azaleaeight
August 6th, 2007, 11:32 PM
I've been slow at being swept up in the obsession with gadgetry and electronics. For quite a while (years) after I got a computer I pretty much used it as a typewriter with e.mail. Somewhere along the way, though, I discovered Mp3's, downloading, and listening to the "perfect" playlist of carefully selected music. When I first listened to those first Mp3's it was as if the computer had finally come to life - and I had finally come around to seeing it as much more than a typewriter that needed a printer on the side.
The Mp3 playlist I built was a compilation of the my idea of the best songs ever written, and I was completely happy with the idea of knowing I had access to all these great songs whenever I wanted.
Even with my general immunity to the latest gadgets, however, I began to imagine how great it would be to have "all the world's best music ever written" in an Mp3 player. That would mean no longer being tied by headphones to the computer. It would mean being able to take "my" music with me wherever I went. Well, I talked so much about "the next thing I have to get" being an Mp3 player that I was given one as a birthday gift.
Once it was all loaded up with "my" music (I didn't write it or record it, so I feel uncomfortable calling it "mine") I held the tiny Mp3 player in my hand and imagined how after a lifetime of trying to get a great collection of music all in one place I finally held that collection in the palm of my hand - in this tiny plastic "box" that had all the outward appearance of the latest in electronics but held - somewhere at its heart - a collection of some of the best music ever recorded. Suddenly, this wasn't gadgetry. This was magic.
We so often take something like the Mp3 player for granted these days. It is, after all, just one more gadget that have become available. It isn't technology that saves lives or makes cooking dinner easier. Its just entertainment and nothing else. Still, every time music finds a way to be heard, treasured, and kept there is just a hint of magic in this otherwise not-very-magical and particularly high-tech world.
And so, I salute the Mp3 player - that magical little gadget that allows me to hold all the best music of the world in the palm of my hand.:o
The Mp3 playlist I built was a compilation of the my idea of the best songs ever written, and I was completely happy with the idea of knowing I had access to all these great songs whenever I wanted.
Even with my general immunity to the latest gadgets, however, I began to imagine how great it would be to have "all the world's best music ever written" in an Mp3 player. That would mean no longer being tied by headphones to the computer. It would mean being able to take "my" music with me wherever I went. Well, I talked so much about "the next thing I have to get" being an Mp3 player that I was given one as a birthday gift.
Once it was all loaded up with "my" music (I didn't write it or record it, so I feel uncomfortable calling it "mine") I held the tiny Mp3 player in my hand and imagined how after a lifetime of trying to get a great collection of music all in one place I finally held that collection in the palm of my hand - in this tiny plastic "box" that had all the outward appearance of the latest in electronics but held - somewhere at its heart - a collection of some of the best music ever recorded. Suddenly, this wasn't gadgetry. This was magic.
We so often take something like the Mp3 player for granted these days. It is, after all, just one more gadget that have become available. It isn't technology that saves lives or makes cooking dinner easier. Its just entertainment and nothing else. Still, every time music finds a way to be heard, treasured, and kept there is just a hint of magic in this otherwise not-very-magical and particularly high-tech world.
And so, I salute the Mp3 player - that magical little gadget that allows me to hold all the best music of the world in the palm of my hand.:o