You have done what no one thought could be

Stevie always happens just when you need him. Always. This wasn't even a shuffle event. This was my finger blindly opening Songs in the Key of Life as I clickwheeled my ipod in the blinding, second-day-of-summer sun.

Today's Shuffle: But if I'm faced with being replaced

My poor 6th generation iPod Classic is on its last legs. I have to charge it daily, it immediately expires and displays a frightening symbol on its screen if I skip too many songs or dare to play Solitaire on it. I've given it some palliative care, a couple of restores and charging only the the computer. But it's slowly slipping this vale of tears--and this barrel of laughs. Don't think my iPod is solely a conductor of woe and wistfulness. Much joy, much of it documented here where no one traveler goes, emerged from this flat, silver pocket bird.

Since I bought the iPod in 2009 after leaving my first 6th gen in a condo in Lido Key, Sarasota, Florida, it's crossed the continent to California multiple times, jogged along the Pacific and Atlantic, shot down to the Carolinas in a small jet and to Hawaii on a great, big one, joggled at my waistband on Kentucky subdivision roads and pockmarked Wicker Park/Ukie V/Bucktown streets, in half-marathons along the Lake and Tampa Bay, brought peace and comfort on planes, in the middle of a sleepless night, and each and every day trodding the same route on the Chicago grid and L. And, much of that time, Shuffling into undiscovered country.

But the Shuffle function has--well, it's not stopped functioning entirely, but it shuffles only the same small group of songs. It's true, I click up Shuffle only on train rides, during reading, having lately turned to podcasts for long treks and commutes.

This song has, oddly, turned up in that malfunction-created set, itself a stand-alone, random kind of track.

The kind of chunkily layered 80s track (1983, to be exact) that I still love beyond taste or reason. I mean, look at its chart peers. And I won't lie, I dig H&O.

Kind of perfect.



In September, I chased down and bought a brand new Classic upon the news that Apple was discontinuing its venerable and voluble and original iPod. It's sat in its sealed box since then, waiting to take over the job of distracting from and connecting me to the world and into daylight and nighttime dreams. I'm glad I made the purchase when I did.

Will I have a little ceremony for my old friend? Most likely, no. But I will keep it, and let it sleep, with its tired OS and frozen-in-time Shuffle set, and by sleep, I don't mean end.

Today's Shuffle: Free from the last

Funny how it takes approximately twenty years to figure out what something really means. That's a long time between leap and the net appearing. But as long as you actually lift your foot, you're good. You're all good.

To look for hope above the clouds.

Hope for a Badman

But at least the seeds of love will be sown...

There's someone on your shoulder

On the way to becoming the most re-posted track on this blog, when I hear it, as I did this morning when it came up on shuffle, I dearly wish I could do this on my birthday this year, too.

With a thousand smiles she gives to me free

This was the first music I heard today, so it struck me full-force how much I love it. Even when sitting in that legs-dangling middle seat at the back of the bus.

In fact, it's even better from there, because you can see the steam rising from all the tall peaks of your city, and the sun filtering through that, and geese arcing through both that steam and sunshine, and the river winks a thousand times at you, there in your seat, legs dangling, on the 72 bus.




And, for the record, I will never, ever care that Sting is not what he once was. Or is allegedly not what he once was. I have seem him perform three times in two different decades, and the man will music your face off. I don't care that his recent and current output is primarily heard in TJ Maxx and that he seems to perform only in Italian castles or has been adopted by PBS pledge drives as pledge-driving programming.

And I have to add this album to my still-as-yet-unplayed-but-growing vinyl collection.

Today's Shuffle: When the Shit Hits the Fan, I'm Sitting on a Can

Today's Shuffle: How to Kick That Gong to Life

Today's Shuffle: Til You Thank Them for the Tea and Sympathy

Every Friday for about a half a year straight I used to play this album off the big ol' pc at my desk.



What up 2001?

Today's Shuffle: One Day I'm Going to Grow Wings

Today's Shuffle II: We, the Synthesis of Then and Now

See, this played when I was walking through the snow, still resting, opaque and fragile, on all the branches.



And it's entirely sampled from Kool & the Gang's "Summer Madness," which has got to be in my soon-to-be-playable vinyl collection.


Go ahead. Listen to all nine minutes. It's January 12, and you're welcome.





See?

Today's Shuffle: Wondering of that which is now that which has been and that which is to be

Today's Shuffle: Hold Feel Save Me

I feel wholly and exactly back there when I hear this.

It Is Time to Dissolve

I heard this in a bar the other night.



Who plays this in a bar?

Take These Broken Wings and Learn to Fly

The inimitable synchronicity of Shuffle.

Morning commute, December 1, 2011:

George Harrison - Behind that Locked Door


 
Matthew Sweet - Looking at the Sun 



Michael Jackson - Girlfriend 



Thievery Corporation - Amerimacka



Sloan - G Turns to D



Vicki Sue Robinson - Turn the Beat Around



E.L.O. - Hold On Tight



Neil Young - Expecting to Fly


Neil Young: Expecting To Fly from Annemieke Knowles on Vimeo.


David Bowie - Moonage Daydream



Beatles - Blackbird