Silver

My new iPod arrived today, it's silver. All my previous iPods have been white but my choices this time were black and silver.

My old iPod (the trusty survivor of The Great Burglary of 2009) is not 100% dead, I just can't use the wheel command thing anymore or sync it. I've decided to call it Time Capsule. New guy will be Mercury, the name I had in reserve for a grey cat.

I was thinking today about how I like the color silver. I like silver jewelery better than gold and I'm even enjoying the strands of silver hair that are popping up in my dark hair more than I would like light golden highlights. I'm sure the fascination with these silver white strands will wear off soon but for now it's kind of fun. Or maybe I'll become fabulously grey like Emmylou Harris.

Good-bye Little Buddy

I'm taking a moment to recognize the efforts in music put forth by my 5th Generation iPod -- Late 2006, Service Contract Expired.

It keeps jamming up; it's whirring, grinding, and spinning. Tonight, it won't sync anymore but it is valiantly fighting against showing me the iPod face of death.

This iPod went to Japan with me, watched my first episode of Battlestar Galactica with me, and never balked when I wanted to listen to every single version of Cowgirl in the Sand I have, back to back. It suffered the indignity of having *NSYNC O Holy Night loaded on it, and played the STYX that inspired dancing that gave both my friend H. and I whiplash for days after. We played hundreds of games of solitaire on the bus together and listened to Junot Diaz. It was the only portable electronic device not stolen in the great Autumn theft of 2009. I honor you with Nell Carter.

I'm going to pretend

I don't notice that my iPod is making all sorts of loud, spinning noises. The kind of noises I've heard right before my other four iPods have died. Ever since my shuffle was stolen (grrrr) I've been using my big iPod more and taking it out with me. It is getting knocked about more and I don't think it likes it. I can't remember how old this one is and if I can get a new one if it dies. So far, this is the second one I've paid for over fie or six years. I wish they would improve the technology of the iPods with a lot of storage space. They seem to be putting all the effort into little iPods. I don't want to pick 100 songs to carry with me, I want all of them.

Algorithms and Hive Brain

I'm convinced my iPod can read my mind.
(Yeah, I'm back on this, maybe I should finish that dumb story over this long holiday weekend.)

I don't know exactly how the shuffle algorithm works, my guess is that it gives weight to artists/songs that are frequently listened to. Maybe songs that I skip get a negative weight to them. Beyond all that though, I think it knows me.

I was just listening to Living for the City by Stevie Wonder and thinking about how my friend B.'s band used to cover that song. And how B. liked to sing that the legs beneath sister's short skirt were pretty rather than sturdy.

Next song up?
A recording of I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine/Too Far Gone/Tomorrow is a Long, Long Time that my friend B. made in college. It was not his band, just him so the iPod didn't see two artists who did Living in the City and pulled a different song by the second artist.

I need to do a research project on the Shuffle. Luckily, a quick Google search of "ipod shuffle algorithm" reveals a whole slew of sites by math and computer science dorks who know a lot more about this stuff than me. They all seem more interested in randomness and whether all songs will be played before one song will be played twice. I have not seen anything yet about the development over time of human-iPod hive mind communication though. I'm going to send my iPod mental hints to load the Odetta, Nick Drake and Elvis covers of Tomorrow is a Long Time. I love the Rod Stewart and feel a "compare-athon" coming on. According to Wikipedia there are also covers by Harry Belafonte, Nickel Creek, Dion, Chris Hillman, Ian and Sylvia, Joan Baez,The Kingston Trio,Sandy Denny, Danielle Howle, The Silkie, Nationalteatern, Rosalie Sorrels, Judy Collins, Dream City Film Club, and The Black Family.