Name: Mariela S________’s Library
Location: Div School wireless

The name sounds both Latin American and Germanic, which confuses me, until I remember my friend’s mother who is German by way of Argentina.

The first tracks are all by the artist “Accent Training” and cover topics such as “Bit or Beat, Bid or Bead” and “Nonverbal Intonation” and “How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck.”

Off the bat, I expected this library to be a dud—world music and educational materials—but then there are the Aimee Mann songs from the Magnolia soundtrack! Something to relate to, a beating heart under this.

There are two Air albums, so she is somewhat sophisticated, stylish (not cloistered). Decent Nina Simone collection, the Portishead catalog. This seems like makeout music.

Here is some Alanis Morissette, so she is not fresh out of undergrad. Perhaps pushing 30? The A’s have been profitable.

More academic: Alan Greenspan lectures, an Einstein biography, BBC World documentaries.

Large classical selection: Mozart, Liszt, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, etc. Clearly European in comportment.

Dozens of playlists: she is organized, likes compartments. One is named “nike10k” so she is in shape (attractive but off-putting—who has the energy to deal with that?).

Initially it seems that two Velvet Underground albums counterbalance Tori Amos, 10,000 Maniacs, and Tracy Chapman, but maybe it just says that the Velvet Underground has lost its secretiveness/cachet.

Overall she seems educated, active, aware of culture but not given over to it, has no hipster friends who share individual songs or mixtapes as nothing here is out of the ordinary. I would bet she has an unironic sense of humor.