App Fun: Caroling Edition

When I first got my android phone, I think I started blogging about some of my favorite apps.  At least, I think I meant to.

My favorite app this week is the Classic FM app.  When I lived in the UK I didn't have a TV (they have the nerve to tax television sets there, and the money goes to the BBC to provide some of the best quality programming on the planet...Sarah Palin would have a field day with that one, I'm sure) and I was broke, so I spent a lot of time listening to the radio.  Classic FM is the "pop" station for classical music.  They don't play full works (except for an hour or two every evening, they have the Full Works concert hour).  They have commercials.  They have a bright glossy magazine that comes out every month with a sample CD.

They even have the chutzpah to have a personals site.  I can see the first dates with that one.  Me: "You said you like Gombert in your profile, but now that we meet in person, I don't think you know anything about Gombert.  Were you just bulking up your profile?"  Them: "Yes, well, you would say that, wouldn't you?  Anyone who lists the second movement of Beethoven's 7th as her favorite piece of music would be judgmental and moody, wouldn't they?"  Me:  "Lemon Tart?  But you like Chopin?!"

So anyway, they have an app.  It's especially fun to listen while I'm driving to work because, seeing as they are based in London, which is 8 hours ahead of LA, they are doing the traffic reports for the commute home just as I am stuck at the 605.  I can pretend that they're talking in code, and the M25 really means the 210, and I'm actually really in London, but speaking a different language.  And without any Muji stores.  It's also fun to listen in the evening when it's the wee hours of the morning for them, and people working funny shifts are texting in requests for things to keep them awake, just as I'm trying to wind down.

Last night was the most fun I've had with the app.  It's Christmas time, and classical music goes well with Christmas, so they've been having fun playing lots of choral pieces and such.  I was making dinner, puttering around in the kitchen (or, I should say, faffing, seeing as how I'm pretending to be British here) with Classic FM playing in the background, and the rain was pouring down, and I was leaning against the counter drinking my gingerbread herbal tea, and for a moment I was 24 and still in Finsbury Park, and I was interested in the delays on the Northern Line because I would be going to the heath in the morning, and Jan was taking pictures of flowers in the living room, and later on we'd polish off a bottle of cheap red from Odd Bins and I probably wouldn't go to the heath in the morning anyway because I'd have a hangover.

And then a cat walked past and purred and I was back in my kitchen, but the delays on the Northern Line were still interesting because I didn't have to go trudging out to brave the elements.

So the Classic FM app is really a time-travel app, which I think is super cool.  If you're not into classical music, you might also try the Capital FM app, which has similar powers of teleportation, only via pop music.