As Laurie from Etherknitter pointed out in her post today, health complaints tend to have a short half-life. While my tendon saga is no doubt endlessly fascinating to some of you, even I am getting sick of hearing about it. But I can’t knit, so what to write about? (And John has this insane idea that I shouldn’t buy yet more yarn that I am unable to knit. He has a point.)
And yes, I have tried to knit. Amy the OT, if by some chance you’ve found my blog, this would be the time to take a break and get a cup of coffee. You don’t want to know, trust me. I very carefully picked up my needles and gave it a try. I guess I needed to prove to myself that I could do it. And I couldn’t, of course. My muscles are way too weak, the tendons feel a little iffy when I try it, and I don’t have the fine motor control. Hell, I don’t even have gross motor control. Yet.
I’ve made very good use of my Ipod during this time. Which brings me to the subject of this post. Our local paper ran an article over the weekend about our president and what’s on his Ipod. (Originally published in the New York Times). I was rather impressed at his techological savvy until I got to the part that said he only has 250 songs on his 40 gigabyte player, and he has an aide that loads it up for him. And one of his songs is “My Sharona”. When I got to that part, any lingering respect I might have had for the man was shot down. I don’t necessarily think that his George Jones is a bad choice; I’m a traditional country music fan myself, though my taste runs more towards Hank Williams, Hank Snow, and Lefty Frizzell. Conway Twitty singing “It’s Only Make Believe”. Floyd Cramer playing “Last Date”. And Vern Gosdin, the greatest country singer of all time. Makes me want to break out the bourbon just thinking about it.
So, what is on my Ipod? For starters, I have 5421 songs currently loaded. And 25 audio books. And the latest broadcast of Car Talk, one of the funniest shows on public radio. My musical taste would best be described as insanely eclectic. There is almost always music going on at our house. We have an extensive CD collection, though these days we mostly listen to Rhapsody; with our computer wired to the stereo we can listen to almost anything we want, anytime. And they have to put the CDs back in the cases, not me. We also listen to Folk Alley and KPIG.
About 1500 of those Ipod tunes are bluegrass or Appalachian style music, stretching over a wide range of bluegrass styles. About 600 are country or cowboy music (Wylie & The Wild West, Ian Tyson, Tom Russell). There are a couple hundred songs in the pop/rock/classic rock/oldies categories. There are 350 or so folk songs,about 180 blues tunes, a couple hundred jazz and swing tunes, another couple hundred or so songs by Texas artists…Robert Earl Keen, Lyle Lovett, Townes Van Zandt, Freddy Fender, Guy Clark, Jimmie Dale Gilmore. (Texas is about the only state that has its own music.) There is some Cajun and zydeco music, about 30 of my favorite classical pieces, and 5 or 6 opera albums. Though they’re not loaded yet, I have the complete Beethoven string quartets (7 CD’s worth) on deck to load next time I sync the thing. I have a few Hawaiian tunes (the other state with its own music), by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole. No Ipod is complete without Sousa tunes, and I have 15 of them. Try it on the treadmill before you laugh. There are a dozen polka tunes (don’t ask, I grew up in North Dakota and was raised on Lawrence Welk and Myron Floren). I have 31 songs categorized as “surf”, by Dick Dale, the Hellecasters, and the Aqua Velvets. Listen to the Aqua Velvets’ “Smoking Panatelas on the Blue Mediterranean Sea”, from their “Nomad” album for a taste of what they’re like. And then there are a bunch of miscellaneous tracks that are hard to classify in any one genre.
Maybe George needs to borrow my Ipod for awhile. I think I like my song selection better than his. It might broaden his horizons considerably.
I need to get an iPod! Our musical tastes are very similar. Eclectic is the perfect, well only, word for it. Lawrence Welk’s grandson is a volunteer DJ on our local community radio (he doesn’t play polka, however). Your post ‘makes me want to break out the bourbon just thinking about it.’ What a great line!
While I think of myself as “techno girl,” I don’t have an IPod. I do have a 1G MP3 player, but the only thing on it are books from Audible. Right now, I’m listening to “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.” I love music, but just don’t “do” the portable thing. Wonder why?
I’m so far behind the times……my daughter just bought herself an iPod, but my guess is it’ll be years before I bother. We only just barely got a DVD player last fall….. Pathetic, I know.
I am technologically backward. I do not own an IPod. I still use my Sony Walkman on power walks. Shhh…don’t tell anyone.
I can’t believe I’m writing this in public -your story of trying to knit to see if you still could, reminded me of having sex the first time after the first baby to see if it still worked! LOL
Li
I love Click & Clack – the Tappit brothers! And bluegrass. I have a lot of gospel on my iPod, also Allison Kraus, most of the Beatles, Andrea Bocelli – an eclectic mix. Plus my entire datebook and calendar. How do you get Car Talk on your iPod – do you record from a website? I’d love to do that! Sorry you can’t knit, but I’m sorry – I don’t see what that has to do with buying yarn! Gotta stock up so you’ll be ready, right?
That was a fascinating glimpse into your music cupboard! I completely understand needing to figure out the knitting thing. One thing I have found after immobilization is lack of stamina in the muscles – early fatigue (lactic acidosis burn) after minimal effort. So what zydeco do you recommend? I went to a Buckwheat Zydeco concert once, and want to hear more.
You know about WUMB folk radio on the Web, right?
http://www.wumb.org/home/index.php
When I’m not listening to NPR news, it’s on my stream.
Love your blog and your kitty… Good for you having an IPOD. I don’t care enough to get one, but I got my boyfriend one for his birthday in December… !!
I don’t have an Ipod either, mainly because I can’t listen to music for very long at a time. Dunno why — I just find it irritating. I’d rather listen to spoken word stuff.
But Iz is awesome. And so’s bluegrass, especially vocals. And Celtic has its place, way up there.
I’m trying to wrangle a way to get an ipod for my husband. *He* actually listens to music. A lot.
what a great ipod list! and i love car talk….
i’m so glad to hear about the healing!
I am longing to be an ipod owner but the upcoming unemployment is making it a challenge to justify! When I broke my hand I couldn’t knit either, it was very sad. I still can’t for really long periods of time but I never have really long peiods of free time so it works out ok. Hope you are back at the needles soon.
Hey, I have been reading your blog for awhile, and I just noticed something about the yarn basket picture you have up. There is a skein of sockotta yarn in the color that I just finished a pair of socks in! Just thought it was neat…
I am an eclectic music lover and my ipod is full of every genre except classical. Sorry, just never developed a liking for most of it.
Thanks for recommending WUMB. I will check it out,in particular, as part of my quest to hear again a beautiful, haunting folk song that I heard on the car radio a couple of years ago while driving in Nova Scotia.