Ciao! – Tiga

This is the story about how Tiga and his album Ciao! sabotaged my life.

Okay, you may have noticed by now that I kinda like music. Maybe a lot. Total sound mania.

I scour the internet for different music, just listening and experiencing. I began doing it since I got a computer, which was 2005. It was then, around 2007 I believe, when the album Ciao! by Tiga would make it’s way onto my computer. A completely random album that to me at the time was so obscure, I didn’t even know how it came to me. But I listened to it, liked some of the songs and it found itself a corner in the music library and hung out all dodgy-like.

I’ve gone through quite a few computers and hard drives (more hard drives than I care to admit, they ended up being destroyed because of the “Journey”), though no matter what, I back up my music library. I’ve lost pretty much all my data since I started using a computer in 2005, but my music library? Standing strong, resilient, a force of nature. (Please “Journey”, don’t muck with it now)

I’ve also gone through many different programs to manage my music, though I ended up using iTunes exclusively. The program was robust and flexible for its time. I would make playlists for any new music I find. Further, it made syncing my music onto an iPhone that much easier. And I obviously needed my music on my iPhone. Win Win.

Fast Forward to 2020

Trends have come and gone, but I’ve remained with my iTunes library, offline music and playlists.

My music library is now a monster. It’s filled with tunes from what and what era. Much of the music is not well organized, just thrown together and pushed into a plethora of playlists on iTunes.

Furthermore, iTunes has also become a monster. It no longer behaves like it used to. It is now a bloated, oversized application due to the constant need for Apple to ‘re-invent’ itself and then toss those inventions into a program that was not meant for the task (funny, you could say iTunes was what needed ‘re-inventing’ the most!). Observe the pictures below to view iTunes transformation.

So I finally decided enough is enough, it was time to sort out this mess of a library and figure out a program to make managing it easier. I could no longer spend 3 seconds to just search for a song, only to find 5 duplicates, and about a second to move between playlists.

I came across the software MediaMonkey to handle this behemoth of a task during the covid-19 first wave lock down. The transfer of the music + playlists from iTunes to MediaMonkey took some tweaking and tuning, though I came out victorious with all my music finding a home in the new program. Phew. I could now search music easily and listen to songs with haste.

After years did I have this opportunity. It was euphoric for the first few days.

Transferring to an iPhone was also easy and posed no difficulty. This is where disaster struck though.

Most of my songs did not have album artwork. During the process of making MediaMonkey work with the iPhone, something happened and the artwork of a very old album became the artwork for most of my artwork-less songs.

Can you guess which album that is?

Yeah.

It was Ciao, by the artist Tiga.

Bloody. Hell.

This unknown album that found its way onto my computer a decade or more ago through covert means has now found its way into the album artwork of most of my songs. It has sabotaged my entire music library.

And no, this is not some pleasant, “Oh look, it’s just a butterfly artwork”, or, “Wait it’s a plain artwork of two contrasting colors”. No it is far worse.

The artwork is a white guy wearing eyeliner, holding a red Chinese fan, sitting on a coach slanted and smug in-between two big, red speakers in a grungy, dark, claustrophobic room. To add insult to injury, in a bright yellow are the words ‘Ciao!’ and ‘Tiga’ spray painted on the front of the album cover.

Right. When I view the album artwork of the songs that didn’t have album artwork before, I see Tiga’s face and this bumbling artwork. Oh and it gets worse.

The artwork also gets onto my phone. When I go through my playlists to figure out what music to listen to, I constantly see his face. It’s never ending. Even my meditation sounds have his artwork. So when I sit down to meditate with deep focus and inner calm to connect with a higher consciousness, I have to stare at this guys face before I close my eyes.

A solution?

So you might be asking, “Well, there certainly must be solution, you should be able to get rid of his artwork from the albums right”. Well yes, I should be able to.

I was quite frustrated, annoyed and dumbstruck that this happened in the beginning. I tried different methods for removing his artwork at first. As days past, I began to see things a little differently.

I’ve had strange and unfortunate events in my life, and often I’ve come to appreciate what has happened after a few days/weeks and categorize them as fortunate events.

I realized that seeing this artwork at random times is actually hilarious. It’s such a wonky artwork that it elates me. I am reminded at serious moments to take things a little less seriously. Life has so much going on and it is possible to enjoy the ride, to sincerely see everything as a cosmic joke. Before I meditate, which some would say is a spiritual, serious, sacred thing, I am reminded to chill, relax and find the humor in it all. It is actually quite beautiful to reflect on how this album came into my life and how it is playing such a big part in it.

I’m also reminded about how so much of life is just an opportunity in disguise. I could easily continue to be mad when I look at my phone or music, I could also be indifferent. But by choosing to see the joke in it, it keeps me centered.

I just changed my program for music, and I doubt I will be moving from offline to another platform any time soon, so I suspect Tiga will be with me for the next decade or so.

So now, I raise my glass to Tiga, and his album Ciao, thanking him for his unexpected intrusion into my life and for the daily reminder of what life can be.

Notes

1. The image for the iTunes is from the movie Spirited Away. Do check it out.
2. I was thinking of sharing information about which songs I liked from the album and how I experience them, but then decided against it. Maybe to be shared another time?