I got my first computer, a purple iMac, in 1999 and have been a Mac fan since – Im writing this on a small but beautifully formed iBook. For years I resisted the lure of the iPod, for 3 main reasons: 1) The expense with 3 kids in the house, 2 under the age of 3, I have to negotiate spending that kind of cash & a personnel MP3 player was never going to get priority over a drier/ shed/ new bedroom wardrobesetc. 2) The technology changes so fast my iBook has been superseded umpteen times since it emerged from its box, and 3) What do I need a posh walkman for anyway? It would have been handy during my globe trotting days but now, I dont use a walkman!
So when my brother Ste got me a 40GB iPod for my 40th birthday I was chuft to bits but still thought it an extravagance I didnt need..how wrong I wasIts now my constant companion in the car on shuffle mode where you never know whats going to come on next, but you know youll like it.
The weird thing is, it has somehow tuned into my neural network in Borg-like fashion. The first time it happened I was driving along in my CBGBs T-shirt when on comes Blondie Pretty Baby. Ah thinks I wouldnt it have been great to be at CBGBs in the late 70s. The fantastic bands that grew in that environment, The Ramones, Talking Heads on comes Cities by Talking Heads..spooky!
I was driving to Sheffield & just as I got off the Motorway an entered the city limits Hard Times by the Human League came on followed by Cabaret Voltaires Nag Nag NagHmmmmm
My other half has thought this notion ridiculous until…we were driving form my mums in Swinton near Manchester, to my mates in Chorlton, chatting about our impending wedding when My Bride to Be by Winston Samuels comes on (Id never heard it before – its from one of those Trojan 3 disc box sets that I loaded up and hadnt got round to hearing) but odder than that, we then drive past Old Trafford and Manchester United Calypso by Edrich Connor* comes on!!!! Sideways glances to each other with raises eyebrows.
I remember talking to a friend Matt who lectures in philosophy about million to one occurrences
How many millions of people are there in the world?
About 5 billion?
Well million to one events should be happening to 5 million people all the time
Which kind of takes the mystery out of life
Bob the Chiropodist
*For the record, Im a Man City fan but I still love this track. My folks are from Salford and were Roman Catholics and so should, by rights, be United fans. My Dad + Grandad (Jim) used to take my older brothers Ste and later Dave when they were old enough to the football on a Saturday (after they finished work at 12). Somewhere in the mists of time, United put up their prices and Grandad decided we would support City instead (thanks Jim!). By the time I started going we were a true blue family and I hate that more than United is still a family saying. Being a City fan was great in the 70s, not bad in the 80s, a joke in the 90s and thanks to Keegan and Psycho, becoming respectable again in the naughties. As the games become obsessed by money Ive become less and less interested it (even Blackburn could win the championship with enough cash). I hate to say it, but I even like to see Man U do well, except on Derby day of course