Consuming Music - Starbucks, Apple and Old Pasadena

AWFUL STARBUCKS MUSIC DRIVES ME TO IPOD

Over the years I've had surprisingly few issues with the music selection in my local Starbucks. Except at Christmas time, of course. Here's an early MM post about that. And another. And here's my own vaguely Christmas-related music.

Recently, however, there seems to be a New Starbucks Music Selection Policy. This began about the time they played one perfectly execrable Paul McCartney album and nothing else for an entire day, Instead of playing a different artist every song for a period of time (usually in related genres) they now play a few songs by one artist in a fixed sequence. And they play the sequence over and over.

Guess what! Those very songs are on albums for sale right there in Starbucks- what a surprise! Starbucks has to make a buck.


One artist in current rotation is Willie Nelson - never one of my faves - but I can tolerate a few tracks every year or so. After several dozen hearings in just weeks I made up my mind to get an iPod of my own. I borrowed Leslie's for a few days to test the idea. I settled on a 8-gig Nano. I'm not an early adopter of tech items but iPod is entrenched enough for even non-trendy people like me.


BUYING AN IPOD in OLD PASADENA

On Monday I set out for the official Apple Store in the trendy part of town, OLD PASADENA (usually referred to by us locals as OLD TOWN).


Any capitalist would regard Old Town as a huge success. Years ago it was:

• dilapidated old buildings,
• interesting funky shops,
• cheap restaurants,
• too few parking places
  
• plus a pawn shop and an adult bookstore.

Now it has become

• elegantly refurbished old buildings,
  
• expensive, upscale shops (Tiffanys is the highest note on the scale at the moment),
• countless trendy restaurants (mostly Italian),
• too few parking places
  
• plus a pawn shop and an adult bookstore.

(Why the pawn shop and adult bookstore have survived while most other businesses have moved out is something I don't understand.)


A few doors down from Tiffany's the Apple Store was a-hoppin' on a Monday morning. There was a line at the counter and activity everywhere in the store. Of course there was a "how to use your iPhone" class in the back.

When I got to the front of the line I told the chipper young lady that I wanted an 8-gig Nano. I handed over my card, told her I preferred a red one and a paper, not email, receipt. She simply reached under the counter and produced my iPod. I declined the shopping bag because I could put the whole Nano box in my pocket. I was back on the street in minutes.


I walked to the Old Town Starbucks (the one which does not provide a rest room for customers because of, they say, historic preservation laws). My Starbucks purchase took longer and required me to answer more questions than I had encountered at Apple. But otherwise it was pretty much the same. The clerk was even happier and more upbeat.

The two purchases seemed identical in style and format even though I spent almost exactly 100 times more at Apple than at Starbucks.

I left Old Town in a sullen mood, feeling slightly dirty for doing my patriotic consumerist duty and running the corporate gauntlet. That's also sort of the same way I feel at Disneyland.

Once I was driving past auto repair garages and little shops and churches I've never been been inside of and never will, I relaxed.


POSITIVE REACTIONS TO THE IPOD and HOPES FOR THE FUTURE

As a PC user I find any product that's both elegant and functional seems quite novel. The iPod box boasts "Designed by Apple in California". I hope the design team got extra cookies. And it's so small, easy to use and sounds good. It has reinforced my hope that my next new computer will be a Mac.

The box also says "Like a fine pair of jeans, iPod nano colors may vary and change over time." So my red iPod is going to fade? Would it help if I wash it only in cold water?


Initially I picked a couple dozen favorites albums, ones I'm sure I'll enjoy repeatedly, to load into it. I'll use this music to adjust to using my new device. These albums take about one fifth of total memory. The remaining space will be for unfamiliar music.

There is an awful lot of different music out there which I haven't heard yet. I'm still curious about a huge percentage of it.

And I have Willie Nelson and some corporate music flack at Starbucks to thank for this. But I won't be buying albums at Starbucks, of course, and I probably won't be buying mp3s at iTunes. I can only survive so much of that dirty "good Consumer" feeling.


THE INITIAL FAVORITE ALBUM LIST

At the beginning of Mixed Meters I started a list of "David's Favorite Music" - there are still only two entries - Karnak and Mingus. Hopefully this iPod will prompt me to expand that list. The order of these albums means something - not sure what - but something.

1. Astor Piazzolla - La Camorra
2. Karnak - Os Piratas Do Karnak (both discs)
3. Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um (original release)
4. J.S. Bach - The Goldberg Variations - Glenn Gould (1981)
5. Cicala Mvta - Ohkuma Wataru Unit - Deko boko
6. Raymond Scott - The Music of Raymond Scott
7. Frank Zappa - Studio Tan
8. Bonzo Dog Band - The Bestiality of Bonzo Dog Band
9. J.S. Bach/William Malloch - The Art of Fuguing
10. D.J. Shadow - The Private Press
11. Astor Piazzolla - Piazzolla Forever - Richard Galliano Septet
12. Domenico Scarlatti - Sonatas - Scott Ross (first 2 discs)
13. John Kirby - John Kirby
14. Spike Jones - Cocktails for Two
15. Gotan Project - La Revancha Del Tango
16. Albita - No Se Parece a Nada
17. Gloria Estefan - Mi Tierra
18. Ludwig van Beethoven/Uri Caine - Diabelli Variations
19. W.A. Mozart/various - Mozart in Egypt
20. Big J McNeeley - Big Jay in 3-D
21. Joe Newman/Rudy Schwartz Project - Don't Get Charred... Get Puffy
22. Joe Newman/Rudy Schwartz Project - Gunther Packs a Stiffy
23. Asleep at the Wheel - Greatest Hits
24. Leonard Bernstein - On the Town (selections & 3 Dance Episodes)

StarPod Pasadena Tags: iPod. . . Starbucks. . . Old Pasadena. . . consumerism. . . favorite music

Except for the stack of compact discs and Chowderhead with the iPod and coffee, all pictures were taken somewhere in Old Pasadena. Click to enlarge.