iPod Phenomenology

I have to admit I have not had a lot of Delia time lately, although the post from that board bothered the heck out of me, but I’ve gotten over it. The reason for my distraction: my new 60 GB iPod, and it is a sweet, sweet thing. A little too sweet, actually, that I totally missed a phone call at work yesterday because I was plugged in.

Hence my decision to indulge myself for another week, after which the iPod will only be used at home (and only when plugged into the receiver), during lunch at work, and on airplanes. Right now, I’m still enjoying the novelty of this gadget – and no, I have not uploaded my Delia clips yet, but we’ll get there – because in the end, resistance is futile and you just have to give in to the allure of total isolation whilst listening to your favorite music.

Which gives way to my new theory: you can tell a lot about a person by what songs / music are in their iPods / MP3 players. I wonder what stuff are in Delia’s iPod? The Gregorian chants, maybe? Or the Chieftains, a few Broadway musicals (Sound of Music is almost a sure bet), Andrea Bocelli, some Bach and Mozart? Britney Spears, Edith Piaf, lots of 80’s and 90’s music, perhaps?

I talked to my friend Sr. Mary Paul (for some reasons, old nuns love me, I don’t know why, since as a kid, I sure made their lives miserable!) about my new toy and she asked me what it does. And when I explained it to her, she asked me again: Why would you want to do that, listen to your pocketbook jukebox all the time? I laughed, but she’s right – we’re isolated enough from one another, we have too many external stimulants, we have 24/7 news channels that feed us non-stop crap (and semi-crap), we’re even isolated from our own selves – we don’t need to isolate ourselves further.

Sometimes we just need to listen to the silence, bask in the solitude, enjoy simple conversations with 60- and 90-year old nuns. Which I fully intend to engage in, as soon as I am done listening to Jimmy Buffett.


Delia Gallagher