Dating of the Up

Or, rather, the down. For 'tis true, it appears that the pod is (whisper it)... dead. It's refusing to charge up at all, despite using nice new cables and the wall plug, rather than the computer.

I'm not hopeful.

It's been with me a long time, and has chartered the path from luddite to apple-loving woman. I feel more complete, now that I have it and cherish it.

Tragic.

UPDATE AT 4.20pm, FRIDAY 16TH: Apparently, just like with Frankenstein, it's ALIVE! Still, we're not out of the woods yet. At least party playlist formation can take place instead of work tomorrow...

In other news, I finally finished this book in time for bookclub this week. Random Family was a harrowing story of lives which, in comparison to my fairly regimented childhood, seem disordered, chaotic. I think it was troubling in other ways, though - as always where the author has shadowed "real people", I wonder how informed their consent to being depicted can actually be. On the other hand, how often would a girl like Coco be the major character in a book? This was telling the story of lives that would otherwise seem unremarkable, despite their poverty, trauma and drama. I suppose... in a way I'm uncomfortable that it takes a white person to draw attention to a Puerto Rican community. I'm not sure why - I suppose I wonder how much legitimacy or attention it would be given otherwise. I hope I'm wrong. I also find it interesting how she gained so much trust when she was clearly an outsider, and generally contact with outsiders did not go well. I'd really love to hear more from the author and, particularly, from her subjects, as to what they feel about the experience.

In more good news, finishing it means that I have started on my Dickens for this winter. It's also a book that needs to go into the HALL OF SHAME (Great Expectations). I'm going to start my Hall of Shame very soon. Which famous (nay, classic / indispensable) tracts have you never read and are ashamed to admit it? Which movies haven't you watched that you REALLY are embarrassed to say you haven't? Next post on this...

This week I passed through 5,000 songs on my last.fm listening. Unbelievable. My top ten artists is not ordered how I would have predicted, but according to that listening system, are:

1) Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
2) Underworld
3) Thievery Corporation
4) Jamie Lidell
5) John Legend
6) Radiohead
7) MC Solaar
8) Lupe Fiasco
9) The Future Sound of London
10) Zero 7

Weird indeed. Working on removing zero 7.

And in televisual news, I've decided that I do indeed like The Sopranos, having started watching it, finally (albeit it with horrendously offputting dubbing - I'm sure that Tony just said "Up yours" A&E - good work!) and it's excellent. Slightly alarmed by the (lack of) length of Dr. Melfi's skirts--they're great legs, must be said, but still... surprised--but other than that, it's grand. New addiction could be coming on: need to get netflix up and running...