"I don’t want to walk around the city with wires hanging from my ears; I don’t need or want a cushion of music between me and urban reality. But when I was figuring out how the shuffle worked, I plugged it in one time before I left the office for my 12-minute walking commute home. The shuffle ramped up Solvejg’s Song by Grieg just as I stepped into the dim afternoon onto the wet grey sidewalk, a crew with machines breaking concrete unheard, and suddenly reality felt like a Tarkovsky set-piece.
I can see why people do this, sometimes. But I don’t think I will much."
-- Tim Bray http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/2