Turns out reports of my iPod’s demise were greatly exaggerated. It was the outlet the electrician had killed, as I discovered when I tried to plug in a replacement speaker. When retrieved from where it was lying in state and supplied with electricity, the iPod sprung right back to life.
Roll away the stone!
Since Aretha passed away this week the encomiums have been coming hard and heavy, as well they should. I don’t know what I can add; in the end it always comes back to the music, doesn’t it? I mean, check this shit out.
This week saw the demise of not only the great Aretha Franklin (of whom more later) but also my ancient and decrepit iPod, a gift from my stepfather back in 20(??) [this information not available] — engraved with my name and the URL of this very blog, no less.
For the last few years, after its battery died, it lived in the dock of a small speaker in the bathroom. But it continued to serve, providing shower music a couple times a week. Last Monday, though, the electrician working on our kitchen shut off the power for several hours. Apparently the electricity had been providing life support for the iPod, which did not revive when the juice was restored.
No tears need be shed — it had a good run. But we shall not see its like again, that’s for sure.
I’ve been in an apocalyptic mood this week after reading the brilliant, illuminating, and horribly depressing special issue of the New York Times magazine about the brief period in the 70s and 80s when it looked like we were actually going to do something about climate change.
Spoiler alert: We didn’t, and this summer half of California is on fire. Some might say that you can’t draw a direct line between carbon emissions and wildfires. Maybe so. I’d love to think that all the climate change skeptics are right, because if they’re not, we’re fucked.
We’re probably fucked.
Well, at least we can have an entertaining soundtrack for the end times, as long as the electricity holds out. This demented scorcher from Bauhaus’s 2008 reunion album is a good place to start.
