music for the masses

I woke up this morning with 2 songs in my head. Well that’s a lie. I get the songs in my head slightly after waking up. In the interim of stumbling out of bed and into the shower I always have the “Peter Gunn” theme in my head, because that’s my alarm and it’s awesome. So anyway, while in the shower I had 2 songs in my head: “Livin’ on a Prayer” (Bon Jovi) and “Bitchin’ Camaro” (Dead Milkmen). The songs don’t mix, but I was amused.

Then when I get to work, what’s the first song on the XM radio? Livin’ on a Prayer. Further cracks me up.

Speaking of the XM, this is what I take to the gym and listen to while I work out. The House Dance station while doing cardio, and if I time it right, the rockabilly show on the punk station during the rest of the time. The XM is cool because I get my choice of millions of channels (though most of them go ignored), but the actual radio is a little big to carry around. It’s not that big, but I can’t strap it to my arm or clip it to my belt. In other words, it’s bigger than an iPod. Do you see where I’m going with this?

I’ve decided to join the masses. I am going to buy an iPod. As soon as I can get myself to part with about $200. I actually found one on ebay the other night that was brand new, factory sealed, and free shipping. Plus about $25 off the retail price. And it was hot pink, which I’m ok with. I was really close to buying it just to save money, but by the time I decided, someone else had snatched it up. Oh well. I need to stay away from ebay anyway.

With the iPod, I’ll be able to compile some good beat music, and MY collection of rockabilly, so I’ll still be listening to essentially the same thing I do now. It will be more portable, but I won’t turn into one of those people that has their headphones on every second. Most of the time I have a book anyway, so if I had both I would be completely lost in my own world, unable to return in time to, say, get off the train at the proper stop.

But the gym is where I really need it. Everyone there has an iPod, and even though I’ve been aware of that for years, I was thinking about it on my last visit. There is a girl that I always see because she’s there every single day. We smile in recognition, and have even made small talk a couple times in the locker room. I was wondering if she bought her iPod specifically for the gym, and if so, it was a good investment because she certainly gets use out of it. Then I started thinking about how nice that would be for me. No more flipping through the stations when something I didn’t like came on. With my own music, there would never be anything I didn’t like. I'm picky like that.

So, in a few weeks, I’ll be one of the white-headphoned masses that you see everywhere. In NY, they are on the trains, the streets, and of course, in the gym. I yearn to join them, to be one of them. And soon I will.

Ps – Don’t forget to sponsor me in the AIDS Walk!