Now that I've finished Harry Potter, I'm happy to report that no one ruined the end for me, and I promise to say no more about it here myself.
So what's on my mind these days now that my nose is out of that monster book? IPods. I recently did an interview on iPod etiquette for the AP, which was picked up by, among others, CNN. The basic question at stake was what to do if someone has their iPod volume up so high you and the whole subway car can hear it. And for more on iPod etiquette, check out this hilarious (and scarily accurate) breakdown of iPod earbud etiquette that New York Magazine did last summer (scroll down a little). Love it!
But even better than dos and don'ts is a nice little iPod fairy tale I got to take part in recently. For ages now the battery on my 2004 pink mini (the first pink, the good pink) had all but completely lost its ability to hold a charge. Maybe a half hour. The poor little thing was all scratched, the glass on the screen cracked from a rough stop on the DC metro. I couldn't fix that, but it was time to deal with the battery. So I finally bit the bullet and took it in to the local Apple tech shop, Small Dog Electronics. They swapped out my battery in about twenty minutes, but as I got in my car, all excited like a kid at Christmas, the fly wheel wouldn't work. At all. I brought it right back, and asked super nicely what might be wrong. They now needed to replace the whole flywheel. I was a little worried about the price tag, but after assuring me checking that it wouldn't cost me an arm and a leg--in fact, it would cost me nothing at all as it was their bad--I agreed to part ways my iPod.
A week later, when I went in to pick it up, I beamed happily as the flywheel clicked away. Then my face fell. The wrong iPod! This one was far too nice, no scratches, no cracked glass. I turned back to the counter in dismay, not wanted to bring these nice guys another problem, but there was no help for it; it wasn't mine. Now, these guys are super nice on a good day, and I was in for a treat. They had replaced the glass and body (same old-school pink and everything) free of charge, in addition to the flywheel. The Apple gods were smiling down upon me! Praises be! And thanks be to the guys at Small Dog. They've got themselves a happy customer forever after, the end.
So what's playing on my brand-spanking-new (looking) iPod as I write this? A huge mix of Thievery Corporation, one of my absolute favorites.
They're based out DC, where I lived for five years. I was lucky enough to catch the final show of their world tour two summers ago in DC. They pulled out all the stops for their hometown, and it's still in my top five concerts of all time. Not familiar with them? Start with Lebanese Blond, made famous on the Garden State soundtrack.
