Tuesday in Santa Fe

02009-10-20 | Uncategorized | 14 comments

Walked to Mellow Velo in the Morning and picked up my fixie, which was improved… Sunshine. Warm. Lovely ride home and up the hill. Then Autumn turned and by the afternoon we had a storm and lots of rain.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | What is the future of music online?
For the industry, this hero must come up with an idea that is great enough to tempt fans away from illegal file-sharing sites, while simultaneously making money for artists, songwriters and record labels.

I read what those experts are saying… but for me there is a fundamental disconnect there: why do we need to carry everything with us? Why do we need immediate access to everything? Do we need thousands of books on a Kindle or on the new Nook? Aren’t five or even a dozen books enough? Are they going away into the wilderness for a decade? Do we need thousands of songs on an iPod? Are they on a two-year boat-trip? Do we carry a suitcase with a choice of differently colored shirts, in case our friend’s new car has a paintjob that doesn’t jive with what we are wearing?

No, I am happy to carry about a dozen albums on my iPhone, in form of ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) and some 320kbps mp3s. (((It would be very nice, if eventually phones support high quality FLAC…))) I don’t don’t need a harem at attention, I just want one lovely album at a time.

I think there is something very wrong about this access to everything, all books, all music, all the time…

Ernst Haas’ photographs of New Mexco in Life Magazine, September 15, 1952 issue.

Here are Haas’ images of New York from a 1953 issue.

14 Comments

  1. Brenda

    Very nicely said regarding the “fundamental disconnect”. You are right on.
    Thanks for sharing the “Life Magazine” :)

    Reply
  2. Brenda

    When we put our focus on holding or balancing all books, all music in the “palm of our hand”; I would think the load of day to day life to become difficult and burdensome. Freedom to acquire beyond our human boundaries has captured our enjoyment of our past, present and future in the human element of books and music. Thus, what we orginally sought, we lost in vain because of our greed.

    Reply
  3. dave

    Oh, what about that Jello salad shown in the 1952 issue. Yum-yum.

    Reply
  4. Carol

    And your bunnies down there look like they could give Monty Python’s a bad time. Interesting look at history.

    Reply
  5. Brenda

    Yum-Yum about Jello salad is funny. I do have an awesome recipe using Jello w/ freshly grinded cranberries,oranges,pecans and yes cherry Jello – It is so good at Thanksgiving. Yummy!!!
    I agree about the Rabbits!

    Reply
  6. marijose

    I’ve noticed over the years the increasing amount of stuff that commuters on public transportation take to work. It’s really becoming an issue on crowded buses and trains during rush hour. I steer clear of anyone wearing headphones while trying to balance more than two bags, coffee, and a jeejah. I guess it must all get very heavy because some people are resorting to rolling commuter bags.

    Reply
  7. Ottmar

    When I traveled in Asia for about a year, in 1978/79, I quickly learned that happiness was carrying a couple of small bags and not much else. I washed my clothing in the hotels and it dried quickly. There was no need to carry a lot of STUFF – everything was available in the marketplace.

    Reply
  8. marijose

    Yes, thank you – I forgot to add a link. That was one of my favorite made-up words in the book.

    Reply
  9. Ottmar

    And what a great book it is. It’s about time to re-read that one.

    Reply
  10. marijose

    It’s great that it hasn’t been turned into a movie complete with lame special effects, plastic action figures, etc.

    Reply
  11. steve

    Seems like a lot of what is going on in technology these days: a triumph of computing over common sense. (The repackaging of sub-prime loans/complex derivatives would have been an intractable task without modern computing capability.)

    No one needs all those books all the time, nor do they need thousands and thousands of songs on an iPod. To be honest, I have two 120G iPods both fully maxed out, and I have about 15,000-20,000 songs on the two of them, all in ALAC format … Frankly, I don’t know what I have anymore. It’s a bit overwhelming … and pretty silly. Computing over common sense. Guilty as charged.

    (So the now RETIRED iPods just stay at home and are played through a Wadia 170iTransport … they don’t even function as iPods anymore … they are just hard drives with ALAC on ’em.)

    Usually, I carry an iPhone around and have about a dozen albums on it, and three to five e-books. That’s manageable. Ottmar is spot on.

    Since I ride my bicycle most of the time wherever I go, and I ride a lot in the city, I live with about 50dB-60dB of ambient road noise as part of “my daily soundtrack.”

    I’m not entirely sure I could tell the difference between a standard 44.1k ALAC file and a really nice pristine 24/96k FLAC file in that environment.

    Reply
  12. thomas

    Zum Thema ‘Wenig Gepäck’

    Irgendwo hab ich gelesen, es habe einen unglaublichen Aufwand (auch finanziell) gebraucht, um Mahatma Gandhi seinen gewünschten low-key lifestyle zu bieten.

    Damit Gandhi in einem einfachen Haus (nur mit Buch, Brille, Teppich und Reisschale, leben konnte) mussten im weiteren Umfeld sehr viele Dinge extra dafür Umorganisiert werden.

    Reply
  13. Carol

    I learned something about packing from Sue Grafton. I don’take much. Thank you for the recommendation.

    Reply

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