The church of Ella

One thing that I'm not sure I've shared is that I recently purchased my first I-Pod. It's not a full-on I-Pod, but one of those little 8-gig Nano things, and I purchased it used for about $100 a few weeks ago. It was sort of a fitness thing, and it's worked; I'm not sure how I'd gotten so long without it. Now, during my workouts, I have a huge chunk of my music playing on shuffle, and I end up in my own little world where time is of not importance. Or, I'll listen to those free podcasts of Car Talk or This American Life and totally lose myself in my workout.

Lately, I've been into the shuffle thing, and I had a near-religious experience today. Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington happend onto my I-Pod, with their version of "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" and I decided to try to keep up with Ella's scatting. I revved up my legs on the eliptical, closed my eyes, and felt myself thrust into a Harlem nightclub, with Ella and Duke onstage. Ella's singing got faster and faster, and I kept up with her, through the entire six minutes of the song. Through it all, my eyes were closed, and I had a huge grin on my face, because Ella Fitzgerald's singing is so full of happiness that it's impossible not to be happy to listen to it.

Next, a woman's voice spoke into my ear, and I whipped my head around to see who it was - and it was Suzanne Vega, talk-singing her way through "Blood Makes Noise." Every time I hear that song, I think about this scene in Homicide that it was played over, when Yaphet Kotto was arranging a blood test to solve a murder. In a way, the song was overly literal - "Blood Makes Noise," after all - but the use of Suzanne Vega's music in a cop show could never be considered anything but fresh.

Kanye West's "Jesus Walks" was the next song to come on, and I was amazed that three of the songs that will appear on my "Favorite 200 Songs Of All Time" list came onto my Nano right in a row. I have until August 15 - the big 3-0 - to finish my list. I haven't started yet, but am just randomly thinking to myself, "Oh, that will be on it" from time to time. Maybe I'd better get a draft started...