2003-12-01 - 12:03 p.m.

i got an ipod for my birthday. thanks, p! its exactly what i wanted. it's changed my relationship to music. i rarely put music on casually, but now i can tote my entire CD collection (and part of p's, as well as part of y's) around in my purse. even the little white headphones kick ass. i haven't been so in love with a device since i purchased my titanium laptop. i had to make a delivery to one of my clients on saturday, a much longer walk in the cold than i had anticipated. but i hardly noticed the 25-minute trudge to greenpoint, as i was rocking wham!'s 'fantastic' on my ipod and was in my own private disco, right there on mcguinness. not only has it changed my relationship to music, it's changed my relationship to brooklyn. also, i can't hear my cellphone anymore. and i'm not putting it on 'vibrate', because that's way too distracting.

as many of you know, i'm in a band called weapons of mass destruction. we're an electronic deconstructionist cover band. there are a few original compositions, but lately we're really getting a kick out of doing covers. i love tearing apart and recontextualising a song. current favorites in rehearsal are springsteen's 'i'm on fire' and roseanne carter cash's 'ring of fire' (yes, there seems to be a fire theme). an ipod favorite of mine right now is mark kozalek's 'what's next to the moon'. he's the former lead signer of red house painters, and this particular album is all ac/dc covers, done in a folky style. the songs are completely disarming. you truly haven't lived until you've heard his cover of 'love hungry man'.