I feel my ways of listening to music nowadays leave something to be desired. Mostly, I do it in one of two ways. I listen to my Sirius satellite radio boombox in the bathroom while I shower, etc. as I prepare to leave the house. (In that case, I listen either to Sirius satellite radio — see the Music section of my interests on my profile for my favorite channels — or to one of the albums I own using an mp3 player connected to the boombox via its aux jack.) Or I listen to AOL Radio on a computer with dinky computer speakers. Years ago, I used to listen to CD's with a decent pair of headphones. Now, I wonder how much of the music I listen to I am missing. I daydream of having an entertainment room with a good-quality (not necessarily high-end) audio system and a recliner so I can relax while listening to music. I wonder, though, if I would be able to appreciate the improved sound such a setup would provide — I fear I have a tin ear. Furthermore, in the physical world, I have a degree of tinnitus and my ears produce a lot of wax; those conditions can't help my ability to appreciate music.

As you may have figured out, that daydream includes making time to listen to music and not doing anything else at the same time. I suspect I'm missing a lot by not being an active listener. Not that I think it's wrong to have music as background entertainment, it's just that, except when I attend a live performance, that's the only way I listen to music.

I have decided to delete the list of my favorite artists from the Music section on my profile. There are still artists I prefer over others (very much so), but since I don't actively listen to anyone's music, it just doesn't feel right to me to elevate a handful of artists over all the others whose music I also listen to (if less frequently). I'll make an exception for The Beatles by keeping their official MySpace in my top MySpace friends.