A Nice Drive Home Tonight
After coming home from my recent vacation I realized that my drive-time could have been complimented by listening to some tunes that I haven't heard lately. Of the 900 or so songs I have in iTunes (and more on CDs that await the ripper) I actually seem to listen to the same 80 or 90 songs most of the time. For those who aren't swift at math, that's about 10% of the potential listening pleasure. So I've taken some steps to alleviate this problem.
First, I created a "30-Day Wonders" playlist. This should keep me from relying too much on the software-generated "Purchased Music" list. Examining the latter by play count I found that I tend to listen to the newest 10 pretty consistently so I cleared it and plan on repeating that regularly. Thusly I should be able to enjoy my new acquisitions without too much tedium.
Another new playlist, "25 You Forgot About," is my second effort to return variety to my ears. It was put together in such a way so it selects 25 tunes from the main library that haven’t been played of late. This tends to favor songs that aren't checked to sync with the iPod and, though I can modify this, part of me likes knowing which music is being royally ignored. It would be nice, though, if Apple came up with a way that the checkmark could mean "play on the host computer, but don't sync." There are only seven tracks in the list right now that are checked and 12 of the unchecked are from Bugs Bunny on Broadway. Once a song is played it falls off the list so all the tracks will eventually be unchecked then I’ll have to rebuild the filter. If nothing else, it helped me track down some Opera that managed to infest my hard drive and I was able to make the fat lady sing her way off.
A third means that I’ve begun to use is my car stereo. Taking the iPod on my short commute isn’t really practical. I tend to spend more time fiddling with the device than driving. As such, I’ve steeled myself to listen to more CDs from my library, particularly ones that I don’t have ripped to the computer. The one that added some charm to my drive home tonight is a computer-created compilation, however. If you’ve read through the archives of this blog you’ve probably come across some posts about Dictionaraoke music. This is some cool stuff. I first heard about it on NPR some years ago. Apparently someone figured out that the words and sounds used for pronunciation guides on CD-ROM dictionaries and encyclopedias can be used in a cut-n-paste fashion to recreate the lyrics of songs. Add them to a karaoke-style sound track and a whole song is made. Keep in mind when you try to “picture” this is that about five sources are typically used so each word winds up being “spoken” by a different voice. You have to hear it to understand it.
The best of the lot, in my opinion, is a cover of John Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom.” I think it actually stands well on its own even when the novelty fades. That it appears the compositor lifted the music from the original helps, but it really is a superior effort nonetheless that easily tops the 25 tracks I have. Most of the songs are backed by some really poor midi files.
Not all the songs at the Dictionaraoke Web site meet my tastes in terms of quality or … well … tastefulness … but many stand out. “Dr_Seuss-green_eggs_&_ham” from someone styled as Stark Effect takes the classic children’s book and emphasizes the inherent rhythm with some well thought-out percussion. It actually made me appreciate the good doctor more than I had previously (okay, not much at all – not even as a kid). In a similarly non-musical lyric vein is “(GE Silicones Players) The Answer” from TINC Project. If one ignores that a different voice speaks each word it actually becomes an entertaining and educational infomercial for GE’s silicone products (if they really exist).
More musically, other standouts are covers of Irving Berlin’s “Puttin’ On The Ritz,” Aqua’s cross-Atlantic hit “Barbie Girl,” and “The Former Yugoslavia” from The Former Yugoslavia, the last one throws in a few surprise expletives. Two tracks, “She Blinded Me With Science” by Thomas Dolby and “I Wanna Be A Cowbot” feature some computer-generated speech elements rather nicely.
As I rediscover wonderful tracks like these more methods to add variety to my listening habits will develop and eventually I’ll have to get a bigger capacity iPod. Dang! I hate it when that happens!
