When I was a music major in college, one of my instructors asked students on the first day, “Would you rather lose your hearing or your sight?” I was the only person who chose sight. I cannot imagine being unable to hear music. It has been my irreplaceable companion in life, and I’ve had a lot of jobs related to it: at a college radio station, a record store, and a rock club; on the arts desk of a newspaper; in a smelly tour van and an even smellier rehearsal room. Rock, pop, hip-hop, salsa, ambient, country, gospel, house, techno, soul, blues, jazz, classical — it has all been essential to me.