Swapping at 35,000-feet

Hello from the skies! Swaptree is on its way to Los Angeles to attend the LA Times Festival of Books. Thanks to our good friends at Virgin America, we’re blogging live from 35,000-feet. So, what kind of swapping happens in-flight? Here are a few observations from seat 10C:

Swap DVDs: Thanks to Virgin America’s in-flight entertainment system, RED, we’ve caught up on some of our favorite TV episodes and Oscar nominated movies including: “Curb Your Enthusiasm – the Compete Seventh Season“, “It’s Complicated”, “The Hangover”, “Robin Williams Live From Washington DC” (an HBO special) and “The Blind Side.” Guess what DVDs we’ll be adding to our “Have Lists” when we get back to Boston?

Swap Books: Admittedly, thanks to the TV and movie options, we haven’t done much reading. But we took a look around the plane and found the following books in passengers’ possession: Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Successful; Eat, Pray, Love; Game Change; and (our personal favorite) a collection of The Berenstain Bears books, being read aloud in the back of the plane.

Swap CDs: Music knows no limits in the sky. Virgin’s in-flight music program allows guests to make playlists from a variety of music genres and albums. Here’s a few selections from our first ever Swap.com in-flight Playlist:

1. Let’s Stay Together, Al Green
2. No One, Alicia Keys
3. Chain of Fools, Aretha Franklin
4. California Girls, The Beach Boys
5. BONUS BEACH BOYS: Good Vibrations (we’re getting into the California groove)
6. Tangled Up in Blue, Bob Dylan
7. Me Against the Music, Britney Spears (featuring Madonna)
8. Thunder Road (Live), Bruce Springsteen
9. Johnny Cash Junkie, Brooks & Dunn
10. Rock the Casbah, The Clash

Swap Games: If there’s one thing we can always count on with the Virgin crew, it’s a good time. After our movies and TV shows ended, and when we ended our karaoke sing-along (much to the appreciation of our seat neighbors), we chose teams and got our game on. We started with Zoom, moved on to Rocks’n'Diamonds, and ended with a playful game of Penguin Command. Clearly, there’s a kid in all of us (some of us are a little better at Penguin games than others…)

The in-flight map shows our location somewhere over Colorado (which would explain the turbulence over the mountains) so we’re going to sign off for now. Next up:  Swaptree goes to In-n-Out Burger! Stay tuned, and don’t forget to come visit us at the LA Times Festival of Books on Saturday/Sunday, April 24-25.