Barking Space

A few short rants, as it has been a while…


Boombox With Not So Much Boom

I was on the bus the other day when I saw this kid. He was probably thirteen or fourteen years old.

He was wearing a winter coat with a mesh pocket on the outside. In this pocket was some sort of
speaker device, whether it was an MP3 player with the speaker attached, or just the speaker itself, I don’t know.

The fact of the matter is that he was playing music out loud for everyone to hear.

It was horrible.

It’s bad enough that people destroy their hearing by listening to music with their headphones so loud that you can hear them on the other end of the subway, but this was just ridiculous.

As we got off the bus, I made a comment. He was trying to avoid looking at anyone, so I don’t know if he heard me…

JORGE: I don’t know what’s worse. The fact that you’re playing music out loud through a speaker, or the fact that it is the crappiest music on Earth. I mean, a dance remix of Roxette’s “Listen to Your Heart”? Leave the damn song alone!

Mostest Goodest English

I was listening to the radio this morning when I heard a grown man use the word samwich in a fast-food commercial. Wow. This guy must have gone to the George W. Bush Noo-Cue-Lar School of Foilage.

Honestly, if you are not from another country, you really have no excuse for not pronouncing English words incorrectly on the radio. It’s just wrong.

Certainly it is impossible to know how to pronounce every word properly, but when people who have been living here for less than three years can speak better than someone who has lived her for far longer…

Well…

Do I really need to go on?

A Little Less Conversation, Please

I was on the subway today in front of two guys chatting about stuff.

First of all, one of they guys was talking exceptionally loud. I mean, some people have loud voices, but this guy was practically yelling, like he wanted the entire subway car to hear the conversation.

Secondly, the conversation sounded like two parrots…

Guy 1: [Loudly.] So where are you living now?
Guy 2: Oh, I’m living at Location X.
G1: That place is cool, eh? Isn’t it?
G2: Yeah. Cool.
G1: Nice. There’s a huge park there right? It’s huge!
G2: Yeah. Yeah it’s huge.
G1: Must be a pain in the ass to drive around there. Isn’t it a pain in the ass?
G2: Totally. Pain in the ass. That’s why I take the subway.
G1: Ah yeah. It’s probably all traffic-jammed because of that friggin’ park.
G2: Yeah. That park jams it all up.
G1: Maybe they should build some major roads through the part. That would totally solve the problem.
G2: Yeah. Totally.

After about five minutes of this, I wanted to feed Guy 2 some crackers.

Am I being too judgemental?

I mean, when I have conversations with people, I’m not spouting Shakespearean dialogue by any stretch of the imagination. However, I tend to have conversations that are at least somewhat intelligent and not louder than jet engine noise.

My ears are still ringing.

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