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The Kindle, the iPad and Me

In books, technology on 9 February 2010 with 2 comments

I never wanted a Kindle or any other e-book reader. I love reading yes but I also love books. I love their texture, their smell, their weight, the way they look stacked on my shelves and my nightstand. I love the way books feel in my hand, so I never planned to be a Kindle owner. Then last year my dad bought me a Kindle for my birthday and I fell in love with it. Being able to tote so many books with me was a revelation! At any given time I’ve usually got three books going (one fiction, one non-fiction, one spiritual/Judaism) and I can never be exactly sure which I’m going to be in the mood for. Having them all with me, in a lightweight device is great. Also, not having to add more and more books to my shelves is really nice. I love being surrounded by books but I don’t need to keep every single book I ever read. There’s no need for that much attachment to stuff.

For me the Kindle has two killer features. The first is that it helps me decrease the amount of physical stuff taking up space in my house. If it’s a book by a favorite author or a Jewish book that I know I’m going to reference later on then I will buy the physical book. If it’s a novel or a non-fiction book that I get interested on a whim then having it in Kindle form is just fine.

The second killer feature is the Kindle iPhone app. My Kindle and my iPhone stay synced so if I’m standing in line at the post office or waiting for B at a restaurant and don’t have anything with me but my iPhone I can still be reading. The problem is that I find I enjoy reading on my iPhone more than I enjoy reading on the Kindle. Obviously the Kindle’s screen is larger but I find the bright LCD screen and digital text of the iPhone easier to read than the Kindle’s darker screen and e-ink. And the touch screen of the iPhone has become second nature so flicking a finger to turn the page is more intuitive than pushing a button to do so. Also, the Kindle interface has never seemed quite right. It’s fine, but it’s not great. I guess the best way to describe it is that it’s just not smooth. Whatever task you need to do (make a note, go to a previous section, etc) is simple enough to do but it doesn’t feel simple. Does that make sense?

That brings me to the iPad. At first I thought this was device that would have absolutely no place in my life. Then I noticed how much B sits on the couch playing Tetris on her iPhone while I’m reading. Then I paid attention to how much I really don’t look forward to reading on my Kindle anymore because I feel like my eyes are straining with the screen. Let me pause here to note that I know people have said e-ink is easier on the eyes and perhaps long term it is but for me personally it’s much easier to read on an LCD screen.

I have been having fantasies of reading on essentially a much larger version on my iPhone and it excites me. I imagine B enjoying her games of Tetris infinitely more than she currently does. I imagine how beautiful and intuitive the experience of navigating and performing tasks will be on the iPad. Apple might be locked down, they might do weird pricing things but lets face it, they know how to develop an incredible complete package of hardware and software.

So am I going to go out and drop $500 on an iPad? Probably not, we’re spending way too much money renovating the house but I will definitely want to. See the difference? I never wanted to spend money on a Kindle but when I got one for free I loved it. I want an iPad. I see its potential in both my life and B’s life. I don’t think B has ever touched my Kindle except to hand it to me. In other words I cannot fathom someone spending $259 for a Kindle 2 or $489 for a Kindle DX instead of an iPad. Kindle is a great e-book reader, full stop. But I’m a fan of Alton Brown’s philosophy of only going with unitasking tools when you absolutely have to.

What You See

In personal on 29 January 2010 with no comments

I had gotten so lazy at the other house (seriously, the driveway hill alone was enough to inspire sloth) and the weather has been so bitter my walking the past few months has been next to nil. Last night we had an event at shul and I walked. It was something like 20 degrees but I walked. We moved 2.5 blocks from shul and I refuse to drive unless it’s raining so hard with a wind so fierce that I can’t keep the umbrella upright.

During this walk I got a peek into my new street and the street that my shul is on in a way that I never can in a car. I had forgotten that. I had forgotten how much you miss when you’re encased in a car. It felt so good to walk, even in the cold. Walking reminds you that you’re alive.

We’re 2 blocks from the grocery store now, I’m walking there too. I just need to find a good cart to tote things home in.

A Week With Radiohead

In music on 10 January 2010 with 1 comment

Did I ever tell you about the summer I tried to learn to like beer? I was in college, beer was cheap and I was poor. The only problem was that I absolutely hated the taste of beer. I decided to attack the problem head on. I would try and try and try dozens of different beers until I eventually found one I liked. Then drinking wouldn’t be so expensive and I could participate in that whole “going out for a beer” social thing. So for one summer I drank beer and drank beer and drank beer. Light beer, dark beer, American beer, imported beer, micro brewed craft beer, commercially brewed beer. At the end of that summer I hated beer just as much as I always did and swore I would never drink beer again and I haven’t.

This week Amazon mp3 had Radiohead’s Kid A on sale for $2.99. I bought The Bends when it was on sale for $2.99 and I had $3 in free credit on the Amazon mp3 store. I bought OK Computer a year or so ago. So now that’s three (and if I’m not mistaken 3 of the most critically acclaimed) Radiohead albums I own. I don’t love any of them. In fact I’m pretty sure I don’t even like most of them. However since, like beer, Radiohead is kind of universally loved I’m going to give liking them the old college try. I’m going to immerse myself in Radiohead this week. If at the end of the week I’m still only feeling a track here or there I’m going to give up on trying to be a Radiohead fan. That’s fair right?

5 Thoughts on Avatar

In movies on 1 January 2010 with 1 comment

1. 3D is cool but not that cool if you wear glasses. Chunky 3D glasses over regular classes is not cool, comfortable or fun.

2. CCH Pounder is awesome in every single thing she does.

3. I don’t understand how Ana Lucia Michelle Rodriguez didn’t need an oxygen mask while flying the helicopter, it didn’t have a sealed cockpit like the planes. Is it because she wouldn’t have looked as badass with one?

4. I wish the score had been more dramatic. If you’re going to do an epic (even a science fiction epic) you need an epic score.

5. I like Dances with Wolves better.

My 2009 in Music

In music on 28 December 2009 with no comments

According to iTunes I didn’t really love very many albums released in 2009. The ones I did love though I really loved.

1. Blood Bank (EP) – Bon Iver
Oh child, I love me some Bon Iver. I need him to release another new album with the quickness. I’ve listened to his full length debut For Emma, Forever Ago and the Blood Bank EP more than is probably healthy over the past 12 months.

2. Far – Regina Spektor
This physical disc has been in my car since August because when I’m too lazy to plug in my iPhone I know this album will always sound good.

3. I And Love And You – The Avett Brothers
I haven’t had nearly as much time with this record as the other two but it’s a definite keeper. Even if it does have a scary album cover.

Now, something that’s more interesting and insightful into my relationship with music is the music that I listened to most in 2009 regardless of when it was released. Thanks to Last.fm’s awesome charts I know that the songs I listened to the most in 2009 were:

1. Bon Iver – Blood Bank full track
2. Bon Iver – Skinny Love
3. Bon Iver – Beach Baby
4. Bon Iver – Woods
5. Bon Iver – Babys
6. Adele – Melt My Heart to Stone
7. Blitzen Trapper – Furr
8. Bon Iver – Flume
9. Regina Spektor – Two Birds
10. The Avett Brothers – Salina
11. The Avett Brothers – Black, Blue
12. Regina Spektor – Human of the Year
13. Kanye West – RoboCop
14. Adele – Tired
15. Nina Simone – Feeling Good
16. Kanye West – Love Lockdown
17. Adele – Best for Last
18. Regina Spektor – Samson
19. The Avett Brothers – Tear Down the House
20. Lucinda Williams – Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
21. Neko Case – This Tornado Loves You
22. Death Cab for Cutie – Cath
23. Adele – Chasing Pavements
24. Kanye West – Say You Will
25. Adele – Make You Feel My Love
26. Nina Simone -I Put A Spell On You
27. The Avett Brothers – Murder in the City
28. Bon Iver – Lump Sum
29. Death Cab for Cutie – Marching Band of Manhattan
30. The Postal Service – The District Sleeps Alone Tonight

I told you I love me some Bon Iver.

The albums most represented in my listening habits in 2009:

1. Adele – 19
2. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
3. Bon Iver – Blood Bank
4. Kanye West – 808s & Heartbreak
5. Regina Spektor – Far
6. Death Cab for Cutie – Narrow Stairs
7. Paul Simon – Graceland
8. The Rolling Stones – Forty Licks (disc 1)
9. Death Cab for Cutie – Plans
10. The Avett Brothers – The Second Gleam
11. The Avett Brothers – Emotionalism
12. Regina Spektor – Begin to Hope
13. Buena Vista Social Club – Buena Vista Social Club At Carnegie Hall
14. Lucinda Williams – Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
15. Philip Glass – The Hours
16. Amy Winehouse – Back To Black
17. The Postal Service – Give Up
18. Michael Bacon – The Jewish Americans
19. Neko Case – Middle Cyclone (I find this one suspect since I really didn’t like this album)
20. Nina Simone – Bittersweet The Very Best of Nina Simone
21. Matisyahu – Youth
22. Michael Nyman – Gattaca
23. Indigo Girls – All That We Let In
24. John Mayer – Continuum
25. Jimmy Buffett – A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean
26. Fleetwood Mac – The Dance
27. Otis Redding – The Very Best of Otis Redding
28. Van Morrison – Astral Weeks
29. Shawn Colvin – These Four Walls
30. Nirvana – MTV Unplugged In New York

It’s interesting how important music is in my life. Looking at these tracks I think “yep, X was going on right then and I listened to that track over and over” or “That album was the only thing I could listen to and man it helped get me through.”

Music is a conduit to the past. Or maybe just Music is a conduit. Full Stop (just like Love. Is).

My Book of 2009

In personal on 27 December 2009 with 2 comments

It’s that time of year again where I go back through the notebook that has a month by month listing of things that happened in my life over the course of the year. Some of the things are silly, some of the things are monumental. Either way I really enjoy the exercise of keeping the list year round and reviewing it and deciding what I want to share with you here. Without further ado, my book of 2009, enjoy:

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

I’ll come back and edit December to account for the last week of December later. With the move coming up though I wanted to get the rest of the year down before I get too nuts trying to manage all the administrative stuff that comes with buying a house and moving.

Funny story or not, depending on your sense of humor.

In Judaism, personal on 26 December 2009 with no comments

I couldn’t make it to Shabbat services this morning so I went for services and Havdalah this evening. There was a couple there, a couple that I’d seen around shul a few times and around the neighborhood, they live one street over from our current house. Casually seeing them around wasn’t my first introduction to them. I “knew” them a lifetime ago.

One of the jobs I had in college was as a pharmacy tech. The pharmacy had one particularly crotchety customer who for whatever reason, was chatty with me. I don’t remember why we discussed his religion and that  of his wife but he told me that he was a Jew married to a non-Jewish woman but they were raising their son Jewish. I think he told me his wife was studying to convert but I’m not 100% sure on that memory.

I cannot recall how the conversation came up but one day, and this would have been 11 or 12 years ago, we spoke about my conversion. I’m pretty sure he’s the first person I ever mentioned, oh so casually, the possibility of converting to. I’m sure I said something like “if I was going to be religious I would want to convert to Judaism.” He quickly and firmly counseled me against it. The process was too long, being Jewish was too difficult, there’s no benefit in converting, etc, etc. I had long forgotten that conversation until tonight when I overheard a friend chatting with the couple about the wife’s recent conversion.

Clearly I must misremember her studying to convert all those years ago. Having been through the process, trust me, it doesn’t take 12 years. She mentioned to my friend the date she converted and I had a bad tv-movie-like flashback to her husband advising me not to even investigate the possibility of converting.

Perhaps he was just playing the traditional role of turning the potential convert away but there is something….I don’t know, ironic? funny? sad? about the fact that I didn’t think about conversion again for quite sometime after that conversation and yet I still converted before his wife took the big dunk. I’m not saying her path was wrong, far from it, I’m just wondering if my spiritual path would have been different if a conversation with a pharmacy customer ayears ago had gone a little bit differently.

No sense crying over 12 years of missed Shabbatot and holidays but reliving that brief moment in time certainly is a bit bittersweet.

In the less bitter and more sweet memory department I’ll mention that my rabbi and his wife were occasional customers in the drug store as well. They were both incredibly nice. The memory of that niceness stuck with me. So when I made the decision that I absolutely could not put off investigating conversion any longer the memory of that niceness is why he was the rabbi I chose to contact. And that was truly excellent decision on my part.

This Love Affair: Josh Rouse

In This Love Affair on 26 December 2009 with no comments

I had heard the track 100m Backstroke on MTV2. Do you remember what MTV2 was like when it first came out? It was basically like the digital music channels on cable are today. Music playing over stills and information about the artist. At least that’s how I remember it. It’s absolutely possible that I’m wrong but this is my story and I get to tell it how I remember it.

Sitting at my cheap ass computer desk from Target that was in the living room of our Woodbourne Avenue apartment I’d have MTV2 playing in the background. The MTV2 artist and track selection was sort of a precursor to KCRW’s Sounds Eclectic. They played artists I’d never heard before but having heard them once on MTV2 of course gave my self-given “serious music fan” title ever more credibility. Most tracks and artists just glossed over me. But one evening 100m Backstroke played and I stopped. Something in that song just touched me. The only way I can describe it is that it felt like a delicious scent smells. You walk in from a cold evening and the warmth of the house hits you and you are comforted but then the smell of something wonderful reaches you and a little hit of dopamine or whatever brain chemical it is gives you just a tiny little moment of euphoria.

That’s what 100m Backstroke was like.

A few weeks later we were spending the weekend in Nashville. When I was in college Nashville had two major attractions for me: The Connection, a massive gay club that all the baby dykes and pretty boys flocked to from our college town and Tower Records.

I spent Sunday afternoon going aisle by aisle by aisle of Tower Records. This was when CDs cost $17.99 and B and I were very poor college students. I knew I couldn’t buy more than one or two CDs and I already had way more than that in my hands when I stopped at the local artists endcap. Now in Nashville elevnty-two million country artists could be considered local artists. But this endcap was populated by artists who didn’t make the rounds on music row. Josh Rouse was one of those artists.

When I left Tower that day I had two CDs. Home by Josh Rouse and I’m pretty sure a Green Day CD that I listened to like 4 times before promptly forgetting about. I loved Home so intensely that I’ve purchased every single Josh Rouse record released since and got up to speed with the ones that came before.

Our relationship has been a solid one. With the exception of one album I’ve loved, not just liked, but loved every Josh Rouse record. And there are Josh Rouse songs that turn up year after year on my “Most Frequently Played” iTunes playlist.

If I were to make a Josh Rouse mixtape for you I’d warn you that it will be filled with the kind of sad bastard music I’m kind of infamous for loving. I’d warn you that there will be a few songs to break your heart and a couple that make you happy to be alive.

B isn’t really a fan of Josh Rouse, sometimes I’ll be listening to him and she’ll be all “What is this song even about?” and more often than not I’ll say “I don’t know and I don’t care.” And that’s the truth. I don’t care what it’s really about, I just care about the way it makes me feel. That’s what Josh Rouse does for me, he makes me feel.

Essential Josh Rouse Tracks
Winter in the Hamptons
Sad Eyes
Flair
The White Trash Period of My Life
100m Backstroke
Marvin Gaye
Quiet Town
Laughter
Under Cold Blue Stars
The Man Who

Hello WordPress

In Movable Type on 26 December 2009 with no comments

Consuming Louisville is not the only Michelle Jones blog getting a major update under the hood. I’m ditching Movable Type on every single site that I have. I’m using .htaccess to update feed links but I’m not sure it’s working so you may want to subscribe again.

This Love Affair: Jimmy Buffett

In art, personal on 23 December 2009 with no comments

I don’t remember which one of “the girls” introduced me to Jimmy Buffett but it was one of them.

The girls. That was us. Me, Amy, Bethany and Laurie. It was the four of us against the world in high school.

Those girls were some of the great loves of my life. The years of friendship spent with them still, to this day, hold great meaning for me even though the relationships have long since ended.
I think it was Laurie who loved Jimmy Buffett first. Her older brother was probably into him and it trickled down to us. The four of us listened to Buffett in our cars riding around in the country. Buffett music and R.E.M. blared from boomboxes as we splashed in my parents’ pool.

We all had Spanish classes together and we all knew that my dream job was to run a bar in Cuba, so Jimmy Buffett music was a natural fit.

When I graduated high school I only received one official “graduation present.” The girls had pooled their money and bought me the Jimmy Buffett box set, on cassette. I’ve since replaced it with the CD version and have it all digitized now of course but I kept those tapes for the longest time just to look at.

As a grown up I can look at Buffett music with a bit more of a critical eye. I can acknowledge that maybe, possibly he is not quite a lyrical genius. But he sums up living for the moment, choosing the kind of life you want to live and wrapping yourself up in a moment better than most.

And when I hear “Death of an Unpopular Poet” I get a little weepy. And when I hear “The Weather is Here” I think of how hysterically we laughed. And when I hear “Margaritaville” I remember countless Wednesday nights at Puero Vallarta when inevitably a frat boy would request Margaritaville from the mariachi band.

When I moved to Louisville with B my relationship with the girls was over, I just didn’t know it yet. As I tried to keep it alive and I as I mourned its death sitting on the front porch of our first Louisville apartment, sipping margaritas out of a plastic cup and listening to the Buffett box set reminded me that once, I loved those girls and those girls loved me like nothing else in this world.
When I saw Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood it broke my heart. Not only because “OMG such similar mother issues!” but because that should have been the four of us. We should have been snarky, semi-alcoholic old women together. Even though that will never come to pass Buffett music reminds me viscerally of when that lifelong relationship was still possible.

Ah, that’s it. Jimmy Buffett’s music is frothy and playful and fun and it reminds me of all life’s potential and possibilities. I like each new Buffett album less than I like the previous one but I can listen to any of the four discs from the box set and fall in love all over again. And as I get older “A Pirate Looks at Forty” gets me every single time. That is all.

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