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En route from San Diego to the Newark airport this past Friday night, my iPod helped create one of the most intense music listening experiences I’ve ever had (and those who’ve heard me pontificate on my first Phish concert know exactly how high a bar I’m reaching with that statement).
Having finished the latest (and truly brilliant) Harry Potter novel and the current issue of Wired, I found myself without additional reading material. I did see a copy of a local newspaper that someone had left in the seat pocket in front of me and noticed that the weather headline was a reminder that the Perseid Meteor Shower was in full swing. So, I opened the window shade and looked out the window.
It was like a Roger Dean painting come to life.
Above me, I could see shooting stars (meteors) about every 5 seconds…some so bright you almost had to squint. Clearly visible on the horizon were Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) which I have never seen before and were absolutely breathtaking. Below us were thunderheads, with very distinct forks of lightining arching between them nearly constantly. I reached for my iPod, put together a quick "On-The-Go" playlist in seconds and for the next couple of hours I sat glued to the plane window with a blanket over my head and shoulders (to block out the ambient light of the cabin and glare of laptops surrounding me) and the volume way up. The view was spectacular….I will never forget it. And the playlist I had chosen as my soundtrack was perfect…have you ever had the experience where what you are seeing and what you are hearing are so perfectly in synch that its hard to believe one wasn’t influencing the other? It was almost like the music was "playing" the lightning, or that a shooting star was timing itself to a peak in the music. It was one of those rare audio/visual experiences that was completely immersive.
The whole experience was really a bit beyond my descriptive power, but the point is that this experience would not have been possible with a portable CD player, cassette walkman or any type of radio station. The capacity to carry so much music and the brilliant interface of the iPod allowed me quickly and easily to set up a listening experience that I will *NEVER* forget. So three cheers for my iPod for helping to create a truly stellar experience…
Here’s the playlist for those interested (hipsters beware…this playlist may give you hives):
Camel "Lunar Sea"
Steve Hillage "Solar Musick Suite"
Khan "Space Shanty"
Jean Luc Ponty "Cosmic Messenger"
Yes "Close to the Edge"
Happy the Man "Starborne"
King Crimson "Asbury Park"
Ozric Tentacles "Sunscape"
Grateful Dead "Dark Star" (live version from 4/8/72)
Hidria Spacefolk "Pangaia"
Terje Rypdal "Odyssey" (Live 1975)
1 response so far ↓
1 Harry Bridge // Aug 22, 2005 at 9:36 pm
sounds like a fun flight! I want to gently disagree with the thought that it wouldn’t have been possible without an mp3 player. certainly in terms of length and sustained experience that might be true, but I think there’s something to be said for the synchronicity of the purely unplanned - I remember back in the days when you could listen to a walkman during takeoff, I had _Close to the Edge_ (album, not song) on, and the intro to Siberian Khatru came on during takeoff. the movement of the plane, coupled with the power of YES made for an exhilarating experience, albeit a momentary one…
I wonder if anyone saw the huddled shape next to the window, taking in the audio-visual experience of a lifetime!
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