Day: November 13, 2003

iTunes and Playlistism

Hysterical article in the Wesleyan Argus, pointed to by Wired, about how sharing one’s iTunes playlists sometimes reveals more about oneself than one intends—and can either lead others to idolize or ostracize you. It’s called playlistism. And it’s almost certainly for real.

At work, I had to change the default name on my iTunes shared music (the name defaults to your computer name, which defaults to my email address) because I was getting too much grief about even using iTunes—this on the first day it was out, when one could be forgiven for experimenting. So I changed the name to “The Boney King of Nowhere.” Now I find I have random people tuned in from time to time. Have I become a recipient of reverse playlistism? Am I now some kind of pirate radio station?

Moxie’s Jeremiad

Moxie nails a theme that I’ve been thinking about since the fires in Southern California last month: that disasters are waiting in the wings like process servers to hit California. In her “next up for the golden state? earthquakes,” she points out, “Late fall heatwaves, fires, famine, no public transit, floods, hail, thunder and lightning storms? All in less than one month. It would seem the gods are unhappy with Los Angeles.”

Moxie lays the blame on NBC, “Gigli,” “Love, Actually,” and Paris Hilton’s video. Me? I think it’s interesting that this all started after the recall election. But it’s a good thing there aren’t volcanoes in SoCal, and it never ever snows.