Virtuous Virtual: Go Ahead, Open That Box

aAmidst all the dispiriting news about things that don’t work, things that work but don’t do very much, things that do too much by doing something else at the same time that you don’t want them to do, and things that can’t be repaired, it’s a pleasure to report on something that works, works better than it did a year ago, and is free. In a word, I speak of the online radio service Pandora. In Greek mythology, as you may or may not remember, Pandora was the first woman. Zeus commanded Hephaestus to create her, which the master smith and fabricator did using earth and water. Aphrodite bestowed beauty upon her, Apollo gave her a talent for music—the complete package. She was destined for Prometheus, but when Prometheus stole the secret of fire from the gods, Zeus sought to punish him by giving Pandora to his brother Epimetheus. Along with her went a jar that she was not to open under any circumstances, because it contained all the evils of the world. But just as Zeus expected, Pandora could not hold back her curiosity (does this remind you of a story from the Old Testament?) and had to take a peek inside—and here we are. To tell the whole tale, the box held Hope as well, and Pandora put the lid back on long enough for Hope to remain. The name suits the radio service because they ask you to select a group or a piece of music, then they open their box of connections with the rest of that genre, and create a personal “station” with the name of that group. Assuming you have registered (have a username and password), that “station” can be played for you no matter what computer you are using, after you log on. If it’s just your home computer, you don’t have to log on each time, they recognize you and bring up your list of “stations.” As Pandora plays music that might be part of what you’re seeking, it shows buttons that you can click to say “no, that isn’t what I was looking for,” or “yes, I like that.” Using these, you can fine tune your station, adjusting it to your preferences. Naturally this web business needs to make money to pay its expenses, so from time to time your music may be interrupted by a very short, tastefully presented advertisement. Lately they have been touting an online computer backup service; if you don’t have someone like Steve L’Heureux, the Mac Doctor, my New Haven, Vermont computer genius to devise a daily backup system from your startup drive to a reserve drive, this sounds like a reasonable proposition. Also, Pandora acts as a purchasing service. If they play something that’s in line with your tastes, they will show the CD cover while they’re playing it, and give you a chance to click “buy it.” Whether this is a real service or not depends on whether the site’s collective knowledge of musical genres goes deep enough to uncover things you might not have thought were available. I was a good test case for this because I have an very deep knowledge of and love for folk music, including some genres you will never hear except on WVPR’s “All the Traditions,” where folk musician host Robert Resnik is a fountain of revelations. But so in Pandora. Putting the group “Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers,” I was thrilled to see them linking to Stokes & Sane, the Beale Street Sheiks, and to Frank Hutchison, another great talent of that era. Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee was in its heyday one of America’s musical glorylands, a place where the immense pool of talent of the Deep South found freedom of expression. One of my upcoming essays, titled “Listening Down In,” leans on a piece recorded along Beale Street. You might not think Memphis would have much to do with North Carolina, but the Ramblers repertoire includes a number praising the musical mecca, which at one point says “I’d rather be here (Beale Street) than any place I know. I’d rather be here than any place I know. And it’s going to take a Sergeant (police) for to make me go.” I’ve now opened a separate browser so I can activate Pandora at any time and not have it go off because I navigated to another website to do something else. I’ve activated a “Spike Jones and the City Slickers” station, which is branching out to all sorts of whacko stuff. A “Jim Kweskin Jug Band” station accesses another kind of mental comic relief. Finally, after being interested and frustrated for two decades, I’m using Pandora to explore hardcore techno, which I have always loved as dance exercise music. And probably the day will come when I use their music buying service—though that Pandora’s Box I don’t want to open too soon. Not with Middlebury College’s music library available. But if you don’t have some such resource in your neighborhood, you could do a lot worse than spend time on Pandora. From there, if you haven’t realized the power of online radio, worlds await—for anyone who creates an online station in Vermont as well as for people in rural areas looking out at the world. When a Vermont Public Radio pledge drive brings a caller from someone who now lives in Georgia but uses VPR to stay in touch with the old home state, I can’t help thinking that Hope isn’t just in Arkansas.