Friday, October 19, 2007

I Heart Pandora. And her box. (dirty!)

Have you guys tried this? Pandora Radio? I’m probably the last person in all the world to have discovered this, but I heart it so. It’s seldom that I read something in a geek magazine and think “Amen my brothers!!” but the recent Wired release of a Geekapedia waxed poetic (or I should probably say “waxed nerdetic”) about how much better Pandora Radio was then any of the other online “we know what you want to hear and play it for you as if we are magically living in your spleen (which is the organ where you keep your musical desires)” radio stations. And amen my geeky, nerdy, tech-obsessed brothers!

I have three stations created so far. One is all about female singers who wail about unrequited love or lost love or unhealthy love or the love of a woman and her motorbike, and all in haunting, minor keys. The second is drum-heavy, bass-heavy jams with nods to the rock-gods of the very late ‘70s or early ‘80s and plays “Canary in a Coal Mine” at least twice a day because it psychically knows that I want to hear it three times a day but that would be indulgent and it cares about my wellbeing. I just set up the third station and today will be it’s big test. But how could my beloved Pandora do wrong by me? I believe it can’t.

Why all this obsession about music? My boss is out of the office today.

(No, it does make sense. Just go with me…)

See, if I were to be promoted and get a fancy job with a fancy title and business cards and MY OWN OFFICE there’s one big thing I would love more then anything else. (except maybe the raise.) If I had my own office I could have music while I worked. In this new situation I’m sitting with a bunch of other people and so I can’t listen to music. And it’s the first job in years, probably since high school, where I can’t listen to music as I work. I’m pretty sure it’s going to kill me or drive me mad.

If I don’t have music playing in my head I still have music in my head. But instead of being a jazzy tune created by tunefull people it’s a small chunk of 1-3 totally different songs that has been lumped together in my sad, tuneless brain into a loop that will never… ever… end. Or sometimes it’s not even music! I actually get phrases stuck in my head. Not musical phrases, but just words. Like quotes from a movie? I have the ability to get “Why would you lock me in? And why are you getting calls from J. Edgar Hoover?” (points for knowing the movie) stuck in a non-stop loop in my brain. (all of this has got to make my obvious insanity much more understandable.)

The only exception are the days like today where my boss is out of the office, so it’s “catch up” day, and when you’re doing catch-up work then wearing headphones on one ear and filling the brain with Pandora-tunes just makes sense! If my day goes as planned I’ll get so much work done PLUS I won’t be any more crazy when I leave today then I was when I arrived! (a small triumph, I realize, but still.)

So here I sit, with my new Pandora station crooning piano-heavy pantheons to girls who steal your black t-shirts and dudes who don’t cut their hair. Rock me, Pandora. Rock me with your psychic play list.

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