My old I-Pod gave up the ghost a few months ago.  At first I went through a painful withdrawl.  I loved to drive or sit in my office with the I-Pod on "Shuffle" waiting to see what surprises she had in store for me.  I say she because that little white box seemed to have a mind of her own.  She would amuse me by following Kurt Weill with Steven Sondheim or shock me by pairing Bach and The Clash.  Once she played three separate versions of the same song back to back to back...tell me THAT'S random.  I gave my I-Pod a decent burial in my desk drawer and soon learned to live without her.  

 

But I longed for that friend who knew and responded to my every mood.  PMS?..how 'bout a little Patty Smith?  Man troubles?...Koko Taylor or Bessie Smith for you.  Mom hovering?...here's Strauss's Elektra.  So I went and got myself a brand new silver and white 80 gig soulmate...and I've spent almost every spare minute the last week programming her.  80 gigs is a lot of memory.

 

I started by importing classical CD's.  Just the B's took a few days...Bach, Bartok, Barber, Boulez, Beethoven, Bernstein, Brahms, Bruch, Berg, Berio, Bruckner...I got to Elliot Carter and I had to take a break.  I was going classical crazy.  So I cleansed my aural palate with Linda Ronstadt, Emmilu Harris, Joss Stone, Koko Taylor, Valerie Wellington and a few other old girlfriends.  Next came the guys...Beatles, Stones, Elvis (Presley and Costello), Dylan and the groups Pretenders, Fleetwood Mac (back to "Then Play On"), and Talking Heads.  I raided my local library for CD's and I found the soundtrack for "Into the Woods", an audio book by Douglas Adams, lectures by Noam Chomsky, and a Recording of Judy Garlad's Carnegie Hall concert.

 

I raided my daughters' CD's and Ashley was more than willing to tell me what I had to add.  Beck's "Odelay", several Bjork albums, Johanna Newsome, The Shins and Strokes, Pavement, Ani DeFranco, Fiona Apple, the Flaming Lips.  I recognize all of these artists from hearing my girls play them.  I'm taking it on trust that when Bjork follows Renee Fleming I'll experience a new sort of serendipity.

 

That's what my I-Pod is all about...serendipity.  Once she reaches a critical mass of music and once she is properly trained I trust my I-pod to help me hear my music in new and exciting ways.  My girls and my husband chide me for never listening to albums on the I-Pod, for always listening on Shuffle.  For me it's the only way to listen.  For me it's more about the unexpected links between songs, artists, key signatures, and musical structures than about the individual songs.  And what better way to explore unexpected relations than with the "random" choices of my silver and white disc jocky.   

 

How strange, I've been away from blogging for over a month now. Ironically enough the first paragraph of a post I started last month was on the value of routines.  I'm embarassed to say that I immediately fell out of the routine of writing.  Nothing earth-shattering in my life, nothing bad, I juat stopped coming by.  I miss it.  I miss all of you.  Having said that, I'm back, and here's that curious first paragraph....

 

I'm starting to be a big believer in the value of routines.  The free spirit hippie girl in me used to bristle when I thought of this as rote, or "same old same old," or drudgery.  Lately routine has become a comforting friend who helps me get to work, or to the gym, or who dusts while I vacuum.  She's the Ethel to my Lucy.  With her at my side all those annoying necessities of life--grocery shopping, housecleaning, office work, church work, family visits, visits to the dry cleaner--become part of the structure of my life.  For how can a life have frills and accents without something solid underneath?