Late nights with amazing young women, and my homicidal iPod.
Late nights with amazing young women and my homicidal iPod.
So, on Tuesday last week, I got out of work, went home to change cloths and then jetted over to Joanne's place, because her, her 8 year old daughter Riley and I were going to see the Dresden Dolls in concert down in Boston. Yup, a long drive, a late concert and a long drive back; on a work and school night no less! I am so glad that Joanne is not the kind of mother who says “oh, but you can't go to the concert by one of your favorite bands that you may never get the chance to see again... you have school tomorrow!” Like me, she realizes that some things are worth being tired the next day for, or even missing the day of work/school completely for. I am glad that, like me, she thought this concert was one such thing. But, school was not neglected at all... Riley did her homework on the car ride down to Boston, so that's all good.
We took the T into the concert, bought D Doll's merchandise, some vastly over priced drinks, and found our seats, which were excellent! Riley would tell anyone who talked to her that this was “her very first ever real concert!!”
The warm up band was... regrettable. They had so many technical issues that I think they ended up calling it a night and leaving the stage early, which was fine as far as I was concerned. When asked her opinion of them, Riley said they were “too loud.”
Then Amanda and Brian, the Dresden Dolls, came on and started to play... and the crowd went wild, and was amazed! Riley was sitting on the edge of her seat, eyes wide with an expression of beatific wonder on her face throughout most of the show. She would occasionally exclaim that she couldn't believe she was “really seeing the real Dresden Dolls!” That is of course, when she wasn't singing and bouncing along to the songs... and yes, Riley knows the lyrics to almost every song on the Dresden Dolls CD.
So far, Joanne has done a wonderful job of making sure that Riley does not belt out Coin Operated Boy, or Missed Me to her ultra-religious, ultra-conservative grandparents. However, on the way home, Riley was talking about which Dresden Dolls song she was going to sing for the church talent show...
This is a clip from their Wed. night performance... ( Joanne, Riley and I attended the Tuesday night show... from which the video does not seem to be as good.)
Everyone sitting near us was charmed by the tiny little 8 year old who knew the lyrics to, and was singing along with most of the songs. Joanne of course, knew the lyrics to the songs as well, and so was often singing along with Riley; it was a great thing to watch. There is just something about a mother/daughter duet of The Jeep Song that warms the cockles of ones heart!
However, since a cockle is a sea dwelling mollusk, if you have them in your heart... I would suggest seeing a doctor about that right away, rather than warming the little critters up! But, I digress...
As I was saying, the Dresden Dolls, were very much 'in the zone' during this concert, and watching the two of them perform and play with and off of each other was truly amazing.
I was going to write a review of the concert as part of this Blog entry, but I discovered that a better writer than I... Neil Gaiman, had beaten me to it, writing a review of the Tour and the Dresden Dolls as a whole. And yes, I will freely admit that Neil Gaiman is a better writer than me. But then, that's no great feat... anyone who can spell well and has even a basic knowledge of punctuation is a better writer than me! This is Neil Gaiman's review, and y'all should read it!
As we were leaving the concert, Riley announced that this was “The best night of her life!” Of course, she is 8, and seems to have a “Best night of her life,” at least once every two weeks or so; but still, I was glad she enjoyed the concert so much, and even Joanne told me ( very quietly, for her voice was hoarse from singing and yelling), that this was the best concert she had ever seen. So yeah... it was a great evening
Then of course, came the drive home.
Now this is where the current war of wills between me and my homicidal iPod comes into play. You see, I have very eclectic tastes in music, and have almost all of my music on my iPod. I tend to prefer Folk metal as the music I listen to most often, and so, of the 1,500+ songs on my iPod, over half of them are punk, metal or folk metal. So, I almost always set my iPod to Shuffle, and leave it... and I usually get a great mix of good energetic metal music, with a bit of Gogol Bordello, Wumpscut, Ghostwind or Rachid Taha thrown in for variety.
Except of course, when I have a long drive and need the music to help keep me awake... then my iPod seems to develop a fascination with the songs of Johnny Cash, along with many of the odd and obscure songs it contains..
Now don't get my wrong, I like Johnny Cash... he wouldn't be in my iPod if I didn't. But it seems every time I am driving anywhere of any distance, most especially late at night and am needing to stay awake; my iPod plays at least 2-3 Johnny Cash songs, and then follows them up with really mellow songs from singers like Azam Ali, or Lisa Gerrard... and when it gets really vindictive, it will start playing the Anonymous 4! Now, this is all beautiful and wonderful music, that is in the words of my favorite villain/victim Alex,... “georgeousness and georgeosity made flesh, like a bird of rarest spun heaven metal, or like silvery wine flowing in a spaceship gravity all nonsense.” That is of course, when one is in the mood for it; but when trying to stay awake while driving home at some god-forsaken hours of the night, is not when I am usually in the mood it!
And of course, trying to change the settings on your iPod while driving, is about as intelligent as texting while driving... I mean, you are staring at a tiny screen using fine motor skills to try to achieve the desired result, either a text, or a change of tune. So, I don't text while I drive, and neither will I iPod. So, if I am cruising down 91 at 75, and my iPod decides to start up with Psaume 50, Miserere de Deus by Hildegard Von Bingen, as performed by the Ensemble Organum , there is really very little I can do about it unless I am willing to pull over to the side of the road and deal with the issue.
And yes, I know... that's what “play-lists” are for. But I have been very resistant to create a play-list for driving, because about the only time I ever listen to my iPod, is when I am driving! So I would be exiling a lot of my music, and really beautiful music at that, to never being heard, and that would be such a shame. I don't listen to my iPod at home.. then I usually have Pandora on.
But, the situation was getting a bit out of hand. I mean seriously, I have every album ever released by Rammstein, Korpiklaani, Eluveitie and Kivimistan Druidi, just to name a few, on my iPod. I have only about 15 Johnny Cash songs on my iPod, so, out of a collection of 1,500 songs... I should hear Johnny Cash about one song in every hundred, with lots of good folk metal in-between, yes? But no! Sometimes, every 4th or 5th songs is a Johnny Cash song, followed by something mellow, and utterly sleep-inducing!
So, I compromised. I created a play-list for “night time driving”, and only included one Johnny Cash song on it.. Ring of Fire, and no chants, church music, Azam Ali or Ensemble Organum... I even left out Dead Can Dance!
But, on the drive home from the Dresden Dolls concert, I had not yet created my “Night time driving” play-list, so had to deal with my iPod's late night fascination with Johnny Cash and 16th century church music, with some Dresden Dolls and Devotchka thrown in. I really can't tell if my iPod is trying to kill me by causing me to fall asleep at the wheel and crash, or trying to kill itself by causing me to fall asleep at the wheel and crash... it does not really matter, as the end result is the same. But, in spite of my iPod's attempts to cause me to go to sleep while driving, I made it home from the concert at around 2:30 am or so.
So, yeah... 20 hours awake, 3 hours of sleep and then up at 5:30 AM for work the next day! The best thing that can be said about that day at work, was that I survived it.
It took me several days to recover from that epic late week-day night concert, but it was soooo well worth it! And it's a good thing it only took me a couple days to recover from the Tuesday night concert, because Friday night, I had a date with The Goth-daughter! Driving down to see the Goth-daughter, I tried out my new “night time driving” play-list, and it seemed to work well. Lots of folk metal and high energy stuff, with no 'beautiful floaty' music in there to put me at risk of drifting off to sleep in a sonic cloud of pure bliss, and thus, drifting off this mortal coil as well.
It was really, really good to see The Goth-daughter again! We had dinner at an odd place, where it took us a while just to figure out how to order our food, but that was amusing in and of itself. After that we went back to her dorm room and just talked.
I have known the Goth-daughter since she was 7 or so, and been good friends with her since she was 14... and now here she is, 19 and in her second year at a very prestigious college. Our lives have gotten very, very busy in the last couple years, and the time we have spent having epic late night phone conversations or just hanging out and talking about life in general has gone way down. This is sad, but is no one's fault. She has a full course load, works a work/study job and also does volunteer work for several community service programs... so, busy is an understatement!
It was a real joy to be able to spend several hours in her company just talking! And as I was sitting with her in her dorm, I was struck, again and as usual, by what an amazing and remarkable young woman she is, and she is only becoming more so as time goes on! We talked until rather late at night, and then said our good byes.
So, I got in my car, started it up and clicked on the iPod, and was rewarded with Reise Reise by Rammstein... so all was well! I headed down the road and turned the car homeward. As I was cruising home, the road in front of me all black with no other cars and only the occasional shroud of lowland mist to distract me from the staccato rhythm of the yellow center line... what should come out of my car's speakers, but Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie... by Johnny Cash, followed by something from Azam Ali!
So, after pulling off the road and doing a bit of experimenting, it seems as if, since I leave my iPod in my car, that every time I turn my car off and then start it up again, my iPod automatically switches to normal Shuffle mode, for all the songs it contains, rather than stay on whatever setting I put it on... like Shuffle for a Late Night Driving Playlist! So now I have to be vigilant of my iPod, and make sure to set it to the proper play-list when I am driving home late at night after spending time with amazing young women, be it the Goth-daughter, or Joanne and Riley.. SIGH. I think I need to get my iPod an iThreapist, perhaps then it will stop trying to kill us both. Of course, I really have no one to blame but myself, as I gave it the ammunition!
So, on Tuesday last week, I got out of work, went home to change cloths and then jetted over to Joanne's place, because her, her 8 year old daughter Riley and I were going to see the Dresden Dolls in concert down in Boston. Yup, a long drive, a late concert and a long drive back; on a work and school night no less! I am so glad that Joanne is not the kind of mother who says “oh, but you can't go to the concert by one of your favorite bands that you may never get the chance to see again... you have school tomorrow!” Like me, she realizes that some things are worth being tired the next day for, or even missing the day of work/school completely for. I am glad that, like me, she thought this concert was one such thing. But, school was not neglected at all... Riley did her homework on the car ride down to Boston, so that's all good.
We took the T into the concert, bought D Doll's merchandise, some vastly over priced drinks, and found our seats, which were excellent! Riley would tell anyone who talked to her that this was “her very first ever real concert!!”
The warm up band was... regrettable. They had so many technical issues that I think they ended up calling it a night and leaving the stage early, which was fine as far as I was concerned. When asked her opinion of them, Riley said they were “too loud.”
Then Amanda and Brian, the Dresden Dolls, came on and started to play... and the crowd went wild, and was amazed! Riley was sitting on the edge of her seat, eyes wide with an expression of beatific wonder on her face throughout most of the show. She would occasionally exclaim that she couldn't believe she was “really seeing the real Dresden Dolls!” That is of course, when she wasn't singing and bouncing along to the songs... and yes, Riley knows the lyrics to almost every song on the Dresden Dolls CD.
So far, Joanne has done a wonderful job of making sure that Riley does not belt out Coin Operated Boy, or Missed Me to her ultra-religious, ultra-conservative grandparents. However, on the way home, Riley was talking about which Dresden Dolls song she was going to sing for the church talent show...
This is a clip from their Wed. night performance... ( Joanne, Riley and I attended the Tuesday night show... from which the video does not seem to be as good.)
Everyone sitting near us was charmed by the tiny little 8 year old who knew the lyrics to, and was singing along with most of the songs. Joanne of course, knew the lyrics to the songs as well, and so was often singing along with Riley; it was a great thing to watch. There is just something about a mother/daughter duet of The Jeep Song that warms the cockles of ones heart!
However, since a cockle is a sea dwelling mollusk, if you have them in your heart... I would suggest seeing a doctor about that right away, rather than warming the little critters up! But, I digress...
As I was saying, the Dresden Dolls, were very much 'in the zone' during this concert, and watching the two of them perform and play with and off of each other was truly amazing.
I was going to write a review of the concert as part of this Blog entry, but I discovered that a better writer than I... Neil Gaiman, had beaten me to it, writing a review of the Tour and the Dresden Dolls as a whole. And yes, I will freely admit that Neil Gaiman is a better writer than me. But then, that's no great feat... anyone who can spell well and has even a basic knowledge of punctuation is a better writer than me! This is Neil Gaiman's review, and y'all should read it!
As we were leaving the concert, Riley announced that this was “The best night of her life!” Of course, she is 8, and seems to have a “Best night of her life,” at least once every two weeks or so; but still, I was glad she enjoyed the concert so much, and even Joanne told me ( very quietly, for her voice was hoarse from singing and yelling), that this was the best concert she had ever seen. So yeah... it was a great evening
Then of course, came the drive home.
Now this is where the current war of wills between me and my homicidal iPod comes into play. You see, I have very eclectic tastes in music, and have almost all of my music on my iPod. I tend to prefer Folk metal as the music I listen to most often, and so, of the 1,500+ songs on my iPod, over half of them are punk, metal or folk metal. So, I almost always set my iPod to Shuffle, and leave it... and I usually get a great mix of good energetic metal music, with a bit of Gogol Bordello, Wumpscut, Ghostwind or Rachid Taha thrown in for variety.
Except of course, when I have a long drive and need the music to help keep me awake... then my iPod seems to develop a fascination with the songs of Johnny Cash, along with many of the odd and obscure songs it contains..
Now don't get my wrong, I like Johnny Cash... he wouldn't be in my iPod if I didn't. But it seems every time I am driving anywhere of any distance, most especially late at night and am needing to stay awake; my iPod plays at least 2-3 Johnny Cash songs, and then follows them up with really mellow songs from singers like Azam Ali, or Lisa Gerrard... and when it gets really vindictive, it will start playing the Anonymous 4! Now, this is all beautiful and wonderful music, that is in the words of my favorite villain/victim Alex,... “georgeousness and georgeosity made flesh, like a bird of rarest spun heaven metal, or like silvery wine flowing in a spaceship gravity all nonsense.” That is of course, when one is in the mood for it; but when trying to stay awake while driving home at some god-forsaken hours of the night, is not when I am usually in the mood it!
And of course, trying to change the settings on your iPod while driving, is about as intelligent as texting while driving... I mean, you are staring at a tiny screen using fine motor skills to try to achieve the desired result, either a text, or a change of tune. So, I don't text while I drive, and neither will I iPod. So, if I am cruising down 91 at 75, and my iPod decides to start up with Psaume 50, Miserere de Deus by Hildegard Von Bingen, as performed by the Ensemble Organum , there is really very little I can do about it unless I am willing to pull over to the side of the road and deal with the issue.
And yes, I know... that's what “play-lists” are for. But I have been very resistant to create a play-list for driving, because about the only time I ever listen to my iPod, is when I am driving! So I would be exiling a lot of my music, and really beautiful music at that, to never being heard, and that would be such a shame. I don't listen to my iPod at home.. then I usually have Pandora on.
But, the situation was getting a bit out of hand. I mean seriously, I have every album ever released by Rammstein, Korpiklaani, Eluveitie and Kivimistan Druidi, just to name a few, on my iPod. I have only about 15 Johnny Cash songs on my iPod, so, out of a collection of 1,500 songs... I should hear Johnny Cash about one song in every hundred, with lots of good folk metal in-between, yes? But no! Sometimes, every 4th or 5th songs is a Johnny Cash song, followed by something mellow, and utterly sleep-inducing!
So, I compromised. I created a play-list for “night time driving”, and only included one Johnny Cash song on it.. Ring of Fire, and no chants, church music, Azam Ali or Ensemble Organum... I even left out Dead Can Dance!
But, on the drive home from the Dresden Dolls concert, I had not yet created my “Night time driving” play-list, so had to deal with my iPod's late night fascination with Johnny Cash and 16th century church music, with some Dresden Dolls and Devotchka thrown in. I really can't tell if my iPod is trying to kill me by causing me to fall asleep at the wheel and crash, or trying to kill itself by causing me to fall asleep at the wheel and crash... it does not really matter, as the end result is the same. But, in spite of my iPod's attempts to cause me to go to sleep while driving, I made it home from the concert at around 2:30 am or so.
So, yeah... 20 hours awake, 3 hours of sleep and then up at 5:30 AM for work the next day! The best thing that can be said about that day at work, was that I survived it.
It took me several days to recover from that epic late week-day night concert, but it was soooo well worth it! And it's a good thing it only took me a couple days to recover from the Tuesday night concert, because Friday night, I had a date with The Goth-daughter! Driving down to see the Goth-daughter, I tried out my new “night time driving” play-list, and it seemed to work well. Lots of folk metal and high energy stuff, with no 'beautiful floaty' music in there to put me at risk of drifting off to sleep in a sonic cloud of pure bliss, and thus, drifting off this mortal coil as well.
It was really, really good to see The Goth-daughter again! We had dinner at an odd place, where it took us a while just to figure out how to order our food, but that was amusing in and of itself. After that we went back to her dorm room and just talked.
I have known the Goth-daughter since she was 7 or so, and been good friends with her since she was 14... and now here she is, 19 and in her second year at a very prestigious college. Our lives have gotten very, very busy in the last couple years, and the time we have spent having epic late night phone conversations or just hanging out and talking about life in general has gone way down. This is sad, but is no one's fault. She has a full course load, works a work/study job and also does volunteer work for several community service programs... so, busy is an understatement!
It was a real joy to be able to spend several hours in her company just talking! And as I was sitting with her in her dorm, I was struck, again and as usual, by what an amazing and remarkable young woman she is, and she is only becoming more so as time goes on! We talked until rather late at night, and then said our good byes.
So, I got in my car, started it up and clicked on the iPod, and was rewarded with Reise Reise by Rammstein... so all was well! I headed down the road and turned the car homeward. As I was cruising home, the road in front of me all black with no other cars and only the occasional shroud of lowland mist to distract me from the staccato rhythm of the yellow center line... what should come out of my car's speakers, but Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie... by Johnny Cash, followed by something from Azam Ali!
So, after pulling off the road and doing a bit of experimenting, it seems as if, since I leave my iPod in my car, that every time I turn my car off and then start it up again, my iPod automatically switches to normal Shuffle mode, for all the songs it contains, rather than stay on whatever setting I put it on... like Shuffle for a Late Night Driving Playlist! So now I have to be vigilant of my iPod, and make sure to set it to the proper play-list when I am driving home late at night after spending time with amazing young women, be it the Goth-daughter, or Joanne and Riley.. SIGH. I think I need to get my iPod an iThreapist, perhaps then it will stop trying to kill us both. Of course, I really have no one to blame but myself, as I gave it the ammunition!