The Alphabetical iPod Shuffle

Above is Command Central: the computer on full throttle, with iPod and camera plugged into bunk-bed style USB ports on the left, and the DSL cable near the screen; on the right, a headset for Skype phonecalls with a microphone and earphones, and the DVD player with Hitchcock's North by Northwest exposed. Behind the iPod you can see Iron and Silk, a movie about a young man who goes to China in the mid-1980s to teach English and learn martial arts.

Before I left my husband Gary got me an iPod as an early birthday present. Gary loves to give people presents, and thinks hard about what he gives them, trying to find just the perfect thing for his family members, whether or not they know that’s what they want. (He told me it was something I needed and I thought: No! Not a raincoat! I don't want a raincoat! ) But it was an iPod. It's a great present, and my son Garrett, who is 21, loaded it with all sorts of things he thought I would like: Sufjan Stevens, Coldplay, Randy Newman, Radiohead. Like a kid in a candy store, I fed it with my favorite CDs: Buena Vista Social Club, Ibrahim Ferrer, Ozzie Kotani, Gabby Pahinui, Patsy Cline, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, the Beatles, Frank Sinatra. I hadn’t listened to an iPod before that and was blown away by the way it fills your head with sound. I really have no idea what I’m doing, so sometimes I just listen to songs in alphabetical order: the alphabet shuffle. It seems to work just fine. So, kids, I'm finally in the 21st century. It sounds great!

Some Alphabetical C’s:

Can’t Buy Me Love (Beatles – Anthology I, Disc I)
Candela (Buena Vista Social Club – Buena Vista Social Club)
Carinhoso (Yo Yo Ma – Obrigado Brasil)
Carolina in my Mind (James Taylor – Greatest Hits)
Caroline, No (The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds)
Carry On (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Crosby Stills & Nash, Disc 1)
Carry that Weight (Beatles – Abbey Road)
Casimir Pulaski Day (Sufjan Stevens – Illinois)
Cause a Rockslide (Badly Drawn Boy – The Hour of the Bewilderbeast)
Cecelia (Paul Simon – Bridge Over Troubled Waters)
Change Partners (Steven Stills – Crosby, Stills & Nash, Disc 2)
Chan Chan (Buena Vista Social Club – Buena Vista Social Club)
Chicago (Sufjan Stevens – Illinois)
Child is Father of the Man (Brian Wilson - SMiLE)
China (Tori Amos – Little Earthquakes)
Cienfuegos Tiene Su Guaguanco (Ibrahim Ferrer –
Buena Vista Social Club Presents Ibrahim Ferrer)
Clocks (Coldplay – A Rush of Blood to the Head)
Come Fly with Me (Frank Sinatra – Frank Sinatra: The Best of the Capitol Years)