Musical Delirium

[ellenkushner]

So to celebrate the delicious little iPod speaker (which looks like an inverted cereal bowl and sounds like a 1979 $5000 stereo system) that blackholly gave me to shut up my endless whining about not having a house wired for music any more, I finally bought me an iPod. But first I hooked it up to my laptop to hear how it sounded . . . And then what do I do? Do I begin loading in the hundreds of CDs I amassed during my career in radio, which take up an entire wall of drawers in my study, no lie?

Hell, no!

I am ripping through new stuff on iTunes in a kind of feeding frenzy. Have just found a new album by my beloved alterna-bluegrass group The Horse Flies (Judy Hyman is Dick Hyman's daughter!), Until the Ocean (and I thought they'd broken up!), Richard Thompson's Front Parlour Ballads (which I lost in the Crash of '05 - damn hard drive!), and, best of all, Rogues' Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Song & Chanteys, which has 43 trax by my beloved Robin Holcomb, Martin Carthy, Lucinda Williams, Loudon Wainwright III, Ralph Steadman . . . ohhhh, somebody up there likes me!

Must go see whether there's a new Robin Holcomb album. And what's this Richard Thompson gospel album? And I really should get a decent recording of Monteverdi's Orfeo, since I no longer have access to the WGBH classical record library. And can I really send all my friends the Waterson/Carthy track from "Newry Town" that my new Riverside story is based on? And and and...................

The world is no longer safe from me.

Wait til they send me the bill.

Comments

[stardustgirl.livejournal.com]

Quick! Everyone buy Apple stock... their profits are going to skyrocket! :-D

I remember the first days of my iPod, and the bliss of having alllll the music in the car. Start shopping for an external hard drive. You'll fill up your main one before you know it.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Do you have to keep all the music on the external drive because there's not enough room on the laptop itself, or as backup, or what? she asked naively.

[stardustgirl.livejournal.com]

Both. I also used to be in radio and know the mountain of music of which you speak. I had a huge assortment of lps and cds consuming entirely too much space and am *still* moving things to mp3. I love it though, because it's much easier to listen to music now.

I have a 500GB external drive because I have 115GB worth of music but an iMac that only has an 80GB internal drive. When I get a laptop, I'll put a smaller version of my iTunes library on that drive because I don't need all those songs available if I'm traveling.

Definitely back up. Once you get what you want in iTunes, back up the folder called "iTunes Library" to either DVDs or an external drive. That's where all your music files are. If you back up new music as you add it, you won't have to back up redundant gigabytes of files over and over with every backup since the songs don't change.

When you do normal backups of your regular stuff, just add the iTunes application files to what you normally back up (not the library of songs since you've already backed those up); the app files are the only part that changes with updated info.

Have fun!

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

This is incredibly useful; thanks.

And did you know you could also get a darling little RADIO ATTACHMENT for iPod??
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MA070

Aww, sure ya did.

[miep.livejournal.com]

it's very painful when the bill comes...

[lenora-rose.livejournal.com]

Good luck with the umpteen thousand new pieces of music.

I've had Rogue's Gallery a while, and to be honest, i found the whole weaker than the sum of its parts. But Dead Horse (Robin Holcomb), Rolling Sea (Eliza Carthy) and Mingulay Boat Song (Richard Thompson) make up for so much. And thy're far from the only good tracks.

I'm actually sad that June Tabor's Shallow Brown has spoiled me so thoroughly for a version that uses much more toned down and generic lyrics, because Sting does sing it handsomely.

[theniwokesoftly.livejournal.com]

If you like jazz at all, check out Peter Cincotti (as seen in my icon). He plays piano and sings. His first and second albums have a lot of standards, like Sway and Ain't Misbehavin', but the one that came out on Tuesday is all original and very branched out.

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

Second the suggestion for an external hard drive. Or two. My CD collection is nowhere near the size of yours and I've just about filled up my 30GB iPod.

My iPod dock is not nearly so impressive-sounding (rather more like a 1984 $110 stereo, which was still very well suited for my needs in those days) but as I only paid $12.50 for it on holiday clearance, I'm WELL pleased with it, because it means all my music can travel into my very cramped bedroom.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

I thought I was the only person on earth who knew about the Horse Flies. WIN!

[dremiel.livejournal.com]

...you'll still be the only rich baby in town.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Oh, you guys!!!

[nohwhere-man.livejournal.com]

I remember them when they were the Tompkins County Horseflies....

iPod love

[girasole.livejournal.com]

I am on my third iPod, with two in heavy use. I was also given by one who loves me much the Bose speakers (first incarnation) which makes sound to live for.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Richard Thompson gospel album? You interest me strangely...

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Wrong one, alas - see answer below....

[yaoi-in-exile.livejournal.com]

Oooh, and you mentioned iTunes and Riverside together and I thought we were finally getting an audiobook. X3 Waah, waah. Back to the homemades.

Pirate!songs sound shibby. The Pirate Guys advised Captain Bogg and Salty awhile back (and raised a stirring debate over chanty and shanty), and while mostly Newly Written, I'm a bit addicted to piratical ballads and such.

[utsusemia.livejournal.com]

Richard Thompson GOSPEL?! Omg, please give more info. I've been in a bit of an RT fugue for the last few weeks, and Front Parlour Ballads has gotten at least a dozen listens. So much love.

(sorry, deleted the first comment, cause I meant to reply to the main thread)

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Wrong Richard Thompson, alas: it's a jazz pianist of the same name. Pity. I was kind of looking forward to our RT's version of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot..."
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=17668

(Did you know that SHOOT OUT THE LIGHTS is Alec Campion's favorite album?)

[utsusemia.livejournal.com]

Richard Thompson *would* have to exist in Riverside, wouldn't he? And that is a suitably awesome favorite album :)

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Well, Richard T. may not be there yet, except in spirit . . . . What happened was, a friend first played me that album when I was nearly done writing SWORDSPOINT - and I went, "Omigod, that's my novel!" It was like RT had gotten inside my brain with those guys. Very weird and wonderful. And Alec *is* always walking on a wire . . . not to mention The Wall of Death. And who does "The Great Valerio" remind you of?

[utsusemia.livejournal.com]

Ahhhh!! Someone, someday, must make SWORDSPOINT or TPOTS a movie, and Richard Thompson must write songs for it. It has to happen.

I love the resonances with SHOOT OUT THE LIGHTS. Must listen to album again...

[nohwhere-man.livejournal.com]

Thanks, now I have to listen again. How about adding "The Poor Ditching Boy" to the collection?

[jencallisto]

I am flailing so much right now. I think I need to plot a re-read of Swordspoint to the soundtrack of the ridiculously large swaths of Richard Thompson on my hard drive...

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

!!!
Well, if you do anything with that - and/or post same - please let me know!

Back in the days of Mix Tapes, I started to make a "Riverside" one once, with lots of RT... but then I think I lost focus.... I've got the list somewhere......

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

It makes so much sense that that's his favorite album that it's NOT EVEN FUNNY.

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

You and an iPod. This will be dangerous to your pocketbook. But luckily in a way that will make you happy.
A reminder to all who do not have iPods, but think her music selections are fantastic. We can download the music too. And then play it on our computers. Just go and download iTunes, it conveniently runs on PCs as well as Macs. My pda has an MP3 player. So if I turn the music to MP3s, I can take the music with me too. Just like an iPod.
Have fun.
And I think I need to talk to my broker. :D

[jophan.livejournal.com]

Serious suggestion: Try emusic.com. Cheaper and full of really good music. Not from the big labels, but for us who are into some of the less best-sellery mainstream stuff that doesn't matter. It's a subscription service, though, you pay a fixed amount every month and then you download your allotment.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

(which looks like an inverted cereal bowl and sounds like a 1979 $5000 stereo system)

this is my favorite line in this post :)

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

It's the Future!

[rojomojo.livejournal.com]

iTunes is so dangerous. I go there only when flush. Try mp3Panda.com. Much cheaper. I found (as an ex-Burning River resident you may appreciate this) an old Pacific, Gas and electric album there for $1.78 featuring Glenn Schwartz on guitar (he preceded Joealsh in the James Gang.)

rojo

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[rosenhaus.livejournal.com]

Horse Flies. Good group. If I remember correctly (it has been a while) they do a song about how gray it gets in Ithaca, NY, from whence the group hails. (grin)

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

"I live....where it's . . . greyyyyy!"