Once upon a time I Djed a Christian skate night at the local Rolladium. I know, I know, it doesn’t get much cooler than spending your Saturday night going in circles in a roller rink still trying to overcome its 1970s remodeling. Of course spinning hits from dc Talk, Audio Adrenaline, Petra, the Newsboys and Carman certainly ups the hip factor.

Why on earth anyone would want to compound the problem of adolescent awkwardness by strapping eight wheels to their feet is beyond me, but for some reason I did it.

Every weekend my friend Adam and I would leave harassing messages on fellow youth group members’ answering machines (nobody had voice mail in the early 1990s), insisting they come to the Rolladium on M-59 from 6:30-9:00 for Christian skate night. On more than one occasion we would describe the music as “studly,” our preferred term for just about anything.

Continue reading iPod: DJ in Your Pocket →

Mark Graalman, drummer for Sanctus Real, on the iPod:

“I love it. We actually use it live on stage. A lot of the songs on the new record, some of them have loops and some tracks and all that kind of stuff. So we run a click track out the left channel on every song so we keep our tempo real solid. Some of the songs have tracks and loops we run out the right side and that comes out the house speakers. We just plug the iPod straight into the sound system and into our monitors.

“It makes my job as a drummer a little tougher: if I get off, then everybody’s going to know.”

I interviewed Graalman using an iPod equipped with the iTalk voice recorder. Forget shuffling tapes or minidiscs — keep all your interviews on one iPod, easily backed up to your computer. Now journalists can be cool, too.

I think Radio Shack is beginning to live up to its name: a shanty for old technology.

OK, I’m really just riffing on an annoying in-store experience I had. I needed to get splitter for my cable so the one cord could go to my TV and my cable modem. They had plenty of splitters, but apparently they didn’t carry the kind that could handle the Internet. When I asked where to get one, the sales associate directed me to my cable company, which would charge me $50 for the splitter.

Dejected and annoyed, I wandered into CompUSA for another errand. On a whim I asked a sales guy about the splitter. He directed me to the TV section and pulled out the one I needed, priced the same as the ones Radio Shack had but supposedly wouldn’t work. Incredulous I asked the guy if would work for my Internet connection. He said he has six of them in his house and his cable TV and Internet work fine.

Smiling, I decided not to visit Radio Shack again.

With iPods and MP3 players audio is no longer limited to a CD collection or tethered to a desktop computer. Sermons, speeches and books are spreading in popularity. Both the Democratic and Republican National Convention speeches are available for free on iTunes (George W. Bush, John Kerry and many more). Telltale Weekly offers free and dirt cheap audio downloads, including John F. Kennedy’s 1961 inaugural address for free and Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural addresses for 25 cents or $1.

Forget the abomination that is the Arby’s Oven Mitt on the TV (and the new iMac for that matter), check out my new laptop. I’m surfin’ the web and watchin’ TV. I’m reaching new levels of dorkiness right before your eyes!

Yep, we picked up a 12 inch Powerbook G4 the other day. As well as some goodies to enable wireless Internet surfing (and the playing of iTunes on our stereo). As well as a snazzy little iPod, with iTalk so I can use it for interviews (I used it Friday, worked great). This is one giant leap for geek-kind.

With Abby being in grad school and our fritzy PC gathering dust in the basement (I think I hear eBay calling), we were fighting over the computer more and more and it made sense to make the laptop leap. The iPod, well that’s a toy. But I do use it for interviews (so much better than a tape player!) and we saved a bunch by getting the two together. So we’ll be eating peanut butter and jelly for a while and I’m on massive eBay mode. But I can eBay from the couch!

And I have to say, the experience of walking into an Apple store and walking out with all our techno-goods was amazing. I think I had to disengage the financial side of my brain, but the instant gratification side was loving it.

The new iMac G5 was announced today, and since some people have decided to remain tight lipped about all things Apple, I will take up the clarion call of irritability. How cool is this thing? It’s like a flat screen hiding a computer! My old PC had a giant monitor and a big burly CPU which was too wide for most desks designed to hold CPUs. Now Apple takes the leap forward with flat screen technology and puts it all in one thin package. Beautiful.

If I wasn’t so happy with my current setup I’d want one of these. What especially amazes me is Apple’s continuing ability to create products worth lusting over. Their laptops have been selling like crazy (see the series of mostly redundant articles by Business Week), and I can imagine this new iMac will do pretty well. Though as small as the iMac is getting, I do wonder if people will just opt for a laptop instead. But I do love the image of a college freshman hauling the tiny iMac around! I had to haul two huge boxes when traveling with my PC.