Tag Archives: headphones

headphones bobbing silent in the night

The Rocks is the oldest part of Sydney. It’s out on the harbour and filled with old stone buildings from back when the colony was just starting. Now it’s all touristed up because hey, that’s where the cruise ships dock. Obviously that makes it a bit more expensive than you might like for daily shopping needs, but it’s a good special event type place. And a special event is happening there Friday nights for the next couple of weeks.

Last night we went and watched Christa Hughes belt out songs in a square and we danced at a silent disco. The silent disco was under a couple of umbrellas. There was a laptop DJ spinning tunes but instead of heading into loudspeakers they were beamed into wireless headphones. People stood around watching the dancers bob up and down to the sounds in their heads. The headphones hung on clotheslines when you were done so people could move in and out. Holly and I danced for a song then left in the middle of Hey Ya! so that others could enjoy it. It felt so selfish to dance to the music no one else could hear but as part of a project, it’s better. I like how art works sometimes.

We also wandered into an exhibit filled with elastic bands stretched around a room, but the curators/artists were too busy with their own conversation to make it at all accessible. Selah. A guy who made cufflinks out of old watches was my favourite. He had the salesmanship of selling prettied up discards down perfectly. I really wanted to buy a couple of cufflinks but I don’t have the right kind of shirts (though that’s remediable) and I’d already spent a chunk of money on myself earlier (I bought 1Q84 at Australian book prices). They’ll be back next week if I change my mind.

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like the ocean

The noise from the school next to Holly’s apartment is impressive in the morning. Holly had to leave early to get her lessons ready but she warned me. “I hope you have good headphones if you want to get any work done. It’s loud. They start at 8.” And it’s not that I didn’t believe her. She’s been telling me about the school noise for months, because it’s something I didn’t experience when I was here in the summer.

This morning I was buried under blankets when the noise began to build. It wasn’t so much dread inducing as how I imagine surfing must be like. You see the wave coming and I guess if you’re good at it you can tell what kind of wave it’ll be and how best to ride it, but I was out paddling on my board doing my best seal-impression for the sharks below, seeing something build and guessing. Is this it? How big will it get? Will I be able to handle it or am I going to be the shmuck who dies on his first attempt.

The school noise wasn’t that bad (I didn’t feel like I was going to die, and managed to get a good chunk of work done without good headphones), but it did keep on building and building until it stopped for a megaphoned voice to harangue people. Maybe it’s just because it’s Monday and this was the traditional week-beginning assembly or something, but the voice went on for an hour. After they all sang the national anthem, whose tune I realized I still could sort of remember from back in Wanzhou.

Even now (it’s about 10am) the kids are basically just white noise of shouting and boisterousness. It’s one of the shouting (or electronically amplified) teachers exhorting his students that really cuts through. He sounds a little like a hoarse host of a Japanese talk show, you know with all of that fake wacky energy? But it sounds like his class is responding so who am I to judge. Just a lousy ex-teacher who’s sitting in bed writing.

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