8 of 3610 “Butcher's Tale” by The Zombies
- 8 songs in and already gotten through 3 songs I swear I've never heard b4 in my life. Confusion as to who put these songs on iPod. 3,610 songs…is there a threshold to the # of songs a human can instantly recognize? If yes, is there any way I can delete Winger's “Seventeen” from my brain?
- Has anybody ever actually stopped to check and see what's going on in Merchandise Mart? Real-life Chicago equivalent to T. Soprano's Newark Esplanade mafia cash cow?

12 of 3610 “Roses” by Andre 3000
- Suspicions that Kappa Sig-ish guys across aisle wish grievous harm to pretentious A-hole stopping to chuckle @ whatever he's written in notebook balanced on faggily-crossed legs. 2nd time feel gratitude to disguise. Subconsciously check mustache glued on properly while Andre 3K suggests that a woman's pretentiousness might be cured by the realization that her attitude is redolent of fecal matter.

13 of 3610 “Dark of the Matinee” by Franz Ferdinand
- Fact: The iPod is extremely adroit @ exposing you for poseur you are.
- Example: After a few listens to F. Fd's critical hat-trick (pitchfork.com, Time Mag., my friend's) album, I dismissed F. Fd. as average band poseurs latched onto by the more weak-minded of the hipster herd becuz of mass media hype machine. Flash forward to Nbound Brown Line ˜Belmont: Unrecognized song by unrecognized band induces toe-tapping and pronouncement in head of song as very danceable cut. Poseur status horrifyingly realized when I check name of song & group and discover it's by none other than F. Fd.
- Girl in seat next to me unsubtly switches to open seat across aisle as I excitedly scribble this privileged glimpse into a self-described “hipster”'s* dark, tortured soul.
*Air quotes always included whenever employing said self-description.

 17 of 3610 “Hard to Explain” by the Strokes
- Where the hell am I?

18 of 3610 “The Classical” by The Fall
- Gradual thinning of crowd on train as we move away from the condensed urban core strikes me as serviceable metaphor for musical taste: the more you move to the fringes of pop. music aesthetics, the fewer the # of people that stay on the metaphorical listening train.
- Metaphor holds up to another theory: that the “artsier” the art, the uglier the audience. Nbound Brown Line train @ Kedzie probably not on Elite Modeling scouting system's regular route.

21 of 3610 “Between the Bars” by Elliott Smith
- Simultaneous hearing of one of suicide victim Smith's more heartbreaking songs & glance up at “Considering Abortion? Know Your Options. 1-888-AM I PREG” ad – featuring picture of plaintive, majorly-bummed out Latina – puts damper on the unstoppable party that is the S-bound Brown Line train to the Loop .

22 of 3610 “Traveling Riverside Blues” by Led Zeppelin
- Abortion ad ennui partially alleviated by iPod breaking the Led out for first time today. As Plant encourages his “rider” to squeeze his lemon until the juice runs down his leg and he falls right out of bed – then very considerately pauses to muse whether she knows what he's talkin' about – my view of world as fundamentally unacceptable dungeon of decay & entropy transformed into place where the spirit of Xmas burns brightly in the souls of all the world's children.

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