MP3 Player and Other Observations

I have to give credit where it is due. The following has some terminology from Douglas Coupland’s book Generation X: Tales of an Accelerated Culture. You may have heard these before. Maybe not. This blog posting may be what he refers to as “Obsurcism”.
The practice of peppering daily life with obscure references (forgotten films, dead TV stars, unpopular book, defunct countries, etc.) as a subliminal means of showcasing one’s education and one’s wish to disassociate from the world of mass culture.

I finally became a little more technically advanced. I got myself an MP3 player. I needed to. Maybe need is too strong of term. The reason is my CD player at work is beginning to show its age. It no longer wants to play any of my burned CD copies. The radio works fine. But radio these days does not really do much to engage me in any real musically sense. However, for me it really has been that way for a long time. I listen to a wide range of music and much of it is obscure to others. It is the stuff that is rarely ever played over the airwaves. There is a vast amount of things to hear in this world. The radio stations dole it out with the equivalent of an eye dropper. MEMO: The CD’s come a lot of time with at least 12 other songs on them. And many of the artists have released more than one album. STOP PLAYING THE SAME 20 SONGS ALL DAY LONG. This is why radio stations are becoming irrelevant.

The other reason is I wanted to listen to the podcasts I have been saving for the last few months on my computer. I needed something new to listen to during the day. I have been saving podcast from the radio show This American Life. The first one that I listen to (and this was random) was segment called How to Talk to Kids. (I do not have kids of my own. Thank God!) If you do listen to it you will find the end of Act 2 disturbing. And Act 3 told a side to parents that they would never admit to on their own.

I also came to another insight at work with my new MP3 player. Douglas Coupland also references what he calls the “Air family”. The false sense of community experienced among coworkers in an office environment. We all engage in some conversation with our co-workers. Even if we do not want to. I think we may feel some guilty obligation to do it. My problem is my co-workers are not very literate at all. So the topics are limited. Here is a hint on tough it is. The only topic currently that can generate a long discussion here is fantasy football. And I do not participate in it. I forgot there is another source of real discussions here. That is pointing out the faults of the other co-workers. It is hard to stay away from this “toxic waste”. I just want to go about my business and stay out of all of it. So here it is. I avoided it all by simply listening to my MP3 player for the day. It was great. And the podcasts were very informative. I wish I had gotten one of these sooner.

I did put more than just podcasts on the player. Here is the music I have at the moment on it. They are the full album versions.

Frank Zappa- Strictly Commercial

Rush- Snakes and Arrows                

David Gilmour- On an Island

Tragically Hip- Fully Completely                                    

Bob Mould-Workbook        

Lou Reed – The Raven (Music for Edgar Allen Poe)                    

Eddie Vedder- Into the Wild

Soundtracks for The Departed and Superbad                         

Mark Snow-Music and Light (The X-Files Soundtrack)            

Henry Rollins – Nights Behind the Tree Line

Plus the Orson Welles 1930′s radio edition of The War of the Worlds.

It very much is an eclectic and esoteric collection. As any true personal listening collection should be.

Take that Mr. Radio Program Director!

It is amazing how much you can fit on to 2GB MP3 player. And it is really a small object. The comedian Lewis Black is right when he says that musical players will become so small they will be placed in our underwear and we will listen to music through our ass. I remember that stereos during my teen years had to be huge. The speakers needed to be six feet high. Size mattered when it came to stereos. The more components it had the better. Now smaller means efficiency and that is the new power. Could you imagine what the world would be like if the same mentality was applied to “male endowment”? But then again the “Enhancement Industry” is a very powerful and influential lobbying group.

Remember: Size does not matter only when one can compensate by purchasing a sports car. If you cannot afford a sports car then date a woman with small hands.