What do you watch / listen to?

While working

[Visit Thailand]

Wanted to ask question below so thought I would start a new thread about what people listen to while tapping away at the keyboard.

I watch TV if something major is happening on the news otherwise I like to listen to the radio.

Q - On that note is anyone having problems connecting to cpitalfm's (in London) online radio feed?

[nancyb]

Depends ...

If all is going well, then probably Beethoven or Rachmaninoff - at full throttle :)

if it's going ok, then maybe rock

if it's not going so well, maybe disco, latin or country which lightens my spirit and makes me want to dance my troubles away

if nothing is going right :( then silence!

if I can't get any more depressed because all seems lost, then I turn on world news followed later by disco, latin or country ;)

[RoadRash]

I prefer to listen to music without lyrics, be it Trance, Classical, Jazz, or Salsa. 90% it is trance :)

[dragonlady7]

iTunes. iTunes is my savior. At home, I have a library exceeding 25 gigs. I have to sort through and do some culling; the herd grows excessive.
At work, I bring my boyfriend's laptop and use it as an overgrown iPod. There are only 9.5 GB of mp3 and that other format Apple's using for music files on that machine. (.aac? They sound darn good, whatever they are.)
The music on my two machines is quite diverse. I listen to the work one so much that I've developed an obsessive habit about the play stats. I like best sorting the whole giant library by play count and then listening from the songs with a count of 0 up to the higher ones. At this point, I can't get through the whole playlist in a day, or two, or even three. So pretty much throughout the week I work through from the bottom to the top, skipping the ones that don't need to be advanced (you can uncheck them and they won't be played)... and then when i need to think about something besides work I look at the distribution, because i don't understand numbers at all but I kind of like them. :D
The one at home is a brand new computer so I haven't had time to accumulate any stats. I have trouble listening to it because I don't know where to start!
The actual music contained therein is all my CDs, all my boyfriend's CDs, all the CDs i've ever borrowed, and all the mp3s I've ever begged, borrowed, or stolen. My favorite songs are mixed. I have the 4-disc B. B. King set in there, so he comes up often... I like Susan Tedeschi as well, and just recently got a copy of the Stevie Ray Vaughan box set. That's all my boyfriend's music. Good blues stuff.
I listen to a lot of blues and jazz, a lot of what's loosely defined as "folk" (Indigo Girls, Joni Mitchell, Ani DiFranco), a lot of what's tightly defined as "folk" (The Chieftains and some other traditional Irish bands, as well as Gillian Welch and the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack), a fair bit of just plain "rock" and even some "pop" and maybe some "punk" if you can call it that (Bare Naked Ladies, Tori Amos, Nirvana, Manic Street Preachers, Dropkick Murphys, Motorhead), and yes, even some trance I inherited from an ex-boyfriend's mp3 collection. (He loved Orbital. I have a lot of Orbital. it's good when I don't want to pay too much attention but just want to get my groove on.) Man, I'll even listen to country if it's good. (I have more Steve Earle than I strictly intended to. And Townes Van Zandt. And what genre is Roger Cline and the Peacemakers? I've never been quite sure.)
I can't work without music. Music helps me focus. It's absolutely invaluable. I can't listen to one particular thing for too long, usually, which is why my playcount "playlist" is so perfect-- it's songs I like, sort of in the order I like them, not sorted by artist or genre or album. So... I love iTunes and wish I could afford an iPod so i could have it with me all the time. Heck, if it were waterproof I'd take it in the shower with me. In fact, if they could make the headphones wireless and implant them directly into my skull, that'd simplify things a lot too.

[bill]

I am generally forced to listen to a bunch of people babbling in Japanese...

[jim_w]

The hum of the computers. I have always thought that noise of any kind is too distracting to concentrate on real work. Math agos, etc.

[Nick_W]

xfm.co.uk or a little opera if I'm in the mood...

Nick

[Sinner_G]

Some co-workers and myself got us a server where we put roughly 30 GB of MP3, wo I've got enough choice there.

Depending on mood or how things are going. If everything is bad -> heavy metal to kickstart my brain. If everything is ok -> goth to avoid getting too happy with myself.

[limbo]

I am generally forced to listen to a bunch of people babbling in Japanese

replace japanese for broad yorkshire :)

[jbinbpt]

[thejazzden.org.uk...] when we can get it

[dragonlady7]

I forgot my headphones today. :cry: No worse fate.

[jpjones]

Depends on who's in the office :)

Generally, I'm tapping my feet to the latest shows:
Gilles Peterson show on Radio 1 (streamed),
the latest Ross Allen show on Radio 1 Xtra (streamed),
the latest Norman Jay show on BBC London (streamed), as well as various stuff from across the world, (betalounge.com, milkaudio.com, and stuff of similar ilk, of which theres far too much to mention).

[bakedjake]

Radio Paradise

The WebmasterWorld of online radio. :)

[werty]

I put a few gigs of mp3s on my work computer...I usually listen to some "indie rock" or the beatles and the velvet underground.

At home I have a much larger library to choose from but usually end up sitting in silence or with the tv on as background noise.

[ritualcoffee]

I'm on a Glenn Miller kick lately. The relatively new released CD collection "Platinum" is a most have for Miller fans.

[juniperwasting]

Mostly NPR or a local free form public station , KGLT.

If things are going poorly though, I creep into my Punk (Dead Kennedy's, Nirvana's Bleach, Black Flag, etc...) stash and close the door.

[mivox]

Mostly Virgin Radio because I think the djs are entertaining as heck, and I get the late night shows while I'm at work. :)

But when they play a stinker (Why do they play so much Bon Jovi and Meatloaf on a UK station? Ugh!) I'll switch to Broken Spoke Radio or Radio Paradise... or one of my single-song files.

Broken Spoke Radio is the only station I've ever heard play some of the obscure stuff I have on CD... but then they'll go into an extended interview with a competitve mountain-biker or something, and it's back to Virgin or Paradise.

[webwoman]

Mark Knopfler, Erik Satie, Beatles, Stravinsky, Gordon Lightfoot, country music, Ella Fitzgerald, Thelonius Monk, Byrd, Nancy Wilson and Al Stewart - in other words music music music. I also enjoy total silence but that is hard to come by.

[Ally_Cat]

This begs a good question: Does anyone know of a service similar to Yahoo's Launch (with customizable stations) that is either free, or can be purchased outside of the US? I love programming my own station on Launch, but because I'm in Canada I can't purchase the full service and am stuck with the downgraded quality and missing features. Help!

[Robino]

I listen to:

Earth Crisis (Freya)
Snapcase
NOFX
Integrity
Bouncing Souls
Anti-Flag
Pennywise
Tiger Army
AFI

[Vampyre]

I usually listen to:

Chicago
Savatage
Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Upper Crust

Various Jazz and Classical MP3's

Or whatever Miles is listening to, when he doesn't turn his music down. ;)