What we want for Christmas.

It's not that hard, after watching Apple's special event today, to figure out what I want for Christmas.

Just as I - and the rest of the world - figured, the prices for iPhones have dropped, and there are new iPods to be lusted after and shown to friends and finally, at some northern Apple store, purchased with glee.

It used to be, friends, that we heard new songs on the radio, and maybe recorded them on a cassette, and walked down the street with a cheap knock-off of the Walkman in our hands.

"That old country is fading away and I await the new," Garrison Keillor wrote yesterday. "It doesn't matter whether I welcome it or not, it's coming, and I watch its arrival with interest."

He was writing about our changing attitudes about sex, but it could easily apply to music. We've now seen no less than three music formats in our lifetime, and what could be sexier than the current one?

I can't think of a facet of my life that doesn't involve my total dedication to an art form like music, and it's people like me (and you, dear reader) that adore beautiful objects to make our listening all the more enjoyable.

It's obvious: the people that work for Apple, like most of us, adore music. And you can tell they put that passion in their products. Music is sexy. iPods are sexy. Easy, right?

So now that iPhones are only $399, owning a piece of the Apple/AT&T humpfest becomes a little more realistic.

Dear Santa Jobs...