What do you listen to?

Meagan Chaney's recent technical difficulties got me thinking, I know what I like to listen to when I'm in the studio, I wonder what other people listen to? Do you need music?

For throwing and general working around in the studio, I prefer more instrumental stuff. Usually classical, but depending on my mood it could be anything from Alan Parsons to Kodo. Bach is an old standby, especially the Brandenburg Concertos.

What about podcasts? I find I can't concentrate on them and do pottery at the same time, but outside the studio I have a few I like to listen to. The Firing Log is interesting to me, not being even remotely capable of building my own anagama kiln, just to hear how other people work. I like the people he finds to interview.
Robert Briggs at www.corvusmoon.com does the Pottery Pod, with short videos of different techniques. NCECA has also done a podcast series of the conference the last two years. None of these are very heavily updated, so it's easy to keep up to date on them. For lighter non-pottery listening, NPR has most if not all of their regular shows available through podcast too. All of these podcasts can be found by searching the iTunes site. And you don't have to have a Mac or an iPod to use iTunes. I have a MuVo TX from Creative Labs that I love. It's tiny, holds plenty of music, can do double duty as a USB thumb drive, and has an FM tuner and voice recorder as well.

I have a feeling I'll be listening to something a bit up-tempo as I clean, scrub, wax a buff my pots from the saggar fire yesterday. Stay tuned for pictures!