Apple Blogging? Tech Blogging? Music Blogging? All of the above?

Hi Kari:

As owners of iPods who have blogged about it, I was heartened to hear that iTunes and iPod are a big part of the good Apple earnings recently reported. Excerpt:

Apple shipped 749 thousand Macintosh units and 807 thousand iPods during the quarter, representing a 5 percent increase in CPU units and a 909 percent increase in iPods over the year-ago quarter.

"Apple had a great quarter with 29 percent revenue growth and 200 percent earnings per share growth year-over-year," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We experienced growth in most areas of our business" most dramatically in selling a record 807,000 iPods, up more than 900 percent over the prior year."

However, the analysts over at CNN Money aren't impressed. Excerpt:

Apple may be the undisputed heavyweight champ of online music. But its market share in the computer business, which still accounts for nearly two-thirds of the company's total sales, remains Hobbit-like small.

Apple is clearly an innovative and cool company but in the grand scheme of things, its results are only significant for Mac junkies and/or Apple shareholders. Investors looking for clues about what's happening in the broader tech world would be better off digging through the reports from Intel and IBM.

Am not a savvy investor and have no idea whether any of my mutual funds own Apple. All I know is that I like the iPod and iTunes which leads me to some music blogging.

The radio is sometimes on in the lab providing a soundtrack for my life there. Most of the time the music hovers right around the conscious level amidst the whir of equipment, the tapping of computer keys, the bedlam of my own thoughts and the occasional ringing of a telephone.

Recently, for some odd reason, two songs got stuck in my brain and I had to go to iTunes to fetch them.

I suppose it is the catchy tune but as usual, I had to look up the lyrics.

One of the songs is syrupy with lines that might not even make it onto a Hallmark greeting card but I was captivated anyway. The song? God Only Know by the Beach Boys.

I may not always love you
But long as there are stars above you
You never need to doubt it
I'll make you so sure about it

God only knows what I'd be without you

If you should ever leave me
Though life would still go on believe me
The world could show nothing to me
So what good would living do me

The other song is lyrically at the other end of the spectrum with downcast words but a peppy tune: Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves by Cher. Would you have guessed I would be intrigued by that song? It is probably the polar opposite of the sunny-side up Beach Boys song just mentioned.

I was born in the wagon of a travellin' show
My mama used to dance for the money they'd throw
Papa would do whatever he could
Preach a little gospel, sell a couple bottles of doctor good

Gypsys, tramps, and thieves
We'd hear it from the people of the town
They'd call us gypsys, tramps, and thieves
But every night all the men would come around
And lay their money down

Picked up a boy just south of Mobile
Gave him a ride, filled him with a hot meal
I was sixteen, he was twenty-one
Rode with us to Memphis
And papa woulda shot him if he knew what he'd done

I never had schoolin' but he taught me well
With his smooth southern style
Three months later I'm a gal in trouble
And I haven't seen him for a while, uh-huh
I haven't seen him for a while, uh-huh

She was born in the wagon of a travellin' show
Her mama had to dance for the money they'd throw
Grandpa' would do whatever he could
Preach a little gospel, sell a couple bottles of doctor good

I don't get it. Why did these two songs lodge themselves in my brain like a splinter in my finger? Please explain to me. Okay, maybe I expect too much of you sometimes. 8-)

Anyway, are these two songs on your iPod? What songs are percolating above the noise level of daily life and thus getting multiple plays on your iPod?

Rene