So We Shot The Line And We Went For Broke

Here is the first in what I hope will be a weekly breakdown of the music I listen to, done up in a parody of a Spotify Wrapped report.

I'm uploading my weekly listening information into ChatGPT and having it analyze and write it up for me. Things might be a little flaky for the first few weeks while I get an idea of what I want it to look like, but once I have everything figured out, it will just be a matter of format the Last.fm spreadsheet, copy the prompt, add the two together, have it generate a cover and post it.

This first one will be very sparse, since I started working on it yesterday afternoon, but here we go!

Podify Wrapped 

Week of June 1–7, 2026 

88 Plays. 49 Artists. One iPod Experiencing an Identity Crisis.

Welcome to another edition of Podify Wrapped, the monthly (or in this case, weekly) report where my iPod gently reminds me that I don't have a favorite genre—I have favorite moments.

This week's listening history was less a playlist and more a cross-country road trip. Over the course of 88 plays, I managed to travel from Led Zeppelin to Final Fantasy, from Pink Floyd to Alan Jackson, from Metallica to Mystery Science Theater 3000, and somehow made all of it seem perfectly reasonable.

Would Spotify's algorithm approve?

Absolutely not.

Would it be entertaining?

The evidence says yes.

By the Numbers

🎵 Total Plays: 88

🎤 Unique Artists: 49

📀 Unique Songs: 70+

🎙️ Live Recordings: 52 plays (59%)

🎸 Classic Rock & Hard Rock: 46%

🤠 Country & Americana: 15%

🎮 Soundtracks & Gaming Music: 7%

🤘 Alternative & Modern Rock: 17%

🎭 Miscellaneous Musical Shenanigans: 15%

📈 Playlist Consistency: Missing, presumed lost.

Top Artists of the Week

🥇 The Warning

6 plays (6.8%)

The biggest winner of the week.

"MONEY," "Qué Más Quieres," "EVOLVE," and "Dull Knives" made repeated appearances, proving that while most of my library was built before the internet existed, I do occasionally acknowledge that modern music is being made.

🥈 Led Zeppelin

5 plays (5.7%)

If there is a default setting for my musical taste, it's probably Led Zeppelin.

"Bring It on Home," "Stairway to Heaven," "Nobody's Fault But Mine," and "In My Time of Dying" accounted for a healthy percentage of the week's guitar-based decision making.

🥉 Pink Floyd Universe

6 plays (6.8%) Combined

Combining Pink Floyd, Roger Waters, David Gilmour, and Nick Mason creates a Floyd Extended Universe powerful enough to rival Marvel.

Apparently existential reflection remains a favorite hobby.

🏅 Brewer & Shipley

4 plays (4.5%)

The surprise contender.

"One Toke Over the Line" and "Oh Mommy" quietly became recurring themes throughout the week.

🏅 REO Speedwagon

4 plays (4.5%)

Three separate versions of "Take It on the Run" appeared.

At this point I wasn't listening to a song.

I was conducting peer-reviewed research.

Top Songs of the Week

🥇 Take It on the Run

3 plays (3.4%)

The undisputed champion.

Not only was it played repeatedly, but multiple versions appeared.

Apparently I was determined to compare every available interpretation.

🥈 MONEY

2 plays

The Warning's live version continued its strong showing.

🥈 One Toke Over the Line

2 plays

A folk-rock classic that somehow became one of the week's most revisited tracks.

🥈 Oh Mommy

2 plays

Brewer & Shipley making another surprise appearance.

🥈 Wish You Were Here

2 plays

David Gilmour's live version reminded me that some songs simply never wear out.

Genre Breakdown

🎸 Classic Rock & Hard Rock — 46%

The dominant force.

Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Eagles, Aerosmith, Boston, Foreigner, Cream, Blue Öyster Cult, Van Halen, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Gary Moore, The Who, and Rush carried nearly half of all listening.

At times my iPod appeared convinced it was broadcasting from a classic-rock station in 1978.

🤘 Alternative & Modern Rock — 17%

The Warning, The Offspring, The Presidents of the United States of America, and Ningen Isu brought newer energy to the mix.

This category mostly exists to prove I haven't completely stopped listening to music recorded after 1995.

🤠 Country & Americana — 15%

Alan Jackson, Sawyer Brown, Billy Ray Cyrus, Dierks Bentley, Mark Chesnutt, Lyle Lovett, Paul Brandt, and C.W. McCall made sure every so often the playlist took an unexpected exit toward Nashville.

🎮 Soundtracks & Gaming Music — 7%

Nobuo Uematsu and Frank Klepacki represented the gaming division.

Apparently saving kingdoms and destroying enemy bases remains an important part of my listening routine.

🎭 Everything Else — 15%

This category includes Mystery Science Theater 3000, which deserves its own genre anyway.

Most Surprising Transition Awards

🏆 Grand Champion

Roger Waters → Sawyer Brown

One song explores mortality, memory, and the passage of time.

The next song is about driving a truck.

There is nothing that can be said here that will make any sense...Moving on!

🥈 Runner-Up

Final Fantasy IX → Kick Out the Jams

From fantasy airships and magical kingdoms to chaotic garage-rock energy in under five minutes.

🥉 Third Place

Mystery Science Theater 3000 → Alan Jackson

A sentence that shouldn't exist.

Yet here we are.

Podify Achievement Badges

🏆 The Live Album Addict
More than half your listening came from live recordings.

You are basically attending concerts from your couch.

🏆 Guitar Solo of the Week
Winner: "Stairway to Heaven"

The committee deliberated for nearly three seconds.

🏆 Most Unexpected Country Detour
Winner: "Convoy" by C.W. McCall

Because nothing says "Pink Floyd marathon" quite like CB radio chatter.

🏆 Hero of Gaia
Awarded for repeated visits to Final Fantasy IX.

🏆 Classic Rock Preservation Society
Successfully prevented classic rock from becoming an endangered species.

🏆 The Shuffle Goblin Award
Granted for creating playlist transitions that would terrify Spotify engineers.

Listener Personality Report

If Podify generated a personality profile, it would probably say:

"This listener enjoys classic rock, live recordings, progressive rock, country music, video game soundtracks, and complete unpredictability."

Translated into plain English:

"User treats genres like buffet options."

And honestly, that's what made this week fun.

One minute I was listening to David Gilmour quietly reflecting on life. The next minute I was blasting The Warning. Then came Final Fantasy. Then truck-driving songs. Then Led Zeppelin.

Was it coherent?

Not remotely.

Was it entertaining?

Eighty-eight plays suggest the answer is yes.

And that's really what Podify Wrapped is all about.

 

I Don't Mean Dallas

So this is going to probably get kind of weird. I'm trying to get my old last.fm account set up to track what I listen to on my iPods. Some random Reddit thread pointed me to a program that will get my iPods talking to the site via my PC. With that in mind, I'm going to try to convert that into a fairly straightforward, weekly blog post in which a ChatGPT bot basically judges me for my listening habits for the week.

Fun, eh?

I decided to run the testing tracks through ChatGPT just to see what the output looked like. I got two options. 

Here is the "standard blog post" version:

My iPod Listening History This Week: A Completely Normal Person's Musical Choices

There are two kinds of people in the world: people who carefully curate playlists to match a mood, and people who let their iPod ricochet between Pink Floyd, Billy Ray Cyrus, Led Zeppelin, and Mark Chesnutt like a caffeinated squirrel with access to a jukebox.

Based on this week's listening history, I am very clearly the second person.

Over the course of 32 recorded listens, my musical tastes demonstrated all the consistency of a weather forecast in Indiana. Somehow I managed to bounce between classic rock, hard rock, progressive rock, country, metal, and whatever category "Kick Out the Jams" falls into when it suddenly appears in the middle of everything else.

The good news is that I'm never bored.

The bad news is that neither is my iPod.

The Top Artists of the Week

The crown for most-played artist wasn't exactly a runaway victory. Instead, several artists finished tied at the top with two plays each, creating what can only be described as a musical traffic jam.

Boston

Boston managed two appearances with "More Than a Feeling" and a live version of "Rock And Roll Band." This suggests that at some point I decided that hearing one of the most recognizable guitar sounds in rock history wasn't enough and immediately followed it with more Boston.

Honestly, that's hard to argue with.

Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin also landed two spins with "Bring It on Home" and "In My Time of Dying." Apparently I spent part of the week reminding myself that subtlety is overrated and that songs should occasionally be longer than some television episodes.

David Gilmour

David Gilmour's solo work showed up twice, including "A Boat Lies Waiting" and a live version of "Wish You Were Here." This is the musical equivalent of taking a brief emotional journey before immediately returning to giant guitar riffs elsewhere in the playlist.

Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd also earned two plays with "Sorrow" and "Bring the Boys Back Home." The combination suggests I was either contemplating the human condition or simply enjoying one of the greatest catalogs ever assembled. Possibly both.

The Warning

The newest band among the week's leaders was The Warning, whose live recordings of "MONEY" and "Dull Knives (Cut Better)" proved that my listening habits aren't entirely trapped in a classic-rock museum.

Only mostly.

Mark Chesnutt

Perhaps the biggest surprise was Mark Chesnutt's "Goin' Through The Big D," which was the only song to receive two plays during the week. Apparently I heard it once and thought, "You know what? Let's run that back."

I respect that level of commitment.

The Songs That Defined the Week

While most tracks received a single play, a few stood out as representative of the week's overall vibe.

The playlist opened with a classic-rock parade that included REO Speedwagon's "Keep on Loving You," the Eagles' "Take It Easy," Led Zeppelin's "Bring It on Home," and The Who's live version of "Won't Get Fooled Again."

In other words, the week started with a soundtrack that could comfortably fuel a road trip, a backyard cookout, or a conversation beginning with, "They just don't make music like they used to."

Then things became delightfully unpredictable.

Billy Ray Cyrus appeared with "Achy Breaky Heart." Metallica showed up with a live symphonic version of "Nothing Else Matters." Paul Brandt rolled through with "Convoy." The Presidents of the United States of America crashed the party with "Kick Out the Jams."

At this point, my listening history stopped looking like a playlist and started looking like a radio station being operated by multiple personalities.

Genre Breakdown: Controlled Chaos

The dominant genre this week was unquestionably classic rock. Boston, Foreigner, REO Speedwagon, The Who, Van Halen, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, and the Eagles formed the backbone of the listening session.

Progressive and psychedelic rock also made a strong showing thanks to Pink Floyd, David Gilmour, Rush, and Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets. This suggests that while I enjoy straightforward rock songs, I also occasionally want a track that requires a map, a compass, and a willingness to disappear into a twelve-minute instrumental section.

Country music maintained a healthy presence through Dierks Bentley, Mark Chesnutt, Billy Ray Cyrus, Lyle Lovett, and Paul Brandt. These tracks served as a reminder that sometimes the perfect follow-up to Pink Floyd is a song about trucks, heartbreak, or both.

Meanwhile, Metallica and The Warning brought some heavier energy to the mix, ensuring that the guitars remained loud enough to prevent anyone from accusing this playlist of being relaxing.

Final Thoughts

If this week's listening history proves anything, it's that my musical taste refuses to stay in one lane.

One minute I'm listening to thoughtful David Gilmour ballads. The next minute I'm blasting Led Zeppelin. A few songs later I'm singing along to Mark Chesnutt and Billy Ray Cyrus without the slightest concern for genre consistency.

And honestly, that's probably the best part.

The playlist may not make sense on paper, but it never gets boring. My iPod continues to function as both a music player and a personality test, and based on this week's results, the diagnosis appears to be: enthusiastic classic-rock addict with occasional country detours and absolutely no interest in staying on theme.

I can live with that.

Here is the "Spotify Wrapped-style" version:

 My iPod Wrapped: The Week My Musical Identity Crisis Went Public

Every year Spotify releases Wrapped and people discover they listened to one artist for 47,000 minutes while convincing themselves they have "eclectic taste."

This week, my iPod generated a much more honest report.

And the results suggest that I don't have a favorite genre so much as a favorite activity: aggressively changing genres every few songs.

By the Numbers

Total Plays: 32

Unique Artists: 30

Most-Played Artists: 6 artists tied with 2 plays each

Most-Played Song: "Goin' Through the Big D" by Mark Chesnutt (2 plays)

Percentage of Songs Played Only Once: 96.9%

Commitment Level: About the same as a toddler walking through an ice cream shop.

Most people have comfort artists. Apparently I have comfort chaos.

Nearly every song this week was a unique selection. Instead of settling into familiar territory, I spent the week wandering through decades of music like someone who accidentally gained access to every radio station in North America.

Your Top Artists

#1 (Tie) Boston

2 plays | 6.25% of weekly listening

Boston earned top billing thanks to "More Than a Feeling" and a live version of "Rock And Roll Band."

Apparently one of the defining themes of my week was hearing one legendary guitar tone and immediately deciding I needed another.

#1 (Tie) Led Zeppelin

2 plays | 6.25% of weekly listening

With "Bring It on Home" and "In My Time of Dying," Led Zeppelin reminded me that songs don't need to be concise when they can simply become a way of life.

#1 (Tie) Pink Floyd

2 plays | 6.25% of weekly listening

Pink Floyd contributed both "Sorrow" and "Bring the Boys Back Home."

This suggests that somewhere between all the classic rock and country music, I found time to contemplate humanity, war, existence, and whether my speakers could handle one more David Gilmour guitar solo.

#1 (Tie) David Gilmour

2 plays | 6.25% of weekly listening

Speaking of Gilmour...

A solo David Gilmour track and a live version of "Wish You Were Here" made the cut, proving that I apparently need Pink Floyd-related content in multiple formats.

#1 (Tie) The Warning

2 plays | 6.25% of weekly listening

One of the newest acts in the week's lineup, The Warning brought some modern energy to a playlist otherwise populated by people whose peak album sales happened before the internet existed.

#1 (Tie) Mark Chesnutt

2 plays | 6.25% of weekly listening

The only artist whose song was repeated.

When "Goin' Through the Big D" came on, I apparently decided that one trip through the Big D wasn't enough.

Top Songs of the Week

#1 Goin' Through the Big D — Mark Chesnutt

2 plays

The undisputed champion.

Every other song got one spin. This one got two.

That's a 100% increase in commitment compared to literally everything else I listened to.

Honorable Mentions

Since almost every song tied for second place, let's celebrate the sheer randomness of the contenders:

• More Than a Feeling — Boston

• Bring It on Home — Led Zeppelin

• Wish You Were Here (Live) — David Gilmour

• Nothing Else Matters (S&M) — Metallica

• Achy Breaky Heart — Billy Ray Cyrus

• Convoy — Paul Brandt

• Kick Out the Jams — The Presidents of the United States of America

No algorithm on Earth could successfully predict that sequence.

Genre Report Card

Classic Rock: 55%

Classic rock dominated the week.

Boston, Foreigner, REO Speedwagon, Eagles, The Who, Van Halen, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, and Led Zeppelin formed the backbone of the playlist.

My iPod spent most of the week pretending it was parked in the lot outside a 1978 arena concert.

Progressive Rock & Floyd-Adjacent Content: 15%

Pink Floyd, David Gilmour, Rush, and Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets accounted for a significant portion of listening time.

This category can be summarized as:

"Would you like a normal song?"

"No, I'd like a musical journey."

Country: 20%

Mark Chesnutt, Dierks Bentley, Billy Ray Cyrus, Lyle Lovett, and Paul Brandt made surprisingly strong appearances.

At any given moment this week I was only one song away from either a guitar solo or a pickup truck.

Sometimes both.

Hard Rock & Metal: 10%

Metallica and The Warning delivered enough volume to ensure the playlist never became too thoughtful.

Whenever things started getting reflective, somebody plugged in another amplifier.

Most Unexpected Musical Jump

One of the best things about tracking listening history is discovering transitions that would horrify professional DJs.

This week's playlist casually moved between artists like:

Pink Floyd → Billy Ray Cyrus

Metallica → Country Music

David Gilmour → Convoy

These are not genre shifts.

These are acts of transportation.

What This Says About Me

Spotify would probably describe me as:

"An adventurous listener with diverse musical interests."

My iPod, having witnessed the evidence firsthand, would probably describe me as:

"A person who cannot make up their mind."

And honestly, that's fair.

This week wasn't about discovering a favorite artist or obsessively replaying a single album. It was about bouncing between decades, genres, and moods with complete disregard for consistency.

One minute I wanted thoughtful progressive rock.

The next minute I wanted stadium rock.

Then country.

Then metal.

Then somehow Billy Ray Cyrus.

In short, my listening habits remain exactly what they've always been: wildly inconsistent, occasionally questionable, and endlessly entertaining.

And frankly, I wouldn't have it any other way.

I like both options, but I think I'm going to go with the Spotify-esque job on a weekly basis. 

I'm going to snag the info weekly, and try to have my week's posts up for a Monday. 

Life Is A Highway

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

For some reason, the extremely bizarre premise of this book amused me greatly! I especially love how it ended...To me, the phrase "life is a highway" is apt for this book.

View all my reviews

Rocket Man Burnin' Out His Fuse Up Here Alone

Finally developed my first Sprocket Rocket roll of film today.

Here are some of the highlights:

 

Here I Am In Prison

Dominion of Blades by Matt Dinniman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Altogether a solid book. Admittedly, I came across this post DCC, so I'll be interested in how the 3rd book reads. After he is done with DCC.

View all my reviews

Treachery And Treason, There's Always An Excuse For It

Review: The Mystery of the Moaning Cave 

The Mystery of the Moaning Cave by William Arden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This one was one of my favorite Three Investigators books when I was younger. According to the Nook, the copy I have is only 99 pages, so it should go pretty quickly.

I'm going to read this one all the way through on the Teal Nook GlowLight 4. Which, honestly, I kind of hate so far. The device, not the book. I'll write about that elsewhere.

As for the story, it is enjoyable and pretty fast paced. If you pay attention to the details, it's pretty easy to figure out who the villain of the piece is pretty early on, but for a kid-aimed mystery, I enjoyed it again...Thirty years later.

I'm pretty sure I read this one in one sitting when I was about ten, and I read it again in ~2 hours this evening.

View all my reviews

And I'll Throw The Book At You

I started reading a Three Investigators book, The Mystery of the Moaning Cave this evening for the first time since something like '93. I read it in one day, while I was home sick from school and I remember really enjoying the book. I'm pretty sure we had two copies, and the cover had come off of one, so the sheaf of pages was just flapping around freely.

I miss those books.

Anyway, I decided today to read it on the Nook GlowLight 4 that I picked up recently.  Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of it. 32GB of storage? Sure, but you can only use  5GB for side-loaded content. Which is about all I use these things for. The rest of it is kind of stupid. I don't like that the cover doesn't display on the screen when it's sleeping.

Also, literally every time I've gone to use it...It's been dead. I haven't picked up my Kindle since something like February, but I can probably go turn it on now and it's just fine to use. This thing? Nopers. I fully charged it today, and I'm going to try to use it until the battery dies. Just to see. Probably a few days. 

I Can Feel It Coming In The Air Tonight

 Review: A Parade of Horribles

A Parade of Horribles by Matt Dinniman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I figured that topping Faction Wars wouldn't be easy. I feel like each book in this series so far very much overshadows the previous book, and this one is no different. The racing was handled...Very chaotically. Anything else would have probably been the wrong way to go, and it was definitely the way to go. I love how this time around almost all of the NPCs got to shine. Not just for a page or two here or a page or two there, nope. When it was their turn, they took it.

The audiobook version of Chapter 57? Needs to be a standalone download for all to experience. No doubt about that.

The AI near the end? Perfection.

The ending? I must say...I didn't see that ending coming. But could anyone have predicted that?

View all my reviews

Transformations That Were Too Hard To Find

'Cats don't shoot lasers from their eyes, either, but here we are, Carl. Mama needs a night off.”

And The Joke's...ON YOU!

 

 

Here's a random ass flower.  

 

Goodnight.