ITunes Fascination

For those of you who work in large office environments with very liberal computer/network/internet usage policies, you may be aware that there is the option to look at and listen to the music libraries of other ITunes users on your network. For those of you who aren't aware of this option, it's awesome; the only downside is that you can listen but can't transfer anyone else's music to your own library or ipod. Regardless of these restrictions, I've had a great time the past month or so (since I learned about this neat feature) exploring the musical tastes of the denizens of this massive museum, trying to figure out which user name corresponds with which researcher or gift shop clerk by their choice in title and, of course, taste in tunes. With names like Diplopodophile, cosmicopus, chasing tornadoes, and tangy gnat, you know you're dealing with natural history museum folk! So far, I've only been able to guess about 1 out of 20, probably because there are so many people here, and I know so few of them.

In this time, I have managed to develop a clear favorite, MG, who is apparently my ITunes soul mate. This user has just about every album I own, and what I haven't heard before, I immediately like and have (in one instance) actually bought. Hooray for finding new music from unlikely sources after a couple years of stagnation. Granted the things I find myself liking are still from the same mid-to-late-90s niche, at least I'm moving to new artists. As someone who has been passionate about music as long as I can remember, this long period of musical hibernation has been kind of getting me down. To MG, because there regrettably is no messaging function in ITunes and I can't really tell you this, thanks in spirit. I hope some of the folks checking out my tunes (well, all DJ mixes because that's all I have access to at work) manage to pick up something new as well.