east village idiot

Virgin America touts its in-flight entertainment system, which includes TV, movies on-demand, video games, and in-flight chat.

Yes, in-flight chat. You can chat with other passengers on the plane from your seat. This could be trouble… if anyone ever used it.

I was in the chat room for an hour while I worked from my laptop. Not a single person entered the room. So much for getting some tips on hot night spots in LA… you know, if that was my thing.

Then again, the plane was more than half empty. I already fear for the financial stability of this airline.

Also included in Virgin America’s system is a huge catalog of songs, spanning every genre from pop to R&B and rock to showtunes. You might wonder: are the songs censored? Well, naturally, the f-word is bleeped from a song here and there. But remarkably, they found a way to censor John Mayer. How on earth could they manage to censor one of the least-offensive singer-songwriters of our time? It’s quite simple. Take these lyrics from “Bigger Than My Body”:

Maybe I’ll tangle in the power lines
And it might be over in a second’s time
But I’ll gladly go down in a flame [censored]
If the flame’s what it takes to remember my name

I don’t think he was singing about planes, Virgin. Ease up a little.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 5th, 2007 at 2:35 pm and is filed under On the Road. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.