Leave the iPod at home

[Roger]

Less is more!

Spring has returned. Waking to the sounds of ever more species of birds as the frost-line makes its seasonal ascends up northerly parallels I am reminded again of my love of acoustics. The world has a natural soundtrack that through mobile electronics is in jeopardy of being forgotten. With spring come ads for outdoor speakers and ever more things that want to hook up to your iPod. Products like iFusion make a convenient way to carry around a complete portable speaker system to let others hear your music when you're outdoors.

Music has become completely ubiquitous but that's not necessarily such a good thing. Almost everywhere we go we can have music, restaurants and cafés even outdoor patios have others people's selections or we can simply nullify the music of others with familiar white ear-buds. Now that wireless outdoor speakers and products like iFusion are becoming cheaper and more popular the suburban backyard can have a permanent soundtrack.

I found the problem with music's new found ubiquity extreme is it cheapens the experience of music listening. When taking a walk with the iPod is a little too close to sitting in the living-room and really listening. It becomes a cheap imitation of something we should take pleasure in.

To illustrate the problem with music's ubiquity I point to another medium of art, film. One thing I lament in Hollywood fare is the lack of simple real-life moments that seem more common in foreign film. Take for instance the many scenes in "Schultze Gets the Blues", the film about the accordion playing German retiree that takes up Cajun Zydeco. The music would lose its charm without its indulgence in pauses while nothing but natural and mundane sounds fill the air. Sergio Leone is a film director that knew how to use natural, mundane sounds for dramatic enhancement. Early in the film Once Upon A Time in the West we're treated to a cacophony of sounds produced by the wind, they portrait a sense of boredom which builds slowly into tension.

To sharpen your appreciate music listening, be sure and take pauses. Leave the iPod at home and indulge in the natural sounds all around you.

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