Skip to main content

Down with iPod

There's an iPod knocking about here somewhere. But I don't like using it.

There is something weird about having earphones on. I used to love Headphones when I was 15. I could put my cans on, close my eyes and turn the volume up to max. If you've ever heard Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love through headphones you'll know how thrilling music could be when the only other technology available was television. Even that was black and white and in mono sound. Worse I had no control over it. There wasn't even a remote control. In my room with my music, my headphones and lurid thoughts about what it might be like to have groupies I was was in control of a world in which I had no control (we're talking 1978 here people).

But I do like to listen to music while I work. I don't fetishise the iPod-much as I admire it - but I do love iTunes.

In the last hour on Shuffle:

Leonard Cohen - I'm Your man
Kiss - Detroit Rock City
Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Music for a found harmonium
Unkle - Eye for an eye
Death in Vegas - Help yourself
The Clash - Jimmy Jazz
June Carter Cash- Will you meet me in heaven
Over the Rhine - All I need is everything


I know…a mess.

But I like it. Call me the Cultural Magpie if you must.


Kevin Roberts waxed lyrical about Bruce Springsteen on his blog. Springsteen has a new record apparently. I'm not sure about 'The Boss'. At various times his music has resonated with me. Following the thread of this Friday Night Post the album that meant the most to me was The River. In fact I'd have to say it was the record that segued me from traditionalism to modernism; and my headphones played a big role.

Why? Because my great big cans with leather padded muffs were intimate. If my parents could hear the deppresoid music I was listening to they'd have had cause for concern. I went from 'going down to the river' to the Cure (and it was). I'd turn the base up on 17 seconds and go into a forest...while I read Damien and Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse.

It was my Second Life circa 1978-79.

The difference between now and then is that I consume TV, music, video while using the 'phone and email all at the same time.

With buds in my ears I can't gather data from my immediate environment.

The speakers on my MacBook Pro work fine - in an intimate way (whole lotta love still shifts from left top right).

I may be over stimulated - but I like it.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Johnny Bunko competiton

The Great Johnny Bunko Challenge from DHP on Vimeo . There's a young chap in Indiana, one Alec Quig , who has written to me about creating a career based on a polymathic degree, from which he has recently graduated. He's an interesting young man and his concerns about going forward in life are the anxieties we all face at crossroads in our lives when we are forced to make choices. Dan Pink's latest book The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need might help: "From a New York Times, BusinessWeek, and Washington Post bestselling author comes a first-of-its- kind career guide for a new generation of job seekers.There's never been a career guide like it.the fully illustrated story (ingeniously told in Manga form) of a young Everyman just out of college who lands his first job. Johnny Bunko is new to parachute company Boggs Corp., and he stumbles through his early days as a working stiff until a crisis prompts him to find a new job. St
Post a Comment
Read more and leave a comment

Ze Frank thinks so you don't have to

Ze Frank appeared on my radar when I saw his presentation among the excellent TED Talks videos . This morning I was reading Russell Davies planning blog in which he referred to a clip by Ze Frank - Where do ideas come from. Here's the transcript: "...Hungry Hippo licks Aunt JEmima [sic] writes, "Are you ever gonna break into song again? Are you running out of ideas?" Hungry Hippo licks Aunt JEmima, that's a good question. I run out of ideas every day! Each day I live in mortal fear that I've used up the last idea that'll ever come to me. If you don't wanna run out of ideas the best thing to do is not to execute them. You can tell yourself that you don't have the time or resources to do 'em right. Then they stay around in your head like brain crack. No matter how bad things get, at least you have those good ideas that you'll get to later. Some people get addicted to that brain crack. And the longer they wait, the more they convince themse
1 comment
Read more and leave a comment

Sexist Advertising and stereotypes

Advertising lives in the short-form world. Because mass media is so expensive the 30 second commercial is conventional and because there is so much clutter simplified signals are essential to 'cut through'. One form of communication short-hand used as a default is the stereotype - "A stereotype can be a conventional and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image, based on the assumption that there are attributes that members of the "other group" have in common. Stereotypes are sometimes formed by a previous illusory correlation, a false association between two variables that are loosely correlated if correlated at all. Though generally viewed as negative perceptions, stereotypes may be either positive or negative in tone." In the 1950's and 60's when men dominated advertising stereotypical impressions of women as inferior or subservient were not only commonplace but usual. It was normal to show women as housekeepers, largely because most wer
9 comments
Read more and leave a comment