I was walking to the Warehouse Sunday morning, and I saw that Fayette, my road of travel, was barricaded at both Salina and Clinton, but as the sidewalks were clear, I was able to continue on as normal. I was expecting to see construction (as is often the case on weekend mornings), but I only found a few middle-aged women in purple shirts as I crossed Salina. As I was about halfway between the streets, I heard a not-too-distant bang! and the sound of a crowd that had been silent moments before. I realized that I must be in close proximity to the start of a race, and I thought about making a dash for the other side of Clinton, but I figured there might be cameras, and I had a 50-50 chance that the runners would be crossing behind me instead of before me. As it was, the runners were in my way, but there were, in fact, plenty of cameras that I'm happy did not catch me crossing foolishly. So I had to hold up for five minutes as the river of runners flowed past.
It proved to be an interesting populace to watch, as they were still sorted by ambition rather than speed and endurance. The leaders were in sleek spandex suits, and they were followed closely by runners in shiny running shorts and athletic shirts and sports bras. Behind them were a large crowd in t-shirts and track pants. Here the number of iPods began increasing sharply. Runners in sweatpants and sometimes in sweatshirts followed, and a number of goofy hats could be seen. Lastly came a few older women, dressed in black, being followed closely by the ambulance.
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4 comments:
Hey, don't knock running with an iPod. It helps a lot!
I love the fact that the ambulance was right behind the old people, though. That's hilarious.
Did I knock the iPod? (In this post, I mean.) I don't think so, but if I did...good.
Those pieces of plastic should be called iConform and iTunes should be called iConsume. You'll find me using one of those things slightly less often than you'll find me watching Fox News, since Fox's brainwashing machine is a little easier to spot.
I'll cop to being part of the herd, but I think there's a world of difference between the Fox News herd and the iPod herd. We may all have the same gizmo (which might - might - have something to do with the fact that a lot of people like its user interface), but it's what's loaded in it that matters. And mine is full of stuff that I like, not this week's Top 40!
WIRED makes a point to remind us monthly that the album is dead, and as far as I can tell, I'm the only member of my class who has the patience to listen to an album in its entirety. There are plenty of people I know who can't even listen to a four minute song without hitting >>|.
Compare our generation with that of our parents, which served as a receptive audience for The Dark Side of the Moon, or even Generation X, which put The Downward Spiral at the top of the charts. I'm not optimistic about the state of music in thirty years, when the up-and-comers will have grown up listing to nothing but singles through tinny Apple in-ear headphones.
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