Gregory Todd Williams

Every year at Christmas for six years now I’ve made a compilation CD for the original samo-fools. A collection of music that sums up my year in roughly an hour of music. Every January I start collecting song names in the notes file on my desktop, and every December I realize that almost nothing I’ve chosen will work well on an album together. And so the first two weeks of December are spent in a frantic state trying to cull my playlists and new CDs for the year and find an arrangement that I’m comfortable with.

Every year during the third week of December, I become unsatified with what I’ve managed to throw together. By the third week of December, however, it’s far too late to make any changes. Because by this point, I’ve got to start burning the CDs and arranging trips to Kinko’s to print the liner notes. Typically the burning and printing takes place at 2 or 3 in the morning on Christmas day (every year I am amazed that Kinko’s is open at this time, and am less than amazed that along with a single employee I am the only person in the store). This year I am way ahead of the curve; I already have two full albums burned, printed and assembled by 11:59 pm on December 23rd.

When the first CD is burned and the first set of liner notes are printed, and I cut out the notes by hand, and score the creases with a razor blade, and put the whole thing together, it is one of the most rewarding moments of the year.

And every year, the Samo Fools CD grows on me, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Update: I spoke way too soon. The two CDs that I have already finished are using left over jewel cases from last year. Finding more has been rather difficult. I’m convinced that full size, clear jewel cases aren’t being made anymore. The vast majority (in the range of 99%, I’d say) of jewel cases available in stores have been rainbow colored slim-line jewel cases. The non-slim-line cases are also mostly rainbow colored. Do people actually buy these?