Last night's iPod walking music was from the CD Karelia Visa by Hedningarna (The Heathens). This isn't exactly exotic music, but it is excellent stuff for walking. It is difficult to categorize the music other than noting it is folkish and utilizes diverse instrumentation ranging from fiddles to bagpipes to hurdy-gurdies. The female voices are in wonderful formation and somewhat reminiscent of Bulgarian women's choirs.
Try some samples at Northside (a great little company that actually treats musicians well)
http://www.noside.com/Catalog/CatalogArtist_01.asp?Action=Get&Artist_ID=16
An interesting feature of much of Hedningarna's music is that much of it sounds awful when encoded with mp3. This stuff could be an ad for aac over mp3 - at the moment I'm listening to Mettsan Tytto on my Powerbook using 160kbps aac . A completely endearing little piece and indistinguishable from the original CD using fine earphones. Even on very high quality mp3 settigs I can hear nasty artifacts.
Message to the folks at Apple -- "Get aac into the iPod and iTunes as soon as possible!" This shouldn't be a big deal as Quicktime 6 Pro comes complete with a fine aac codec.
The Perseid meteor shower is still going strong and should be in evidence for a few more days. We're having high thin clouds along with the standard light pollution, so the display hasn't been wonderful.
If you want to see something bright and fast moving, try looking for the International Space Station. It is particularly bright after twilight and before dawn. There are several sites that help you learn when it will be visible in your area. If you think you're a good photographer you can try to get a photograph that shows detail on the space station ... it is only a few hundred kilometers away after all...
NASA's JPass is a good tool for this
http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/RealTime/JPass/25/JPass.asp
If your dog likes to ride on your motorcycle, this may be appropriate! At the very least it is stylish.
http://www.doggles.com/black_listo.htm
Finally, a terribly sad note. Galen Rowell, one of the world's best outdoors/nature photographers, was killed over the weekend in a plane crash. His book on K2, In the Throne Room of the Mountain Gods, is a classic.
http://www.mountainlight.com/
5:54:10 AM
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