I just finished updating my iPod (circa 2008 8G Nano) for the next month. Every month or so I take off the songs that played in the preceding month, and fill it up with either new music or stuff I haven't listened to in a while.

I only listen to my iPod when I'm going to and from work, and at lunch from work. Otherwise I have a CD playing, and that gets swapped out every couple of weeks, depending on my moods.

If I get a new "album" digitally (it's been a while since I bought a CD), and I want to listen to it somewhere other than on my computer or from my iPod, I burn it onto a CD and play it on the stereo in my living room.

I do not have everything connected. I keep them separated.

The last iPod swap was right after I resigned from my job, and I thought I had two more weeks of commutes, and then...what would I do with the iPod? Well, if I was going hiking, that would be a bit of a drive to get to the starting point, so I'd use it then. But the iPod, which I originally bought for my job in the first place (I drove around the state about three times in the first six months of the job), was going to fade from prominence in my music playing.

But the job exodus did not occur, and so my iPod is still my friend on the commutes.

My band is going to cover the Go-Go's at an annual Halloween cover night this year. So, not only do we have to learn four or five new songs, we have to figure out how to dress in drag and play at the same time. For me, that rules out mini skirts and high heels (both are pretty much impossible to play the drums in).

We've also been working on a mash-up cover of Fugazi's "Blueprint" and Tears for Fears "Mad World". Which completely works, although we haven't perfected it yet.

Last week, there were two big 90s band releases. One from Green Day (the first in a trilogy of albums they're releasing over the next four months or so) and one from No Doubt. They sound familiar, but I don't have a quick judgement of their sonic merits. Music needs a little time to sink in. I'm glad I didn't have to do the mash-up record reviews that pretty much everyone critic did about those two albums. Most had to not only review both albums, but pick which one was better vis-a-vis 40 year olds playing music for a younger generation (as well, most likely, as the generation they began playing for). And most were like, "Neither band is embarrassing themselves" which is not the greatest thumbs up I've ever heard.

Locally, there is a posting site for ABQ (and surrounding areas) musicians to try to share information, bitch and ask questions, etc. Many of the topics devolve into how to be a "real" musician, and the relationship between making money playing music and not selling out. Or something like that. It's always confusing. And someone usually says, you gotta play what people want to hear, otherwise just sit in your room and play with yourself. And then complaints about "making it", or the inability to "make it" in such a small market.

Near the end of one of these posts, I added a video of David Naughton's late 70s classic "Making It". David Naughton was primarily known as a comedic actor (most notably for An American Werewolf in London). I'm not sure how much he's still known now, but he's got a lot of recent credits on IMDB. "Making It" was apparently the theme song of a short lived 1979 TV show of the same name. And Bill Murray did a sleazy dance to it in "Meatballs", which might be even more classic than the song itself.

But no one thought that video was funny.

So my musical memories are sometimes a little off from real musicians. And I still play for little or no money. But I have fun. And if we ever make it, we're gonna do a mash-up of "Making It" and ABBA's "Take A Chance On Me".

Well, maybe not, but it seems funny to me at the moment.

Matt Worley's got the chance and he's taking it.