Thursday, March 30, 2006
A Couple of Requests from the Other Side of the Globe
Request the first:
So, it's gotten to the point where I would rather stab myself in the ear with a pencil then listen to the music on our computer. Not all of it, certainly, but most of it: Yellow #2 'twixt the anvil, stirrup, & hammer, for sure. It's just that what's on the computer represents about 1/3 of the music typically available for perusal and selection when at home. We just didn't get around to digitizing everything before we left. (What? We had other things going on. No, don't look at me like that--we did. Really.) Plus, to make matters worse, there had been a considerably greater number of albums/songs/artists on my ipod, but through some mysterious force unknown to me, it decided to erase itself about a month and a half ago. Listened to it one day, hooked it up to the laptop to charge and update, woke up in the morning and there's nothing there. So, pencils in the ear. And here's where we get to the first request: songs. See, our internet connection is such that it takes about twenty or thirty minutes to download a single song. So the songs absolutely have to be choice, or else it's such a let down I feel like its the day after the presidential elections all over again. According to the stats, a fair number of people swing through here every day. And not all of them are looking to drop some comment spam on us. Some of you actually read. And I'm sure a few of you are even listening to your new favorite song while you're doing it. Or thinking about your new favorite song, at least. I want to know what that song is. And then I want to go find it and download it and listen to it as a balm against pencils in my ears. Let the comments section be your mount, music shepherds, and sermonize.
(For the record, to perhaps give you some sense of what's been coming through lately, my recent downloads include: The Modern Lovers' "New England" [we're getting dangerously close to Opening Day and I wanted to ensure I felt the proper level of Fenway love]; "The Killers' "All These Things That I've Done" [yeah, well, it rules, so quit yer cool stance and try dancing, ok?]; Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come"; some old Saigon battle tracks [it seems the hype is well founded]; some old Jay-Z I was desperately missing; and Elliott Smith's cover of Big Star's "Thirteen.")
Request the second:
I like to think that I'm engaged and intelligent enough to garner some sense of cohesion and relevance from the daily news, to make connections, see why such and such may affect this other place over here, why these people are taking to the streets and itching to lob a few Molotov cocktails embassy-ward. I can recognize all the major world leaders (and most of their seconds) or the Supreme Court Justices when presented with a line-up. (Junichiro Koizumi remains the coolest looking official on earth.) But then the world business report comes on and I glaze over like an abused chimp nearing an overdose level of OxyContin (that Rescue show on Animal Planet can keep you up nights, lemme tell ya). It's not that I don't care (entirely), or that I don't recognize that some people really want to hear reports about the Nikkei Index or the FTSE 100. (That last one I actually rather like, as it's pronounced Footsie, which has that seventh grade in the roller rink kind of feel to it and so almost manages to whisk away the three piece suit aspect of the market.) Or I read something like this (from "Capitalism: the Movie" by Clive Crook in the March 2006 Atlantic Monthly) and have to reread it a few times before I admit that I have no idea what it means: "America regulates its market force more lightly than Europe, hence its low rate of unemployment; but in many other areas, especially so far as risk, product safety, and the environment are concerned, America's economy is at least as heavily regulated as Europe's." The problem is, I am as ignorant of global-level economics as I am of animal husbandry. I somehow managed to never take an economics class, never, not once. Five years of high school, four (and a half) years of college--nothing. I'm not even going to include the three years of grad school, because the chances of my having gotten any economics when working toward a creative writing degree were slim to begin with. For all I know, Alan Greenspan is a warlock and regulated interest rates all those years only after studied concentration over a bubbling cauldron. I clearly need some help. And so we get to my point: do any of you feel you have a good enough grasp on the larger economic happenings of the world to provide me with a little study session? My email's in my profile: hit me up. I'll even do the homework. Promise.
So, it's gotten to the point where I would rather stab myself in the ear with a pencil then listen to the music on our computer. Not all of it, certainly, but most of it: Yellow #2 'twixt the anvil, stirrup, & hammer, for sure. It's just that what's on the computer represents about 1/3 of the music typically available for perusal and selection when at home. We just didn't get around to digitizing everything before we left. (What? We had other things going on. No, don't look at me like that--we did. Really.) Plus, to make matters worse, there had been a considerably greater number of albums/songs/artists on my ipod, but through some mysterious force unknown to me, it decided to erase itself about a month and a half ago. Listened to it one day, hooked it up to the laptop to charge and update, woke up in the morning and there's nothing there. So, pencils in the ear. And here's where we get to the first request: songs. See, our internet connection is such that it takes about twenty or thirty minutes to download a single song. So the songs absolutely have to be choice, or else it's such a let down I feel like its the day after the presidential elections all over again. According to the stats, a fair number of people swing through here every day. And not all of them are looking to drop some comment spam on us. Some of you actually read. And I'm sure a few of you are even listening to your new favorite song while you're doing it. Or thinking about your new favorite song, at least. I want to know what that song is. And then I want to go find it and download it and listen to it as a balm against pencils in my ears. Let the comments section be your mount, music shepherds, and sermonize.
(For the record, to perhaps give you some sense of what's been coming through lately, my recent downloads include: The Modern Lovers' "New England" [we're getting dangerously close to Opening Day and I wanted to ensure I felt the proper level of Fenway love]; "The Killers' "All These Things That I've Done" [yeah, well, it rules, so quit yer cool stance and try dancing, ok?]; Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come"; some old Saigon battle tracks [it seems the hype is well founded]; some old Jay-Z I was desperately missing; and Elliott Smith's cover of Big Star's "Thirteen.")
Request the second:
I like to think that I'm engaged and intelligent enough to garner some sense of cohesion and relevance from the daily news, to make connections, see why such and such may affect this other place over here, why these people are taking to the streets and itching to lob a few Molotov cocktails embassy-ward. I can recognize all the major world leaders (and most of their seconds) or the Supreme Court Justices when presented with a line-up. (Junichiro Koizumi remains the coolest looking official on earth.) But then the world business report comes on and I glaze over like an abused chimp nearing an overdose level of OxyContin (that Rescue show on Animal Planet can keep you up nights, lemme tell ya). It's not that I don't care (entirely), or that I don't recognize that some people really want to hear reports about the Nikkei Index or the FTSE 100. (That last one I actually rather like, as it's pronounced Footsie, which has that seventh grade in the roller rink kind of feel to it and so almost manages to whisk away the three piece suit aspect of the market.) Or I read something like this (from "Capitalism: the Movie" by Clive Crook in the March 2006 Atlantic Monthly) and have to reread it a few times before I admit that I have no idea what it means: "America regulates its market force more lightly than Europe, hence its low rate of unemployment; but in many other areas, especially so far as risk, product safety, and the environment are concerned, America's economy is at least as heavily regulated as Europe's." The problem is, I am as ignorant of global-level economics as I am of animal husbandry. I somehow managed to never take an economics class, never, not once. Five years of high school, four (and a half) years of college--nothing. I'm not even going to include the three years of grad school, because the chances of my having gotten any economics when working toward a creative writing degree were slim to begin with. For all I know, Alan Greenspan is a warlock and regulated interest rates all those years only after studied concentration over a bubbling cauldron. I clearly need some help. And so we get to my point: do any of you feel you have a good enough grasp on the larger economic happenings of the world to provide me with a little study session? My email's in my profile: hit me up. I'll even do the homework. Promise.
