My iPhone Loves Tori

Back when I was younger, it was all the rage to create mix tapes for other people. As with all trends, I completely missed it, but the idea was you would come up with a mix of songs that someone else might enjoy, burn it on a tape or CD, and give it to the other person. This was back in the days before Pandora, so getting a bunch of random music was nice, if probably a little illegal.

The big dog got a new backpack so he can carry his own water on runs. I got my own.

I think about those days occasionally when I'm running. The modern equivalent of a mix tape is a playlist. I find them a pain to set up (because I'm lazy -- just assume that is true for most statements I make). Usually I just convince myself that I can tell iTunes to just play random songs from my library. I own a lot of music. I've accidentally left it playing on my laptop, gone out for twelve hours, and come home to my computer still working its way through the things I added in the last twelve months. So it should be able to come up with a decent playlist while I'm running. But there's one problem.

My iPhone is in love with Tori Amos.

Now I quite like Tori Amos as well. I've been a fan for years. I think I only have the last couple albums on iTunes, but that's because I still have the older albums on CD somewhere. But Tori Amos' later albums, while excellent music, aren't really the greatest for running. The songs are slow and meandering and they are really long, so once they start you can't just power through the next couple minutes and hope the next song is a little more lively. Worse, once my phone hits one song it then decides to play a bunch more.

This was my last run:

Me: Okay, play random songs from the library. *starts running*
iPhone: Let's start with Taj Mahal "Celebrated Walkin' Blues"
Me: Ha ha, very funny. *Almost nine minutes of a song about walking goes by as I try to convince my body that it has, in fact, run before.*
iPhone: Have some Caiti Baker
Me: Fine.
iPhone: Have some Tori Amos
Me: ... okay, I guess. *five minutes of oboe*
iPhone: Have some more Tori Amos
Me: ... really?
iPhone: A little more Tori Amos
Me: ... you're kidding, right?
iPhone: And perhaps a little Tori Amos?
Me: *stops running and takes out phone, hits the random button again, starts running*
iPhone: Have some Sia then.
Me: Whew.
iPhone: But I think you should listen to Tori Amos now.

So on a 65 minute run, my "random" selection produced nearly 50 minutes of Tori Amos.

I'm going to create some playlists.