]
