I’m now officially counting down the “how-long-can-he-go-until-he-succombs- to-iphonia”. This is day one. I think I can wait about 21 days, which is probably long enough for Rogers to have enough black iPhones in stock again.
A nice illustration of my general feeling right now can be summed up by the photo illustration found on a post at Gizmodo’s yesterday, called 10 Ways to Escape From the iPhone Madness.
What do I like about the iPhone, or at least the idea of the iPhone? I currently don’t own a cell phone. This is an admission on the highest order of admissions, kind of like saying you don’t like to drink alcohol. I currently don’t drink alcohol.
No, what I like most about the iPhone is its design, its construction, its iconography, and the ability to watch a movie, any time, in your hand. But what I think I love about the iPhone are the new applications that are coming out fast and furious that are associated with the phone. These tiny programs, built by some of the most interesting design and development firms in the industry, are what is going to make the iPhone a powerful tool; further, my bet is that the iPhone’s acquisition rate is going to be driven, over the next few years and if we don’t go into a deep financial Depression, by these apps, which allow you to do everything from write on Facebook to calculate tips at restaurants and keep to do lists about the applications you’d like to buy for your iPhone.
These apps can currently be purchased on iTunes and they’re cheap, ranging in price from free to $30.00. I don’t see any reason not to be a Mac developer these days.
The countdown has begun. And, as exciting as it is, it’s also embarrassing.
Monthly Archives: July 2008
Request.
It’s been requested that I don’t entirely kill this weblog. So, I’m going to start writing again.
Here’s what I’m going to say today.
First, I didn’t realize that the reason I so much love Elliott Smith and Matthew Sweet and Yoni Wolf (of Why?) and other male artists with sad, ridiculously beautiful vocal chords is because I listened to way too much Alex Chilton and Big Star when I was a teenager. I had no idea how influential he was, despite my reading about his influence for the past 25 years, on both the artists I admire and my internal musical chemistry.
I blame, in the very best of ways, my old friend, V.S., who sent me some Big Star stuff, I believe about a year ago, and which I quickly shelved. I thought I knew that stuff and I guess I don’t or didn’t.
I’m now listening to Third – Sister Lovers, which iTunes calls, quite accurately in turns out, a “shambling wreck of an album.” Every word is true – the album reeks of jealousy, petty madness, total frustration, and utter longing for some place that doesn’t exist. I remember first listening to his “Holocaust,” the seventh song on Sister Lovers, and how grotesquely adequate I felt that description was back at 15 for almost everything. Amazing to realize those cassette tape blues again.
The album really falls apart at the end.