Noise pollution

3.1 for gigs

What I carry around, even when I lose my manbag full of all my other essential items, is a pair of decent earplugs.

Loud music is my passion and I don’t like it sounding bad, like it does through foam earplugs, and moreover I don’t want my ears to be destroyed so that all music will sound bad in the future (and any music where you have to raise your voice to be heard is doing damage).

For $20-30 you can get musicians’ earplugs, which make music at loud parties safe, and don’t sound awful and muffled. They are not perfectly acoustically transparent — not like the fancy $200 ones — but seriously, how hi-fi an experience do you want at 110 decibels? They are pretty good. Order some now.

Etymotic ER20s have the best case — it goes on my keyring and doesn’t fall apart in my pocket — but the Alpine Party Plugs are probably the most comfortable.

They last about 6 months. I mean, they might last longer but I lose them after about 6 months.

3.2 For sleep