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Over a month ago something happened that had the potential to change my life. Looking back years from now, I may still find that it impacted me more than I can now realize. It wasn’t as though I hadn’t seen it coming for some time; there were warning signs, frowning faces, failure to communicate, and freezing up. It was painful to say the least.
After restoring things multiple times, it became apparent that I needed to see a specialist. So I bit the bullet, swallowed my pride, and went to a bar. My first trip to the bar was completely unhelpful, and in fact just irritated the problem further. I tried calling a help line for advice, but they just recommended I make an appointment at the bar to see one of the geniuses.
Long story short, last weekend I made it to the store and the genius at the bar said he could offer me a replacement. I took him up on it and I am now the proud owner of a new iPod. Apparently my old one was having hard drive “issues”.
It was very peculiar going from having access to every song I owned whenever I wanted it to not having any kind of portable music player at all for over a month. I helped me to not only appreciate my iPod more, but to also appreciate the atmosphere around me a bit more as well. There's a whole book that could be written on the differences in a society where the majority of the people walk around completely disconnected from the world around them.
One thing I definitely missed was the opportunity to listen to music I wouldn't normally be caught dead listening to. I despise pop music for what it has BECOME. I think it started off great, maybe, but now it is shameless and listening to it seems like a crime. This morning on the way to work though, I listened to Maroon 5 and it was glorious in all of its unadulterated, sickeningly sweet goodness. All the while the people next to me had no idea what was being pumped into my head :)
The most frustrating dialog from the whole broken iPod fiasco is recorded below:
Helpful: “What seems to be the problem.”
Me: “I completely restored my iPod multiple times when prompted to. Then it wouldn't even respond, including restores. This morning though I plugged it in to charge a bit before brining it in, and it turned on fine. Go figure, right?”
Helpful: “Well I guess we can still look at it. Maybe it’s software related. Does it have the latest software on it?”
Me: “Yes, it has the latest firmware/software upgrade. I think it is hard drive related since it won’t even mount in windows anymore.”
Helpful: “Oh. Well, we can’t actually open the case and look at the hard drive you know. Not in the store.”
Me: !!!!????
Me: “Yes, I realize that you can’t OPEN IT UP and LOOK at the hard drive. Don’t you have a diagnostic program you can run that will look for bad sectors on the hard drive or do some other kind of tests?”
Helpful: “Yeah, we can hook it up and see if any looks wrong”.
Me: (feeling oh so comfortable with this person's technoIQ) “Well thank you.”
Her - "What are you doing?!"
Him - "Just helping set-up."
Her - "What are you doing?"
Him - "I thought I'd help get the stuff setup for stage since I was here."
Her - "That is soooo nice of you. Thank you."
Me, to myself - "WHAT!? I got here like a half hour ago and set up EVERYTHING on stage except the stupid keyboard and stand that guy is setting up right now."
I felt like a jerk wishing to be recognized for something that while I was doing it just felt like what I should be doing since I got there early. But at the same time, I felt really frustrated with the other guy for taking credit for something that he hadn't really done. Yes he set up the keyboard and stand. No, he didn't set up the music stands, the mic stands, the ear monitor stands, bring out the microphones, bring out the ear monitors, OR BRING OUT THE CABLES.
Her - "Why did you get here so early?"
Him - "Just wanted to help."
Me - Yeah, just ignore me and keep talking to each other.
I felt like a complete jerk.
If you want to read about my evening tonight, read my other post. If you would rather read an interesting news article and leave comments in my comment box, read on.
An article on the Forbes magazine site, posted here, talks about the origins and fate of the album. I just typed an entire blog post beneath this one, so I'll keep this short.
The album format is great in the same way that the novel is great.
There are artists who complain that customers logging on and purchasing a single track off their album is like only buying a corner of a Chagal painting. TAKE YOURSELF LESS SERIOUSLY. Honestly, if you, as a rapper think millions of people buying a single track off of your album instead of the whole thing is going to ruin you financially, then by all means keep droning on like a spoiled 2 year old; I will simply exercise my right to ignore you. If however, you as an artist are truly concerned that people are only viewing a portion of your creative work and are therefore not getting the whole messge, then I have a message for you, MAKE A WHOLE ALBUM THAT DOESN'T SUCK. Do you want to know why people buy an entire Chagal (or a copy of a Chagal...hmm, how is that parallel to music, file sharing perhaps)? I will tell you why, because the Chagal painting is freaking genius: it is pretty, and witty and gay.
The artists that make serious music that I happen to like, I buy their whole albums: Josh Ritter, Cat Power, Ryan Adams, Willie Nelson, James Taylor, The Decemberists, to name a few recent purchase. People I would not be very likely to buy a whole album from: any rapper (with the exception of actual hip-hop), any pop group, any American Idol (it's a matter of principal). When you admit that your whole industry is about making money I have no inclination to feel sorry for you. Is it possible that I will break down and buy a song here or there? Yes. Is it remotely possible that sometime in the future I might feel bad for the poor pop/rap artist and buy an album just to see what their vision is? NO!
In Summary: Albums will continue to live on so long as their are true musicians and artists looking to string songs together into albums in the way that writers string plot lines together to weave a nove. When there are no more of these artists left, it will be a single track free for all to control the thin white cord that for so many of today's population forms the link between the real world and the canned emotions that are just a scroll wheel away, held tightly in that light weight metalic case.
End of Rant.
Willie Nelson's Greatest Hits, Cat Power's The Greatest, Carol King - records I listened to tonight, one side at a time, all the way though.
Sigh. This will be the longest I've gone without seeing Amon since we got engaged. She went to Michigan for two wedding showers this weekend. I couldn't take the time off work so I'm here in DC. Fortunately, Jen is out of town for the weekend which means I have the place to my self.
I decided to take advantage of this now rare down time by just being at my apartment. I came home from work and climbed in bed to watch an episode of Northern Exposure on my laptop while I snoozed a bit. After resting I got up and cooked coconut rissoto and chicken. I tried to make a spicy peanut butter sauce from scratch, with no recipe, but to no avail. Oh well, the chicken and rissoto were excellent. I used a stainless steel pan instead of non-stick for the chicken so that it would really brown, then deglazed the pan with a bit of cooking sherry and left over chicken stock from the rissoto. I let the deglazing liquid swirl around in the pan until the brown bits were all dissolved and the sherry had cooked off. Then I added this liquid to the rissoto and served with the chicken over the top. Ooooh so delicious.
Then I indulged in a bit of That 70's Show, which I just googled and found out that, yes, it is the definition of mindless entertainment. I use to enjoy it, and still do when in the right mood, but wansn't really hooked tonight. I decided my best bet was to start some laundry, listen to the other side of the Cat Power album, and head to bed.
Maybe I'll get a haircut tomorrow. Guys, have you ever gone to get your hair cut at a place where they wash your hair first (in the process massaging your scalp)? If not, then you should go sometime and you'll understand why women are willing to pay more for a haircut then men typically are. If you could put feeling that in a pill you'd be rich.
That is all. No more mindless self indulgent drivel for tonight. If you want more you have to read through my archives to find more.
In the mean time go check out directions for how to deglaze a pan or maybe check out my friend patti's blog.
And last but not least, if you're still reading you're probably worthy to go see my flickr photos. Meager fare so far, but you have to start somewhere.
