High speed

On Tuesday Bob called and asked me how much it would cost to get his computer on Roadrunner. I'd been saying for awhile that we needed to do that, but I'd been saying it rather half-heartedly, not because I thought it would be expensive, but because I thought it would be a huge hassle and I wasn't sure I was up to whatever would be involved. Every time I had suggested taking care of it, he had said no, that it woudl be too expensive, and I just let it go because I didn't want to deal with it.

But when he asked specifically, I, of course, said I would find out, and I called, and they said it was a $50 set-up charge, then about $5.00/month additional thereafter. I could hardly fail to justify that, so I set up an appointment, and someone came out and did it that afternoon.

Frankly, I had my doubts that they would be able to do it for several reasons, one being that my computer is downstairs and Bob's is upstairs, and the second being that mine is a Mac and his is a PC. Not that it isn't possible, of course, but I wasn't sure whether the cable guy would be up to the task. But I needn't have worried. It apparently went smooth as silk, the guy was only there about twenty minutes, and now we both have highspeed access.

I'm still hardwired to the cable modem, but now there's a wireless router underneath my desk, and Bob has a wireless receiver attached to the USB port on his PC, and everything works beautifully.

It was iTunes that finally made Bob want, no, need highspeed access. We've both been just thrilled with iTunes, with the access to lots of different kinds of music, not just what the local radio stations choose to serve up to us. And even when they do play something that you like, they never tell you who or what it is, so it's a total guessing game. And it is a game. Or, well, it isn't a game, it's business. I don't know enough about it to go into a rant about it, really, but it's all packaged, all merchandised, it's almost impossible to find new music anymore, anything different that isn't what the corporate merchandisers want us to listen to.

So anyway.

My music of choice lately seems to lean heavily toward what iTunes classifies as Alternative, with some Folk thrown in. My On-the-Go Playlist on my iPod right now is:

• Blue Merle
• Bright Eyes
• The Perishers
• Hayden
• The Red West
• Richard Buckner
• Keane

Kind of cool that I never heard of any of these bands/musicians until the last few weeks.

Bob's big thing is that you can buy songs one at a time, for $.99, without having to commit to an entire album, and I have to admit that that's a draw. I'm the kind of person, though, who buys an album and then grows to love it after playing it a bunch of times. I would rather discover the obscure gems than just listen to whatever the "hit" on the album is supposed to be, but I have to admit that I have occasionally bought an album on the strength of the hit and the rest of the album never grew on me.

I read an article recently where the writer divided iPod users up into "straights"--older listeners who preferred to listen to an album from beginning to end, all the songs, as the artist intended--and I think he called the second category "technosexuals," which is of course kind of stupid (assuming I'm remembering it correctly), who make very specific playlists for specific purposes and buy songs one at a time.

I guess I'm kind of a blend of both kinds. If I'm familiar with an artist and am pretty confident that I'm going to like whatever they put out, I'll buy an album without having heard it at all, and listen and listen and listen, and usually fall in love with it. If it's someone I'm not familiar with and am not too sure of, I'll buy a song or two and live with them for awhile, and if they stick with me, then I'll buy the rest of the album.

Of course, iTunes lets you listen to a pretty good-sized sample before you buy, so while it isn't the same as hearing the whole song, it does give you a pretty good idea of whether you're going to like it or not.