I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: MP3 Radio Transmitter

I was looking for a solution to my broken CD Player and I recalled that there are these mini transmitters that broadcast your MP3 player like a radio station.  The broadcast range is pretty weak, but it’s usually strong enough to go from your player to your car radio.  In theory this allows for everyone to be their own tiny radio station which I find utterly cool.

In practice, however, I found it somewhat wanting.  Perhaps if I bought the really expensive one I would have had better results.  Yet in two areas right by my house, the non-station 88.1 (recommended for tuning in) would grow staticky.  It wasn’t that big a deal but it was disconcerting.

However, when we drove out to Western NJ, where there are virtually no radio stations, our transmitter just seemed to fade away. We had to turn up the radio all the way just to hear the MP3 player.  And it was still quiet and staticky.

Surely this isn’t how people play their MP3 players in their cars?  We had previously tried the MP3/cassette adapter.  That worked okay until the adapter started clicking loudly with every revolution.  So we ditched that. It also cracked me up that the highest tech downloadable-no-moving parts technology had to go through the clunkiest, ugliest, most prone to breakage music technology that I know of.

My latest solution is just to drive Sarah’s car.

[READ: May 22, 2009] “Little Drops of Water”

This short story appeared in Harper‘s and is going to be part of a forthcoming collection of stories.

I was a little nervous upon reading this story.  Faithful readers know that I am intending to read all of Vonnegut’s works.  So, imagine my disappointment when I didn’t really like this story in the beginning.

As the story opens, it sort of meanders around to the point.  In fact, almost the whole first page of this six page story seems like it’s trying to find a way to get into the actual story.

Once he finds the door, though, Vonnegut tosses it wide open and barges in with a very funny story of revenge.  Larry is a creature of habit.  He does the same thing every day, without fail.  And once a habit starts for him, it is nigh impossible to break.  Larry is a professional singer and also a music teacher.  He teaches young, beautiful women very personally and closely.  But once they utter the word “marriage,” Larry has them “graduate”  from his school, never to be seen again.

When the latest student, Ellen Sparks is summarily dumped, she concocts a plan to stay in Larry’s life.  It is devious and unseemly and quite wonderful.  It also belies the concept that Ellen was just a dumb woman from Buffalo.

It’s nice to see that Vonnegut was still writing clever stories this late in his life.