My iPod
I bought my iPod from a friend a few weeks before going to Hawaii last year, so that would be late February 2007. Until that time, I'd resisted the whole notion, poo-poo-ing these young whippersnappers who walk around with white ear buds in, cut off from social interaction, in their own private isolation chambers. Harrumph.
However, as the impending 13 and then 16 hour flights stretched before me, and as I secretly knew that I'd love owning an iPod and having all my music at my fingertips, I succumbed.
It has been brilliant. It goes with me to the gym, in the car where it plugs into my stereo, at work where the perceptual isolation chamber is a necessary construct, and occasionally on my bike.
I flashback to when I was a kid and spending hours in my room, patching together a stereo from cast-off bits of equipment that my brothers discarded. Playing records over and over again, and making my first crude "mix" tapes from vinyl to cassette. Even, I believe, from 8-track to cassette in some cases. I imagine telling that kid that someday ALL her music could live in a tiny machine, smaller than an 8-track tape, and that it could be programmed to play lists, or shuffle, or whatever …wide-eyed amazement. What will they think of next!
I've messed about a bit with creating playlists and, so far, they leave me cold. I vastly prefer to just have several thousand pieces of music on shuffle. It amuses me to hear what gets randomly presented next. The Stones Sympathy for the Devil gets selected an inordinate amount, I feel. There is something wonderful about hearing Squeeze, Joni Mitchell and David Wilcox in quick succession. My brain tries to find connectivity … I like that.
I have a particular fondness for choral music and some pieces pop up after a long absent period and I fall in love with them all over again. There is a 14th century piece found as part of the Llibre Vermell (The Red Book) in a monastery in Monserrat, called Polorum Regina. A group called Sarband recorded it. It is over eight minutes long, haunting, meditative. I've just spent well over eight minutes trying to get it to upload here, with no luck … not so meditative. You can hear 30 seconds of it here – I'll keep trying for the whole thing. In any case, this quiet, reflective piece is actually, according to the notes with the CD, a "round dance". I'm not sure what that means but I can't imagine dancing to it. I find it somehow … reassuring when this piece is followed by something like Sia's Day Too Soon (Mock and Toof Edit).
This piece got repeated a lot on my bike trip recently. For some reason, I find it both meditative and invigorating, at the same time.
I'm looking forward to some long wintery weekends when I can make some coffee and add the rest of my music collection to the iPod. There seems to be an endless amount of storage space on this thing … endless mathematical possibilities with regard to the order in which I might hear things.
What will they think of next!
11. September 2008 at 1:56 pm :
In six weeks or so, I shall begin eating in an entirely different way. I'll sit at the dining room table — what a concept! – and spend 30 minutes in mindfullness eating, taking small bites and chewing each one very thoroughly. I will play the perfect music to help me stay in the moment. I've been contemplating what that would be. Gregorian chant maybe. Not sure. Since you, Venus Handbasket are the most musically knowledgable person I know, I would like to ask you for some help with this.
16. September 2008 at 9:25 pm :
An idea for you – aside from my many themed playlists, I have also created several for cardio and circuit training. I have, for example, a 10 minute treadmill playlist, one for 11 minutes, etc, right up to 15. The music is selected with the beat and the treadmill setting in mind. I also have a 30 minute circuit and a 45 minute circuit. Every couple of weeks, I've changed the songs in these playlists to have something new and fresh to accompany my workout. I love it!