What's on your iPod Jim?

So I bought an iPod for my birthday, and chose to get the grand-daddy 60gig iPod photo - hey it all goes on the never-never and my kids can always pay it back.

I use it as a hard disk to back up all the '50th Anniversary Edition' working files as well as store around 20 gigs of music. All my CDs are on there, but sadly not the vinyl. Ah well, surely pop was always meant to be ephemeral. And C. S. Lewis had a valid point in Out of the Silent Planet when he celebrated memory over recording.

Anyway, I cycle to work as often as possible so I can listen to the music as I ride, which means I must clock in at least half an hour a day (and no, I can't work and listen to music at the same time).

So what have I been listening to?

Well, in reverse chronological order:

• Roni Size: New Forms
• Robert Plant: Mighty Rearranger
• Led Zeppelin: Houses of the Holy
• KT Tunstall: Eye to the Telescope
• Humble Pie: Safe as Yesterday is
• Smokin Jo and Tim Sheridan: Nastydirtysexmusic
• Martyn Bennett: Martyn Bennett
• Compilation: The Original Funk Selection
• The Bad Plus: Give

And that's just in the 'Recently Played' playlist in iTunes. What about Bjork, Sinatra, Count Basie, Michelle N'degeOcello, Fairport Convention, Richard Thompson, Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, JS Bach, Harry Nilsson, Faithless...

Yes, an iPod can be wonderful thing - especially when sprinting along those magical green painted strips (appear, disappear, re-appear) which Manchester Council laughingly claim to be cycle lanes, on an ancient Stumpjumper, passing all the queuing cars, and feeling funky for fifty!

Alright, fifty-one.