03/16/2009 1:40 pm
Culture
'I Have iPod Envy,' by Allegra Huston
A young Allegra Huston sits on sister Anjelica’s lap
Love Child jacket art
Editor’s Note: Allegra Huston’s new book, Love Child: A Memoir of Family Lost and Found, hits bookstores on April 7. Allegra is the youngest daughter of film director John Huston and sister of Oscar-winning actress Anjelica Huston. She was born in London, raised in Ireland and Los Angeles, and now lives in Taos, NM. She was a publisher in London for nine years and has been a freelance writer and editor since 1994.
I have iPod envy. I probably shouldn’t be admitting this in print. It makes me feel like a high schooler, afraid that if people know the truth they won’t like me anymore.
It’s not the actual iPod I’m talking about. My iPod is three years old, a really nice apple green, and right after I bought it they redesigned the Nano to about half the size, which is fine by me because the new ones are too fiddly. I’m not a gadget fetishist.
Those remarks that the first President Bush made about people not being able to program a VCR; that’s me. Instruction manuals make my head spin. I wait until everyone else has something, that way they can explain to me how to work it. And even then, I probably use about ten percent of the features of anything.
It’s the contents. Everybody knows that the music you like is shorthand for the kind of person you are. When I was in college, you could get away without having an amazing record collection: perhaps you didn’t have the money, or the space, or the means to transport all those albums across the country. As long as you knew the good music, that was enough. There was something geeky about owning too many albums, anyway, something a bit sad, as if listening to that much music in your room was a substitute for having a real life. But now a song costs 99 cents, and space and weight are yesterday’s problems. Every song in your playlist is a facet of your personality. Every song that isn’t there isn’t you. Your iPod is a window into your soul.
“It’s heavily weighted toward exercising,” I insist, trying not to sound apologetic, whenever my iPod is revealed. That excuses the relative absence of slow songs, but it’s not quite good enough. The eyebrows rise, even at songs I thought were failsafe. "Suffragette City" – what’s wrong with early Bowie ? It elicited a pitying remark from my friend Bryan. "Crocodile Rock" – OK, a little embarrassing, but it was my favorite song when I was eight and it brings back good memories. Wham’s "I’m Your Man" – so my tongue’s in my cheek, you have a problem with that?
I do
not have tea-bag envy, because my selection of teas –
caffeinated, decaffeinated, English, French, Navajo, waking up,
calming down, antioxidant, liver-supporting, lung-supporting, immune
system-supporting – is second to nobody’s. I do not have
DVD-shelf envy, because I have no desire to watch movies that many
times. But when Bryan says, “I’ll lend you my iPod, it’s
my little way of making the world a better place,” I feel a
rush of greed. Maybe I can steal some of his songs. Probably some
of them are African. I love Youssou N’Dour when he sings on
Peter Gabriel records, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo when they sang on "Graceland" but I’ve never been able to find the good
stuff at the source. I feel it as a failing. Now I’m going to
get the chance to have really obscure and fantastic African artists
on my iPod, and when, casually, I mention them, people will be really
impressed and have iPod envy of me.
- Email this Post
- login or register to post comments
16 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment
I’ve written about this before, but I’ll say it again, I think the iPod is the greatest non necessary invention ever. I’ll admit to being a total "mac head"… I love all things "apple".
When I git my first iPod, years ago, a shuffle, I thought OK this is cool, but now many upgrades and gigabytes later, I can’t imagine my life without it. "How do I love it ? Let me count the ways" : I have EVERY song I love, so far, on there. The best of our extensive record collection and about 400 iTune purchases of random one of a kinds.
I have playlists for every circumstance … HAPPY (all the songs that make me smile and tap my feet ) LATE NIGHT ( all the songs for those quiet candlelight dinners of fireside chats ) WALKING ( all the songs in that 4/4 beat that help get me off my ass and out the door) CLASSICAL ( Just because !! ) July 4th ( for the week at the beach when the fireworks are going on up and down the beach) SINATRA ( Just because !) DANCE ( for those times when everyone has had a beer or two and we roll up the rug go at it ) MOVIE THEMES ( great company guessing game ) JAZZ ( Just because !) MOTOWN ( was there any better music ??) OLDIES (motown plus everything else) IRISH ( will be played all day tomorrow ) MARVIN GAYE ( just because !) I could go on … I have a bunch more
At any one time, I have 6 or 7 audible books.
Podcasts, video lectures, music videos ….. the possibilities are growing every day. And the funny thing is, I don’t even use it every day, something about just knowing I have it there for whenever the whim strikes me …. it’s a wonderful thing.
And for Christmas I got an iPod Touch … OMFG, don’t even get me started on how revolutionary and wonderful THIS is !!!!
Love love love the iPod!
I’m not nearly as savvy as EKA (I’ll get there… gotta enlist the teen to help with some of those playlists) but my iPod has saved my sanity while waiting in lines, waiting for people to show up, waiting for a movie to start, writing at home… all of my huge collection on one little itty bitty device that I can take with me all the time! Brilliant.
My next car will have the iPod deally bob involved (that’s a technical term for all of you techies out there) but for now I have to deal with only a 6 CD shuffle… archaic! And when I’ve met people recently and they ask me what music I’m into… I just hand them the Pod and let them have at it. Everything from Opera to rap… yeeeeha!
Hey Nanchan! I just happen to own the ‘iPod deally bob’, as you so aptly put it and it is GRRREEEAATTT!! My car came with the MP3 port so my daughter explained how necessary the $20 cable would be - I didn’t have my iPod yet but she had one. That cable is wonderful when you absolutely, positively need your own soundtrack playing on the road.
When we visited CA last month, our rental car came with the MP3 port so we just used our iPods and listened to our own anthems during the trip. One of us drove, the other played DJ.
I find the instructions that come with an iPod quite lacking, so I bought iPod: The Missing Manual from Amazon. It is very helpful, especially with making playlists. The Genius program on iTunes will make playlists based on a one song suggestion from you - what is produced is an interesting grouping from your existing collection.
Hi nanchan,
I too looooooove my i-pod! 80 GB’s and capacity for thousands of songs. I have a literal music library in home and have thousands of those songs downloaded to my i-pod. I also have the port in my new SUV so can hook up for endless hours of music. Also have SIRIUS which also plays all my chill music! Yeeeeeeha is right, LOL.
Forget hints, be direct when asked - make sure you get plenty of room for lots of music!
Go girl, and wipe that drool off your face!!
Go for it girl, and don’t get the shuffle, you gotta get the classic with at least 30 Gigabytes ! Once you get going with this awesome little thing you will wonder how you survived without it. I have over 4000 songs and I just added 4 more books on mine and still have room left.
You manage everything on an iTunes program you download on your computer, and if you can’t figure out how to do it yourself ( which I am confident you can do ! ) just ask any random 12 year old. Apple.com also has great online help.
Ooooo, you’re gonna love it !
I used to work in a record store when (gasp!) they actually sold records. I was there when cassettes really took over and when the CD sent them all away. I have always viewed my music as the soundtrack to my life. I’m one of those mix tape kind of people. And I’m happy to report that I haven’t had to give up my musical tastes to please my 3 year old by adding a Raffi or Backyardigans playlist (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Instead I’ve been feeding him a healthy dose of the Beatles and, so far, he seems perfectly fine with that.
www.moxiemomma.com