Andrew Sullivan writes for Pitchfork! (Well not quite -- but it is about iPods, for a start)

I'd go out on a limb and say that these aren't the sounds most people with I-pods (I don't have one either) are seeking to block out. In typical conservative fashion (from a non-typical conservative, or so he says), he's longing for a world that never was, or is increasingly rare.

Others began, as I did, with a Walkman ? and then a kind of clunkier MP3 player. But the sleekness of the iPod won me over.

...doesn't quite excuse the fact that sullivan is roughly 25 years too late with this article. it was something to discuss and think about when the walkman was invented. it's just kinda bizarre now. unless you also feel the need to decry night games in baseball, microwave ovens and air conditioners.

there is HUGE WORLD OF CHANGE between "concert hall" and "bedroom." and, really interestingly, the "concert hall" was its own TECHNOLOGICAL innovation (ca 1910-30), acoustical engineering being the hot media science of the first third of this century. hello "RADIO CITY"; the name drips with the e-/cyber-/web- tech lingo of its day.

yeah, what the fuck, he's never seen a walkman before? let me know when his article bemoaning the horseless carriage hits the stands.

and, "first third of the LAST century" obv.

i don't like night baseball either. i'm just saying it's a tad bit late to get all bent out of shape about their invention.

"Technology has given us a universe entirely for ourselves — where the serendipity of meeting a new stranger, hearing a piece of music we would never choose for ourselves or an opinion that might force us to change our mind about something are all effectively banished. "

I don't know, technology (in the form of the Internet) has introduced me to a whole new group of people (ILXORs!) and led me to plenty of music I wouldn't have "chosen" for myself w/o technology along with a host of opinions (hello bloggers) that may not change my mind but force me to think.

Andrew suffers from the pundit's disease -- mistaking every half-baked thought that stalks across his consciousness for a profound insight into the general human condition.

when they get ipods, watch out: "you should hear hayek...in stereo!"

And I can't be arsed with day/night cricket either. Doesn't mean it isn't exciting. FFS.

"Ever tried a Stairmaster in silence?"

is he only talking about people who OWN ipods and the like? that would make more sense. maybe i will read it. I mean, MOST people walk around without headphones on. i'm probably missing his point. i'll shut up now.

But isn't he foremost claiming a recent mass uptake of the technology and a corresponding decline in "yells, chatter, clatter, hustle and chutzpah"? Like, the kids have been tinkering with them for ages, sure. Now the 'problem' is in the ubiquity of such devices, a new quantitative shift taking us beyond the threshold to Something Quite Odd...

"the child whose chatter on the pavement takes you back to your early memories"? Come on, I'm corny, but I'm not that corny.

"pundit's disease". haha, OTM.

but the walkman was absolutely ubiquitous in the 1980s. there hasn't been a quantitative shift, not yet anyway. the only shift has been that now there are white headphones and headphones cord, so they're a little bit more obvious. that's not a seismic shift. a bit of an aesthetic shift, perhaps.

maybe those weren't the best examples. but the thing is, it's not that he's reconsidering a technological advancement after the fact, it's that blaming a recent invention for a change that happened a long time ago. it's like blaming bud selig for night baseball.

he should have just stuck with the pundit's best friend and complained about cell-phones and dvd players in SUVs.("Nowadays, the kids go from a barnie video at home to Alladin in the car to "educational" videos in the classroom! What's up with that!")

I found the Pitchfork piece to be somewhat interesting, but it was better because it addressed a much more specific phenomenon, one thatI somewhat identify with. I didn't find a single shred of insight in the Sullivan piece. In fact, what's the direct opposite of insight? Almost every line contained that.

Royko was pretty good at it. Just because it's silly in this case doesn't mean there isn't a case to be made for daygames, when made correctly.

I was in NYC last week for the first time. In my hotel, I had my PowerBook hooked up to the hotel's pay-per-day broadband access.

When I would launch iTunes, I would often see other people's iTunes collections in my iTunes. For those of you who don't use it, iTunes allows you to share your collection with those on the same subnet, and vice versa.

Well, one day I launched iTunes and up popped a collection called "Andrew Sullivan's Music." Could it be the same Andrew Sullivan, I wondered?

I browsed his collection and listened to a few songs, thinking to myself, "Only in New York."

Now I read this article saying he was in NYC last week. Cool.

Small world and stuff.

this generalization is absolutely ridiculous. especially coming from someone who seems to have observed this (mislabeled) phenomenon in NYC. i mean, Sullivan's (for most of the article just plain wrong.

i could see Mr. Sullivan writing this piece sans introduction and, upon needing one at the last minute, quickly typing this - but as a premise to base your entire newspaper article on? not so much.

*hopes that's the italics tag for these boards*

I thought it was that Andrew Sullivan, isn't he a homosexual conservative or something? I just know that he's famous for being on the right (but not quite). Anyway, I just wanted to point out that as someone who enjoys reading about logical fallacies that the "He wants to go back to a golden era..." fallacy is one of the most annoying. Instead of looking at alternatives and trade-offs it is easy to draw up this strawman like tactic and say someone is wanting a "return to perfection" or that a policy is "no panacea" when you don't want to look at the policies side by side.

Anyway, I thought the article was pretty good and reminds me of when I had my 40GB mp3 player in my car. There were days when I had nothing but music going 24/7

I'm not sure whether that was amazingly hardcore or oddly pathetic. I think it was a mixture of both.

I don't think compulsive iPod listening is any worse than compulsive walkman or discman listening; what I find new is a strong temptation to skip to another song halfway through whatever I'm listening to. And I've talked to friends who have the same experience. This provides as much a comparative model for our distrust of (or need for more than) conventional news sources - it's not the omnipresence of the information (the walkman model) but the suffocating variety of it (the ipod model) which impels us to survey the field compulsively, as if this is the only way to possibly do our access to this variety justice.

Ned this is a familiar theme for you I think!

Not to beat a dead horse, but another thing that rather annoyed me about Sullivan's piece is the way he exaggerates the pervasiveness of a phenomenon, complains about it, and then adds "Ok, I admit it, I do it too." Meanwhile, no one I know actually walks around wearing an iPod, nor does anyone I know complain about how pervasive they are (because they're really not.)

Really? Come to UCI sometime. ;-)

Ned this is a familiar theme for you I think!

But don't we all have our hobby horses? ;-) Familiar but of great interest. I find how and why we engage with 'the media' as broadly described to be as worthy of comment as what we engage with, which I'm sure you wouldn't disagree with.

While I'd agree Tim's comments are as usual v. good, let's consider -- IS a certain level of impatience actually being bred or not? I'd actually disagree though I think this is because there's no one way to in fact 'use' the system -- my model of using an iPod is no more the sole way as Tim's might be. At the same time I do find it interesting that Tim is talking about 'constant preoccupation' -- in ways this HAS been what I've been talking about in terms of envisioning engagement as total commitment, something which gives me the creeping horrors. I don't think Tim's celebrating this, of course, more acknowledging it, but I find it an interesting turn of phrase nonetheless. I rather *like* not being constantly preoccupied myself -- it almost sounds like work. ;-)

When it comes to the music I've downloaded some weeks back and have been listening to on and off since then -- about ten gigs worth -- I let everything play through. This temptation to skip ahead is not one I feel -- I am more likely after a less-than-thrilling new song or album to simply put on something I already like and know for variety.

Sullivan's piece specifically mentioned New York. As I mentioned, I was there last week, and iPods were ubiquitous. In a subway car, I was guaranteed to see at least three other iPods. If it was a packed car, they seemed to be everywhere. And people wore them in shops, delis...all over the place.

Now, here in Amarillo, I may be the only person in town with one for all I know. (I doubt it.) Still, it's a function of where you are.

Now, if I only had an iPod.

I got a new CD deck with AUX In plugs in the back. I have a cord snaked out beside the cupholders, and I can plug the iPod in directly through that.

There are some CD decks that integrate directly to control the iPod and display artist and song title, but they're still really expense, and I only care about the sound.

So anyway, the iPod is now taking over the car. As soon as the subscription services support mobile devices, I'm all set.

haha xpost

itrip isn't as reliable as hard line cabling.

-- The Argunaut

Yeah, and look at the cancer rate. It makes you think.

i feel that compulsion too but it's not new to me. that's how i've always listened to cd's in my car. one of the many things digital music formats are designed for is easy access, which includes entering and exiting tracks quickly. it's not weird to actually use 'em that way. that's just using 'em exactly as they're designed.

The Honda Element actually has a jack built into its console, which was pretty clever, considering the customers they're trying to attract.

Now, here in Amarillo, I may be the only person in town with one for all I know. (I doubt it.) Still, it's a function of where you are. "

Actually, I am basically in New York -- Jersey City anyway. I go into the city a few times a week. I certainly see iPods every time I go, but it's not like 50% of the people or even 20% of the people I see are listening to them at any given time; if the percentage is any greater than it was for walkmans or discmans, I'd chalk it up to the fact that iPod is a new technology and people are still excited about it, and the fact that it's become sort of a fashion accessory. There's really nothing new about being able to soundtrack your jog or subway ride, and I don't see why having more storage capacity on your player would necessarily equal spending more time listening to it.

Also, one of the main places I do see them is the subway, and keep in mind that these people are doing their daily commute. People with cars have been listening to their stereos on commutes for a long time.

Well in practical terms, isn't an iPod or any small mp3 device just a lot less bulky than even the smallest CD or tape player? (Also, no moving parts.)

xpost.

I like clean and clutter-free cars, but I went back to the good-ol' cassette adapter because it just works.

I found this rose-colored look at the past to be particularly hilarious. In the early 1970s, conservative cultural critic George Steiner wrote a book titled In Bluebeard's Castle, part of which was devoted to a lengthy diatribe about how college kids listening to Beatles albums in their dorm room was destroying high culture as we knew it. According to Mr. Steiner, before the turntable and radio, people had to actually go to classical concerts or learn to play piano themselves. Plus ça change . . .

But I just moved here and am trying my hardest to be very open to meeting everyone I can (which is something new) and I'm starting to get really pissed off with all the iPod heads, always sporting the white head-phones, as to say "Yeah, I know these headphones are shit, but I keep them so you know Im listening to a 400 dollar walkman. And I don't want to talk to you."

Fuck that.

After every solo, right?