For the love of Claude

Music is my most intense memory trigger; it is easy for me to descend the slippery slope of sentimentality with just a few notes from a song. I recently returned from a long trip down memory lane courtesy of my ipod Claude. Claude dates back to around 2004 and is essentially an antique. Many years ago Claude could no longer handle the forced software updates and therefore remains stuck in 2006 like an indie rock time capsule. There is so much music that exists only on Claude and nowhere else in my collection (hello, all of my Clash albums!) and some super obscure stuff (Icelandic bands covering Joy Division, anyone?), that I really wish I could extract and preserve these gems. However thanks to ever-evolving technology, all of these badass tunes are stuck on the historic device like the soundtrack of my younger self.

I just returned home from a long stay in Portland, Oregon, the place I spent my formative young adult years solidifying my identity. Claude joined me on my road trip and I took advantage of the time alone to do some excessively loud car singing. Spoiler alert: I am a terrible singer. Since Claude contains the tunes of a young me, the memories started to flood in the minute the music began. The journey began with a playlist titled “Calm me down (I’m at work)”, followed by “Wake me up (I’m at work)”. I find both of these titles incredibly funny and remember specifically how they came to be; I was new to the fast paced corporate world and listening to music helped me immensely. And if you’re wondering what’s up with the name Claude, that is the pet name I dubbed my pod when my friends and I swapped devices. Between the three of us, we had Claude, Sputnik (an original ipod), and Mimi (a mini). Being able to swap ipods with my pals (RIP Scott) opened up my ears to whole new worlds of music.

I am pretty sure that most readers of this blog remember the days before digitized music, online streaming and the mp3 player. Wow, portable music back in the day involved logistics! I remember the plethora of tapes I lost after they were forgotten in a hot car. Or the plane/train trips I took with my Discman (a major purchase at the time) and a stack of cds. And how did those Walkmans and Discmans consume so many AA batteries! The invention of the mp3 was a significant shift in how, and where, you could listen to music. This technological advancement was stunning for someone like me that spent untold hours of my teens and early 20s making mixtapes. At the beginning of my digital music adoption, I went a bit wild with playlists because suddenly my mixtape hobby became so damn easy.

As a sentimental person, it is easy for me to slide back to the past and get caught up in memories. Accompanied by my musical muse Claude, I ventured around the city I left a decade ago, listening to tunes from nearly two decades ago and wound up with conflicted emotions between the past and the present of a home I once knew so well. Suffice it to say that Portland has changed dramatically, just as I too have changed immensely in my decade away. Although there were several deja vu moments (eating from a favorite food cart that was exactly the same, hearing PJ Harvey in a coffeeshop), there was also a lot of consternation. On the drive home, I was more than ready to step back from the past and into the present.

My now involves getting back to and spending time with my myriad projects, all of which are in various states of progress. It is a hard task to focus on organizing and prioritizing the various quilts and clothes in my queue considering that I am equally excited about each one. There is a thrill that always accompanies a new project, which is balanced with the relief of a job well done. My current projects have no deadlines (i.e. weddings or births), but an almost complete dressing gown (fancy term for a robe) does me no good. Nor do partial quilt tops. So in between painting the exterior of our house and tending the garden, taking long hikes and enjoying the extra daylight, no new creative projects can begin until the others are complete. The present is about enjoying, not rushing, the process and taking care of business at the same time.

Journeying down memory lane reminded me of good times and made me grateful for who, and where, I am now. Claude is back in the cabinet, where it will remain until I feel the need to binge some tunes from my twenties. So here is an ode to Claude, the best (and only!) mp3 player I ever owned. Ode in honor of Julie and Staci, my favorite people to write odes with.

An ode to Claude

Dear Claude, the wonderful ipod,

Please accept this missive as my laud.

Although you will forever remain in 2006,

I don’t have the technical patience to find a fix.

Thank you for holding on to all of my songs,

I’m really glad you don’t get mad when I sing along!

Although sometimes I don’t like the songs you shuffle,

I appreciate that you do not cause a kerfuffle.

I plan on keeping you for a long as able,

So long as nothing happens to your charging cable.

Claude you are a true gem of a device,

No other mp3 player will ever suffice.