That was Fontana's post, though I did agree with him.
Drum's response when I told him I'd read all the comments when I guest blogged: "You poor bastard."
also, I know this isn't totally funny because some person got killed in NYC over their iPod, but it seems to me there's a possible funny side to iPod snatchings/robberies. like, what if the thief doesn't have a computer at home, or acess only to a PC? it's not like you steal the iTunes software at the same time. I just imagine a young thief tormented by the musical tastes of the emo kid he ripped it off of, listening to the same 20 songs over and over because they're the only ones he can stand.
I posted 2 before reading 1: d'oh! I'll fix that. it seemed so ogged-ish, somehow. and I guess I was thinking of all the beach boys hatin' and journey-lovin' in the thread.
also, it seems to me that the chrome back of the iPod is like the best portable mirror to set up lines on ever. credit cards, $20 bills, and your iPod--good to go. not for me, you understand, but other people, who use drugs. I had a friend who used to call rolled-up $20 bills "diplomas in the school of life." sometimes if I happen to get a good whiff of a US bill it makes my insides crawl with junk hunger.
final point before I go to bed: the other dudes in n'sync looked soooo weird, remember? each uglier, more horse-faced, eyes set too-closer togetherer than the last. there had to be some teen girls who liked each best, though, if only a few; it can pay to diversify and have the ugly one all to yourself. it's like liking ringo best.
Ringo Best Famously the transition drummer in the Beatles. They had a plan Stan.
I've always had some playlists, for particular moods or whatever, but mostly I use Smart Playlists to group genres/artists. Of course, if you don't have any metadata (like genre, or date) with all those songs, it's pretty damn unwieldy. But then I shuffle within the Smart Playlist - so within Punk, or Loud, or "Pixies, etc." So not too much Shuffle Whiplash.
You could rate the 50-100 songs you really don't want to hear at 1 star, then set a Smart Playlist that won't include 1 star songs.
Another way to reduce repetition is a Smart Playlist of Unrecent Songs - nothing played in the last week, or month, or whenever - make sure you actually get around to most of those 6000 songs. I think new iPods are smart enough to tell iTunes what you've listened to, but I'm not sure.
I never use playlists. I either listen to my whole collection on shuffle, possibly queueing some particular tracks, or an album at a time. On my portable mp3 player, just albums at a time.
I generally listen to entire albums at a time, so I just use the album shuffle option. But I did have a playlist called 'music I can stand at the moment' made on a day when my iPod kept throwing up tunes and I kept skipping them.
it's like liking ringo best.
What do you mean? Ringo was the best.
I have a Creative Zen Vision:M (much better than the iPod, but I'm not one of those cretins who rubs it in peoples' faces. Or am I...) so not totally sure how to change that stuff. I will say that my player tends to group stuff even on random shuffle, where I will hear many songs by one artist or genre in a row. So I guess it isn't that random. Or is it...
I'm in rhetorical mood today, apparently. Or am I...
Also, under what conditions would it be acceptable to torture John McCain by making him listen to "Afternoon Delight" 1,000 times?
If you were a member of a vocal ensemble in the process of converting to an unpopular form of management, and captured him while he attempted to bomb you on behalf of an internal enemy?
Also, the next time he and the President kiss.
I make a LOT of playlists, mostly because I've got so much music on my iPod, and the whiplash would be pretty bad. Also, I find that I have a different standard for listening to songs when they're on my iPod rather than on my stereo at home. Usually at home I listen to entire albums as background music while, you know, doing stuff. Whereas on my iPod, I'm focusing only on the music, and so I want to listen to very particular songs, usually ones that I find particularly conducive or mood-appropriate for whatever activity I'm engaging in (riding the train, working out, or walking).
Do you people really listen to music on those little earpieces? That seems so barbaric to me.
Do you people really listen to music on those little earpieces? That seems so barbaric to me.
They are awful. The first thing I did when I bought my iPod was buy some headphones which were small enough to carry in a pocket in my briefcase but which were big enough to be comfortable and effective.
Also barbaric: listening to music on portable devices while out in public. I will now take my seat at Leon Kass's table.
listening to music on portable devices while out in public.
I agree to the extent you mean wandering aimlessly down the sidewalk. On the other hand, I find it perfect when I am on the train and have nothing to read.
FL: now 27% more conservative than Idealist!
"listening to music on portable devices while out in public."
City sidewalks:anti-social perhaps, I am not sure about barbaric.
Parks, running paths, country:not barbaric, decadent maybe
At a movie or concert or lecture:maybe that's barbaric
Never listened to portable music;have a cheap factory radio in the car I never turn on.
Also barbaric: taking a seat with Leon Kass.
(If you feel repugnance in his presence, that's your wisdom speaking.)
Also barbaric: listening to music on portable devices while out in public.
this is all wrong. by all means, go along singing and dancing to your tunes. It amuses me. Of course, this could go unmentioned to those of you who it could go unmentioned to, I will be judging you.
barbaric: possessing or characteristic of a cultural level more complex than primitive savagery but less sophisticated than advanced civilization.
Not listening to music while out in public is barbaric, when the trappings of our advanced civilization permit us to do it, especially when such activity contributes to satisfying sensual experiences.
Also barbaric: listening to music on portable devices while out in public.
Yeah, well, I could sit there and suffer slow hearing damage from the squealing of BART, or I could listen to something rather more pleasant at a more comfortable volume.
Also, fuck the standard iPod headphones. First thing I did was go out and buy a pair of Sennheiser ER-6i's for wearing out and about. I also have a pair of HD-595's run through a Total AirHead for listening at work.
But does that 70s CD have "Checy Van" on it?
Also barbaric: listening to music on portable devices while out in public.
This is so true. You younger folks are corrupted beyond saving; I understand that and try not to judge, but...barbarians!
It's getting so one has to have an iPod in public just to maintain one's aural sovereignty amid all the crap blaring from the environment. And now flat panels are bringing commercials to even more locations. I'm gonna need a video iPod with eyephones (iPhones?), dammit.
23:I can't get away from a Nietzschean conception of the words "barbaric" and "decadent", although it word be hard for me to explain those well and briefly. Especially since I am less fond of judging cultures and societies "primitive."
Let's see:It would involve a self-conciousness of one's own cultural determination, either in rejection or acceptance. Feminism in a patriarchal society is a barbarism; a nostalgic reactionary like Sullivan is decadent.
23: Thank god you agree. I was afraid that baa would show up to talk about how great ipods are, then I'd have to be all like "so I do I make a smart playlist again?"
Ah, a music thread. It seems as though it's been ages.
George is the best Beatle.
I recently got a hand-me-down ipod, and while it is an improvement over my old Zen Nomad in many ways, the itunes software makes me murderous with rage.
I never use playlists. I either listen to my whole collection on shuffle, possibly queueing some particular tracks
Same for me, mostly. I only use playlists to test song arrangements for cds. I never listen to whole albums anymore, just shuffle, with some jumping around to hear something in particular. Though mostly recently I've been listening to Pandora and telling it how much I dislike everything it plays for me.
Is the "if it feels good, do it" attitude of 20 decadent or barbaric? I say decadent.
28 describes me to a tee. Pandora has been, in many ways, a huge letdown for me. (Alternatively, it turns out the music I like sounds an awful lot like the music I hate.)
Alternatively, it turns out the music I like sounds an awful lot like the music I hate.
I know. Very annoying. Pandor's the self-refuting pseudo-scientific music service.
Jesus, it just tried to make me listen to Leon Russell. Pandora doesn't care about me at all.
28,30:I spent 8 hours on Pandora and liked everything. It was like, hey put in Nick Drake, Townes van Zandt, and Johnny Dowd and they give me Screaming Trees? But it sounds great! And fits! Probably the only song on that album that would work, or I can't tell the difference between Nick Drake and Screaming Trees.
I got too much music out of Pandora.
'Afternoon Delight' is a perfect piece of pop candy.
I would also like to note that complaints about people listening to music (with headphones) in public shall be restricted to those who do not own cell phones. That is all.
George is the best Beatle.
dagger, it's possible that you're insane.
37- I don't know about all this "best Beatle" stuff, but it's hard to argue against All Things Must Pass being the best post-Beatles work by an ex-Beatle.
No worries FL, I am also part of the axis of reaction headphones in public. It's one thing during a long commute, but during day-to-day life, I feel you have some obligation to be reacting to the environment.
Now that I think about it, the best Beatle was clearly Pete Best.
"I do not own a cell phone. Just saying."
I am determined to hold out longer!
the best Beatle was clearly Pete Best
I have a strange affection for the Stuart Sutcliffe movie. Maybe because I find it funny that Ian Hart played John Lennon in another film already, so it was like he was becoming him.
That's some highly specific typecasting.
It would be worse if he only ever played Brian Epstein.
What's with all the disdain for George? George was awesome.
I always heard that title as "Afternoon Delights."
I *like* the song chevy van. actually, the reason the iPod thinks I want the 70s compilation is that I like the america song "sister golden hair", which is awesome. "a woman sure can be a friend of mine". thanks a lot for the vote of confidence, mr. ball-chicks-and-ramble-on 70s guy! I love george, and all things must pass is obviously the greatest post beatles work, nonetheless the boring truth is that john is the best. sorry, would-be slate-writin contrarians.
Nah, Slate would definitely have picked Ringo. Or Pete.
Arguing the best Beatle takes me back to Junior High in the mid-sixties. Who'd have guessed it could be a viable pastime for people not then born? The whole issue of the "contemporaneity" of pop music, that it would become permanent cultural resource instead of obsolete and discarded must have baffled people who were fully grown-up then. It never occurred to me that everybody wouldn't always hear the songs I was hearing, but looking back, their survival is actually remarkable, and amazing.
Actually the best Beatle is Paul's "grandfather." He totally steals the show in Hard Day's Night.
nonetheless the boring truth is that john is the best. sorry, would-be slate-writin contrarians.
Exactly right (53, that would be an interesting contrarian position), but so is 44. Maybe I need to listen to ATMP some more, but clearly better than the best Lennon? I really doubt it.
Paul's grandfather was well-known, apparently, for portraying on the teevee a dirty old man; hence the emphasis in A Hard Day's Night on his being "very clean".
However, he's not a Beatle. Saying that he's the best Beatle is like saying that the guy in Help! who asks, "has no one looked in the washbasin?" is the best Beatle.
So if effusive praise for Plastic Ono Band is an interesting contrarian position, what's the boring alternative?
That washbasin guy is great. If Help! consisted only of his scenes and the scene with the Mysterious Woman's exchange with ... Paul? that go "Please, say no more"—"I can say no more", it would still be as good. Oh, and the "Psst! Beatle!" scene.
61: You're misparsing, possibly because of Weiner's misitalicizing. Alameida's quoted comment is exactly right, as is 44. "Interesting contrarian position" is left-associative and binds to 53 within the scope of the parentheses.
I see. The italicizing led me astray.
63 is exactly right. Fixed italics would be appreciated.
Actually, on this question an interesting contrarian position wouldn't be too far off from 44.
I like Yoko Ono's Plastic Ono Band. In fact, it prompted this comment.
A. There's a program called CopyPod you can download for a small fee -- it allows you to copy everything on the iPod onto your computer.
B. Full library shuffle, nearly all the time. Yeah, I hit the skip key a lot, but then the journey is always interesting. It didn't used to do this, but now if I pick out a particular song, it'll then go through the whole library in alphabetical order from that point. This can be fun, especially if I have a bunch of very different versions of the same song: the Electric Jackmormons do Sloop John B. a bit more energetically than the Beach Boys, for example. In addition to Procol Harum, Whiter Shade of Pale is errant nonsense from Annie Lennox, Elisabeth von Trapp, and Willie Nelson.
C. At the time, I had a girlfriend who liked Afternoon Delight -- finding it inspirational. Hard to argue with a thing like that. The main guys in that band, btw, have a restaurant in the Palisades part of DC and host what I'm told is great jazz on Sunday nights.
D. Finally gave in to the pressure and got a cell phone last weekend. I don't answer it though.
66: Musically, you're an interesting contrarian.
I should probably mention that I've never heard All Things Must Pass or either Plastic Ono Band.
68: NTTAWWT. All part of the proudly pretentious thing, and the interesting contrarians introduce us to interesting stuff.
I didn't say that I liked it more than anything in particular.
I have more evidence than this thread. You can't see it though.
I *like* the song chevy van
And that's allriiiiiight with me...
I have to take Plastic Ono Band over All Things Must Pass, though. (And call me a contrarian, but anyone who prefers Imagine to the former is teh crazy.)
To overcome any real or imagined shuffle prejudices: listen through the songs alphabetically. You'll find yourself taking note of preferred letters. It's more or less random, right?
In considering George Harrison we shouldn't fail to remember Wonderwall Music and Electronic Sound, his first two solo albums.
Say what else you will about me, I am one consistent fellow.
People make fun of Yoko Ono's art but I think a lot of it is underrated. There have been a number of times I've seen a contemporary work that is highly praised that seems like just a thinly-veiled ripoff of something she did 30 years ago.
Not a fan of her music, though, except for her cover of Hedwig's Lament from Hedwig and the Angry Inch. (I mean, how perfect: "I rose from off of the doctor's slab / I lost a piece of my heart / Now everyone gets to take a stab / They cut me up into parts / I gave a piece to my mother / I gave a piece to my man / I gave a piece to the rock star / He took the good stuff and ran") Her cover of Exquisite Corpse, notsomuch.
People make fun of Yoko Ono's art but I think a lot of it is underrated.
It depends on which people you're talking to. Yoko is very highly rated in some art world circles--to the point where one could argue that she's overrated.
I always heard that title as "Afternoon Delights."
This reminds me of something I've been wondering about -- are any of you aware of or were present for a longish-running internet debate a couple of years back, over whether the "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" lyric starts out "Pardon me, boy" or "Pardon me, boys"? My hunch is it occured on the Pynchon-list but that could be totally wrong. The disgreement was over whether the singer was addressing a negro conductor or porter, or a group of white peers.
Just looked at the lyric and it seems difficult to come away with any other impression than that he's addressing a negro shoe-shine boy -- and yet I seem to recall this debate having run on for a pretty long while.
81: I'd guess that people were taught that the song was addressed to a group of white men so it wouldn't be embarrassing to sing it with the 'boy', slur. And once you've learned something, it's hard to convince you that the way you learned it was wrong.
I'm not sure it's capable of being so limited in meaning. And what do you mean, "he"?
No, seriously, Ringo was the best Beatle. He was the funny one! He got the ring stuck on his finger in Help!
JL -- wow, thanks! That is some excellent dancing -- and somehow only heightened by the poor quality of the video. In the lyrics I was reading, the second line ends "boy can you give me a shine", not "that's almost in a v-line". I always think of that song sung by a man for some reason -- I've probably heard plenty of versions sung by women.
I haven't watched the video because I'm listening to a record, but back in those days would a white woman get a shine from a black man? Even if she were wearing shinable shoes, which seems dubious, it seems to me that it would be too close to erotic to have been socially acceptable (insert foot rub discussion from Pulp Fiction here).
I think I'd have a hard time having someone else shine my shoes on my feet -- it seems so undemocratic, having someone kneel at your feet while you sit on a throne.
Evidently the song was written for the film Sun Valley Serenade, which featured it in different scenes, including the Nicholas Brothers one to which I linked. I've always heard the line given as "That's on the Tennessee line," as in that clip, but the "give me a shine" version exists as well, and comes up in all the lyrics I've found. Still, it seems that from its beginning, the song had different version with potentially different connotations, which also were affected by the performer in questions.
I've always thought of the female-sung version, and assumed others had it as the normative one in mind as well, no doubt because of the Andrews Sisters and Dorothy Dandridge. Then again, it's not like it's the only Andrew Sisters song with issues.
More Nicholas Brothers, with Cab Calloway, from one of the few movies I ever care to watch.
OK, I amend my question to "Was it usual for a black woman to address a black man as 'Boy'?" Also, wow.
"That's on the Tennessee line"
Right -- weird mishearing on my part, one which Google suggests has not been done before.
I thought she said 'boys.' But damn tapdancing splits!
(Alternatively, it turns out the music I like sounds an awful lot like the music I hate.)
Same here: I tell Pandora I like Album X; it plays me all the second-rate Album X imitators. As oracles go I've had much better luck with w-lfs-n. His wheats are wheater, and his chaff tends to chaff perplexing, as opposed to tedious.
B-Wo: Breakfast of Champions.
91: I think she does sing "boys." But if you want tap dancing splits, you should check out the clip in 87 as well. Fantastic stuff, even if I hurt just looking at it.
Not tap dancing but pretty great.
87: Wow ... also, obvsly preincarnation of Prince.
This is way too late to matter, as usual, and possibly won't work on an iPod (I just have iTunes on the'puter): there's an option that lets you select a song and reset the play count to zero. In iTunes it's a right-click option. There's also an iTunes option (in "Get Info") that lets you select "skip when shuffling", but that may be more drastic than you want.
By the way, rating a good-sized chunk of your library would probably take less time than you think--at least, if you have more albums than single tracks. Just rating entire albums at 4 or 5 can weight the shuffle reasonably well.
Of course, I speak as one who spent a half hour dumping favorite tracks into a playlist and then left it playing on the 'puter (muted) for 24 hours, just to up the play counts.