Nov 13th, 2009
Seasonally appropriate
With Thanksgiving just around the corner, I find myself with more reason than usual to be grateful this year.
Last month I won a contest, and my prize was some amazing artwork done by my friend Bethany. She’d held the contest to launch a new website and business venture: a design collaboration with her friend Melanie.
At the time Bethany mentioned that there was a second part to the prize, which I’d receive later. I filed this info in the back of my mind…where it promptly got lost until earlier this week, when another package arrived in the mail from her. This one contained two sets of their just-printed-so-I’m-amazed-the-ink-wasn’t-still-wet holiday cards. I’ve been on Bethany’s holiday-card list for a couple of years, and it’s always a delight to see each year’s design. Now I have my own to send out! I tried taking photos of them but couldn’t get a decent picture. So go take a look at them on their Etsy page (which is where you should be going anyway, so you can buy some for yourself).
Yesterday I received another contest prize in the mail (I’ve had a rare streak of luck lately). This one contained a VTech S9181 WiFi internet radio. With this, I can listen to over 11,000 Internet radio stations, plus good old FM stations. This item came from Frank Yang, who writes the very excellent blog Chromewaves, which contains more information about the current music scene than you can shake a stick at. Go take a look at it. You’ll probably spend hours poking around and listening to MP3s…and then start trying to figure out how you can move to Toronto so you can go to all the concerts he writes about.
I set up the radio today, and so far it is cooler than sliced bread. Yes, I’d even go so far as to say it’s all that and a bag of chips. The options are paralyzing. You can search by genre, by location, and by a number of other categories. The only station I’ve added to my Favorites list is Radio Suisse Romande*, and I’m looking for more. But I’m not sure where to begin. (I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t have the time or patience to scan through 11,000 radio stations.) Suggestions? Any of you have favorite Internet radio stations that you’d like to recommend?
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*I used to listen to this when I lived in Switzerland and always liked the announcement “Et pourtant elle tourne” (the words–likely apocryphal–Galileo muttered under his breath after recanting his astronomical findings before the pope) that marked the start of the noon news hour.
9 Responses to “Seasonally appropriate”
Oh, this is hilarious, because I wrote about online radio on my blog on Friday! My favorite music to have on as I go about my day is RadioParadise. My choice of music while I edit is electronic/techno/etc. and I get that on Groove Salad (one of the SomaFM stations) and I’ve recently started listening to Vmix out of France.
Sometimes, when I knit, I used to listen to FolkAlley. Haven’t been there in a while, though — I’m doing more spoken-word podcasts during knitting these days.
Enjoy your new radio!
You actually won one of those radios from Chromewaves! How cool!
I would HIGHLY recommend my local public radio station’s new music station – you can get to the stream at http://thecurrent.org.
Thanks for the great suggestions! (I did see your post about this, Imperatrix.) They are duly noted!
YAY! You did get it! Thanks for writing about it! Melanie and I were so excited to get them out to you! I hope you enjoy! I love being penpals. You know, I never wrote back to you about concord, vermont, but I think it is annoying (and Kevin and Uncle Charlie find it surprising) that Nate Drowns never got back to you! I think you should come to Concord this summer — I’ll do some searching to see if anyone else we know rents. The Isles might and they are super cool. If you come up, I will make sure Arianna and I do too!
@Bethany: I doubt we’ll be going back to Concord for a while–we’ve found a place (on a small pond) that we really, really like a lot (and have already booked for next summer) in Fletcher. Maybe when I get rich enough to be able to afford TWO vacations… :)
Congratulations Lucky Lady!
Sweet wins, friend! Enjoy!
Marsha, that is a bummer. Stupid Nate! Is Fletcher in Vermont?
Yup! But it’s on the other side of the state, east and bit south of St. Albans.