Anyone who knows me well will appreciate how ridiculous it is for me to be writing a piece about flying: never been in an airplane, hope never to be. I dream of flying occasionally, but it's never in a plane; it's always by dint of flapping arms. Since we went to the moon last week (in this space, at least), though, I thought we'd get just a little closer to terra-firma-- but SLOWLY, ssslooowly. I don't know if you've noticed it, but airplanes have been having an increasingly difficult time staying in the air.
It's not always their fault, I get that: bombs, birds, and Russian anti-aircraft missiles--to name just a few things-- all can have their effect on a craft's ability to stay aloft. And I get all of the stats about the safety of flight in general, and certainly when compared with travel by car; nevertheless, it's been a bad few weeks for airplanes, and gravity's winning.
But ever since Daedalus handed Icarus his lovely wings, since Newton got bonked on the noggin by Granny Smith, we've known that if it goes up it's comin' down. The best we can hope is to have some modicum of control over the descent, which come to think of it is probably a pretty good metaphor for the trip through life in general. I guess it's been on my mind more because the usual all-too-human combination of hubris, stupidity and mistake leads to horrifying events like the removal from the sky of the Malaysian Airlines plane we could find. And the fact that Jake leaves next week for 10 days in Israel via El Al airlines to the LZ known as Tel Aviv airport. Oy Vey.
So thinking of flight and planes and stuff led me to this playlist:
Airplane Rusted Root
Airplaneshadows Kiln
Blues From An Airplane Jefferson Airplane
Fat Angel Jefferson Airplane
Aeroplane Red Hot Chili Peppers
Jet Plane Johnny "Guitar" Watson
Leaving On A Jet Plane John Denver
Jet Plane In A Rocking Chair Richard & Linda Thompson
Planes & Satellites Sonia Dada
Steam Powered Aereo Plane John Hartford
Terraplane Blues Rory Block
Deportees (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) Arlo Guthrie
Jet McCartney/Wings
Jet Airliner Paul Pena
Come Fly With Me Frank Sinatra
Expecting To Fly Buffalo Springfield
Fear With Flying Loudon Wainwright
Fly Nick Drake
Fly Steve Winwood
Fly Away Brother Jack McDuff
Flyin' High (In The Friendly Sky) Marvin gaye
Flyin' Shoes Townes Van Zandt
Flying The Beatles
Flying The Faces
Flying Michael Nesmith
Flying High Country Joe & The Fish
Flying Home Duke Robillard & Herb Ellis
Flying On The Ground Is Wrong Buffalo Springfield
Learning To Fly Pink Floyd
Join me, woncha, on Tuesday from noon till two on WOOL FM, 91.5 or wool.fm? It could be fun.
Just happened to hear on VT Public Radio the other day about a controversy about noise at Burlington Int'l Airport. Residents of a nearby neighborhood complained about the noise, it turned out that noise did in fact exceed allowable limits. Fortunately, they were able to reach a fair and equitable solution to the issue: the airport bought an entire neighborhood in order to level it. If a jet flies over a razed neighborhood, does it exceed allowable noise levels...?
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