Posted Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Another Smart Playlist Idea: Songs that Ask a Question

If the air smells a little sweeter today, if the sky looks a little bluer, if the grass looks a little greener, there's a reason: Amazon has gotten its act together.

Amazon is now showing my book and DVD as "shipping within 24 hours" and has it listed at the discounted price of $23.09 (34 percent off).

Finally.

I do have to laugh at one thing: Amazon frequently pairs up two books and offers them both at an even bigger discount. So which book are they pairing up with The Macintosh iLife '05? Why, The Macintosh iLife '04, of course—last year's edition. Hey, collect 'em all, I say!

Songs that Ask a Question
In yesterday's post, I shared one of the iTunes smart playlist ideas that appears in my book: creating a smart playlist containing the first track of each album in your library.

Here's another offbeat smart playlist idea from the book: create a smart playlist of all "songs that ask a question"—that is, songs whose names contain a question mark. Set up the Smart Playlist dialog box to read Song name contains ? (question mark), as shown here.



Add an additional criterion to home in on a specific genre if you like, but I like to keep it eclectic and see what iTunes comes up with. Is it practical? Certainly not, and I resent the implication. Is it fun? You bet. Just be ready with some answers.

iLife trivia tidbit: in iPhoto 5, a question mark in a smart album is a wildcard character. In iTunes, it isn't—fortunately. iLife's inconsistency makes this tip possible.

Today's Tunes: Gotan Project
I love music that transcends genres and styles, and Gotan Project's La Revancha Del Tango fits that description beautifully.

"Gotan" is "tango" spelled sideways, you might say, and this group mixes traditional Argentinean tango with modern chillout beats and programming. It's a sexy combination—check it out.