I got my own iPod for Xmas, and I'm now back in a mode that for me, previously reached its zenith in around 1988, and then around 10 years later, two time periods in which I walked around the city glued to my Walkman. (Some Walkmen faves: Sweet Honey in the Rock, a Ray Charles/Betty Carter tape DeeDee lent me, The Rooks, The Roches Keep on Doing album and now on the iPod, Suzzy and Maggie's Zero Church). When I think about it, I tend to need portable music most when I'm getting adjusted to living in a new place or era (post-college life, the East Village, and NJ in my case) and the music seems to aid me in the adjustment as I travel around. At first with the iPod, I just listened to my own stuff that I had loaded in. It's also really helpful when recording, to listen to what we've tracked, and now with the Saturday Afternoon Song Swap, when I'm trying to figure out what to post on our MySpace page. But the most fun is discovering music and then instantly obtaining it, like the Duffy single "Mercy" (thanks, emscee). And then the other day, S. and I met for dinner at Soul Fixins, and as we ate our creamed spinach and baked chicken and the door kept flying open with the wind, which seemed to be spring trying to get in, we heard the Alicia Keys song "If I Ain't Got You" and it just put me in a great mood. On iTunes I found this beautiful version that's just her and the piano. And it sure brightens up the PATH train.