Strange meeting: The MP3 Challenge commences
Yesterday, in Scotland, a strange thing took place. A lady called Sarah, carrying a small purple MP3 player, travelled north a long way from her home in Dunfermline to Fort William in the Scottish Highlands to see someone she had never met before, named Seamus. Seamus took the iPod, copied a song onto it: here’s a picture of him doing just that, in mountainous surroundings. http://twitpic.com/1m2fbz
Then Sarah took the iPod back, the two strangers parted – perhaps never to meet again, though it’s impossible to predict, of course – and Sarah drove home again, her round-trip having taken an astonishing nine hours.
Seamus was one of the finalists in the iPod Challenge begun some time ago, in which an iPod does the rounds all over the country, is stocked up with our favourite music, and eventually alights in the hands of Anna, the competition winner. Sarah was the conscientious volunteer who took on the job of meeting me in London and providing the first link in the iPod chain. The meeting between them, as well as being a joyously odd moment in the lives of both, is the first in a planned series of many many such meetings as the MP3 player continues its adventures. To see this first step in the context of its effects on Great Britain, go to the dedicated Google Map which contains details of the route as well as the playlist being built up: the link, with a bit of luck, is this: http://tinyurl.com/24dyteh
Huge thanks go to both Seamus and Sarah, especially the latter for undertaking a journey so long that it will take me slightly less time to get to Senegal next week. The game is afoot. The next step is that Sarah will meet up with some more people in Edinburgh to collect more songs, before the MP3 player wings its way southwards again.
In other competition news, the results of my second round of lies were: it’s A LIE that I’ve never seen Sex And The City, but TRUE that I have never sat through a whole episode of Eastenders. It was a LIE about dislocating my shoulder and another LIE that I’ve been at a party with J-Lo: I don’t tend to have that sort of life. It’s TRUE however than I once got to a late stage of the national computer football championships, as a 16-year-old, before losing my nerve in the semi-finals. The person with the combination of answers closest to the truth was Marie, who wins the overall game. Marie, name the prize you would realistically like.
Speaking of prizes, I said the first commenter each day could dictate one thing to go in the next day’s blog. Yesterday this accolade went to Georgie, who demanded ‘a deli story’. This is not the greatest story ever told, but yesterday the wife and I were in a ‘deli’ and she had a hot chocolate. About halfway through, a man approached and – unrequested – started topping up the drink. He said: ‘Don’t worry! I work here! I couldn’t help noticing that there was more foam than chocolate in your drink. So I’m topping it up.’ It was a very small incident, but a magnificent piece of customer service. It gave me an idea, which I will divulge in a blog very soon.
Of the emergency bloggers, I’ve only heard from two. John, Megan, are you there?
Posted by Knox on May 20, 2011
Brilliance all round. I’m still loving looking forward to following what happens with the ipod, and finding out all the tracks on it.
The deli story was lovely. There are some very lovely people out there, and some of them work in random little cafés and sandwich shops.
Posted by kathryn on May 10, 2010
exciting to see it on the move!
thank you for the spotify playlist too, now we can all share in anna’s musical education! well done to pandora and the rest of team (i don’t know their names, sorry) for getting it organised, perhaps we should put them in charge of this messy government business, or at least make them a big cake when all is done…
xx
Posted by Aislinn on May 10, 2010
Some entirely unrelated things to anything mentioned in this blog whatsoever, if I may:
I would like to add a request to ‘Mark May Fix It’ (is that what it’s called? that thing, anyway) if that’s alright. I’d quite like to meet you. You know, just to sort of mumble ‘Hello, I like your work, can I have a picture with you, could you maybe also sign this book, thank-youu, bye!’ quickly, in an effort not to be too much bother, and then skip off.
I’ve seen you live four times now and made an effort twice to hang about after the shows but rather helplessly (I am sometimes not very good at this sort of thing).
(If it gets me extra brownie points, I am also @ashy99 on Twitter, who sent you that thing in the post that you got months later, and also I once painted my nails with a Mark Watson theme. One nail had Marco Pierre White on. Here’s a picture of four of my nails: http://bit.ly/b9MWtE )
P.S. Have a very nice time in Senegal.
Posted by Anna on May 10, 2010
It’s very exciting to see the iPod well and truly on its way! Yes, Anji, it is a bit of a tease to keep hearing about it, but that only makes the whole thing more fun. I’d much rather wait for it, and hear all the travelling tales than receive it straight away.
I’m going to try my best to avoid the spotify playlist, so nothing gets spoilt for me. It’ll be hard though…
Posted by david on May 10, 2010
just ordered all your books. probably should have read one and then made a decision.
Posted by Megan on May 10, 2010
Assuming I’m the right Megan, I am here! It’s been a weird weekend of athleticism and competition (no, actually – I even had a dragonboat practice on a day where it snowed). Let me know whenever you need assistance.
Posted by Someone on May 10, 2010
Nice one :] everybody. Can’t decide on a song. Pressure.
Posted by Rachael on May 10, 2010
Im worried the power of choosing a song for someone might go to my head, biggest decision of my life. maybe.
Posted by max on May 10, 2010
@ Seamus:
it is a ‘song’ after all
Good choice. That is the first PT song I ever heard back in 2002 when the album was about to come out. Been hooked ever since.
Though you could have gone with the incident
And Rachel, is there a way to share the playlist with us unlucky people that live in a spotify-less country? I’m curious to see what goes in there…
Posted by Simon on May 10, 2010
This is absolutely brilliant. A HUGE well done to the massively dedicated Sarah! I love the idea that these two people’s lives would never have crossed if it wasn’t for this stupid challenge.
Can’t wait for the mp3 player to return to London.
Posted by rachel (pandora) on May 10, 2010
for those who are interested, i’m keeping a Spotify playlist of all the songs that are added, including those that aren’t involved in the actual chain.
i think this is the link -
http://open.spotify.com/user/pandorapink/playlist/6SeRNehTMeiYGCeTRTwahV
i really hope this works…
Posted by Georgia on May 10, 2010
Mark- i loved the deli story! It gave me ‘warm fuzzies’ for the morning and I can’t wait to go back to work now
Posted by Seamus on May 10, 2010
@Max
You have no idea how difficult it was to pick just one Porcupine Tree song. At one point I was tempted to put The Incident on it, but 55 minutes felt a bit greedy. I eventually went for Blackest Eyes, because it pretty much encapsulates their ability to be pop-y, heavy, ambient and write about some very odd and twisted things in the space of just over 4 minutes. I used the highest bit rate I could for the MP3, just to make Steven Wilson happy. Though saying that, I don’t think he would like his music being on an iPod. (This is how he promoted his solo album: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD7KwiZ_3Pc&feature=PlayList&p=A84A8029EB740D62&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=11 )
Oh well, I would hope that he would over look the use of an iPod in favour of supporting the idea of spreading new music.
Posted by Bloomability on May 9, 2010
I’m glad to know that Anna is going to have some utterly awesome and incredible music on her iPod by the time it reaches her if we carry on like this ^_^ Woah, that sentence needed some more punctuation.
Posted by Sarah on May 9, 2010
Thanks for the thanks – it was certainly one of the more unusual journeys I’ve made but the scenery was beautiful and it was a rare sunny day in Scotland so pretty good as far as nine hour road trips go!
I’m just glad we’ve got the iPod chain underway – things were looking a bit dicey for a while there and hopefully I’ll be able to meet up with another member of Team Scotland before delivering the iPod back to London at the end of the month,
I haven’t blogged about this yet but I will when I get a minute….I’ll try and put a link on the forum or somewhere when I do.
So yeah, cheers – it feels lovely to be the first link in the chain and I’m glad I could do my bit for the cause!
Posted by Rachel Winter on May 9, 2010
wow I need to go to this deli, sounds amazing.
what’s your idea, to open a cafe?
am v intrigued, I feel a mission coming on!
Posted by Misha on May 9, 2010
What a nice man
My favourite cafe is town is like that, last time I was there it was hot so we had cold drinks, and when i went to the counter I took the glasses back and said we didn’t mind if they reused them to save on washing. Which is true. But there aren’t many places you can do that.
Posted by Maddie on May 9, 2010
How exciting!
Posted by lisa brunders on May 9, 2010
It an amazing journey, Sarah’s done brilliantly. It great to see the pic too.
Posted by Anji on May 9, 2010
I hope the mp3 player knows it’s journey and the lengths everyone is going too! That is an amazing start to it’s life. I sort of wish it could tell us it feels to be made so important! I realise that’s impossible, but, I figure a lot of non-blog readers would figure what your doing with it impossible! (I know we can only proove one of those. Sadly)
Anna is it a massive tease to keep hearing about it? Even though it’s going to be very exciting when it does reach you!
Posted by Emmy on May 9, 2010
Aah exciting! Go little ipod go!
Posted by fuzzy_ducky (Laura) on May 9, 2010
I COULD pretend to be Megan, but well, I need all the time possible at the moment. Actually, I want the time it took me to read your blog, and write this comment back please
Posted by Carl on May 9, 2010
This is all making me feel warm. Mark, I’m getting closer to finding a house in Southampton!
Posted by max on May 9, 2010
Seamus, if I only knew you were a porcupine tree fan I would’ve voted for you on the competition
That record is brilliant. The filling of the MP3 got off to a great start!
Posted by Joanna on May 9, 2010
Can’t wait to see the rest of the journey unfold. Interesting seeing everyone’s taste in music too =)
Mad props to Sarah for the epic road trip. That’s dedication!
Posted by Zoe Fell on May 9, 2010
Oooh. You’ve left us on tenterhooks with that bit at the end. I want to know NOW!
But it’s brilliant news about the mp3 player. I’m stupidly excited about the rest of its journey.
Posted by Daniel on May 9, 2010
Great gig at the Chapel last night!