Liner Notes

Soundscape #102: “My Soul Is In The Sky”— William Shakespeare

Airports, no matter how many awards they’ve won or how clean and slick they claim to be, are inherently messy and chaotic places. I think someone once said that if god had wanted us to fly, he would have made it easier to go to the airport. Have you realised that no matter where you’re flying to, your boarding gate is always the opposite side of the airport from where you are? Or how even if you’re the first one out of the plane (cattle class that is), your bags are always the last to appear on the belt?

square eye. Catch the plane, 2007.

But I like the airport even if it’s confusing. The sprawl of entire buildings dedicated to getting people from one place to another is staggering to say the least. The gates, with their hard plastic chairs, are like quarantine areas, each separate from the rest. And there’s absolutely nothing to do except to wait and wait. You can’t help but look around at your fellow travellers: the business types, the families with their attendant screaming children (and pray that you are not going to sit near them later), the groups of friends taking a trip together. There will always be one person going through their entire bag just to look for the one item. Uncomfortable as the chairs undoubtedly are, you can’t help but feel a sense of wonder as you think about these people, where they are going and what they are leaving behind.

Playlist:
1. (0:00) Tegan & Sara - Take Me Anywhere (So Jealous)
2. (2:30) Wilco - Sky Blue Sky (Sky Blue Sky)
3. (5:52) Belle & Sebastian - Get Me Away From Here I’m Dying (If You’re Feeling Sinister)
4. (9:16) Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea (In The Aeroplane Over The Sea)
5. (12:40) Manic Street Preachers - Further Away (Everything Must Go)
6. (16:18) Oasis - Half The World Away (The Masterplan)
7. (20:38) The New Year - The Company I Can Get (S/T)
8. (23:26) Okkervil River - Lost Coastlines (The Stand Ins)
9. (28:57) Bright Eyes - Land Locked Blues (I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning)
10. (34:41) 18th Dye - Trains And Boats And Planes (Left)
11. (39:23) Mogwai - Take Me Somewhere Nice (Rock Action)