Boom! Shake, shake, shake the room / train / lift / etc...
TSsss TSsss TSsss TSsss...
Annoying, isn't it...?
TSsss TSsss TSsss TSsss...
The tinny drumbeat that emanates from the headphones of that inconsiderate bastard next to you on the bus / train / merry-go-round...
TSsss TSsss TSsss TSsss...
Still, at least it drastically reduced the number of arseholes who would parade down the street with a boom-box on their shoulders, blasting out their favoured musical genre to the whole world whether we liked it or not. And for that I choose to be thankful.
Oh, I know how off-putting it can be whilst trying to do your suduko / crossword / join-the-dots, and how even more annoying it can be when you half-recognise the song being played and just can't quite figure it out. Personally, however, I would rather that than having your whole world drowned out by music rendered unlistenable by having been played so loud on a crappy battery-powered player that the speakers have blown and the whole sound is distorted.
But wait... now we have a new menace... the dreaded MP3 'phone! Of course, at first this was no different than your average MP3 or personal CD player in that it came equipped with headphones and all you got was the same tinny beat. But then people realised that if the earpiece on your 'phone is loud enough to for you to speak on 'loudspeaker', then...
No, you motherfuckers! No, No, No, No, NO! Sitting opposite me on the tube, ambling behind me down the street, even walking into my school office (Try that one more time, boy, and you'll be scrubbing the bastard toilets in detention!)... If I wanted to hear the music you are listening to I would have bought the bloody CD or downloaded it onto my computer, where I can listen to it properly. And when I say 'properly' I mean 'being able to actually hear and understand the fucking thing'! Because that crappy little speaker in your 'phone? it is just as distorted and useless for music as the aforementioned overpowered boom-box.
The thing comes with fucking headphones, for Christ's sake! Why make me hear your (often lousy) choice of music when I would be content with just...
TSsss TSsss TSsss TSsss...
Cheers m'dears!
posted by Binty McShae @ 11:18 am
7 Comments:
just think when they get a little older... they won't be able to hear a damn thing!
I, thankfully, have no idea what device your talking about.
They do this because they are appropriating public spaces as their own. It is for this reason that the rest of us find it really annoying and disrespectful. Just like those people with massive speakers in their cars. To their peers, it is really cool to treat other people who share your space with this much disrespect. They think it makes them look big, and hard.
Buskers inflict unsolicited music on us, but they do so in a way which acknowledges (and seeks to exploit) the fact that it is a public space. They hope or flatter themselves that we will like it, whereas the MP3-ers are demonstrating that they couldn't care less. If mobile-phone-playing people asked for money, that would be more respectful, and we could just sigh and look the other way. Though looking at some of them, it would be more like demanding money with menaces.
So what is more worrying is that if you dare to object, you can expect a certain amount of abuse, and just have to hope they haven't got a knife.
The earphone thing I think is accidental - they probably imagine that other people can't hear it.
Sarah - that will just mean they play the bastard thing even bloody louder...
MacBean - sorry, for you oldsters I should have explained. Think of a very small gramaphone combined with a telephone that comes with it's own miniature power supply and therefore does not need to be wound up periodically. Then imagine someone sitting next to you on a train (you know, like a very long stagecoach, but without horses) and playing it very loud. You'd hate it, believe me... especially since you probably think that all music beyond the Baroque period is dreadful rubbish! ;-)
Clarice - hah! Busking? I like that reasoning! In fact, I am going to go and buy a music phone right now and play it really loud in the high street with a cap at my feet and a sign saing "Plees give genrusly. Wife and alkahol habit to suport." And maybe I'll get one of those robot dogs too... on a string, of course!
Come on Binty, cut me some slack. Just remember it was guys like me that put Elvis on the map and Jim Morrison was a class mate of mine. But then again, Baroque is good. It may be a good thing that the hearing is the first thing to go.
You were at school with JM? Fair play, old timer! Respect for that... what was he like?
As for putting Elvis on the map, unless you're talking Costello I'm not that fussed...
Anyway, I'm sure you know that I was just... what's that quaint little phrase you United Statesians use? Oh, yes... "yanking your chain"!
Cheers Mac! ;-)
Morrison was an introverted person who didn't show up for his yearbook pic. It was in 1960 and he was living with his grandmother while attending St. Petersburg Junior College. At that time his long hair and ragged blue jeans were ahead of their time.
The thing about the Elvis I refer to is that before he came on the scene the only music available was left over WW 2 ditties and show tunes with some occasional jazz courtesy of Ted Heath or Bill Evans thrown in. E.P. opened the door to groups like the Platters, Little Richard and Bill Hailey and the Commets.
Yanking my what? At least you didn't use that other quaint little phrase, "pulling my leg".
Back at ya', Binty
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