On those rare occasions when I manage to accomplish something even marginally technological (or even technical), like finding the on/off button on a computer or the switch on a lamp, my wife Anne starts belting out the opening theme from Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra, used at the beginning of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey (DUUMMM, DUUMMM, DUUMMM, DA-DUUMMM—BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM…repeat). While I consider this unnecessarily rude, I can’t blame her. I’ve often used the word “Luddite” to describe myself, but have recently discovered that a modern-day Luddite is someone who dislikes new technology, and for me that couldn’t be further from the truth: I just simply can’t keep up with it!
There were halcyon days when I was a young, cutting edge fellow, on top of all the new gizmos, whatsits, thingamajigs and doohickeys. As a child, I marveled at the ingenious 8-track tapes my grandparents had in abundance, and remember hearing for the first time two songs from their Hits of the ’40s 8-track that I fell in love with: “I Had the Craziest Dream” and Pee Wee Hunt’s version of “Twelfth Street Rag.” The 8-track was fine for three-minute pop tunes but was less successful when it came to longer classical pieces. After a certain time one track would have to switch to another, so if you were listening to the choral section of the final
