My resolution to listen to All Things Considered lasted through today's Donald Fehr interview, when he noted that yesterday, George Mitchell said in Congress the player's union wasn't cooperative, but in December when his report was released, Mitchell said then they weren't cooperative "but he added that he wouldn't have expected us to be cooperative." Congratulations, Don, you're the owner of the world's thinnest argument!

Anyway, I spent the rest of the commute listening to Springsteen's Magic, which I'm liking more and more. What I need to do with albums is do what I did 25 or 30 years ago -- listen to the eight or ten times over a couple of weeks to really get the nuances. This has good and bad points (such as my lingering ability to sing along with every song on Bob Welch's French Kiss, but it's a great way to learn an album.

I was wondering why I don't listen to much current music anymore. One reason is I can't pick up FM radio any more in the office (not that many FM stations play current music either). But I realized we tend to stick with the same artists we loved when we were in high school and college, and most of them fade away.

So I checked. Here are some artists from 1979 (I have at least one album by all of them) and what they're doing today:
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And this is just from birth through high school (if I can get this link to work right, that is:)

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Karen, who was originally dubious about this post, proofread the list above and heartily approved. We'll see if she feels the same about the next 100, when she enters the picture.

Relatively uneventful day. Bought my fifth CD Walkman in the last two years:

#1: Panasonic
Reason for Purchase: I wanted a Walkman that played CDs
Price: $89.99
Radio Included?: Yes
Quality: outstanding
Reason I'm No Longer Using It: Got caught in an unbelievable rainstorm with it. It was in my briefcase, but that didn't protect it enough from getting soaked.
Current Status: in a landfill, after waiting for eight months for it to get better

#2: GPX
Reason for Purchase: to listen to CDs in the Escort
Price: $39.99
Radio Included?: no
Quality: awful
Reason I'm No Longer Using It: Didn't work in the car, didn't fit in the pouch when I was power walking, batteries would run out before one CD could be completed
Current Status: in a landfill, and good riddance

#3: Sony
Reason for Purchase: to replace #1
Price: gift, but probably $89.99
Radio Included: yes
Quality: varies
Reason I'm No Longer Using It: volume stays constant (about 2) no matter how much you dial around, sound quality fuzzy. It did work better for about two weeks, but has since reverted
Current Status: alive, but not using it

#4: Memorex
Reason for Purchase: to supplement/replace #4
Price: $49.99
Radio Included: yes
Quality: pretty mediocre
Reason I'm No Longer Using It: works fine if you're standing still or listening to the radio, but it skips after 10-20 minutes of power walking
Status: maybe Karen will use it to listen to NPR

#5: Aiwa
Reason for Purchase: to replace #3 and #4
Price: $69.99
Radio Included: no
Quality: so far, so good
Status: full-time use for the Superhits CDs

Anyone else have opinions on good/bad Walkmen?