Cheney & iPod
On a return flight from a four-day trip to the Middle East, U.S. vice president Dick Cheney used one of the only working power outlets on Air Force Two to charge his beloved iPod, frustrating reporters who were trying to file stories.
“Working passengers began lining up their laptops to share the power from a couple of working outlets—particularly the reporters who urgently needed to prepare their articles to transmit during a quick refueling stop in England,” reports the Associated Press. “But when Cheney said his iPod needed to be recharged, it took precedent above all else and dominated one precious outlet for several hours. The vice president’s press staff intervened so a reporter could use the outlet for 15 minutes to charge a dead laptop, but then the digital music device was plugged back in.”
And Bush loves the song "My Sharona!"
An iPod White House
Last week, in an interview with Fox News, President Bush revealed that he has an iPod Shuffle — the stripped-down version of the music player that's barely bigger than a stick of chewing gum.
"Lightweight and crank it on, and you shuffle the Shuffle," he said. The president said his library includes the Beach Boys, the Beatles, country music and Aretha Franklin.
Bush's daughters gave him a standard iPod for his birthday earlier this year. His media adviser, Mark McKinnon, said the commander in chief used it to play "heart-thumping" music while he rode his mountain bike. The player featured plenty of country music but also Joni Mitchell and the Knack's "My Sharona."
McKinnon cautioned against reading too much into the selections, though.
"No one should psychoanalyze the playlist," he said. "It's really just great songs designed for a great workout. And if there any songs in there with controversial lyrics, I'll take the heat for that."
The Subject: George W. Bush
The Analyst: Matt Simonton
The Playlist:
- Centerfield, John Fogerty
- New Biography, Van Morrison
- Brown Eyed Girl, Van Morrison
- Circle Back, John Hiatt
- Castanets, Alejandro Escovedo
- (You're So Square) Baby, I Don't Care, Joni Mitchell
- El Paso, The Gourds
- The House is Rockin', Stevie Ray Vaughan
- Swinging From the Chains of Love, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings
- Say It Ain't So, The Thrills
- My Sharona, The Knack
- Alan Jackson
- George Jones
At first glance, "iPod One" seems to contain nothing out of the ordinary for Mr. Bush. But a preponderance of country and classic rock is merely a veneer coating an iceberg of confused identity and self-doubt. One need only sample singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell's "(You're So Square) Baby, I Don't Care" to begin to understand Mr. Bush's failing sense of self-worth, a problem that originated on the playground in the 1950s with his peers' chants of "mushy Bushy, mushy Bushy." "Centerfield," John Fogerty's light FM radio hit, possibly refers to the president's conflicting emotions about his time as owner of the Texas Rangers, but more likely traces back to a childhood incident involving a dropped fly ball. With his mother, former First Lady Barbara Bush looking on, young George dropped the ball that cost his little league team, the Fighting Algonquin, the city championship. It was at that moment that Mr. Bush first realized he hated his mother's authoritarian child-rearing system, and could only purge his repressed anger years later by projecting his emotions into an artificial creation dubbed "the war on terror." Furthermore, Van Morrison's hit "Brown Eyed Girl" raises crucial questions concerning Mr. Bush's relationship with his spouse; Morrison's nostalgic lyrics point to a general disillusionment with marriage and a lessening of the sex drive. The song also marks a trend in Mr. Bush's playlist for carefree music, signaling his desire for a less stressful environment; as he insists, "it's hard work." In sum, a truly unhealthy individual in critical need of extensive therapy.
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