preraphaelitepunk.com

Let me just say that I lurrve Fenric the iPod. I find myself listening to a much wider range of my music, rather than just the 20 or so CDs I happened to have stuck in the carrying case, or the five or so I was able to fit on my PDA’s SD card. I’m taking advantage of my current vacationing status to rip some more CDs; right now I’m concentrating on more ambient-ish groups — just finished the Cocteau Twins, starting on Love Spirals Downwards and Dead Can Dance, and thence downward through today’s stack into Celtic-ish and 1930s jazz. Also working on putting together some mood-based playlists, rather than relying on shuffle. Trying to rely on the preset genres is useless, because iTunes has rather weird ideas about what groups go together. I for one find it rather distressing to have Bjork, the Dead Kennedys, and Michelle Shocked all grouped under “Alternative and Punk.” It’s way too broad a classification.

This does bring me to the evaulation I’d kinda sorta promised a while back, of Over the Rhine’s “Drunkard’s Prayer.” Although iTunes blithely classifies them as just “Rock,” that never would have occurred to me. They still sound like Janis Ian to me, if she sang in a folk-bluesy-rock sort of style with a somewhat more rural accent. So, not really all that much like Janis Ian at all, then. Several of the songs are, to me, quite beautiful, particularly “Born” (which was featured a couple of weeks back on the rather good TV show, Bones), “Spark,” “Who Will Guard the Door,” and the previously mentioned “Hush Now,” and . . . well, actually, I’m kind of hard-pressed to name a song that I didn’t like, at least on some level. This particular album is supposed to be more meditative than the rest of their work, and it certainly isn’t something that fits my every mood, but it’s the sort of album that makes me want to open all the windows and sit gazing out at the trees rustling in the wind, sipping mint tea and feeling the breeze and just sort of being there in the moment.

The other use I’ve put Fenric to is podcasts, mostly those from Greenpeace, the Vegan Freaks (love their musical tags, and when their senior dog Mole decides to make an appearance in the podcast), and Eric Marcus. I’m on the lookout for new podcasts, but want to add them slowly — I don’t want to get into a podcast overextension situation, where I have too many to keep up with, as I’ve done with my RSS feeds. While the weather has been reasonably mild, though, it’s been delightful to go out and sit in my car over lunch, with the windows down and in the shade, listening to podcasts and eating my pasta salad or hummus or whatever I brought. Not sure what I’ll do now that the weather is getting too warm for car-sitting; maybe I should start bringing a blanket and hat, and have picnics under the trees at the far corner of the parking lot.