History That’s More Than the Sum of Its Parts →
I know cars have brought about a swarm of environmental problems and wars over oil in the Mideast, but none of that matters the moment I slip into the driver’s seat and crank up the tuneage. A car is a magnificent piece of engineering whose technology gets better as time progresses. Cars are so advanced that they don’t even need oil to run anymore! You know that scene in Back to the Future where Doc Brown throws garbage into the engine? That’s pretty much like owning a vegetable oil-powered car today. In short, the modern world is awesome. Don’t forget it.
But it’s a lot more than technology. Cars let you slide in and out and through a variety of places (though some may argue the detached experience of driving is bad). Most of all, and probably of the most interest to people who read this blog, cars have stereos. I still don’t understand how the Galvin Brothers came up with the Motorola (time to read the Paul Galvin bio, I guess?) but however that happened, it was sheer genius.
I ditched my CDs a couple years back (note to bands: stop sending them); the turntable and iPod are the main source of music at home. This is fine, I’m not complaining. But my car is where I can immerse myself in sound. On those well-worn speakers have I clocked in countless hours of close listening and overanalysis. It’s first where I become infatuated with a song, performer, album, and so on until our inevitable, short-lived musical break-up. Being in the car, with the radio cranked up, is about as close as I can get to replicating what it’s like being in a loud club.
For me, the car is akin to musical independence, just a small way in which the car has liberated people, women in particular, from the daily drone. (I will try to convince myself that being stalled in traffic is a feminist practice next time it happens. This is also why I don’t understand women who can’t drive. I feel like it’s an essential skill.) So it’s really nice to see that journalism, despite all its current failings and disappointments, hasn’t let this important milestone in women’s history get stuck on the side of the road.
