Ode to My Ipod
May 8, 2008As soon as I step out of the front door of my apartment and lock the door, my other hand is already plugging my ipod earphones in, with my 30 gb or nano ipod tucked into the inside pocked of my carry on. Without my dear ipod, living in the wonderful, but hectic sensory-overload of New York City would be a different experience altogether. New York is a serious walking town. And I am walking usually over an hour, at least, every single day across Manhattan, not counting subway transit.
Of course, there are times when I want to hear what’s going on in the hum of the streets, listen to the musicians on the corner, or hear people laughing or talking to their dogs in the park. But with my ipod, how else could I best tune out the creepy construction workers/packs of men that I unfortunately pass every day, yelling profanities and lewd comments at me in English, Spanish, African tongues, or Arabic? Or how better to politely weave around the aggressive “Greenpeace” or “Save the Children” troops in the street looking to sign me up for monthly donations. “Oh sorry!” I smile,” I can’t hear you!”- as the obvious dangling cord of my earphones attests to. I know they are great organizations, but it seems a bit disconcerting to hand all my credit card and personal info to a 22-year old that I’ve never met in Union Square!!
Best of all, when I have long subway commutes for a meeting all the way uptown or far East in midtown, and am stuck standing with all other people rushing somewhere and looking stressed, or bored, or worse, eating fast-food, whose sickening smell reverberates in the trapped energy of the subway cars, I cling to the pole in the middle of the car, doing my best to stay steady, and having my own great music makes the time go by waaay faster. There are inevitably crazies everywhere on the subway platforms, ranting and raving and grumbling about how “y’awll suck”. Even though I may use the time to read, playing calming music on my ipod still helps me tune out all the, um, outside noise. And there are times when I need to be excited, enthusiastic for a meeting, even when I’m a bit tired, and I’ll play an upbeat song on my ipod right until I step off the elevator, feeling that vibe as I walk into my meeting.
So, altogether, ipod, this Manhattanite thanks you so much for being born, for coming into my life. You are truly my favorite piece of technology.
So true, I’m in a stage of my life where I find myself looking really hard for tranquility, and it’s hard in NYC, specially when I have to commute in every day. A friend recently gave me a CD of the music they play in his yoga class and I quickly realized it was the same CD you play in your class. I never felt comfortable asking you who it was, but really wanted it because it calmed me down (btw, my wife tells me the singer cannot be Indian because of his accent…but who cares). Music had never done that to me but that is probably a result of my taste in it. Anyway, I was heading to Prince Street, in my car, from Lincoln Center and got caught in extreme NYC Herald Square and later Holland Tunnel build up traffic (yeah, I should have turned on Bleeker!). This is where I typically come close to losing it, But not that time…with the yoga music blasting on my awesome car stereo everything was drowned out and I didn’t mind being in Mumbai like traffic for well over an hour. Unfortunately it doesn’t work everytime, but when it does, it helps. Best thing about my IPod, besides not needing to run with a portable CD player anymore, is the “shuffle” option when I hook the IPod in directly to my car stereo. 3-5 hours in the car a day go by easier when the IPod is there to amuse you.
Namaste! Of course you can always ask me about the music I play in class. Lots of people do. My favorite artist is Krishna Das. He comes from such a sincere place in his chanting that the vibration of his music is very high. He is chanting powerful mantras, (such as Sita-Ram, Om Namah Shivaya, etc.) that can change and uplift our own vibration, since sound has that power- why so many yogis chant and recite mantras. And why the vibration of OM is so powerful.
Seeing him live is amazing, and if you want to find out where he is playing in NY when he comes you can sign up online for his list, at krishnadas.com (i think, or google his name). I also like Bhagavan Das, if you want to check out more yoga music.
Thanks, I’ll check it out.
Not good for yoga (at least I don’t think so), but this is our favorite mantra, the Gayatri Mantra. My daughter sang this word for word when she was 5 and she speaks no Hindi. It’s really nice, check it out.
http://download.yousendit.com/3AB885865CAEC56D