I am completely and utterly obsessed with the new iTunes.

(Actually, I'm kind of obsessed with the new version of Firefox, too, since it has an automatic spell-checker that's currently informing me that I've spelled obsessed incorrectly twice. Anyway. iTunes.)

Since I won't be getting a shiny new iPod anytime soon, I had kind of tuned out (no pun intended) iTunes updates and upgrades. I don't do a lot with iTunes...I don't buy downloads (we still buy CDs, thank you, and the music we share is mostly live and always legal). But a friend at work downloaded the new version of iTunes a few weeks ago and I almost drooled on his shiny new iPod while leaning over his shoulder to stare.

One of the things that I'm sad to have missed is the whole vinyl thing, if only for the importance it gave album artwork and packaging. There are so few musicians that are really doing anything interesting with CD liners (Radiohead, Beck, and MMW...sort of...and Phish...also sort of...spring to mind) and that's really too bad. There's still gorgeous stuff out there - M and I have the End of the World Party poster framed beautifully and hanging in our bedroom and I think it's one of the prettiest pieces of art in our house - but the form disassociates it from the music it accompanies. You can't just sit and contemplate a CD liner as you could a record sleeve.

Which is why the new iTunes, with that gorgeous record rack, is so awesome. It's been so long since I've seen some of my CDs (they're online, on the SlimServer, on a hard drive somewhere, in a binder, on my Pod, or randomly scattered across the world) and browsing through the cover art again is a pleasure akin to a leisurely wander through Amoeba, or Cody's Books, or an art supply shop, except I already own all the stuff in this store.

Of course when over half of your music is live it becomes a lot more gray empty spaces than actual albums. And that's the other brilliant thing about this application: you can download your OWN artwork for albums without formal art or for which iTunes can't find the cover. I may not have played with playlists or shuffle or the iTunes store a lot, but I have always been completely obsessed with keeping my iTunes as organized as possible and have spent hours naming and organizing shows to prevent the dreaded "TheSlip2006-3-21d1t02" from showing up on my iPod (which is how most of our downloaded songs appear). I mean, how is anyone supposed to know that's "Airplane/Primitive" from the Trilogy Lounge in Boulder if I don't become one with the metadata?

So of course I feel the same way about the missing artwork. I spent hours last weekend finding the perfect picture for all of the empty album covers. And when I say "perfect picture" I really mean it. I found live shots from each of the 24 live Tea Leaf Green shows I have on iTunes and paired them with their appropriate show as the substitute cover. And when I couldn't find a photo from a particular show, I used the press photo from the year of the show. No, I am not kidding. Yes, I was having fun. The Slip takes brilliant photos and I used lots of those. I found the "Ape Out" sticker for the HABMX NYE late night '04 show. I haven't even STARTED Phish yet.

Guess I know what I'm doing this weekend.