Vinyl vs CDs/MP3s continued

I have long been a big proponent of listening to entire albums(at the very least for the first listen, to give all of the material a fair shot) and fervently practice this is my daily life. Most of the time, the individual songs that make up the whole of the album have a continuity and, perhaps even, coherence to them, making a larger single work of art out of the many(atoms beget molecules and so on). However, in the hustle and bustle of the regular workaday or running errands(see distractions), this continuity is often interrupted, severed as it may be. This has become particularly more frequent with the advent of portable listening devices, starting with the Walkman, then the portable CD player and, now, the mighty iPod/MP3 player. I say this, because when carrying your music with you wherever you go, you open up the listening experience to higher chance of interruption(i.e. running into a homey on the street, answering your celly, etc.). I absolutley LOVE my iPod and guard it like a mother Polar Bear does her weekling cub, but it has forever changed the way in which I listen, for better and for worse. For the better because I am able to carry a small library of my favorite shit to thump in the car, while walking to get coffee and riding my bike. For better because, when I do need to hit pause, I can just as easily start right back up where I left off or clickwheel my way back to the beginning of a song or album, whatever my pleasure. But it has changed my listening approach for the worse for one extremely significant, sometimes saddening reason. The frequency with which I listen to full albums has been drastically reduced, particularly on work/errand days. There may be some extenuating circumstances here. For one, I do not have a stereo in my bedroom at my current house; my stereo is in the living room(mostly for logistics reasons...my room itself is small) and, thus, I only listen to music on my 'Pod while in my room(I also LOVE headphones, but that is another subject...), which lends itself to an isolationist sense about me(don't have a problem with it, just a fact). Music should often be socially enjoyed, but this is not always possible in a shared living space...back to the headphones or no tunes at all if I'm hangin with roommates(who don't listen to music nearly as religiously as I do...then there are issues of taste and mood...on and on and on, to the break of dawn).
So, to bring this back to the discussion of vinyl(analog) vs cd/mp3(digital). This is one(of many) advantage and benefit to the procuring of and listening to vinyl. I find it nearly impossible to listen to vinyl and not listen to an entire album. This is even more true since I long gave up my feeble atttempts at DJ'ing(I even gave one of my tables to a friend who didn't have a vinyl record player, though Iplan on getting another soon), so my focus in the format is to listen to entire albums. I still struggle to make more time for this kind of listening(for many reasons that are and are not in my control due to shared living) and have resolved to also utilize my 'Pod for entire album listening on a much more consistent basis.
By the way, before I kick off, I just thought of something. As for the continuity arguments, the 'Pod can be just as effective when listening at home. Maybe even more effective, because I never have to get up and flip the record(I know there's a little record inside there!!! I guess the iPod gremlin just flips it for me!?), therefore representing a much truer sense of continuity.
Thoughts?

"VINYL FOREVER, FUCK CDS!"

This is a direct quote from the stall wall at the College Inn Pub, which seemed relevant to the continuing discussion here. Not much time to expand/expound this "morning"(slept in till 12.30, sweet!!), but I will return, as I and many others have mad thoughts on the subject.
Soon

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SATYA!!!

First of all, today is my youngest niece Satya's 4th Birthday. Let's all give her a grand b-day cheer, shall we?!!!!!? She is named after a philosophy of non-violence laid down by Mohandas Ghandi. She is a beautiful, wild, immensely interesting person packed into a little 4 year-old girl(that's her and myself pictured above). She exhibits an understanding of the world and intelligence that she may not even yet be able to express, but it is apparent when you look at her and interact with her.
So, in Satya's honor, I feel it is necessary to continue the discussion going on with RoyC, myself and others involved.
I worked for many years in record shops, Tower(now defunct, sniffle, sniffle, tear) and Cellophane Square, here in Seattle. It served to simultaneously fuel and satisfy my passion(s) for music. Part of this passion had to do with the ability to discuss and critique music and its related culture. This is exactly what is so important, functionally, about the discussion Roy and I have cultivated here. How do artforms exist, struggle to survive sometimes, in our consumer culture, which is more concerned with the product than its effect on us and our reaction to it?
We have been discussing format, namely the rapid shifts in format in the digital age, and how it pertains, most specifically, to vinyl and how artists/bands will record(to what ends?). For now, I just have a little anecdote connected to format.
The other day, I stopped in on my old manager at Cellophane to pick up a data disc he'd burned for me. Another old coworker was there, looking for some hard to find tunes. Upon searching on the interweb, he told her that there was a copy of the album available on CD and another on Ebay(I think), which was on cassette. She immediately chortled at the thought of purchasing a cassette. And why the fuck not?!? Who actually buys cassettes nowadays, really??? I mean, there are still plenty of folks who might make a mixtape for a friend or a girl they're trying to win the affections of(yup, that's me...they take so much more time and thought to make than a disc! C'mon!!), but other than that, it is clearly a dead format. Now, if he had sought out and found a vinyl copy of said album, I am 100% sure she would've been stoked, as she said so. Except for one fact. She was trying to buy the album for her dad, who now lives on a boat and, due to that circumstance, no longer owns a turntable. That is a pretty specific circumstance, based solely on space(mostly for the storage of vinyl). This illustrates, in my mind, that, if you removed that barrier, then two people from separate generations(one in her mid-to-late twenties and her father) would still be pursuing that piece of vinyl. The reasons may not be boldly clear as to why, but the passion and hunt are there, where as the cassette is scoffed at like a dish of Elementary School Cafeteria Mac'n'Cheese. And this all goes down in a few seconds in 2008, years beyond the announced 'supposed' death of vinyl. I think that this should do it for now, but this subject is far from covered.
G'night all and, once again, Happy Birthday Satya!!

Coming Soon...A discussion of music formats...the demise of the CD? and where the Hell does Vinyl fit in?!?

So, it looks as though my main shit stain, Roy C, and I will soon begin a back-and-forth discussion regarding the next age of the music industry and the formats that will and won't survive these changes.
Anything to say, in a preliminary sense, ROY?
Well, my questions are will the CD end up like the LP or the cassette or 8-track? Also, what will bands record? Whereas they used to record for a format (e.g., 45 minutes for an LP or an hour or more for a CD), those choices seem arbitrary in the age of the MP3. So, what does the "album" become?
Yessss, let's also remember that Miles Davis was the first to crack the time limit.
ps- the 8 track image is of a Thomas Dolby tape...the first artist to record a music video(according to our immediate sources).