I travel a lot. Someday, I may find time to write down all the things I've
learned about how to do this with minimal pain, but one of the most important
is that the less "stuff" I carry along, the happier I am. Particularly
in my carry-on bag(s), "every gram counts"!
For that reason, I kept avoiding buying a portable audio player and
noise-cancelling headphones, even though many of my uber-frequent-flyer
friends claim this as something they can't live without. Well, I finally
broke down, and bought an
iPod mini
and a pair of Sennheiser
PXC300
headphones. Wow. Good stuff, and definitely helps reduce my stress level.
As for what I listen to... I've ripped my entire CD collection to
flac
using
abcde,
and transcode to mp3 anything I want to move to the iPod using
gtkpod.
When I first bought the iPod, I loaded it up with a diverse collection
of stuff. But after a few trips, I realized that what I enjoy most on
airplanes is classical music. And in particular, I really enjoy listening
to an album of solo violin performance by
Rachel Barton Pine,
called
Solo Baroque.
My daughter and I met Rachel briefly after a concert she gave to benefit the
Colorado Springs Philharmonic
as it struggled to rise from the ashes of the bankrupt Colorado Springs
Symphony two years ago. She autographed a CD we bought of
Handel Sonatas
for Elizabeth that night. Later, Rachel graciously donated several signed
CDs to benefit the
Young Concert Artists orchestra Elizabeth
participates in... and I succeeded in buying enough raffle tickets to end up
winning the Solo Baroque CD. But I hadn't listened to it much until I put
it on the iPod. I particularly like track 9, the
Passacaglia by
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, who I'd never heard of before acquiring
this CD. Rachel is scheduled to appear with the Philharmonic again next
season, and I'm really looking forward to it!
If I'd know I'd have such a short playlist of stuff I actually care
to listen to on airplanes, I might well have gone for an
iPod shuffle
instead of the mini, which would have had the huge benefit of being small
enough to fit into the zippered Sennheiser case along with the headphones,
and not needing a cable to plug into my notebook for updates. Oh well.
The iPod mini and headphones are now a permanent part of my travel kit.
[[!tag tags/music]]