If I Only Had An iPod...

Welcome to "if I only had an iPod…" an occasional series where visiting authors drop by the blog to test drive my iPod.

We don't need Fortune magazine to tell us we're living in an iPod nation. We know we can dress up our iPods, knit covers for them, load ‘em up with great poems, speeches, and rants, dock them in the bathroom, and even be ecologically responsible and recycle them at any nearby Apple store. At this point, even the Queen has joined the iPod revolution.

But where are you going to find out what your favorite authors are singing in the shower? Right here, on the Happy Booker. Only right here.

Today’s special guest DJ is San Francisco author Michelle Richmond. Richmond's books include the award-winning story collection The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress and the novel Dream of the Blue Room, just out in paperback.

Michelle takes time away from baby and touring to share some musical selections with us. A special note to those in the Bay area: You can catch Michelle tonight with Rachel Pastan reading at Diesel Books in Oakland, CA. Don’t miss it!

Guest DJ, Michelle Richmond

I never used to be able to listen to music while writing. I found the lyrics too interesting and therefore too distracting. I wrote my first two books to a soundtrack of waves (my Miami Beach apartment), car horns (my Upper West Side apartment), the N-Judah (my Castro apartment), and macaws (a studio in Costa Rica).

Then, six months ago, I had a baby. Oscar loves music--the louder the better. He also hates to be in a room alone. I'm currently editing my new novel, Ocean Beach, for publication, and the only way I can carve out a few minutes a day to work on it is to bring the baby into the home office with me and crank up the Music Match program on my desktop. Often I find myself typing with one hand while holding Oscar in my lap, bouncing my knee to the rhythm of his favorite songs:

1. Nick Cave, "Brompton Oratory" Nick Cave's "The Boatmen's Call" is a gorgeous, sad album. "Brompton Oratory" is probably my favorite song about Sunday church and oral sex, though not in that order.

2.Jem, "Wish I" Jem's disc, "Finally Woken," is the perfect summer album. I discovered it, along with everyone else, on one of my
favorite websites, www.kcrw.org. If you click on Morning Becomes Eclectic and root around for awhile, there's a great video of her recent in-studio performance.

3. Luna, "Superfreaky Memories" Guitar, bass, and drums, and for me, all of a sudden I'm back in 1999. "... it's winter in New Jersey, and Christmas in New York."

4. Badly Drawn Boy, "Another Devil Dies" Someday I hope to learn an instrument and start an all-girl Badly Drawn Boy tribute band. In my vision, we tour Japan and then conquer the world. This one is from his best and most recent disc, "One Plus One is One."

5. Athlete, "Wires" This is the newest single from the band's second disc. According to the British press, it has become something of a big hit, a love song complete with happy couples making out when it's played at the concerts, which is somewhat suprising considering that the lyrics are about a very ill infant in ICU. Then again, Ronald Reagan played "Born in the USA" during his 1984 reelection campaign, and many people still believe that "Puff the Magic Dragon" is a loveable cartoon animal. "Vehicles & Animals" is also worth finding.

6. The Beautiful South, "You're the One the I Want" This is from their recent covers disc. High school sex has never sounded more mature, melancholy, or desperate.

7. Kid Loco, "A Little Bit of Soul" Who doesn't like to dance?

8. Kings of Convenience, "Homesick" I've never been to Norway, though I like to think that it sounds something like this.

9. Belle & Sebastian, "Wrapped up in Books" Considering their band name comes from a French children's book, it's no surprise that Belle & Sebastian have a lot of great songs about reading and writing. Of course, this is the only one that comes complete with its own literature video game. Go to www.wrappedupinbooks.com to compete.

Happy Listening!

Comments

[Kevin Smokler]

that is the coolest list of music I've ever seen. God, I'm so unhip.

[Happy Booker]

Kevin, your unhip old-school list is welcome here. Send me a note! Wendi

[caroline Kettlewell]

Unhipper than thou, Kevin! I believe I have yet to recognize a single group or song in the entire HB "If only..." series. Dear me I have The Romantics, The Talking Heads--and, OK, I'm just going to say it right here and condemn myself to eternal unhipitude--portions of the soundtrack to the Lizzie Maguire movie on my I-pod.

[Happy Booker]

J'accuse!
If you're suffering from eternal uphipitude, then there is clearly no hope for me--thb

[Frances]

I'm glad someone else admits to never having heard a single one of those groups. I don't even have an iPod. I have to borrow my daughter's. But I didn't have to read Michelle's music list to know she was hip. She exudes it.

[Michelle]

Should I admit that I don't have an ipod either? I do at least have all my music on my computer--but I didn't even get it from Napster. I do it the old-fashioned way: frequent trips to Amoeba Records to buy actual discs, which I then download onto my computer.

And hey, don't knock the Talking Heads.

[Happy Booker]

So, how was the reading last night? Any readers from the Bay area care to comment? I am sure Michelle rocked the house.

[caroline Kettlewell]

Not knocking the Talking Heads (they're on my I-pod after all) so much as demonstrating the clear evidence that most of my taste in music seems to predate the introduction of the CD. I still have the record turntable I bought in 1978. And the records. (Fleetwood Mac, anyone?)

[Angelo Foti]

Amoeba Records is one of the best used CD stores in the U.S. If every city had one, things would be a lot better. I would consider moving to SF just to be able to get near a store like that.
--Angelo

[david]

Don't worry about being unhip, just enjoy the arts, people. Don't make me beat you with my Bananarama greatest hits album!

[Happy Booker]

Album? David, what's an album?