Brandon's Buzz

Basia Bulat — “If It Rains” (from Heart of My Own) —

A meandering yarn about why the iPhone might just be the greatest freakin’ invention in the history of ever: A had to drive to Houston yesterday to take some insurance exam (the full purpose of which I remain unclear, though I’m sure he’ll love you sending him all your good karma), and I spent much of the day backing up the important file on my computer so that I could turn it over to the good folks at Best Buy, who are slated to replace the machine’s dead battery and repair the touchpad’s broken left click button. And after that wrenching experience — if you know me at all, you know I never, ever, ever part with my computer, which is essentially a permanent extension of my typing fingers, as seemingly vital to my inner stasis and well-being as such trivial mechanisms as lungs and kidneys — I needed a little retail therapy, which in my case almost always means a trip to the local record store. And whilst I was browsing the racks and taking in the sights and sounds of my single favorite place on Earth, a song I failed to recognize came tumbling from the store’s loudspeaker. Back in my Luddite days, I would have either bummed a pen off of somebody and scribbled down some lyrics on my hand — or, barring that, would have just tried like hell to remember a line or two — to look up when I got home. But now, just as it has with so many other mundane daily activities (checking email, tweeting, catching up on the news and weather, even setting up the damned DVR), the new phone has revolutionized the ID process: I cued up that handy-as-hell Shazam app and had a definitive answer inside of ten seconds. And me and my iTunes lived ‘appily ever after. (P.S.: Isn’t this song just terrific? I know nothing at all about this girl — trust and believe that’ll be changing, ay-sap — but, if this is any indication, she’s an elegant font of earth-mama fabulosity.)

names dropped with reckless abandon: A, Basia Bulat