I was appreciating my MP3 player just now.  Two birthdays ago it was a present.  She literally spent hours downloading several hundred songs on it.  She thought I might use it for the cross country train ride we took then.  I really did not appreciate what she did.  Until now.  The fact is I don’t like listening to my MP3 player through my head phones.  Recently we bought a new car that has an auxiliary to the stereo.  Now I can enjoy the music she downloaded almost two years ago through the car stereo.  She knows my musical tastes and she also has her own preferences.  I usually play “DJ” in the house.  Now it is her turn.

Sometimes I have to back away and leave my wife alone.  I can get overbearing and simply talk too much and she has reminded me.  I am learning this although some times slowly that the best thing I can do sometimes is just to withdraw and leave her alone.

It has become a little easier to do.  I wired my stereo so I can play it just in the office.  Sometimes I leave her alone and listen to my music without disturbing her.  It is amazing what silence can do to a relationship.  There are many hiding places in this house.  I just have to avail myself of them periodically.  There can be too much togetherness.

The love we share of music is only by serendipity.  My wife and I both intensely love music.  We grew up listening to the same artists and groups.  She is also a musician, which I am not.  The only area she knows better than me is R&B, which I never went out of my way to listen to.

She is the recipient of my DJing every day.  And to me there is no greater joy than to share a beautiful piece of music, especially something she never heard.  Both of our tastes in music are eclectic:  we listen to a broad range of music.

I was responsible for her falling in love again with Peter, Paul & Mary.  She listened to the ninety minutes I put together of them on cassette repeatedly.

I have put together dozens of anthologies on cassette culled from my extensive music collection.  I must do a good job.  The cuts usually blend pretty well and she can’t tell always tell when they have come from different albums.

I have always gone deeply in particular groups and individual performers I have loved.  I sometimes surprise her with the material I have recorded of performers she knew well.

I turned her on to British folk rock–a world she had no idea of–Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span.  And performers from England like Sandy Denny, Richard Thompson and John Tams for starters.

She was the third woman I turned on to Richard Thompson.  The second one divorced me.  The first one was a friend.  And we have gone to several of his concerts.  She has fallen in love with his songwriting and guitar playing.  We never get tired of him.

To be able to share my deep love of music with my wife is a gift.  And I never forget that.  It is a real treat.  When I am home, the stereo usually is on although I have to admit when I go out, silence reigns.  I never take that love we share for granted.  It is a real gift.

jackplug

I PODS AND OTHER TECHNOLOGY

“Download your favorite TV program
On your I Pod,” the commercial implored.

Tell me?  Why would I want to do that?
I do not care how good the technology is.
Or how clear that 4 square inch screen is.
After all, it is only 4 square inches.
I have to squint to view the screen.

And another thing:
Who is going to stand
In one spot
For sixty minutes
Holding their I Pod motionless
Viewing their favorite episodes
Of “Sex and the City”
Or whatever?

Sure you can watch your favorite music video.
I have the same problem.
Who wants to hold it still
For three and a half minutes?
I do not care how crisp the clarity
Of the screen is.
How can you possibly make out
The minute figures in it?

Of course, you need headphones
Aren’t you risking hearing loss
If you “pump” the volume high enough
And long enough?

I prefer watching my TV programs
And music videos
On my 28 inch TV screen–
374 square inches NOT 4.

Yes, now you can
Connect your I Pod
To an electronic component with speakers.
In the confines of your home.
Excuse me,
Wasn’t that what
We used to call a stereo?
I prefer listening to my two feet high Bose speakers.

And the commercials are bragging
How much smaller and thinner
They are making I Pods (and other MP3’s)
(and cellular phones).

Now I even saw an ad
In a magazine
Boasting how
Your cellular can possess
Gazillions of memory
And still fit in the palm
Of your hand

The keys on the keyboard
Would be so tiny
How could you possibly use it?

Yah, I know there will always be someone
Who will buy the latest gadget
No matter how impractical the “play toy” is.

All I can do is shake my head.

Am I the only person who thinks
This use of technology
Is ridiculous?

Let me know?jackplug2