iTuning up

Always the last on a bandwagon (actually, the band usually don't LET me on the wagon at all hoho) - Garuda has been finally getting around to properly loading up the mass of plastic onto his swanky new external hard drive. Yes, after three years, I'm finally learning to LOVE iTunes. Talk about retro...
Christ, how many HOURS has this eaten up? I'm up to about 500 albums (out of approx 4000) and my evenings seem to have descended into marathon sessions of staring at a screen desperately urging the little thingy to get above 10x.
But more interesting is the way this has revitalised my listening habits.
Yes, I KNOW that mp4s aren't giving me perfect reproduction (some tracks sound TOTALLY remixed. Anyone else get that?) and I know Steve Jobs is the antichrist (now that Gates has given all his money away and left this earthly realm behind), but the excitement garnered by just wondering WHAT will come next on my (almost) heavenly jukebox is almost palpable. No, seriously. It's really good fun to hear your entire listening tastes re-engineered in front of your ears. The Rezillos morph into Arild Anderson who turns a corner and bumps into the Aphex Twin, who quickly duffs him up, steals his bass and fences it to Skinnyman who then decides to give it all up and join the Monkees etc. etc. Is this mere aural masturbation (apologies to my sensitive readers) and ego stroking, or is it the soundtrack to my own personal, endless party? I would argue the latter, as the real beauty of iTunes is that it lets you drop in stuff that you're not too sure about, because you KNOW that you're only gonna get one track occasionally. By osmosis you can, again, become an audio adventurer!
Suddenly (and annoyingly, after buying a new TV) I spend ALL EVENING listening to music again. Handy-size chunks of ones and noughts make for such a breath of fresh air. What's more, if you spice up your library with a fair smattering of Monty Python, or Boosh (no clips over a coupla mins) or whatever silliness takes yer fancy, the thing starts to sound like the best radio station ever invented. Awesome.
Now if only I could get someone to do the other 3,500 cds...