Ahira's Hangar

These days I hardly turn the radio on (meaning never in all practicality), so I've never bothered to check local programming. But don't let me stop you from enjoying yourself.

For paid holiday entertainment, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet is presenting its annual rendition of The Nutcracker. Never been to it myself, I just listen to my Nutcracker CDs.

As embarrassing as it is for someone like me (who used to be in the radio biz) to admit, I rarely listen to the radio for music any more, either.

Last weekend, during my housecleaning/gift-wrapping/box-to-Colorado-packing spree, I plugged a bunch of CDs into the stereo (20-CD changer!) and let 'er rip. The selections included:

Chicago's Christmas album
Jethro Tull's Christmas album
James Taylor's Christmas album
Raul Malo's Christmas album (which includes the weirdest arrangement of "Silver Bells" ever recorded)
R. Carlos Nakai's Christmas album
Windham Hill's Winter Solstice I and II
An album called "The Gift" by two artists whose names I can't recall, but it's acoustic, very calming -- one of my faves
An album of Christmas music played on the glass harmonica

I've also got some CDs of medieval and Renaissance Christmas music (in particular, one by the Waverly Consort), and "Chant Noel", that I haven't listened to yet this year. I'll get to 'em. I've still got a few gifts to wrap....

Hey, I've never had a CD changer. A 20-CD unit sounds awesome to me! Sure, such things may be anachronistic in this age of iPods and MP3s, but I don't care. I've been eyeing Sony's monster 300-CD changer for years. That could accommodate my entire CD library. Almost.

Anyway, in a week or so I'll start playing A Charlie Brown Christmas, along with Elvis and the Nutcracker. Beyond that, I don't know. Honestly, I'd rather just sit back with a movie like The Muppets Christmas Carol, which I'm really fond of. That reminds me...I don't even have it on DVD. I've been catching it on air, but I should buy the darn thing.

The 20-CD changer used to be Magickmaker's. It's one of those cheap crappy stereos from Kmart with a 90-day warranty. My old Aiwa (with a 3-CD changer, which was perfectly adequate for me) finally totally died last year, and Magickmaker said I could just use hers since she'd never plugged it in after we moved to the new place -- because (all together now) she listens to her iPod.

The 20-CD thing sort of annoys me. I have to keep fiddling with the buttons to get it to quit cycling through every slot in the changer to find the two CDs I've loaded. When it eventually dies, I'll throw it out and maybe get a Bose Wave. Or something flat to hang on the wall. This thing is a *huge* cube thanks to the 20-CD carousel.

I suppose I could convert my music library to all-MP3, but I'm not there emotionally yet. I didn't have any trouble giving up vinyl for CD (despite the allegedly sterile sound of digital music), but I've had too many computer crashes to be willing to give up my tangible discs...

I've seen those Bose Wave commercials. If you ever do get one, be sure to let us know how it sounds!

I've converted a fair number of my CDs to MP3s, and have burned a few MP3 compilation CDs for my Sony Discman. But I still mainly use it for CD listening. I've resisted buying an MP3 player for years, but maybe I will for next summer. I'm sticking with Sony, as I've read in reviews that the sound quality of their MP3 players is superior to that of iPods. Of course, I'm not giving up my Discman.

I was not sad about leaving LPs behind for CDs either. I've heard that vinyl has made a big comeback in recent years - with teenage listeners, too. Power to them. I'm all for choices, but I'll take the sweet silence of CDs over the hiss, clicks and pops of LPs any day. That said, I'd like to get one of those inexpensive turntables with a USB out so I can transfer some old LPs over to my computer and burn 'em to CD.

I would love to be able to transfer some old vinyl records over to CD's. We still have a turntable, but we never use it because we do not know if we would ever be able to find a replacement needle for it.

And I am another who rarely listens to the radio, except in the car. And even then, on a long trip I load up my Jeep's stereo with CD's (it has a 6 CD changer). Locally I do really like out public radio jazz station, and listen to that often.

My husband, on the other hand, pretty nearly always has a radio on - but it is rarely on music. He listens to sports talk radio.

I do listen to da nooze on my way to and from work in the car -- my alma mater (well, one of them), .

I dumped my LPs and turntable at the same time, and later kicked myself for it -- I had one album (by the Waverly Consort, coincidentally) that I loved, but that has never been remastered for CD. I finally bought it on eBay and hired a production house locally to dub it to CD for me. It wasn't *quite* as expensive to have the production house make the dub as it would have been to buy a USB turntable and do it myself for that one album.

I've been seeing USB turntables for about $90 this year. Might be a good time for folks who still have vinyl to get one.

Any scuttlebutt on the new Sting Christmas album? I have the one he did a couple of years ago, "Songs from the Labyrinth", which is kind of uneven.

Those two ought to do a Christmas album together.

Hey I listen to sports talk radio!

We won't hold it against you!