Build-a-Blog request: Ali – “A rant about: a) subway etiquette…”
I wasn’t going to do this topic right away, but after this morning’s commute it just needed to happen.
She got on the train and I thought, “Wow! She’s cute.” She saw me at the other end of the bench seat and smiled sweetly as she put her iPod ear-buds in.
She then started playing techno music so loud that I could hear every beat of it from six feet away, making her much less attractive than I originally assumed. I’m not knocking techno here. To each their own. But for me personally, 8 o’clock in the A.M. is a bit early for a remix of “Get Your Sexy On” at 120 decibels.
I promise I’m not an old man who hates loud music. Quite the opposite in fact. It’s just that I have this crazy notion of respecting people around me and trying to be considerate.
The music thing is actually my number two aggravation on the subway. It is topped only by those people so in luv they feel the need to make out in front of everyone to let us know. A little PDA is fine, but I don’t believe The Subway Seat should be added to the Kama Sutra anytime soon. And if ever I see a couple on the train making out while listening to loud music on their iPods, that’s it. I’m pulling the emergency break cord and beating them with it.
– J (Saw Something and Said Something)
Tags: new york city, rant
The Rambling J 
March 19, 2009 at 6:12 pm |
*Stands and applauds, sways dangerously, and grabs the rail before she falls completely*
Amen, amen!
Although, I have found something that irritates me more than over-amped headphones. . .
On a train to Queens once, very crowded, had a headache, didn’t feel like dealing with people–when a gentleman reaches down and pulls out, Honest To God–a BOOM BOX.
Which he then proceeds to BOOM, with Mariachi music, from Queens Plaza out to the mall. I was certainly contemplating violence, and trying to figure out what weapon I could construct, all MacGyver-crafty like, from a pair of gloves, a tic-tac, and a tube of chapstick.
And on that note. . .
G’nite!
March 23, 2009 at 9:11 am |
Ali, I feel your pain. I once got on the train and sat next to some guy in a hooded sweatshirt who leaned his arms on his legs, curled up, and turned on the music on his phone — with his head in his hood so as to avoid glares from his fellow passengers. I glared long enough that he must have felt my eyes boring holes into the back of his empty skull, because eventually he looked up at me. I said, “Don’t you have headphones?” to which he mumbled, “Aw, I left ’em at home.” He curled up again and turned the music down, and then three stops later I guess the guilt got to him and he turned it off.
Jerk.
J, I hope I’m on the train with you when you finally see that overly-affectionate couple blaring their headphone music. Perhaps if they’re adorably (*blech*) sharing the headphones you could do a quick grab and strangle them with the earbud cord first, and *then* beat them. I think your fellow passengers might help you kick them off the train at the next stop (since no one likes being delayed, especially by some dude who jerked the emergency brake).
March 23, 2009 at 9:53 am |
Dude.
There are some people that just don’t get it. . . We have no interest in what they’re listening to. Half the time I have no interest in what *I’m* listening to–I’m just trying to drown them out!
Kyleen makes an excellent point, J–you seriously might need to rethink the emergency brake thing. You could pelt them about the head and ears with the Pepsi banners, maybe?
March 25, 2009 at 12:12 pm |
(… would like to quietly point out to the pitchfork-bearing public that those (*blech*) adorable couples sharing earbuds are neither contributing to the music pollution, nor hogging the airwaves with overly-affectionate chatter, and that sometimes one member of the party might have forgotten their headphones, rendering the shared approach both convenient and non-intrusive for all concerned.)
*walks away whistlin’ Dixie…*
June 29, 2009 at 3:16 pm |
amen