1. My nephew was just at a birthday party for a 7 year old. One of the birthday boy’s presents was an iPod. After opening it, he proceeded to spend the rest of the party walking around with the earbuds in, jamming to some pre-programmed Michael Jackson while all the kids he’d invited played around in the yard.
2. In NYC recently, I couldn’t believe how many people on the streets and on the subway wore headphones or earbuds. It’s like they were tuned in to some new sonic phenomenon, something post-music. Whatever it was they were hearing, they all looked so serious, stylish, eerily detached. You could sense glimmers of the urge to sing out, dance, flex, cry pinned down by the gravity of self-consciousness. Not that anyone needs Rent on the subway, but being amongst the Earbud Army felt like eavesdropping on a therapy session for zombies.
3. Riding through Harlem on the bus I saw this over and over: parents wearing headphones or earbuds as they toted around their children.
4. CW is that the average iPod owner has purchased only 22 songs. This comes from Apple CEO Steve Jobs deconstructing DRM in 2007. Now, of course, it’s all DRM-free. Would love to see an updated average-purchase figure…
