May 21, 2005
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Am I the only person extant who actually enjoys the sound of silence?
Mercy Maud, but it’s a noisy world we’ve crafted for ourselves!
Music in department stores. Music in grocery stores. Radio
stations blaring at the hairdresser. Muzak in elevators, and on
the telephone as you’re on hold. Televisions in doctors’ waiting
rooms. I was just at Border’s books, which is adjacent to Central
Market, and there was a live band playing - loudly
- at the latter establishment, and darned if there wasn’t some
guy singing and playing the guitar in the coffee area inside
Borders!
Didn’t encourage me to linger, I’ll tell you that. Made my selection, paid, and got the heck outta there.
Comments (7)
Funny you mention silence…often if I am in the car alone, which is very very rare, I will turn off the radio and the only sound is the car engine. No, you are not the only person in existance that enjoys the sound of silence…sometimes it is truly (truly ) golden.
I think it would be amusingly ironic if people replaced typical elevator/hold music with Simon and Garfunkels’ “The Sound of Silence”.
I do agree with you, especially now that Wal-Mart has added monitors all over the store. However, about 20 years ago, in a mall I used to frequent was a Macy’s store. And in that store, near the escalator was a man in a tail coat playing a white baby grand piano. The classics. It always felt like you were making an entrance in some 30′s movie as you came down the escalator! Gave you a good feeling.
My goodness, I hadn’t thought of that in ages. That was Class with a Capital C.
Come to that, when I was young there was a movie theatre downtown that featured a live organist before the movie. He at least played on the weekends…not sure about during the workweek. That was cool, too.
We were at a gas station once that had CNN playing on the pumps. Man, that’s psycho!
We went out to Red Lobster Friday night, and I was chagrined to hear annoying 80′s Top 40 music playing. It wasn’t blaring, but it was loud enough to raise the conversation and the overall noise level of the place. Now I don’t mind hearing that kind of music as background now and then (for all its faults it is “The Music of My Life”) but does research really show that playing Boy George will draw the boomers like flies for the lobster and shrimp combos?
What was really odd was the 60-something lady patron we passed on the way in, who was unselfconsciously lip-synching to “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” while awaiting a table.
I read this article tonight : http://www.daniellebean.com/?do=articles&file=Summer_Silences.htm and thought of this post of yours.