Pandora's Box

I've found something that's almost as addictive as Facebook: Pandora. Okay, this is WAY not news to most people and I did already know about the site. But my friend Nomi and I were talking about classical music yesterday and how online classical radio sucks (how many times do I have to listen to the Greatest Hits of the 18th Century? And in what twisted universe is Enya or Celtic Woman classical?) Nomi reminded me about Pandora and how you can train it to play whatever music you'd like (and sometimes even more important, train it NOT to play music you don't like).

So this morning I set up a classical station and by and large it did great—a few times I had to tell it to knock off the opera stuff (at least not while I'm trying to read the paper, please!) but everything else I really liked. My only complaint was that I typed in John Adams' name and it came back "WHO?"

Now I just have to resist the temptation to comment on every good song that comes up... and resist adding more artists every time a song comes on that reminds me of another artist that I really like... and resist making lots of different stations so I can have one that's classic rock but not just Floyd/Skynard/Zep (and not just the songs that were overplayed long before they became classic rock—seriously, does anyone need to hear "Stairway to Heaven" again?)... oh man, I could have a different station for every day of the week if not every day of the year...