Doin’ the iPod Shuffle
I recently got hold of an iPod Shuffle for free (no it wasn’t a Christmas present, it was a Tesco DVD Rental promotion, 3 months and you get a free 1Gb Shuffle, so technically not really free) with the idea of using it for my walk to work in place of my aging and rather bulky (by today’s standards) iRiver 40Gb player.
Getting the thing working with Vista wasn’t my idea of fun, plug-and-play it ain’t. I was torn between putting it on eBay or getting a hammer and smashing the little bastard to pieces. Instead I persevered, and after, much googleing and several false hopes, managed to get it working. I’m glad I did as it’s a pretty cool little gadget.
Now for a little background info. Prior to Christmas, in fact for the past couple of months, I’ve had a problem with my feet (the left one in particular). Having seen the doctor I was told there were four possible courses of action - a) avoid whatever aggravates it (working in retail and being on my feet all day this was a no go) b) take anti-inflammatory tablets (this seemed to do the trick) c) steroid injections (this didn’t sound like fun) d) an operation (this sounded even less like fun). While the tablets worked the thought of taking them for the rest of my life was less than appealing but this was the impression I was given by the doctor who told me I didn’t need to make another appointment when they ran out, just phone and ask for a repeat prescription.
But, thought I, if I don’t stop taking them how do I know the problem is still there? So with New Year approaching I decided to get off the pills and get back to walking. Walking to work was something I’d been doing for several months and the pain had only got really bad when I stopped and got the bus (caused by a few weeks of crappy weather). I’d told the doctor that I though walking might actually be good for it (surely it was working the tendons in a similar way to the stretching exercises I’d been told to try?) but the doc poo-pooed this saying it was probably a delayed reaction.
Anyway I stopped taking the pills on January 1st and so far the pain is no worse than it was when I was on them (it was always there, just much less pronounced). So today it was time to give the Shuffle a work out, and hope that shuffling wasn’t what I’d end up doing.
I let iTunes autofill the player and here is what it gave me for my journey -
There:
- “Shame on the Moon” - Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band (I’d forgotten what a great song this is!)
- “Fortunate Son” (Live) - John Fogerty
- “Dusty” - Kings of Leon (One of my favourite new(ish) bands)
- “Pretoria” - Little Steven £ the Disciples of Soul (Silvio Dante gets a bit political)
- “Jim, I Wore a Tie Today” - Johnny Cash
- “The Risk” - Warren Zevon
- “The Thrill is Gone “ - Dishwalla (Great song from the soundtrack to a great film - Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead)
- “Death of a Train” - Daniel Lanois (I’ve not played Lanois second album for ages but I really enjoyed this so maybe it’s time for a revisit)
- “Wreck of the Old 97” (Live) - Johnny Cash
And back again:
- “What Is and What Should Never Be” (Live BBC Session) - Led Zeppelin
- “Dazed and Confused/Walter’s Walk/The Crunge” (Live) - Led Zeppelin (At a mammoth 25 minutes this got me most of the way home)
- “Don’t Look Now” - Creedence Clearwater Revival
- “State Trooper” - Bruce Springsteen
- “Oxygene 9” - Jean-Michel Jarre (Definitely the odd one out of this list)
- “Big River” (Live) - Johnny Cash
- “Baker’s Song” - Burning Tree (They only made one album but at least it was a great one)
- “Paper Doll” - Fleetwood Mac
It seems the Shuffle has a liking for the late great Mr Cash (I’ve got a fair bit of Cash but nowhere near as much as other artists), which of course means it has great taste.
Not sure if this’ll be a one off or a regular series, maybe I’ll let my feet decide.
