Internet Radio
Internet Radio lets me listen to
whatever I feel like. Now, I just need a TiVo for it.
Looks like a pleasant Sunday morning. Back to my outdoor computer corner just at 11 AM.
I go through my current start-up, which means plugging the short extension block into a nearby weatherproof outlet alongside the workshop portal. Plug the old powered PC subwoofer and stereo satellite speakers into the power strip. Start my PowerBook and plug in the speaker jack.
Internet radio is getting to be a gas. Starting a few years ago, the usual drill was navigate to the website of some hip radio station or standalone internet radio. Log into their “station” and listen via one of the mediocre, mass production music players -- or, even more of a pain, the station might be using a source-specific player written by the “station” manager or some other friendly neighborhood hacker.
Wander over to www.ksfr.org and click on Listen Live and you’ll end up catching the current live broadcast -- if you have Windows Media Player on board. It’s better than the insidious Real Player and not as buggy. Long before I discovered the benefits of switching to Apple hardware and software, I’d decided to focus any experience with music or video on my computers -- via Quicktime. And, then, iTunes.
So, with everything connected, I click the iTunes icon in the OS X Dock and navigate to my latest favorite, Raga Radio. In the best tradition of Indian music, the station governors seem to follow the time of day and year with what they play. Sunrise Ragas in the morning, more energetic and convoluted pieces during the day, sunset and introspective pieces as we move into dusk. Of course, for all I know, I could be half a world out of phase with what they’re webcasting. I haven’t yet searched who and where they are.
I wonder if someone reading this entry -- who had never heard classical Indian music, a raga -- might, then, go searching to listen to a few moments or minutes? My cynical self says that most people never look outside their own little trick bag, confined by the circumstances of family, class and education, constrained by all the dim fears of self-image and society that haunt what passes for perception and understanding in our species.
Right now, I’m 6 minutes into a piece featuring Rahul Sharma, Raga Bhoopali Todi. Intricate as any, a bit more time spent with distinctly noted scales rather than riffs, the drums, tabla have joined back up with the rhythm, now slowing after a long solo. Fading, fading to an end.
Although most of my Internet Radio needs are perfectly well served by Tunes, I found Raga Radio through shoutcast.com . I just peeked over at their home page and, at this moment, they’re linking to almost 12,000 servers. 12,000! Pretty much everything they offer is available via Quicktime or WMP. Just log into a station -- and, if you really like the music [or other content], copy the URL into your player of choice. I maintain a Playlist in iTunes of my Radio Favorites.
Current top three:
Raga Radio,
Radio Darvish -- Persian Traditional Music,
Radioio Classical.
[Update -- I gave my old PC speakers to my father-in-law. Bought myself another pair of the Klipsch Ultras to use with my laptop. They're worth the price.]
[Update -- Raga Radio is off the air. I've switched to www.tabla.com . Classical Indian music; but, mixed from segment to segment with downtempo electric/electronic music. The latter is mostly enjoyable, as well.]
Posted: Sun - July 10, 2005 at 08:19 PM