Friday, May 20, 2011

Technology And Rock'n'Roll And Sex And All The Rest




I used to have a basic working-knowledge of iTunes. Back in the days when iTunes was like new and bright and shiny. Now iTunes is like rocket surgery. It's like brain science. It's like geek-world. It's like...beyond me.

So anyway, I have an iPod. I have iTunes. I have the recording of Keith Richards' Life. It's on CD.
CD's.
Twenty of them.
And I hate that damn pocket CD player. I'm not sure why. I suppose because I still love my old Sony Walkman that plays tapes. Tapes are cool. You can rewind and fast forward much more accurately than with CD's which start and end and begin again on pre-determined places, requiring you to go back and hear shit you've already heard. I mean, there I am, listening to my book on tape or CD and I get distracted by something or the plug pulls out of the socket because I got it caught on a rose bush or the knob of the knife drawer and I need to stop it all and go back to hear what I missed and if it's a tape, no problem. If it's a CD, well, forget it.

So here I am, a woman who remembers when the highest height of technology was the TRANSISTOR RADIO, (snap your fingers to the grooving sounds of Pat Boone, ya'll!) and man, that was cool. A tiny little radio encased in a clever little leather skin with tiny holes so the sound could come out and two dials you could spin with one finger to find the next station, to turn it up, to turn it down and now here I am with a COMPUTER which only NASA had in those days and Steve Jobs was crawling on the floor and picking up his mama's hair pins and trying to figure out how to turn them into alien-spaceship communication receiver devices after he'd tasted them thoroughly and I have an iPod and wouldn't it make sense to upload/download that book onto it?

Phew. One would think.

Twenty CD's. So in theory I download (upload?) the CD's into my iTunes (easy-peasy) and then plug in the iPod and JUST LIKE MAGIC! the entire book is right there, living in my iPod which is INTUITIVE, RIGHT? and I can spin wheels (I love Steve Jobs for bringing back the dial, the wheel- it's the best and there is no way to improve it and don't give me that shit you have to punch, punch, punch to program) and that will be that. I'll be able to carry that entire book around in my tiniest pocket and life will be grand.

I have a strong feeling, however, that it's not going to be that easy. Right now I am downloading (UPloading?) Disc 5. Only fifteen more to go! And iPod is on the charger. So...
I figure by the time the Rapture hits, I will have perhaps accomplished this task. If there isn't something I have forgotten. Like something so vital that all of the time I've spent up-and-down-loading is wasted. I see on iTunes that there are all sorts of fun and hip things you can do with iTunes now and you can sync this and you can sync that but I ain't got nothing to sync and don't even talk to me about pinging. There's even a category called "genius" and god knows I am not qualified to click on THAT.

Here's a funny thing: When Keith Richards first started playing electric guitar, he used his mama's radio as his first amp. "Keith! What did you do to my radio?" And sometimes he wanted a growly funky dirty sound and so he would remove one of the TWO TUBES in the radio and that pushed the little ol' thing to have to work so hard that it gave it that dirty funk and then, when he wanted it to be sweet, he'd put the tube back in, usually forgetting to unplug it before he started messing around in the back and here I am now, writing this story about that story on my beloved Magic Box, my Mac and at the same time, I am transferring that story onto this very Magic Box and if you want to know the truth, I would have no idea how to removed a tube from the back of a radio.

Well, I have wasted half a day, writing this and down-up-loading and I'm only on disc 8 now but I've had a hell of a lot of fun looking at Youtube vids of Start Me Up and yes, yes, YES! once again I am caught up tight in the spider-web-steel-sex-strings of those skinny English boys, now old men, still built like wire and silk, still belting it out, still getting growly, funky, dirty sounds from voice boxes, guitars, still slanky, slangin' rock, don't get me wrong- that is my tribal music.

No. You are NOT done hearing about Keith Richards and it's a beautiful Friday and I have no where on this earth I have to be and this writing, this listening, has done more for my soul than sitting in any cathedral on this earth. And if iTunes and iPods and Youtube foster and allow me to listen, to dance, to get caught up in this type of Pagan Prayer, this sort of soul-restoring gut glory on a Friday morning in Lloyd, Florida right here in my 151 year old house, then god bless 'em and who knows how my grandchildren will be listening to old Keith in another fifty years?

Happy Friday, y'all.

Love...Ms. Moon

16 comments:

  1. Hm yes, shouldn't be so hard. I've had great success and great failure uploading books to itunes and then transfering to my ipod. Sometimes it's all out of order when I go to listen to it and it frustrates the hell out of me. Other times, it's perfectly fine. Good luck. Once it's in your itunes library you basically have to drag it over to your ipod symbol on the left. Would be easier if you put it in the audiobook folder if you have one.
    Good luck!

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  2. Do you have to do them all at once? Just listen to what you have and up/download more when you get to the end of what you have now. No?

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  3. steve jobs re-invented the wheel? nice.

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  4. Happy Friday. I don't know dick about iPods. Dick.

    Love you. Enjoy the day. Sounds like you are.

    SB

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  5. I had to smile when I saw you talking about the Stones - when I was a kid, my brother and I had a little record player that played 45s and we had the record of "Can't get no Satisfaction" by the Stones and we played it a zillion times - I think I still know about all the words.

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  6. All electronics give me agita.

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  7. Um. But. You can rewind and fast forward cds, you just hold the button down?

    I hate itunes too. I#m struggling with new music technology as well ,l've been left behind. I thought i bought something on it the other day, but then it didn't show up, so I've no idea if I did or not.

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  8. Ok, I hate itunes too. My entire family is ieverything - phones, touches, pads - but I'm old school happy with my Zen mp3 player and I download what I need from Amazon pretty easily. I've been told I need to get with the program, but ilogic is not intuitive for me or my brain, so I resist. I still have all the mix tapes I made for my walkman, though I'm pretty sure I don't own a player that works anymore! Maybe I do need to get with the program, who knows?

    I know exactly what you meant in that last paragraph about the cathedral of music. I've been on a Todd Rundgren bender ever since Roger Ebert tweeted a link to a blog about his career and I rediscovered his old music and all the stuff I've missed inbetween. I just can't get enough of the music or listenin to him talk about music and his life - he's lived it on his terms, that's for sure, and he's a good papa, which counts for a lot in my world. Anyway, my music fixation of late is keeping the crazy at bay.

    It's amazing, isn't it, when a musician can stay alive and relevent so many decades? So glad you have Keith and I have Todd and thank goodness for the music and the books about music. Happy listening!

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  9. I can't think of a better thing to do before the rapture. I wonder what Keith is doing.

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  10. I'm with you. Cassettes were easier. Until they got chewed up. I manage my iPod but I pretended I didn't understand it for ages so someone else would do it.

    Love, love, love the Stones for all the same reasons as you. I grew up on them and still play them all the time. I shall never, ever tire of hearing about Keith who's always been my favourite.

    Love you Mary xx

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  11. Bethany- I did it! I'm proud as punch, too.

    Stephanie- I'm sort of an all-or-nothing sort of person.

    Adrienne- I believe he did.

    Ms. Bastard-Beloved- It's actually unbelievably easy.

    Deb- I doubt I know any of the actual words despite thousands of listenings.

    Elizabeth- This is why I use Macs.

    Jo- I've done the same before. If you didn't get an e-mail telling you that you have bought something, you probably haven't.

    Mel- Well, I'd have an iPhone AND an iPad if I had unlimited funds. I do love the Apple brand. I never got into Todd so much. I have no idea why. But yes, the music is like a magic time-machine, isn't it?

    Syd- I imagine Keith is drinking vodka and playing guitar.

    Christina- You really should read his book. I think you would love it as much as I do.
    And I love YOU!

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  12. Random thought; first time I ever saw the Rolling Stones was on Saturday Night Live and they were playing Shattered. Mick was licking Ron Wood on his face and Ron kept barely keeping his composure and rocking out on his broken glass covered Les Paul. It was the wildest/strangest thing I had ever seen at 14 or 15 years old.

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  13. PS; I don't care what anyone says; I think iTunes is the most incredible thing ever. Used to be you had to carry a 40 lb crates of albums around to carry a tiny fraction of the music you can now carry around in a 5 oz iPod. The only thing I miss is holding that record sleeve in my hand and examing the artwork. Not quite the same viewing in on an iPod or computer screen.

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  14. Scott- Man, I wish I'd seen that performance! Plus, I agree with you about iTunes and the iPod. I do.

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  15. It blew my mind and as troubling as it was to see Mick bothering Ron Wood like that at 14 years old; I was hooked. If you like to watch concert performances on DVD, checkout the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus. Lot of different bands and truly a trip back on the Light Fantastic but the Stones are truly the best act on that DVD. Your public library might have it.

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  16. Yeah. I've seen parts of it on PBS. Truly bizarre and amazing.

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