Bummer

Yesterday I received the following email from my brother titled "Tragedy:
Dude. My iPod died. RIP. No recovery. It died a quick death on the bedroom floor. Father's Day is around the corner???" I think that was his way of suggesting I chip in for a new iPod for him but I keep reminding him that he's not my dad. I must confess that I did feel sorry enough for him to consider buying him a new iPod. He travels ALL the time and I know how hard it will be without one. I then came to my senses.

Still, I felt SO bad for him. Honestly! He apparently dropped it on the hardwood floor and it didn't survive. Turns out iPods don't bounce all that well. It was bound to happen though. My entire life my little bro has been a spaz with a tendency to break pretty much everything in his path. The good news is that he's not materialistic and doesn't see the point in obsessing over owned objects. The bad news is that I always took very good care of my stuff and he always broke it. That being said, nobody, and I mean nobody, loves their iPod like my brother loves his. The only things I've ever known him to take very good care of are his family, his house and his iPod. That's pretty much it. I asked him if he couldn't just go out and get a new one but he said I'd have to convince his wife. No offense to my sister in law, but that comment gave me a flash of being incredibly happy that I'm not married. If my iPod broke, I'd just dip into the house fund and run (RUN) out to replace it. I wouldn't have to talk anyone into it, I'd just selfishly/foolishly do it. Cool!

Of course my brother's loss made me rush home and clutch my dear little iPod close to my heart. I even remembered to upload a crap-load of songs I'd neglected to move earlier. A couple of months ago I spent a Sunday afternoon transferring music from an old computer to my thumb drive. By the time everything had transferred I had moved on to other things (I have the attention span of a gnat) and I never got around to moving all of that music to my laptop and iPod. I finally moved it all over this evening. When I originally transferred music from my CDs to my iPod I tried to move only the songs I REALLY liked. I rarely bothered to transfer entire albums over, yet I still have close to 3,000 songs on the pod and that's nothing compared to what my bro must have on the iPod formerly known as his.

In honor of my brother's loss, and because I have 650 fresh songs in my music library, here is a list of the top 10 songs that show up on my iPod shuffle along with some notes:

Don't Go Back to Rockville - REM
(Man, does that take me back! I must have listened to this song about 800 times in college. I still love it.)

Crystal - Fleetwood Mac
(Sometimes there's nothing like a little Mac to get you through the day.)

Kiss Me, Son of God - They Might Be Giants
(These guys always make me smile. Also, I like to include them on mixes I make for the kids in my life.)

It's Me, Oh Lord - Charlie Hayden & Hank Jones
(Have you heard this album!? It's a fantastic mix of amazingly mellow interpretations of old spirituals. It's SO relaxing and lovely. You've got to give it a listen on iTunes. I dare you not to love it. And if you don't... I don't want to hear about it.)

Bye, Bye Love - Ray Charles
(So much energy! Ray sings the hell outta this one.)

Ochie Cherny (Dark Eyes) - Sophie Milman
(Moody French music... cool!)

(Just Like) Starting Over - John Lennon
(Awww. I miss John. I wish I could say the same of his annoying wife. Umm, that sounded a lot meaner than it was intended.)

Heart of Gold - Neil Young
(I'm kinda over this song but it's technically a classic so... *shrug*)

I Can Do That - A Chorus Line
(Yea! Showtunes!)

Martha - Tom Waits
(I have mixed feelings about this song. It's a pretty tune but the lyrics spin a haunting yarn about the most depressing case of drunk dialing ever. Then it just sort of ends but, because it's a Tom Waits song, you know it doesn't end well.)

So, there is a taste of my iPod shuffle. I know we've done this before but what's on yours? Shandon, Trooperdog, Norman... care to share? And don't forget the notes! (That's an official tag.)