I got an iPod for my birthday from my wife and kids, ooops a mini iPod. I love it! Doesn’t everyone or do you just love them because of the cool ads, logo and one liners “Life is Random” Apple has flooded us with. My students have iPods. So many that now we actually have meetings with the issue of iPods on field trips. We have had meetings about appropriate use of them, when and where they should be used. In one of the classes I teach we have a lesson called iPodtiquette. This in an effort to highlight and have kids thinks about good ways of using this new medium and be aware of the perceptions iPods have when kids are talking, walking around school or interacting with adults.

On the first day getting my iPod mini, I spent hours setting up my library and song lists. I became consumed in selecting the songs, modes, feeling and lyrics which I wanted to be part of the lists. The process brought all kind of memories, and at the same time allowed me to downloard moods for an environment I thought the songs and music could create.

The next morning, upon moaning how tired I was, my wife asked me if I did not remember making mix tapes from LP’s albums. Of course who doesn’t… or to be honest I forgot in the depth of my memory… yes all those hours spent creating tapes to share with friends. Yes of course, hours and hours…the I just broke up with girlfriend tape, etc…. what about sorting albums ooops for another blog.

The next morning I am stuck in Tokyo morning commuter traffic at 7.30 with hundreds and thousands of people squished in one car. No worries I am iPod equippedI I have my headphones put on my headbanging song list and bingo: Atomic Punk by Van Halen blares…loud. Suddenly the music transforms the moment into a lovely mix of feelings, emotions, day dreams and rich thoughts. As songs pass through in my iPod my whole morning experience has a different color, feel and vibe. The crowd, the pushing, shoving all seem to blend in with the music and become a positive part of the experience.

Did I not have this before with my walkman, CD walkman…yes in snippets. But now I can create the mode, control the lists, mix, match, blend and the beauty of it….. for hours on end.

I don’t have to carry anything but this slick thin, slim rectangle, which with the soft touch of my index provides me with hours of fun.

To be honest it is just not the iPod but the whole concept of controlling your musical experience when you are mobile, the same goes with the iRiver or an MP3player. The fact that as you travel, commute, walk, run, and chill and then have a small device that allows you to create a mode. The process allows you to play with your feelings as the visual stimulation blends with the auditory, and this for hours on end, without much switching, changing or batteries running out.

Music to many, and I think especially any generation which lived with LP’s 45’s, CD or MP3, created many memories, emotions with music. Now you can again in many way (thinking of the tapes) but for longer; have a world caressed by your songs, as a way of escape, as a way to jiggle memories, feelings and emotions.

A thought, an impression as I continue with my iPod tonight again to create yet another song list, for a long plane ride to Europe.

John@ISETS