Shufflaganza

It has ended

Sat, 30 Jul 2011 15:49:35 -0400

Earlier today, for unknown reasons, my iPod stopped shuffling, after playing the song “Around the World” by Red Hot Chili Peppers. Thankfully, my iPod still provided me with one more incredible act of coincidence before this sad turn of events.

Hallie and I were going to Chicago and I was breezing through songs on Shufflaganza. We had passed the last exit in Indiana and we we on the “Chicago Skyway” that links Indiana and Chicago. As we followed the bend of the highway, the Sears Tower and the rest of the Chicago skyline came into view and shrill fifes and bombastic horns came through my car’s speakers and the voice of Sufjan Stevens began to sing “Come on, Feel the Illinoise” as we crossed the border.

Perhaps this was the last gasp of my iPod, knowing that, only two days later, on song number 2121 of 4079, it would stop.

Song number 2000! Just about halfway there. I also must admit...

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 22:29:00 -0400

Song number 2000! Just about halfway there.

I also must admit that shufflaganza is getting “under my skin.”

Commence the obligatory laugh the Brits do when they make a pun.

The Album

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 22:40:47 -0400

I’ve always been the type of guy to finish one book before starting another, to skip a good movie on HBO if I’ve already missed the beginning, and to listen to my albums all the way through without skipping—at least until I have a good feel for the album as a whole. Now that I have begun shufflaganza, the fact that I can’t turn on an album has really highlighted their value to me.

A proper album by a band conscious of their art will display a coherent style and hopefully a theme, even if it isn’t a “concept album.” Albums, to use a literary analogy, are like a collection of short stories. Not like those huge anthologies from Intro to American Lit, but like the collections that authors themselves choose to write. A Good Man is Hard to Find, or Dubliners. The stories have different casts and plots but the collections have a unified theme. A few albums come to mind which fit the description: The Suburbs, by Arcade Fire; Let Live and Let Ghost, by Jukebox the Ghost; and The Shepherd’s Dog, by Iron and Wine. These albums explore themes and tell stories, and some are properly called concept albums. On the other hand, some albums are just the best songs a band can throw together. That is no discredit to the band or the album, as most bands make their albums this way, but those albums still betray a distinct style that the band will hopefully depart from for their next album.

Splitting albums with shuffle destroys all that art and style by tearing it out of context. Evoking the disillusion of suburbia for 5 minutes is nothing compared to evoking it for 45. Listening to a song from Led Zeppelin 2 then a song from In Through the Out Door, it would be difficult to imagine the melodica infused crooning from the latter was by the same band as the brittle hard rock of the former were it not for Plant’s distinct vocals.

Since I’ve started this post I’ve listened to maybe seven songs, each a jarring transition. Dr. Dog to Islands to Vivaldi to Nintendo to Zeppelin and now on to and Enya song from The Fellowship of the Ring. If only I could just sink my teeth into an album, hear a band’s message in full, and listen to them explore their style at a particular moment of their career.

1812

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 00:04:00 -0400

My current location in Shufflaganza, also a significant date in US history. If only 1812 Overture had come up. I wonder if my iPod can conjure up some interesting coincidences on that level. “Closing Time” as the last song, perhaps. Or maybe I’ll have a lollipop at hand for Mika’s famous song. Only time will tell.

1500 songs

Sat, 18 Jun 2011 11:40:17 -0400

I have now listened to fifteen hundred songs on shufflaganza, a fair fraction over one third of my music. It is now time to reminisce.

I remember, once upon a time, I had this device that stored all my music and fit in my pocket. It even had a touch screen which I used mostly to check my math when I tipped out at restaurants. I could choose to listen to any song I wanted to at any time of the day!

Now I’m sporting the same device but I haven’t played exactly what I’ve wanted to hear for a few months now. I won’t even use the calculator on it for fear of accidentally turning shuffle off. It’s terrifying to turn on my iPod knowing that one slip of the finger will turn shuffle off and send me back to song 1 of 4076.

There have been some fun times though, and some strange times. I only have two albums by Interpol, yet my iPod played two of their songs in a row, 2 out of 20 out of 4000. I wonder what those odds are. If only I trusted my iPod enough to plug in some factorials.

Just came up on the shuffle. Song 1358. I can’t imagine a...

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 21:33:59 -0400

Just came up on the shuffle. Song 1358. I can’t imagine a better way to refresh this blog than with this stunner from the best television-related album I happen to own.

666

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 10:01:02 -0400

I hit the benchmark of the 666th song on my iPod the other day. It was “Windsurfing Nation” by Broken Social Scene. I wonder if I play it backwards…

http://motionographer.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/davidwilson_moraymclaren_wegottime.mov

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:34:44 -0400

http://motionographer.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/davidwilson_moraymclaren_wegottime.mov:

My iPod has been very fond of playing video game music today. I’ve been jaunting around Hyrule, infiltrating military bases, and walloping Nintendo characters all day. At the end of it all though, I chose to share this video with you. Consider it a meta-music video. The moving images are made from vinyls. The video is made by a medium of music. Enjoy!

Long Hiatus

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 12:53:00 -0400

It’s been a long while since I updated you all on my misadventures in music. Forgive me, my thriving and heartbroken readers, and allow me to make it up to you.

To be quite honest, Shufflaganza is going along at a slower pace than I anticipated. I am at a solid 634/4079, but that’s after a whole month of listening. Wish me luck as Sufjan serenades me.

Yesterday I reached a benchmark in Shufflaganza—410 songs! That is one tenth of the way to...

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 14:00:53 -0500

Yesterday I reached a benchmark in Shufflaganza—410 songs! That is one tenth of the way to listening to my entire iTunes library on shuffle.

In other news, my iPod has been infatuated with the Beatles and Broken Social Scene lately. I wonder if it has resolved to go in alphabetical order backwards beginning with Calvin Harris. I have one album by Calvin Harris but I’ve already heard half of it.

Too Long?

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 14:56:04 -0500

I have heard two different versions of Daft Punk’s “Too Long” today. Just when I was thinking man, it has been far too long since I heard that Daft Punk song this morning, “Too Long” started playing again! Now that I get to hear the repeating beats and circular lyrics, I realize that it will never be too long for me to hear this again. I don’t know which is worse, the R&B remix (yes! that’s an ampersand, you are welcome) from this morning, or the original version, which is currently pulsing against my eardrums. I suppose the R&B version, as it’s actually just a guy saying “It’s been way too long” for what felt like half an hour. At least I can do the McCarthy Jiggle to the original version.

The New Banner

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 08:51:46 -0500

Hopefully, someone noticed the new banner I painstakingly created for my blog. If you didn’t, now is probably the time to investigate.

After about two-three hours of dicking around on Photoshop I finally figured out how to make the background on the shuffle icon invisible. Then I couldn’t figure out how to add the text via Photoshop, so I just did it in Powerpoint. That worked great since I’m kind of a virtuoso at the slide show, nbd.

I should probably leave the photoshopping to my artsier friends, and hope they don’t run up their prices now that they know how incompetent I am.

The Fifth Day

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 17:04:00 -0500

It is officially the fifth day of Shufflaganza. The mission is going well, but I’m a bit off of my unofficial pace of finishing the experiment in 100 days. I’ve listened to 155 songs out of 4100. In order to be back on track I need to listen to 50 more songs today! Hopefully we can avoid the long ballads and get get through some of the video game sound effects (of which I have an embarrassing wealth).

In other news, just letting my iPod play on shuffle is pretty difficult today. It’s 70 and sunny, I feel like its a crime that I’m not listening to Dear Catastrophe Waitress (granted the lyrics are often gloomy, but the music is so cheery) or Spoon. Hopefully my iPod will get the clue (a la Valentine’s Day) and play me some fitting melodies.

One thing Led Zeppelin has over the other guys—epic...

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 18:02:55 -0500

One thing Led Zeppelin has over the other guys—epic lyrics. Kashmir fits especially well with current events since I stayed up until 2:00 last night watching Lawrence of Arabia. Seriously, TCM, what genius had the idea to air a four-hour movie at 10:00 PM?

Classic Rock

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 14:07:34 -0500

Looks like my iPod is in a classic rock kind of mood today. Led Zeppelin has serenaded me twice and The Who chimed in later with “Behind Blue Eyes.” Whenever I listen to these guys I lament the fact that no one else plays like them anymore. Sure, Weezer has a few riffs, and the Black Keys have a gritty Blues sound, but people today are too interested in making music and not very interested in making rock and roll. I just want to hear a guitar solo once when I go to a show, just once.

I’m officially 1/100 of the way to listening to my entire library on shuffle. I already gave...

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 10:29:00 -0500

I’m officially 1/100 of the way to listening to my entire library on shuffle. I already gave you my most incredible and potentially dangerous highlight (iPods are smarter than we think), but today I had the pleasure of listening to “Helplessness Blues”, the new song by Fleet Fox. You can download it for free strait from the band here: http://www.fleetfoxes.com/helplessness-blues.html

BRENDAN! Welcome to tumblr! It's full of hipsters and self-indulgent teenage girls.
You'll love it here.

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 23:22:11 -0500

Haha! I’m having a pretty good time already. Hopefully I can hone my inner hipster to perfection. If there is one thing I can learn from you, it’s that I have a long way to go.

Intelligent Design?

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 12:56:00 -0500

On two occasions today, on both my computer and my iPod, “Happy Valentine’s Day” by Andre 3000 came on. Apparently, my iPod is more intelligent then I ever would have thought. I am vaguely concerned that, like some HAL, my iPod will attempt to sabotage me. I can imagine a plot to make me depressed via musical choice. I did not train for this level of mental stamina.

Trap Doors by Broken Bells

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 09:58:42 -0500

Trap Doors by Broken Bells

The First Song

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 09:51:39 -0500

Shufflaganza officially started at 9:42 am EST, Monday, February 14, 2011 with a little ditty from Broken Bells called Trap Doors. My iPod must be taking it easy on me, because this song (indeed probably any song by James Mercer) was pretty gentle on the ears of this slightly sleep-deprived undergrad.

“Trap doors to wisdom” indeed.

Shufflaganza

It has ended

Song number 2000! Just about halfway there. I also must admit...

The Album

1812

1500 songs

Just came up on the shuffle. Song 1358. I can’t imagine a...

666

http://motionographer.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/davidwilson_moraymclaren_wegottime.mov

Long Hiatus

Yesterday I reached a benchmark in Shufflaganza—410 songs! That is one tenth of the way to...

Too Long?

The New Banner

The Fifth Day

One thing Led Zeppelin has over the other guys—epic...

Classic Rock

I’m officially 1/100 of the way to listening to my entire library on shuffle. I already gave...

BRENDAN! Welcome to tumblr! It's full of hipsters and self-indulgent teenage girls. You'll love it here.

Intelligent Design?

Trap Doors by Broken Bells

The First Song

BRENDAN! Welcome to tumblr! It's full of hipsters and self-indulgent teenage girls.
You'll love it here.