iWhatever

So, I don't know if I'm regressing or what, but I've found myself volunteering at KALX. I really enjoyed tonight, at the beginning of alphabet training, when we were asked to state our names and majors and/or occupations, and I found myself saying, "Um, I'm Julia, and I was an English major, but I graduated a long time ago." Then I glanced at our trainer, who I know from the clinic, and revised my statement, "I mean, uh, 3 years ago..." And I definitely had the coolest answer to the "what's in your CD player?" question. Because I've been quickly accumulating a lot of $1.99 vinyl from Amoeba, I said that I've been listening to Ike & Tina's Working Together. Which is true, but not as true as if I'd said, "Biggie and Wu-Tang. I'm about 13 years behind in hip-hop." Or I could have been really honest and said, "Oh dude, I'm so excited that I now have a cigarette-lighter-type hole in my car now, so I can listen to my iPod on random for all eternity and the battery will never die!!"

Two things about the iPod:

(a) I thought I didn't want an iPod. I feel very uncomfortable being a part of the Cult of iPod. I wanted an mp3 player, but maybe the Creative Zen or something, just so that I could scoff at those sucked in. But my brother is right, it's super easy to get sucked in if you already have iTunes on your computer. I was also resistant to iTunes, but now it's like crack, and I compulsively edit the filenames and make playlists. I have this weird problem with having something that everyone has, and with buying new technology in general. I suppose that the iPod has been around long enough that I can accept it into my life. Remember that huge one that Ralph had like 4 years ago? It was kind of cool and enticing, but dude, I wouldn't have been able to upload the BART schedule onto it! Which I totally did with the one I have! Oh god!

(b) There are some songs that I skip every time they pop up. I don't know why! I feel like I should give them a chance, but once I hear the first few notes of, say, Hooked on a Feelin' by Blue Swede, or anything by the Moog Cookbook, I have this strong urge to bypass the entire song. I know if I could just make it through all those ooga-chakas and cheesy low-tech keyboards, I'd be fine; I'd enjoy the song, and probably even belt out the lyrics. This is in the car, of course, and not on the BART. Duh.

To offset the iPod, I've been buying records and VHS tapes in mass quantities. Maybe I will do this until the amount that I've spent on the records and VHS tapes adds up to the cost of the iPod. I'm getting close, I think. Today, I bought Roberta Flack's Killing Me Softly and Chapter Two, Alice Cooper's Love it to Death (after hearing it in Ian's car and then downloading the entire thing) and the American release of Rubber Soul, which has "I've Seen a Face" instead of "Drive My Car" as its opening track. There is no "Drive My Car" on the American release! And there's no "Nowhere Man," but there is "It's Only Love." Ooh, and the last track on Chapter Two is a 10 minute version of Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne." I don't know how I feel about it.

But seriously, I'm never buying an iMac. No way.