My earliest memories of listening to a record was on an 8-track tape. You could click between the 4 channels of the narrow band of magnetic tape and take it with you on the road encased in a plastic package. I’m sure back in the 70s there was still some serious thought going on about how to take a vinyl LP with you to the car dashboard. Imagine trying to flip to the B side on the freeway without wrecking your needle or your car. I am not doing much better now dialing in my playlist whims with my iPod. I won’t be surprised to see a factoid statistic roll across the bottom of Headline News of traffic fatalities directly related to motorists distinguishing between Radiohead and REO Speedwagon on their iPods.
Sitting in a perfectly safe and controlled environment it works out great to spin the wheel on the front of the sleek white/black iPod. Other than the fact that I had to ask for help on how to turn the device off, it was entirely intuitive on how to navigate through the options and settings to drill down to specific tracks. Click, click, spin, spin, click and I’m in. Having my entire collection of CDs with me, which would normally fill up an awkward amount of space on road trips, now amounts to a pack of cards in my pocket. I love being able to dial up the most obscure and random tracks to match my mood, but I’m having an awful time making a decent connection to my car stereo and performing the safety equivalent of leaving the wheel, climbing in the back seat and taking a nap when I just want to switch out to a different album.
Most car stereos are still stuck in the whole idea of plugging a cassette or CD into the dash. That method has great merit to me still because when I still lug around the suitcase full of CDs it’s pretty handy for me to feel my way through my collection and pick out just what I wanted without taking my eyes off the road. I make good use of the Dewey Decimal system and I can practically read the print on the plastic disks via Braille. With CDs I also don’t feel guilty skipping through tracks without messing with the iTunes play count mechanics. As far as passing the digital signal to the analog stereo speakers I have to get by on the hissing, buzzing FM transmitter. Digital audio never sounded so much like those washed out cassette tapes I used to play in the tape deck. Apparently I have to buy a BMW Z4 if I want to have an integrated iPod in the car stereo. For that much money I hope it comes with a live co-pilot to flip through the iPod menus at my command.