I opener

I am not proud of it but when I travel I buy trashy magazines. This mag to which I am now referring used to be full of great rock journalism or maybe I am just getting older, wiser and what not after all the drinking fountains are getting smaller... In the latest issue of Spin there is an editorial of sorts, about the influence of the iPod on contemporary culture. The basic premise of the article is that this particular piece of technology will revolutionize the way we experience our lives because for each instance we can now have the most appropriate, if not pefect soundtrack.

So obviously I have revealed my hand, yes I have one of those new fangled music machines and yes like every other hipster on the subway my white ear pods are wide open, exposing me. But, there is one difference (at the very least) I have yet to desire the sort of control that drove the author of the afore mentioned article. I like things a little more chaotic, less controlled as some of you who know me might attest to. So there I was on the subway, my iPod on random as it always is and it hit me, we have no control. This is not a new revelation, this is something that I have felt very deeply for some time but it was confirmed tonight as I realized that I have never taken my iPod off of random and so I had to laugh as if drunk on the idea that going from American Nightmare to Miles Davis to Run DMC to Merle Haggard, makes sense. After allI know it does, how about you?

I opener

I am not proud of it but when I travel I buy trashy magazines. This mag to which I am now referring used to be full of great rock journalism or maybe I am just getting older, wiser and what not after all the drinking fountains are getting smaller... In the latest issue of there is an editorial of sorts, about the influence of the iPod on contemporary culture. The basic premise of the article is that this particular piece of technology will revolutionize the way we experience our lives because for each instance we can now have the most appropriate, if not pefect soundtrack.

So obviously I have revealed my hand, yes I have one of those new fangled music machines and yes like every other hipster on the subway my white ear pods are wide open, exposing me. But, there is one difference (at the very least) I have yet to desire the sort of control that drove the author of the afore mentioned article. I like things a little more chaotic, less controlled as some of you who know me might attest to. So there I was on the subway, my iPod on random as it always is and it hit me, we have no control. This is not a new revelation, this is something that I have felt very deeply for some time but it was confirmed tonight as I realized that I have never taken my iPod off of random and so I had to laugh as if drunk on the idea that going from American Nightmare to Miles Davis to Run DMC to Merle Haggard, makes sense. After allI know it does, how about you?

Straight No Chaser

Did Thelonious Monk ever use drugs? For some reason I rember reading that he had an addiction to something or am I just confusing his biography with some of his contemporaries? I just finished Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser, a biography produced by Clint Eastwood and released in 1989. The film was created using documentary footage shot in the late 60's and includes contemporary interviews with those closest to him and I could not help wonder if the omission of his use of illegal substances was a decesion Clint Eastwood made as Executive Producer or if Monk did, in fact, not use drugs. I only bring this up because they allude to him being sick, and being hospitalized but they never come right out and tell us what he has, which leads me to believe that the filmakers would hide other aspects of his life as well. It is not important whether he did drugs however if he did and it is not included in the documentary it leaves one suspicious of other material that was possibly left out. Other than that the footage is generally amazing and offers a unique view of such a great man I just wish I had gotten the whole story, I feel cheated.