Now that we have the iPhone, I'm more likely to get the gadget, but I think I would mostly use the player for audiobooks when I'm walking, cuz walking and thinking are good combos for me. As for music, I still find most music too engrossing for complex sensorial tasks like… walking on a sidewalk, or withdrawing into myself in a crowded subway

As for movies in the states the problem is the industry spends a fortune on big budget special effects movies and that leaves little room for smaller movies. You can make about 100 Being John Malcovich’s or Mementos for the price of one Tranformers or X-Men movies. European movies don’t always have big budgets and therefore must depend on, of all things, a good script to carry the day. I’ll take a good script and unknown but talented actors any day over a overbloated special effects driven spectacle. But in the end I don’t think it’s about the continent of origin so much as industry executives wanting to make money and the general public rewarding their efforts by flocking to see poorly done sequels like Spiderman 3 and Pirates of the Carribean 3.

What instrument do you play, and what style of music? Do you use your iPod as playalong track in practice, or simply use it to listen to your repertoire?

On Euro vs. Amero flicks: sorry if it looked like I was making a value judgment. Both Europe and America are home to rich traditions in movie-making… and there is such a thing as Eurotrash!

That said: in my heavy movie-going days of yore, I did notice that European films tended overall to leave more emotional breathing space than American films, and much of this had to do with sparer use of music.

At least it seemed to me. If you (or anyone) know(s) of a comparative study on this phenomenon, I’d certainly be interested in reading it.

Incidentally, my girlfriend gave me a cell phone and I almost never use it.

I was a film major in school and don’t necessarily think European films are better than American ones. Certainly the US puts out its share of bad big budget films but we also have quite an underground movement of top notch films. Europe produces some good films as does Canada. One thing you may want to consider is that European governments subsidize their film industry and the films don’t need to turn a profit. Americans don’t have that luxury. Then again we fon’t have 30%+ taxes or outrageous gas and cigarette prices like in Canada and Europe.