"Will You Please Autograph My iPod?"

This weekend, I attended a concert by Burt Bacharach, who's going strong at 77...and whose music means a lot to me. It was wonderful--and when it was over, he graciously hung around to chat with fans and sign copies of his new CD, which was for sale at the show.

I hadn't bought the CD; I'd already downloaded the album from iTunes. (Side note: I went the iTunes route in part because the Bacharach album was one of 52 discs distributed with Sony's now-infamous computer-invading XCP copy protection.) So I didn't have anything for him to autograph.

Or did I? My iPod happened to be in my coat pocket, and it contained the new album--along with a lot of other Bacharach tunes. It's what I use to listen to favorite music these days. So I had a minor epiphany and asked Burt Bacharach to sign it.

He did, seeming amused and commenting that he'd never signed an iPod before. I can't imagine that I'm the first fan who ever asked a musician to sign an iPod, but I seem to be--for the time being, anyhow--the only one with a Bacharach one. (Which means that even when I retire this iPod, as I will someday, I'll keep it as a memento.)

And here it is. (Side note #2: The shiny, scratch-prone back of an iPod has got to be the most difficult surface in the world to photograph. It took me lots of fiddling and Photoshopping to get a picture this legible...and trust me, it looks a lot better in real life.)